Mobile is the third most populous city in the
SouthernThe Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, Down South, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States...
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
state of
AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
and is the
county seatA county seat is a term for an administrative center for a county or civil parish, primarily used in the United States. In the Northeast United States, the statutory term often is shire town, but colloquially county seat is the term in use there...
of
Mobile CountyMobile County
[p] is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of a tribe of Indians, the Maubila tribe . As of 2008, its population was 406,309. Its county seat is Mobile, Alabama...
. It is located on the
Mobile RiverThe Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately 45-mile-long river drains an area of 44,000 sq mi of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee...
and the central
Gulf Coast of the United StatesThe Gulf Coast region of the United States, sometimes called the Gulf South, South Coast, or Third Coast, comprises the coasts of states which border the Gulf of Mexico. The states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida are known as the Gulf States...
. The population within the city limits was 198,915 during the 2000 census. Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile
Metropolitan Statistical AreaIn the United States, the Office of Management and Budget has produced a formal definition of metropolitan areas. These are referred to as "Metropolitan Statistical Areas" and "Combined Statistical Areas" . An earlier version of the MSA was the "Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area" . MSAs are...
(MSA), a region of 399,843 residents which is composed solely of Mobile County and is the second largest MSA in the state. Mobile is included in the Mobile-
DaphneDaphne is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The city is located just off I-10, 11 miles east of Mobile and 150 miles southwest of the state capital of Montgomery. The 2000 census lists the population of the city as 16,581 making Daphne the most populous city...
-
FairhopeFairhope is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, on a sloping plateau, along the cliffs and shoreline of Mobile Bay. The 2000 census lists the population of the city as 12,480....
Combined Statistical AreaThe United States Office of Management and Budget defines micropolitan and metropolitan statistical areas. Metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas consist of one or more counties...
with a total population of 540,258, the second largest combined statistical area in the state.
Mobile began as the first capital of colonial
French LouisianaLouisiana or French Louisiana was the name of an administrative district of New France. Under French control from 1682-1763 and 1800-03, the area was named in honor of Louis XIV of France, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle...
in 1702. The city gained its name from the
Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
MobilianMobilian may refer to:*Mobilian jargon - An informal Native Americans trade language used among the tribes of the Southeastern United States, primarily along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico*The Native American village of Mabila...
tribe that the French colonists found in the area of
Mobile BayMobile Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the...
. During its first 100 years, Mobile was a colony for
FranceEarly Modern France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century...
, then
BritainThe Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801...
, and lastly
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
. Mobile first became a part of the
United States of AmericaThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1813, left the United States with Alabama in 1861 to become a part of the
Confederate States of AmericaThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
, and then returned to the United States in 1865.
Located at the junction of the
Mobile RiverThe Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately 45-mile-long river drains an area of 44,000 sq mi of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee...
and Mobile Bay on the northern
Gulf of MexicoThe Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United...
, the city is the only seaport in Alabama. The
Port of MobileThe Port of Mobile, located in Mobile, Alabama, United States, is the only deep-water port in the state, and was the 10th largest in the nation in 2006. It is located along the Mobile River where it empties into Mobile Bay...
has always played a key role in the economic health of the city beginning with the city as a key trading center between the French and Native Americans down to its current role as the 10th largest port in the United States.
As one of the Gulf Coast's cultural centers, Mobile houses several art museums, a symphony
orchestraAn orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
, a professional
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, a professional
balletBallet is a formalized type of performance dance, which originated in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century French courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form...
company, and a large concentration of historic
architectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
. Mobile is known for having the oldest organized
CarnivalCarnival is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during January and February...
celebrations in the United States, dating to the 1700s of its early colonial period. It was also host to the first formally organized Carnival
mystic societyA mystic society is a Carnival social organization, similar to a krewe in New Orleans, that presents parades and/or balls for the enjoyment of its members, guests, and the public. The term came to be used in this context in Mobile, Alabama. Mystic society membership is secret. The societies have...
or "
kreweA Krewe is an organization that puts on a parade and or a ball for the Carnival season. The term is best known for its association with New Orleans Mardi Gras, but is also used in other Carnival celebrations around the Gulf of Mexico, such as the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa, Florida, and...
" in the United States, dating to 1830. People from Mobile are known as Mobilians.
Colonial
European settlement of Mobile, then known as
Fort Louis de la LouisianeThe Old Mobile Site was the location of the French settlement La Mobile and the associated Fort Louis de La Louisiane from 1702 until 1712. The site is located approximately fourteen miles northwest of Bay Minette, Alabama on the Mobile River...
, started in 1702, at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on the
Mobile RiverThe Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately 45-mile-long river drains an area of 44,000 sq mi of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee...
