Historic Preservation

• The Historic Mobile Preservation Society was founded in 1935.  HMPS’s mission includes curating the Oakleigh Historic Complex
• In 1962 the Historic Districts Ordinance was passed by the Mobile City Commission creating the Mobile Historic Development Commission
  • The DeTonti Square and Church Street East districts were created in 1962, followed by Oakleigh Garden District in 1969.
  • The Architectural Review Board regulates buildings in the historic districts.
    • In 2008, The Mobile City Council reorganized the board by removing the six at-large members who recommended by the Mobile Historic Development Commission, replaced with eight new positions – one representative from the historic commission and seven from each of the city’s seven historic districts. The reorganization came after a handful of high-profile complaints about its rulings. – PR 4/30/08
• The Mobile Revolving Fund has bought dilapidated properties for renovation
• There are eight historical districts in Mobile: Church Street East, DeTonti Square, Oakleigh Garden District, Old Dauphin Way, Leinkauf, Ashland Place and Midtown.
  • All districts are on the Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places, providing federal funding and protection.
  • Property owners (except in the Midtown and Campground districts) must get permission from the city’s Architectural Review Board for construction or changes, including garages, sheds, fences, driveways, and exterior painting.

 Maps

3-D Downtown Map
Downtown Business Improvement District Map
Walk About City
Land Use Map
Mobile County Revenue Commissioner (Tax Assessor)
Downtown Attraction Map
Areas of Minority Concentration, 2000 Census
Low Income Areas

Downtown/ Business District

• Laid out in the 18th and 19th centuries, downtown lots were meant for relatively small buildings. Today, it’s not uncommon to have one block cut into 10 or more small parcels. But most developers today need at least half a block to create a large development.
• About 1,500 people live inside the Hank Aaron Loop, including residents of the Church Street East and De Tonti Square neighborhoods (2006).
• The “String of Pearls” initiative undertaken by the administration of former Mayor Mike Dow – PR 6/25/06
  • Downtown had bottomed into an ugly trough in the 1980s, with one of the final blows coming with the closings of department stores Gayfers and Zoghby’s in 1985 and 1986, respectively.
  • Lawyer Jack Miller headed the volunteer Downtown Redevelopment Commission and coined the phrase String of Pearls.
  • Mayor Mike Dow, Jack Miller, current cruise terminal chief Al St. Clair and others began plotting to change that after Dow was elected in 1989. The first step was for Dow to “make peace,” as St. Clair put it, with the plans for a waterfront convention center. Dow had opposed those plans during his campaign, and the issue helped him to turn out incumbent Mayor Arthur Outlaw, for whom the convention center is named.
  • In 1990, city officials hired a Maryland planner named Bert Winterbottom, now deceased, to come up with a plan. That plan was unveiled with much fanfare before a crowd of 1,500 at the Mobile Civic Center Theater in early 1992. At the time, the plan pegged the price of overhauling downtown at $100 million.
  • From 1992 to 1995, $176.8 million was spent on downtown projects, including $152 million in local, state and federal funds, according to a city report. That includes $125 million just for the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center and Government Plaza. Miller said he thinks $1 billion has been invested downtown since the redevelopment effort kicked off. Big projects have totaled more than $570 million, according to Press-Register files.
  • The String of Pearls includes:
    • The Battle House Project
    • Mobile Landing: Arthur Outlaw Convention Center, the Cruise Ship Terminal, the Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico, a ferry service across Mobile Bay, and condominium and retail areas.
    • The rebirth of Dauphin Street.
• The Arthur Outlaw Convention Center was completed in 1993
• Following the building of the Cruise Ship Terminal, Carnival Cruise Lines’ Holiday began sailing from Mobile in 2004. The 1452-passenger ship, that makes four- and five-day trips to Cozumel and the Western Caribbean, brings more than 120,000 tourists to the city per year and has a potential $20 million annual impact on Mobile. – PR 8/19/08
  • In August 2008, Carnival announced that it would be replacing the Holiday with the 2,056-passenger Fantasy in November 2009.
  • When the terminal was built in 2004, the city and RSA were set to share any profits the terminal made, but the city would cover all losses. In 2008, the city sold $18.6 million in bonds to buy out the RSA’s debt and take complete ownership of the terminal. The city’s debt payments on that are about $1.2 million a year for the next three years and then $1.8 million annually until 2030.
• The Downtown Mobile Alliance is a non-profit organization established in 2006 as a partnership between the Downtown Mobile District Management Corporation and Main Street Mobile, Inc.
  • Zimmerman/Volk Associates wrote a housing study for the Downtown Mobile Alliance in 2006 stating that residents moving to downtown Mobile would fill more than 250 housing units a year for at least five years if developers could build them, with a potential market of 1,960 households each year – PR 7/22/07
  • The state granted the Downtown Mobile Alliance $44.4 million in tax-exempt Gulf Opportunity Zone Act bonds – PR 7/25/2007
• Main Street Mobile is a private philanthropic organization whose focus is the entire area within the Hank Aaron Loop.
• The Mobile Business Improvement District (BID) grew out of a study commissioned by Main Street Mobile, Inc. in 2002. In 2005, a majority of the property owners and the City Council approved the formation of the BID.
  • The Downtown Mobile District Management Corporation (DMDMC) is the property owner-funded management organization that coordinates services within the 75-block Business Improvement District (BID). The BID provides district-wide security, beautification initiatives, concierge patrols, intensive litter collection and economic development programs. Currently, more than 1,000 BIDs exist in the United States.
  • The BID is supported by an assessment on property within the 75-block district. Assessment levels are based on a sliding scale, depending on value as determined by the County Revenue Commissioner. Owner-occupied, single-family property is exempt and property owned by a 501(c)(3) designated nonprofit organization are eligible for a 50 percent reduction. Average annual assessments are $1234.35.
• The acres of surface parking lots downtown are one target for development. Consultants who have studied Mobile say that the parking lots are bad for efforts to create a lively downtown. Parking lots, though they help support nearby activities, don’t generate much activity themselves.
  • John and Winifred McMillan own more than 15 parcels downtown, most of them parking lots marked with distinctive yellow signs and chains. The lots are now being leased by Central Parking. That company, based in Nashville, Tenn., operates 35 parking lots and garages downtown. McMillan said she and her husband got into the parking business in search of extra income when one of their children was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. She said her husband, who now has Alzheimer’s disease, was able work at the post office in the morning and attend to the parking lots in the evening. Almost every week, McMillan said, she gets a letter or a phone call from someone who wants to buy part of her property. She’s not inclined to sell.
  • A report was commissioned by the Downtown Mobile Alliance, says the city has a bad deal with Central Parking Corp. In 2003, when Central Parking briefly handled ticket-writing, downtown business owners protested because the company’s yellow-jacketed “parking diplomats” were handing out nearly 100 tickets every weekday. Then-Mayor Mike Dow reacted by hiring retired police officers to write tickets, and giving them unofficial marching orders to not work as hard as the diplomats. – PR 7/23/2007
• Source:“Big Buildings, Big Challenges”, Jeff Amy, PR 3/12/2007

Downtown Development

• Downtown Mobile Investment Report (PDF) – Aug. 2008
• Downtown Mobile Public Spaces Improvement Report (PDF) – Nov. 2002
• The New Plan for Old Mobile was unveiled in Oct. 2008 after the city of Mobile hired EDSA planning firm of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to create a new comprehensive plan for the downtown. This will be the city’s first plan for downtown Mobile since 1996. That plan was never adopted by the City Council, so its recommendations were never made part of the city’s budgeting process. The city spent $400,000 for the plan. The time scale varies as well, with projects slated to be implemented anywhere from one to more than 10 years. – PR 1/1/08; 1/31/08; Kevin Lee, Lagniappe, 11/18/08
  • The planning area is bordered on the east by the Mobile River, to the south by Interstate 10 and Duval Street, to the west by Houston Street and to the north by Three Mile Creek and the neighborhoods north of Martin Luther King Avenue.
  • Project manager Dan Dealy, of DSD Services Group in Mobile, said the plan could include suggestions on zoning changes or overlay districts, which are areas that have their own, separate land-use rules. It could also suggest things such as park improvements, road repaving, new street signs or even enhanced police presence.
  • Mayor Sam Jones said that three major downtown landowners have been in discussions with developers, but none are prepared to move forward with any deals until the city adopts a downtown plan.
  • The plan is outlined at www.newmobileplan.com.
  • New Plan for Old Mobile (PDF)
• Bring Back Broad was funded in 2005 and started construction in May 2008. The stretch of S. Broad Street between Canal Street and Virginia Street will be narrowed from five lanes to three lanes with a median. It will have new sidewalks, lighting and landscaping. The $2 million project is funded by federal grants from the Federal Highway Administration and the Small Business Administration.
• Out-of-town developers are increasingly interested in working in downtown Mobile and with the construction of the RSA Tower downtown, Mobile is becoming an attractive “two-tier” city to out-of-state firms according to realtors.
• Recently renovated and reopened downtown buildings include the GM&O Building, the Convent of Mercy, the Battle House, Mattress Factory condominium on Dauphin Street and the St. Louis Lofts in the former Mobile Fixture building.
• Besides the land bought for RSA, developers have assembled whole blocks for a new FBI building and a new Social Security building in the last decade.
• There are about 6,000 hotel rooms citywide.
  • The owners of the 170-room Radisson Admiral Semmes Hotel on Government Street planned the addition of 200 rooms on land behind the hotel.
  • Two Renaissance brand hotels on Royal Street: the 250-room Battle House Hotel, and the 375-room Riverview Plaza, which is undergoing a $60 million renovation were completed in 2007. Both are owned by an affiliate of the Retirement Systems of Alabama
  • The 150-room Hampton Inn & Suites at the corner of Royal and Conti streets was opened by developer Mike Cowart of Cowart Hospitality Services in Birmingham and the Edmonds family based in Brent, Ala., who own a chain of hotels and restaurants.
• Water Street Landing: Millennium Mobile, a Pasadena, California-based development company owned by the Yi family, planned an $80 million 239-unit condominium development with 60,000 square feet of retail space at the foot of Government Street at the site of the CSX building.  They paid CSX Railway $1.8 million for 1.6 acres. Andew Oliver, a Mobile native, first introduced the downtown riverside condo project in 2004. It was later revealed that Oliver had a criminal record, including a conviction in connection with a bank robbery and murder in Georgia in 1965. Construction slowed after the lead developer, Jim Maloney, died. An $869,724 lien was field against the developers by the local architect for the project, Watermark Design Group., and another was filed by White-Spunner Construction. – PR 1/28/07, 7/22/07
  • In June 2007, Sharman Egan of Lagniappe reported the project was canceled, based on information from James Ellis, president of MDi media, the marketing firm representing the developer. On July 22, the Press-Register reported the project was still on track, quoting the lead partner, James Bostick. On Aug. 28, Egan reported that Millennium Pacific Icon Group had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In June 2008, PR reported the project had been canceled, and the property put up for sale for $2.25 million. The property is in “receivership” in the Superior Court in Los Angeles County. Mobile County Commissioner Steve Nodine said he thinks the city and county should buy the property for the planned Mardi Gras park there instead of on the old Mobile County Courthouse land on Government Street, which Nodine has said he wants used for a condo or retail project. – Egan, Lagniappe, 8/22/07; PR 1/28/07, PR 7/22/07, PR 6/20/08  Website. Old Website.
• County Courthouse Site: The city of Mobile earmarked $1.2 million for a Mardi Gras-themed park on the county-owned site of the former county courthouse. The Mobile County Commission voted to lease the site to the City of Mobile for 50 years with an additional two 20-year terms, totaling 90 years, for $1. The total cost of the park is projected at $5 million to $6 million. Beyond city and county contributions, plus $1.3 million already pledged by the Hearin-Chandler Foundation, Jones said he hoped to persuade leaders of the Mobile Carnival Association to help raise the rest of the money from private sources.– PR 10/29/07
  • In 2002, when Mayor Sam Jones was on the County Commission, the body voted to build a park on the land. When Jones was replaced by Juan Chastang in 2005, Chastang said he wanted the land to be the site of a condominium development that would help bring more residents downtown. Nodine said he found the proposal worth considering. After Chastang left office, the idea for a condominium on that property lost steam. Dean said he was never very fond of it, and Nodine said earlier this year that the land should be used for a park.
• Birmingham developer Mike Cowart has a contract to purchase half an acre at the corner of Conti and Royal streets from the Irving Ripps family and plans to build a 7-story hotel there. He also has a contract to buy a parking lot owned by the Meaher family at the corner of Government and Royal streets to be used for hotel parking. – PR 10/1/06
• Terry Hillery, a Boston developer with roots in Mobile, had originally planned to finance a seafood shipping business and office renovation in a pair of historic properties he owns, but those plans have changed, he said. Hillery is now considering turning his building at 355 St. Michael St. into a residence for himself, and a building on St. Francis Street on the market for potential condos. They were originally slated to be offices. – PR 8/12/07
• Law firm Lyons, Pipes & Cook has either completed or nearly completed four downtown renovation projects totaling more than $1.5 million (with the help of GO Zone financing), including about a fourth of the downtown block at the southeast corner of Royal and Dauphin streets, and had originally proposed a parking garage and retail complex there. Those plans are indefinitely on hold due to skyrocketing construction costs.  – PR 8/12/07