, as the first capital of the
French colonyThe French colonial empire is the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 1600s to the late 1960s . In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second largest in the world behind the British Empire...
of
LouisianaLouisiana or French Louisiana was the name of an administrative district of New France. Under French control from 1682-1763 and 1800-03, the area was named in honor of Louis XIV of France, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle...
. It was founded by
French CanadianFrench Canadian refers to a nation or ethnic group of French descent that originated in Canada during the period of French colonization beginning in the 17th century. They constitute the main French-speaking population of Canada...
brothers
Pierre Le Moyne d'IbervillePierre Le Moyne d'Iberville [pronounced as described in note] ,was a soldier, ship captain, explorer, colonial administrator, knight of the order of Saint-Louis, adventurer, privateer, trader, and founder of the French colony of Louisiana. He was born at Ville-Marie, on 16...
and
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de BienvilleJean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville[
pronounce] was a colonizer, born in Montreal, Quebec and an early, repeated governor of French Louisiana, appointed 4 separate times during 1701-1743. He was a younger brother of explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville...
, establish control over France's Louisiana claims. Bienville was made governor of French Louisiana in 1701. Mobile’s Roman Catholic parish was established on 20 July 1703, by
Jean-Baptiste de la Croix de Chevrières de Saint-VallierJean-Baptiste de la Croix de Chevrière de St. Vallier, , was appointed to the see of Quebec as bishop in 1685 by Louis XIV. However, Blessed Pope Innocent XI was not granting any more bulls of investiture and Abbé Saint-Vallier travelled to Canada as vicar-general of Bishop Laval...
,
Bishop of QuebecThe Archdiocese of Québec is the oldest Catholic see in the New World north of Mexico. It was founded as the Apostolic Vicariate of New France in 1658 and was elevated to a Diocese in 1674 and an Archdiocese in 1819. It lost large pieces of its territory with the formation of the Dioceses of...
. The parish was the first established on the
Gulf Coast of the United StatesThe Gulf Coast region of the United States, sometimes called the Gulf South, South Coast, or Third Coast, comprises the coasts of states which border the Gulf of Mexico. The states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida are known as the Gulf States...
. In 1704 the ship
Pélican delivered 23 French women to the colony, along with
yellow feverYellow fever is an acute viral disease. The virus, a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus of the family of Flaviviridae is transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes...
which passengers had contracted at a stop in
HavanaHavana is the capital city, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city is one of the 14 Cuban provinces. The city/province has 2.4 million inhabitants, and the urban area over 3.7 million, making Havana the largest city in both Cuba and the Caribbean region...
. Though most of the "
Pélican girls" recovered, numerous colonists and neighboring Native Americans died from the illness. This early period was also the occasion of the arrival of the first African slaves, transported aboard a French supply ship from
Saint-DomingueSaint-Domingue was a French colony on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola from 1659 to 1804, when it became the independent nation of Haiti.Saint-Domingue is the French version of the Spanish name Santo Domingo. The Arawak, Carib and Tainos people occupied the island before the arrival of the...
. The population of the colony fluctuated over the next few years, growing to 279 persons by 1708, yet descending to 178 persons two years later due to disease.
These additional outbreaks of disease and a series of floods caused Bienville to order the town relocated several miles downriver to its present location at the confluence of the
Mobile RiverThe Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately 45-mile-long river drains an area of 44,000 sq mi of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee...
and
Mobile BayMobile Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the...
in 1711. A new earth and palisade
Fort Louis was constructed at the new site during this time. By 1712, when
Antoine CrozatAntoine Crozat, Marquis du Châtel , French founder of an immense fortune, was the first private proprietary owner of French Louisiana from 1712 to 1717....
took over administration of the colony by royal appointment, the colony boasted a population of 400 persons. The capital of
LouisianaLouisiana or French Louisiana was the name of an administrative district of New France. Under French control from 1682-1763 and 1800-03, the area was named in honor of Louis XIV of France, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle...
was moved to
BiloxiBiloxi is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, in the United States. The 2000 census recorded the population as 50,644, although the 2008 Census Estimate placed the population at 45,670...
in 1720, leaving Mobile in the role of military and trading center. In 1723 the construction of a new brick fort with a stone foundation began and it was renamed
Fort CondéFort Conde, located in Mobile, Alabama, at 150 South Royal Street, is a reconstruction, at 4/5 scale, as a third of the original 1720s French Fort Condé at the site, also known as Fort Carlota and also Fort Charlotte .The current Fort Conde, spanning almost 1/3 of the original fort, was...
in honor of
Louis Henri, Duc de BourbonLouis Henri Joseph de Bourbon, Duke of Bourbon, Prince of Condé was head of the cadet Bourbon-Condé branch of the French royal House of Bourbon from 1710 to his death, and served as prime minister to his kinsman Louis XV from 1723 to 1726...
and prince of Condé.