 Downtown Skyscrapers

• RSA Battle House Tower:
  • In 2001 The Mobile City Council approved a deal with the Retirement Systems of Alabama for a complete restoration of the Battle House Hotel, as well as construction of the Battle House Tower
  • The RSA Building, completed in 2007, is a 35 Story, 745 foot tall skyscraper that is not only be the tallest building in Alabama, but also one of the ten tallest buildings on the Gulf Coast
  • 76 percent of the tower’s 460,000 square feet of office space has been leased. The tower’s lease rates range from $18 to $19 per square foot to the low $20s (current rates downtown average $15 to $16 per square foot for Class A office space). About 20 percent of the tower’s tenants have moved in, with the majority expecting to finish their interior build-outs or finishes this year. So far, the tenants that have leased space in the office tower include Regions Bank; U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile; CitiGroup/Smith Barney; the architectural firm Goodwyn Mills & Cawood; and the law firms Adams & Reese, Hand Arendall and McDowell Knight Roedder & Sledge. – PR 1/6/08
• AmSouth Building: 107 St. Francis St. Built in 1969, the AmSouth Bank Building is a modern white slab accented by an asymmetrically placed elevator shaft. At 34 stories and 424 feet, it was the tallest building in Alabama until 1986 (surpassed by SouthTrust Tower in Birmingham) and the tallest building in Mobile until 2006 (surpassed by the RSA Battle House Tower). The First National Bank complex of buildings once stood here. AmSouth merged with Regions in 2006. The 34^th floor houses the Bienville Club.. It is managed by John Toomey of Toomey & Co.
  • The AmSouth building is under contract to be purchased for $7.2 million by real estate investor Alan Shuman of Reading, Pa. It was listed for sale for $11.5 million. It was owned by Mobile Tower Limited Partnership, the heirs of the late Wylie Tuttle and Herbert Papock, of Collins Tuttle & Co. in Manhattan. The building was scheduled for a foreclosure sale in May 2008, but the partnership filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The loss of AmSouth/Regions bank and other tenants cut the building’s occupancy to 50 percent. Mobile Tower had reached an agreement in principle to sell 50 percent of its ownership to BGK Group, a private real estate company based in Santa Fe, N.M. that owns the 10-story Montlimar Place office building and University Place, but it fell through. – PR 5/29/08, 10/17/08
  • Merchants/Regions Bank Building: 106 St. Francis St. The Merchants National Bank Building was built in 1929. Capped by a steep pyramidal roof, it Mobile’s tallest building AmSouth Bank Building was constructed in 1969. The Merchants National Bank of Mobile was changed to First Alabama Bank in 1985, and subsequently to Regions Bank. The building was sold for $2.75 million to a Dallas-based investor group in July 2008.
• Waterman/Southtrust/Wachovia Building: Corner of St. Joseph and St. Michael. 
  • The Modern building was built in 1947, as the Waterman Building it was the corporate headquarters for the Waterman Steamship Lines. Subsequently became the Southtrust Bank Building. Southtrust merged with Wachovia in 2004.
  • Giant steamship boilers provide heat to the building and much of the mechanical infrastructure of the building was built to steamship standards, with giant pumps, and drives right out Waterman’s steamship’s inventories. The building’s common area finish is imported Italian Marble, with chrome accents, common to the era. The elevators are also period.
  • Now housed in the University of South Alabama’s Mitchell Center, between 1948 and 1973 the Waterman Globe was housed in the building’s lobby and was a local attraction. Created by Rand McNally, the globe has a diameter of 12 feet and depicts the countries of the world as they were in the 1940s.
  • Featured are 1930s Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals.
• Van Antwerp Building: 101 Dauphin St. Constructed in 1907. Designed by George Rogers. It is the first reinforced concrete building constructed in Mobile and at 11 stories was its earliest skyscraper.
  • The rounded northeast corner contains a large cartouche containing the initials “GVA” for Garet Van Antwerp, the pharmacist who built the structure. Garet Van Antwerp came to Mobile in the late 1850s to expand the family’s pharmacy business.
  • The 11-story Van Antwerp building was purchased in 2000 for $687,500 at auction by New Orleans investors Earl Weber and Kenny Lobell. Local investors bought the Van Antwerp building from them in 2006 for $750,000.        

Hotels

• Adams Mark Riverview Plaza and Hotel: Refurbished in 2002.
• Battle House Hotel: 26 N. Royal St. The original Battle House was built in 1852 and burned in 1905. A group of the city’s businessmen, led by D.R. Burgess, raised more than a million dollars and rebuilt the hotel in 1907.The existing seven-story brick structure was designed by Frank M. Andrews.
  • Before the Battle House, the southeast corner of Royal and St. Francis streets had been the site of the Franklin Hotel, which burned in 1829, and the Waverly Hotel, which burned in 1850. James, John and Samuel Battle built a four-story brick building, with a two-story gallery of cast iron in 1852
  • The Battle Houses were visited by such notables as Jefferson Davis, Admiral Raphael Semmes, Generals Bragg, Beauregard, and Taylor. It was the location of President Woodrow Wilson’s famous speech in 1913 where he declared that the US would never again fight in a foreign war of aggression. Stephen Douglas spent the night he lost the presidential election to Abraham Lincoln at the Battle House.
  • The Battle House was owned by several firms. Sheraton hotels bought it in 1958 and closed it in 1974. Celia Wallace then owned it. The hotel was reopened in 2007 as part of the Retirement System of Alabama Battle House Project
• Bob Baumhower, the former Alabama and Miami Dolphins lineman who owns the Wings Sports Grille restaurants, said he still wants to open a new concept restaurant in the former Roussos restaurant at 166 S. Royal St. – PR 8/12/07

Church Street East Historic District/ Government Street

• Cooper Riverside Park honors the memory of Ervin S. Cooper.
• Fort Conde Visitors Center
• Fort Conde Village
  • Fort Conde Village is owned by the city of Mobile. New York Developer Larry Posner leased 13 buildings in the Village from the city of Mobile for 50 years (with four 10-year options), with a payment of $100,000 a year or 5 percent of the gross revenue from the development, whichever is less. He is working to transform four 1800s buildings on St. Emanuel Street into bed and breakfast units and offices, a project originally pegged at $5 million. He has already renovated nine of the 13 buildings in the area since 1998. – PR 8/12/07
  • Posner lives in one of the restored houses when he’s in town overseeing the restorations. He estimated he has invested about $2 million. Construction is under way on the circa 1857 Spear-Barter House on St. Emanuel Street, which will be restored as 6,000 square feet of office space; and the adjacent Hall-Ford House, a nine-room bed and breakfast with meeting parlors. The two structures are expected to cost at least $2.5 million to restore, Posner said. Two small buildings in the Village still need to be renovated, including the future site of the Mobile Medical Museum. He said has also drawn up plans for a chunk of vacant land in the Village and hopes to find the money to build apartments, more bed and breakfast units and retail space. – PR 4/20/08
• Conde-Charlotte House: 104 Theater St. (aka Kirkbride House)
  • Built on the site of Mobile’s first jail (erected 1822-1824). In 1940 a renovation revealed the jail’s foundation.
  • Renovated in 1850 as a residence for Jonathan Kirkbride, master builder from New Jersey, and remained in the Kirkbride family until 1926.
  • Unusual in its use of Greek Doric and Corinthian columns in its two story portico.
  • Now a museum, it has been furnished to represent key eras in Mobile’s past. The British living room, decorated in the style of 1790, gives way to an American Federal dining room from 1815 and a French Empire bedroom. Maintained by the National Society of Colonial Dames.
• Old City Hall: 111 S Royal St. Built 1853-1858.
  • Southern Market buildings and municipal offices. Stalls for farmers, butchers, game sellers, and fishermen were on the ground floor. Seat of municipal government from 1858 to 1994, when the Mobile Government Plaza was built. Served as a military armory before and after the Civil War.
  • The structure was heavily damaged by Hurricane Frederick in 1979, then fully restored in 1982.
  • The Italian Renaissance building features murals depicting a pictorial history of Mobile.
  • Now houses the Gulf Coast Exploreum and Museum of Mobile, which moved there from 355 Government (now housing the Mobile Carnival Museum) in 2001.
• ·         Admiral Raphael Semmes Statue. Government Street, just east of Royal. Scupltor is Casper Buberl, who cast the Union Army bas reliefs on the Pensions Building in Washington, D.C. Erected in 1900, in honor of Admiral Raphael Semmes of the Confederate Navy. The bronze figure shows Semmes in uniform, standing on a granite base. In bas-relief is the steam cruiser, CSS Alabama.
• The County Courthouse Site remains vacant. See below.
• Office of Dr. Henry LeVert. 153 Government St. Office of Dr. Henry Levert, 1858-1864. This Italianate style building served as a doctor’s office for one hundred years, 1858-1954.
• The Mobile Bar Association. In 1869, thirty-two attorneys organized the Mobile Bar Association, the first bar association in Alabama and the fourteenth oldest in the entire nation.
• Christ Church (Episcopal). 115 Church St. Built 1842. Established in 1823, the first Episcopal congregation in Mobile and in the State of Alabama. The building completed in 1842 by Leonidas Polk, Bishop of Louisiana and Alabama, later General of Artillery in the Army of the Confederacy. It features a Cenzo stained glass window. A $3 million renovation is planned.
• La Clede Hotel. 150 Government St. Constructed 1855-56-1940. Originally two federal structures with party walls. Later enlarged to include a third brick building, unified by the 258-ft. cast iron galley. The La Clede Hotel opened in 1871 and continued to function as a hotel until 1963.
  • In the early 1980s, Tom Leavell, developer Allen Cox Sr. and Jim Mattei , co-founder of the Checkers burger chain, bought and restored the LaClede. Leavell and the remaining partners sold the building to a local law firm. – PR 5/18/08
• Guesnard House. 51 S. Jackson St.   Built c. 1859 for Theodore Guesnard, jeweler and member of the Can’t Get Away Club. Acquired by the Government Street Presbyterian Church in 1965. An exterior restoration is now planned.
• St. Emmanuel Street Pocket Park
• Mobile Government Plaza, completed in 1994, is the first complex in the United States to have both city and county governments in addition to the courts share a common structure. The 581,000 square-foot structure was selected from 195 entries in a national competition sponsored by the American Institute of Architects. Houston architects Harry Goleman and Mario Bolullo won the competition
  • The Mobile Government Plaza is Mobile County’s sixth courthouse. The first courthouse built in 1829 was destroyed by fire, and the second courthouse was built in 1853. The second courthouse was destroyed by fire just 10 years after it was built, and a third courthouse was built in 1873. Once again, the Mobile County’s courthouse was destroyed by fire and a fourth courthouse was designed by Rudolph Benz in 1889. It was an elaborate Victorian structure richly decorated with classical details and sculpture and topped with a massive clock tower. The Benz courthouse was demolished to make way for a fifth and more modern courthouse designed by Cooper Van Antwerp which was built in 1958 at a cost of $4.7 million.
• Radisson Admiral Semmes Hotel
• Government Street Presbyterian Church: 300 Government St. Completed in 1837 by James Gallier and the Dakin Brothers at the behest of Henry Hitchcock.
• Lafayette Plaza Hotel 301 Government St., The 192-room Lafayette Plaza Hotel has been renovated and now has a Holiday Inn brand.
• Mobile Carnival Museum, 355 Government St. aka Bernstein House
  • The Carnival Museum withdrew a longstanding arrangement with the Midtown Optimist Club, who used the facility’s parking lot for 35 previous years to stage their only fundraising activity, a concession booth during Mardi Gras. The Carnival Museum announced plans to erect a parade viewing stand in the lot to be reserved for special sponsors and patrons.
• Spanish Plaza on Government St. honors the Spanish occupation of the city between 1780 and 1813. A statue of Queen Isabella stands here, an exhibit from the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.
• Barton Academy: 504 Government St. Greek Revival. Built in 1836 by James Gallier Sr. and the Dakin Brothers.
  • For $2,750, Willoughby Barton and several others bought a track of land in downtown Mobile in the late 1820s to build a school. Funding from a state lottery helped raise the remaining money needed to open Barton Academy, which became a collection of private and church schools. Barton, a member of the state legislature, sponsored the legislation that created the Board of School Comissioners for Mobile County.
  • Henry Hitchcock chaired the committee to raise funds for the building, a large part of which came from his own fortune. Hitchcock hired Gallier and Dakin. The Cast iron fence came from New York in 1839.
  • In 1852, Barton became Alabama’s first public school building, with 400 students in primary through high school grades. The school quickly grew to 1,012 students.
  • It was used as a Union hospital after the fall of Mobile in 1865. It closed for a few years after the Civil War, but reopened. At the time of the school’s centennial, in 1936, Barton offered just the seventh-grade.
  • Until recently Barton housed the Mobile County Board of School Commissioners. Restoring the outside will cost up to $8.3 million, but an estimate on how much money will be needed to repair the will depend on what the incoming superintendent, Roy Nichols, decides to do with it. School officials have said they would like to establish a school at Barton once again. The building is structurally sound, according to a study conducted recently by TAG Architects. – PR
• Kennedy House: 607 Government St. Built in 1857 for Joshua Kennedy Jr., son of Joshua Kennedy
• Haas House 652 Government Street was the residence of Sigmund Haas, a cotton factor, who had been living in Mobile at least since 1870, when he was listed as a bookkeeper for Frolichstein, Hahn and Co. He had his offices at 60 Commerce St., and he served as president of the Fidelia Club
• Ben May Public Library: 701 Government St. Built 1928 by George Rogers.
  • Mobile’s main library, now renamed for the late Ben May, has doubled in size after $10 million in renovations and expansion. The budget for the expansion ballooned from $6.6 million to almost $10 million, in part because of increased construction costs. Of the $10 million, $4.5 million has been raised from private donors, including $1 million from the Ben May Memorial Fund, $500,000 from the J. L. Bedsole Foundation and $400,000 from the Dr. Monte L. Moorer Foundation. The reopened main building will house 160,000 volumes.
• British Park
• Church Street Cemetery: Mobile’s oldest graveyard was established in 1819 as a burial ground for yellow fever victims.
  • The was brought from the Kennedy brothers for $20. At the time it was one-half mile beyond the city limits.
  • It is sectioned with the northern third for Protestants, the southern third for Catholics, and one-third for Masons, Oddfellows, veterans, Potters field, and strangers.
  • Boyington Oak. In 1834, Charles Boyington was convicted of murder. From the scaffold, he declared that an oak tree with 100 roots would grow out of his grave to prove his innocence. The Boyington Oak grew over his burial site.
  • The cemetery was closed for burials in 1898.
  • In 1967 the body of Joe Cain was moved from a cemetery in Bayou La Batre to the Church Street Cemetery, the idea of Julian Lee Rayford, who was buried next to Cain in 1981. In 1998, Eugene Walter was buried in the Church Street Cemetery, receiving a special dispensation from Mayor Dow.
  • In 2000, a radar study indicated dozens of possible burials outside the brick wall to the east and south. If these are indeed burials, the interred were probably fever victims from the 1819 epidemic, buried before the graveyard was surveyed and fenced. Originally marked by simple wooden crosses, these graves would have quickly become overgrown and forgotten. For much of the late twentieth century the library used the area as an overflow parking lot. The site will soon be converted into a park and these long-lost graves acknowledged by a historical marker.
  • Sources: John Sledge, Cities of Silence: A Guide to Mobile’s Historic Cemeteries (2002).
• Big Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church: 112 S Bayou St. Founded in 1842 by a group of slaves, the church’s first buildings were a wooden shed and parsonage. The present church was built in 1868. The stucco façade was added in 1896.
• Gilmore-Gaines-Quigley House. 751 Government St. Built c. 1864. Longtime home of Edmond Pendleton Gaines. Now offices for the Jaycees and America’s Junior Miss.
• Admiral Semmes House 802 Government St. Built c. 1859. In 1871, it was purchased by popular subscription and presented to Raphael Semmes. It is now owned by the First Baptist Church.
• First Baptist Church. 806 Government St. Built c. 1906.
• The Bee Hive: 901 Government Street.  The congregation of Government Street United Methodist Church, Methodism’s Mother Church in Mobile, began in 1826 on Franklin Street. Called “The Bee Hive” because of its activity, it sent “swarms” throughout the city to form new congregations. A brick structure replaced the original wooden church in 1849-49. The move to this corner was accomplished with the dedication of a Gothic structure in 1890. The remodeling to Spanish Colonial architecture was begun in 1906 and completed in 1917. Architect was Mobilian George B. Rogers, and Harry E. Goodhue of Boston created the stained glass windows.

Other Historic Buildings:

• Government St.: Frazier-Lowenstein House (c. 1857)
• St. Emmanuel St.: 162, Antunez House (c. 1872); 164, Delacour House (c. 1878), 163, Issac Spear House (c. 1857), 165, Hall-Ford house (c. 1836), 200, Antomanchi Store (c. 1869)
• Conti St. : Horst-Brady House, “Moongate” (c. 1867); Spear-Alonzo (c. 1838);
• 908 Government St.: The Pillans House was built in 1857 by Mobile mayor Harry Pillans' uncle Joel Abbott Roberts, who built 906 Government St. in 1859 for Harry's parents. They are said to have paid off the mortgage to Joel Roberts' widow using Confederate money "the day before Confederate money was outlawed," according to a descendant. 908 Government Street was sold by Mrs. Joel Roberts in 1876 to Dr. Edmund Pendleton Gaines who married his cousin, Mary Toulmin. (General Edmund Pendleton Gaines married Frances Toulmin, daughter of the first Judge Theophilus T. Toulmin.) Dr. Gaines sold the approx. 6,000-square-foot house to Harry and Daisy Torrey Pillans and it remained in the Pillans family until its demolition in 1979 for a fast food place. There were other marriages between the Gaines, Pillans, Toulmin, and other related families (Ross, Lyon, Buck, Taylor, Abbot, and others) and nearly all of the families on the east end of the 900 block of Government Street appear to have been related by blood or marriage. – Ray Isbell, Rootsweb, 4/27/2000 (0956897487)
• The YMCA Building was destroyed by fire in 2001 and demolished in 2003.  It was owned by Celia Wallace.

Restaurants

• Pollman’s Bakery, 750 S. Broad (also 31 N Royal, 4464 Old Shell Road)

Dauphin Street

• Main Street Mobile
  • Dauphin Street Historic District Walking Tour
• Dauphin Street was named for the son of Louis XIV. Under the Spaniards who ruled from 1780-1813, the street was called St. John or Galvez Street. When the Americans took possession of Mobile in 1813, the street was renamed Dauphin. – MSM
• A fire in 1839 destroyed the older wooden buildings on the street and the two- and three-story brick commercial buildings that we see today began to be built. Many of the early structures had the straight lintels and dentil moulding of the Federal style. The Reconstruction period brought the acceptance of new building trends such as the Italianate style and cast iron facades. The last decades of the 19th Century brought the Victorian era and Revivalism which continued into the 20th Century.- MSM
• Sculptor-designed bike racks are located on Dauphin, Government, Conti and St. Francis streets
• The Rotary International Clock was installed on the southeast corner of Dauphin Street and Royal in 2002. The Rotary Clock was the Tricenntenial gift to the City of Mobile by the Rotary Club of Mobile. The Verdin Company of Cincinnati replicated the clock from archival photos of the original clock that stood near this location in the early 1900s.
• Old Register Building, corner Royal and St. Michael, Built 1809. Originally the DeMouy House Inn, then known as the Lafayette House until 1870, then the Roper House. The Mobile Register, published by John Lawrence Rapier, was located there until 1832
  • In 1826, Louis De Mouy, son of Charles Orbonne De Mouy, was owner of an Inn at which LaFayette stayed on his visit to Mobile. Craighead related in ‘From Mobile’s Past’ that a reception was given for the Marquis at the Inn, and that for a joke, someone yelled ‘fire’ whereupon the Marquis jumped out of the first story window.
• The Kress building was designed by Seymour Burrell in 1907 with additions in the 1940s. Originally “L” shaped, the building is now cruciform and has fronts on Royal, Dauphin, St. Emanuel and Conti streets. The St. Emanuel Street entrance is a later Art Deco design by G.F. Sibbert. The city had owned the Kress building at one time, selling it in the 1990s to the Altmayer family. Parts of the first floor had been built-out for the Social Security Administration in the late 1990s, but hurricane-driven water damage forced the owner to rip out the wallboard, leaving just the framework. It was purchased in 2008  for $1.2 million by R.A. Hargrove Properties LLC from Jay Altmayer Jr.
  • S. H. Kress had two locations, downtown Mobile and downtown Prichard, which closed in 1980. S. H. Kress & Co. was a national chain of five-and-dime stores which began in Pennsylvania in 1896, was bought by Genesco in 1964, and closed its stores nationally in 1980-1981.  It was known for its architecturally distinctive stores.
• Neisner Building, 22-26 S. Royal. Built c. 1946.  Formerly housed Neisner’s retail store. Hargrove and Associates, a Mobile engineering firm, bought it from Jay Altmayer Jr. for $550,000 in 2007 and announced $1.5 million plans for conversion to office space.
• First National Bank Building, 68 St. Francis St.  Built in 1906.
• St. Emanuel Place: 127 Dauphin St.  11-unit apartment complex owned by Tilmon Brown
• The Spira & Pincus Building:169 Dauphin St. Designed by Rudolph Benz in 1899. A Classical Revival building in stone.
• Bienville Square
  • In 1824 when the U.S. Congress transferred the land, site of the old Spanish Hospital, to the City of Mobile specifying that the property be forever used as a city park.
  • In 1834 the city began acquiring additional land and by 1849 the city held clear title to the entire block. In the 1850’s improvements were made which included walkways, a now gone cast iron fence, benches, and an ornamented central mound.
  • In 1890 the “Acanthus Fountain” was placed by Bienville Water Works in honor of its founder Dr. George A. Ketchum.
  • In 1905, Teddy Roosevelt spoke in the Square about the importance of the Panama Canal to the port of Mobile.
  • The current bandstand was built in 1941, as a gift to the people of Mobile from Sears Roebuck and Company.
  • The Cawthon Hotel occupied the parking lot that faces the west side of Bienville Square, running west to Joachim Street, until it was demolished in 1973. The Cawthon Real Estate Corp., a charitable entity that sends money to the Wilmer Hall children’s home, owns it. The lot generates about $80,000 a year for Wilmer Hall. The lot isfrequently flagged as a problem in efforts to improve the square and as a prime target for redevelopment.
• The 82,000-square-foot Gayfers building fronts Bienville Square on Dauphin Street and also Conti Street.
  • The Mobile County School System bought the Gayfers building for $1 million in 2003 with plans to establish a performing arts high school there. The board placed the building on the market in November of 2004. Board members later said the purchase was a mistake and the facility would not be suitable for a performing arts high school. Officials thought they had sold it in the fall of 2006, when two companies put in competing offers to buy it. But both of those companies eventually backed out.
  • In August 2007, Island Investments LLC of Orange Beach, comprised of Bo Wilson of Mobile and Shaul Zislin of Hollywood, Fla., bought the building for $1.2 million. The partners plan to put in 15,000 square feet of commercial space and 36 condominiums – PR 8/9/07, 10/7/07, 3/9/08
• O’Gwynn Building: 16-20 S. Conception St., was renovated by Tilmon Brown, Ann Bedsole, and Todd Drummond into 10 condo units
• Crescent Theater: 208 Dauphin St, was renovated by Max Morey and John Switzer, with the theatre on the street level and two high-end lofts on the second and third levels. Switzer purchased the former Monsoon’s building at 210 Dauphin St., next door to the theatre, and is working with Morey to redevelop that building, with a banquet hall downstairs and two corporate entertainment suites upstairs. – Egan, Lagniappe, 8/28/07
• A&M Peanut Company 209 Dauphin St. AKA Mrs. G. T. Turner Building. The A&M Peanut Company or its predecessor, the Planters Peanut Shop, has been in business since 1947. All nuts are roasted on the premises in a machine dating from 1907. This building was designed by James H. Hutchisson in 1886.
• Sangrouber Van-Antwerp Building. 225 Dauphin St. This building was constructed in 1899 by architect W. H. Hammond. In 1993 it opened as a microbrewery after extensive renovation. Several microbreweries have since opened and closed in this spot since. It now houses the Hurricane Brewery.
  • Port City Brewery opened in 1993 after the Legislature approved a restrictive law allowing breweries only in historic buildings or sites. It must also be shown that beer once was produced in the same county. The beer also cannot be possessed, sold or dispensed except on the premises where it’s brewed. The pub must also operate a restaurant with a seating capacity of at least 80 people.
• Saenger Theater 6 Joachim St. S. Designed by Emile Weiland. Opened in 1927, the Saenger was a major movie theater for many years. Its French Renaissance decor features a magenta color scheme and wonderful plaster ornaments. Owned and managed by the Centre for Contemporary arts, the theater now houses special events and productions.  
• St. Francis Street United Methodist Church, 15 N. Joachim St. Built in1895.
• B.C. Turner Building: 300 Dauphin St. The west half of this building was completed in 1848 and the east half in 1905. The present Classical Revival façade dates from 1905. The building now houses a residence and several offices.
• Cathedral Square:  The buildings in Cathedral Square were torn down in 1979 to create a public park. Improvements, including the fountain, took place in 1996. The buildings around the square make up the Cathedral Square Arts District.
• Portier House (circa 1833): 307 Conti St. Michael Portier, Mobile’s first bishop, made this his home from 1834 until his death in 1859. Four subsequent bishops resided here until 1906. Abram J. Ryan, poet-priest of the South, occupied the northwest corner room on the second floor from 1870 until 1877. Residence was restored by the Catholic Diocese of Mobile in 1958.
• The Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, is the seat of the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile.
  • The Cathedral is sited on an early cemetery known as the Campo Santo, or “Holy Ground.” The graves were marked by plain wooden crosses and in 1793 Manuel de Lanzos, ordered that it be better maintained and protected from livestock.
  • The cathedral, designed in 1833, by Claude Beroujon, a former seminarian turned architect, is laid out in a Roman basilica design.
  • Construction began in 1835, but the Panic of 1837, caused a shortage of funds and delayed the start of construction until 1842. The cathedral was consecrated for public worship in 1850, by Bishop Michael Portier, though Beroujon’s design was not yet fully realized. The portico and towers were to come later.
  • Various members of the Hutchisson family of architects worked on the building: cornice and roof (1849); portico (1872-1890); and towers (1890-1895). The Cathedral features German art glass windows by Adolph Meier, a bronze canopy over the altar, and 14 hand-carved Stations of the Cross.
  • The surrounding cast iron fence from Wood and Miltenberger of New Orleans dates from 1860.
  • The classical portico, with eight massive columns of the Roman Doric order, was added in the 1870’s, under the direction of Bishop John Quinlan. The twin towers were completed in 1884, during the watch of Bishop Jeremiah O’Sullivan.
  • The stained glass windows were made in Munich, Germany by Franz Mayer & Co., and installed beginning in 1890. The last window was installed in 1910. Each window depicts an event involving Mary in the life of her son, Jesus.
  • A number of bishops who have served Mobile rest in the crypt under the floor toward the front of the church.
  • In1954, a homeless man, seeking shelter in the church, caused a fire that destroyed the sanctuary. Bishop Thomas Joseph Toolen’s restoration efforts included the addition of a massive bronze baldachin, supported by four marble columns, and a new mahogany cathedra and / pulpit.
  • In 1962, Pope John XXIII elevated the cathedral to a minor basilica, a title bestowed on churches of historical and spiritual importance. A basilica is entitled to have its own coat-of-arms. Other basilica insignia include Pope John XXIII’s personal coat-of-arms installed above the cathedral entrance, the yellow and red Umbracullum, or umbrella, and tintinabulum, or bell, in the sanctuary.
  • Buildings at 50 S. Franklin (Elkins c. 1854) and 56 S. Franklin (Herpin c. 1857) are also owned by the Catholic diocese and used as offices and residences.
• Horst House: 407 Conti St. This Italian townhouse was built circa 1867. Notice the cast-iron windows and cornices.
• 250 St. Francis St.:  A 32 unit condo is planned on this site of this parking lot by developers John Hunter and John Peebles – PR 7/22/07
• Scottish Rite Temple: 351 St. Francis St. Designed by George Rogers in 1921, this Egyptian Revival building has stuccoed battered walls and is the only Egyptian Revival building in the city. The entrances are marked by a pair of sphinxes. Built as a Masonic temple, it was sold in 1996 to Three Georges Southern Chocolates Owner Scott Gonzalez, and became The Temple Downtown entertainment venue in 2004.
• Washington Firehouse #5: 7. N. Lawrence St. Built in 1851 at a cost of $5,500, this two-story brick Greek Revival building was constructed to house the privately run Washington Fire Company.
• Mattress Factory 412-416 Dauphin St., was converted into 24 condos by developer Tilmon Brown in 2007.
• Campbell Pharmacy building on Dauphin and St. Emanuel streets was renovated into retail and 11 apartments by Tilmon Brown of JTB Group. He also plans to build about 32 condo units in the former Buick building at Hamilton and St. Louis streets. – PR 4/16/06
• The Mobile Arts & Sports Association , the parent organization of the Senior Bowl , paid $425,000 for a three-story, 6,000-square-foot building at the southwest corner of Dauphin and St. Emanuel streets, and plans to renovate the 1890s building and put the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame Museum on the ground floor – PR 4/22/07
• Wintzell’s Building: Built in 1891 by black businessman Charles W. Peters. A two-story clapboard structure, this is the only wooden structure designed for commercial use remaining on Dauphin St. Wintzell’s Restaurant has been doing business in this block since 1938.
• The Bull: 609 Dauphin St.  Restaurant. Renovated by Wendell Quimby.
• Creole Fire House #1: 13 N. Dearborn St.  Designed by James H. Hutchisson in 1872, this two-story brick structure was built to house the Creole #1 Fire Company. It was converted into a residence by developer Tilmon Brown.
• Central Fire Station: 701 St. Francis St. This is a three-story brick structure with fire truck bays was built in 1926.
• Carriage Works: 701, 709 Dauphin St. Condos developed by Todd Drummond and Ann Bedsole
• Meaher Building: 755 Dauphin St. Built circa 1930 for Augustine Meaher, this is a one-story brick building with five wooden storefronts. Now a restaurant, the building once housed a pecan factory and a landscaping business.
• Other Historic Buildings:
  • Pollock & Bernheimer Building, 1904, Rudolph Benz (5 Dauphin); Levy Wolverton Building, circa 1875 (102 Dauphin); Walgreen’s Building, circa 1938 (110-112 Dauphin); McCrory 5 & 10 Building, 1924 (125-127 Dauphin); Scheuermann Building, 1893, Rudolph Benz (203 Dauphin); Ann McCaw Building, circa 1885,  Rudolph Benz (210 Dauphin); Abraham Spira Building, 1891, Rudolph Benz, served as a theatre from 1908-1931 (220 Dauphin); Demouy Building, circa 1879 (222, 224, 226 Dauphin); Crown Theatre, circa 1909 (270 Dauphin); Sidney Smith Building, 1848 (354 Dauphin); Jacques Chighizola Building, 1858 (356 Dauphin); John McGuire Building, 1852 (358 Dauphin); Jacques Chighizola Building, circa 1854 (407 Dauphin); Maria Crawford Building, 1900 (417 Dauphin); Louis Monin Building, circa 1867 (454-456 Dauphin); Steele Building, circa 1853 (522 Dauphin); Henry Chamberlain Building, circa 1865 (551 Dauphin); Schumacher Carriage Works (709-711 Dauphin);
  • Daniels, Elgin & Co. Building, circa 1860 (2 S. Water);
  • Abraham Pincus Building, 1891, Rudolph Benz (1 S. Royal), Burke Building, circa 1875 (1 N. Royal);
  • Coley Building, 1870 (56 St. Francis); First National Bank Building, 1906 (68 St. Francis); Neville Building, circa 1890 (255 St. Francis); Joseph Silver House, 1845 (257 St. Francis); Joseph Silver house, 1845 (altered in 1926) (259 St. Francis);
  • Franklin Fire Engine Company #3, 1852 (6 St. Joseph) – renovated with 8 St. Joseph in 2006 for $1 million by Ann Bedsole. It now houses the Hearin-Chandler Foundation.
  • Cavallero House, circa 1835 (7 N. Jackson);
  • Augustine Meaher House, 1901 (5 N. Claiborne); John Dahm House, 1873 (7 N. Claiborne);

Past Buildings

• The Masonic Temple on Bienville Square at 8 St. Joseph St., built in 1902, was demolished in 2002. A time capsule had been hidden for a century behind the cornerstone of the building.

Businesses

• The Dauphine Shoeteria has been on Conti Street for over 60 years – PR 12/5/2006.

Restaurants

• Wintzell’s Restaurant. 601 Dauphin St. Established in 1938.
• Picklefish restaurant was opened on Dauphin Street by Mead Miller in 1995.  It closed in 2008 due to his health. A second Picklefish location, which opened in 2001 on Old Shell Road near the University of South Alabama campus, will remain open
• Roussos, formerly on Royal St., moved to Malbis’ Eastern Shore Center. George and Zenia Roussos moved to Mobile from Miami in 1955 so they could partner in the restaurant business. The family later owned the well-known Roussos Restaurant; their three children still own a Roussos Restaurant on the Eastern Shore. – PR 11/18/07
• Heroes

Bars

• The Garage
• Hurricane Brewery. 225 Dauphin St.
• Veet’s. 66 S. Royal St. Owner Doug Previto plays the house band, the Family Jewels.

DeTonti Square

• DeTonti Square Improvement Association
• Richards-DAR House: 256 Joachim St. One of Mobile’s finest examples of the Italianate style. Famous for its cast-iron facade depicting the four seasons. Steamboat Captain Charles G. Richards and his wife, Caroline Elizabeth Steele, built their house in 1860. The Ideal Cement Company purchased the house from Richards’ descendants in 1946. After being turned over to the city of Mobile in 1973, the six Mobile Chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution leased the home. The organization is responsible for furnishing and administering it as a period house museum.
• 258 N. Claiborne: 8 unit apartment complex owned and renovated by Ted Pitsios – PR 8/20/06

 Other areas in the Hank Aaron Loop

• St. Louis St.:
  • St Louis Lofts: 308 St. Louis St.  Tuscaloosa developer Steven Barr renovated the former Mobile Fixture & Equipment warehouse in 2007. –Jumper, PR 8/20/06; Jumper, PR 7/19/09; Egan, Lagniappe 7/14/09
• Federal Courthouse: A new $75 million federal courthouse building is being planned.
• Ryan Park, with a statue of Father Abram J. Ryan. In 1912 a Mobile newspaper launched a drive to erect a statue to him. Dedicated in 1913, it includes a stanza from “The Conquered Banner” below an inscription that reads: “Poet, Patriot, and Priest.”
• The Tower on Ryan Park (758 St. Michael Street) opened as a residential building in 1951. 
• St. Francis Place is the former Sisters of Mercy Convent building that was converted to 30 condominiums in 2002. The three- and one-half-story stucco structure with a two-story attached porch housed the Convent of Mercy Catholic girl’s school until 1968. It is also known as the Empress Chandelier building.
• Gulf City Lodge 601 State St. The Elks Lodge was built in the 1870s. It is now used primarily as an entertainment venue. It is owned by Huntsville businessman Paul Bracy, owner of Bracy Vending Inc. vending company
• U.S. Marine Hospital: NW corner of St. Anthony at Jefferson. Built 1838-1841. In operation 1842- 1952. Served Confederate and Union Troops, 1861-1865.
• City Hospital: 850 S Anthony St. This 1819 structure was a military hospital during the Civil War.
• Mobile City Hospital: NE corner of Broad Street, at St. Anthony. Built in 1830 by Thomas S. James, Mobile’s third hospital has been preserved in its original design except for additions at each end, serving without interruption through disastrous fires, yellow fever epidemics, and war. For 83 years, between 1861 and 1959, it was administered for the city by the Sisters of Charity.
• First Medical School in Alabama: NW corner of St. Anthony, at Warren. The first medical school in Alabama, and the thirty-fourth in the United States, was established on this site in November 1859. Dr. Josiah Nott, founder and first chief of surgery. It closed in 1861 at the outbreak of the War Between the States and did not reopen until 1868. The medical school continued until 1920 when it was moved to Tuscaloosa. Dunbar public school currently utilizes the building.
• Orange Grove Housing Project consists of the 12 blocks between Bloodgood and Marion streets near Interstate 165, just north of downtown. It’s adjacent to two other public housing communities, Albert F. Owens Homes (built 1959) and Jesse Thomas Homes (built 1970), which have been slated for demolition and redeveloped with a HOPE VI grant. Residents have been flooded from their homes repeatedly during hurricanes and tropical storms, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
  • In June 2004, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the Housing Board $20 million to tear down the Owens and Thomas developments and replace them with a mixed-income community of townhouses, single-family homes and a senior citizens complex. The HOPE VI project also includes construction of 12 single-family homes in the Church Street East historic area just north of Church Street at Washington Avenue behind the Mobile Public Library main branch. Once the demolition is complete, Pennrose-Formation LLC will oversee construction of the 88-unit senior citizens complex and 87 townhouses that are part of the project. Work on the senior citizens complex is expected to start in early 2008. – PR 8/30/07
• GM&O Building was built in 1907
• Other Historic Buildings:
  • Claiborne Apartments – renovated 2006 (258 N. Claiborne);
• Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard used to be called “Davis Avenue” east of Catherine Street and “Stone Street” to the west of Catherine Street.