In 1763, the
Treaty of ParisThe Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on February 10, 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the Seven Years' War. The treaty marked the beginning of an extensive period of British dominance...
was signed, ending the
French and Indian WarThe French and Indian War, also known as the War of the Conquest or referred as part of the larger conflict known as the Seven Years' War, was a war fought in North America between 1754 and 1763...
. The treaty ceded Mobile and the surrounding territory to the
Kingdom of Great BritainThe Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801...
, and it was made a part of the expanded British
West FloridaWest Florida was a region on the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico, which underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. Parts of the territory were held at various times by France, Spain, Britain, and the United States...
colony. The British changed the name of Fort Condé to Fort Charlotte, after
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-StrelitzCharlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the queen-consort of the United Kingdom as wife of King George III.Queen Charlotte was a patroness of the arts, known to Johann Christian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others. She was also an amateur botanist who helped establish Kew Gardens...
,
King George III'sGeorge III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
queen.
The British were eager not to lose any useful inhabitants and promised religious tolerance to the French colonists, ultimately 112 French Mobilians remained in the colony. The first permanent Jewish presence in Mobile began in 1763 as a result of the new religious tolerance. Jews had not been allowed to officially reside in colonial French Louisiana due to the Code Noir, a decree passed by France's King Louis XIV in 1685 that forbade the exercise of any religion other than Roman Catholicism, and ordered all Jews out of France's colonies. Most of these colonial era Jews in Mobile were merchants and traders, and added to the commercial development of Mobile. In 1766 the population was estimated to be 860, though the town's borders were smaller than they had been during the French colonial efforts. During the
American Revolutionary WarThe American Revolutionary War , also sometimes known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen united former British colonies in North America, and concluded in a global war between several European great powers...
, West Florida and Mobile became a refuge for
loyalistsLoyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during and after the American Revolutionary War. They were often referred to as Tories, Royalists, or King's Men by the Patriots, those that supported the revolution...
fleeing the other colonies.
The Spanish captured Mobile during the
Battle of Fort CharlotteThe Battle of Fort Charlotte was a two-week siege conducted by Spanish General Bernardo de Gálvez against the British fortifications guarding the Mobile, Alabama during the American Revolutionary War. Fort Charlotte was the last remaining British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans in...
in 1780. They wished to eliminate any British threat to their Louisiana colony, which they had received from France in 1763s Treaty of Paris. Their actions were also condoned by the revolting American colonies due to the fact that
West FloridaWest Florida was a region on the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico, which underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. Parts of the territory were held at various times by France, Spain, Britain, and the United States...
, for the most part, remained loyal to the British Crown. The fort was renamed
Fortaleza CarlotaFort Conde, located in Mobile, Alabama, at 150 South Royal Street, is a reconstruction, at 4/5 scale, as a third of the original 1720s French Fort Condé at the site, also known as Fort Carlota and also Fort Charlotte .The current Fort Conde, spanning almost 1/3 of the original fort, was...
, with the Spanish holding Mobile as a part of Spanish
West FloridaWest Florida was a region on the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico, which underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. Parts of the territory were held at various times by France, Spain, Britain, and the United States...
until 1813, when it was seized by the U.S. General
James WilkinsonJames Wilkinson was an American soldier and statesman, who was associated with several scandals and controversies. He served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, but was twice compelled to resign. He was appointed governor of the Louisiana Territory in 1805 and commanded...
during the
War of 1812The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire , lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought chiefly on the Atlantic Ocean and on the land, coasts and waterways of North America.There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S...
.
19th century
By the time Mobile was included in the
Mississippi TerritoryThe Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 7, 1798, until December 10, 1817, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Mississippi....
in 1813, the population had dwindled to roughly 300 people. The city was included in the
Alabama TerritoryThe Territory of Alabama
[n] was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 15, 1817, until December 14, 1819, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Alabama.- History :...
in 1817, after
MississippiMississippi is a state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi . The state is heavily forested outside of the...
gained statehood. Alabama was granted statehood in 1819; Mobile's population had increased to 809 by that time. As the river frontage areas of Alabama and Mississippi were settled by farmers and the
plantationA plantation is a large farm or estate, usually in a tropical or subtropical country, where crops are grown for sale in distant markets, rather than for local consumption. The term plantation is informal and not precisely defined....
economy became established, Mobile's population exploded. It came to be settled by merchants, attorneys, mechanics, doctors and others seeking to capitalize on trade with these upriver areas. Mobile was well situated for trade, as its location tied it to a river system that served as the principal navigational access for most of Alabama and a large part of Mississippi. By 1822 the city's population was 2800.
From the 1830s onward, Mobile expanded into a city of commerce with a primary focus on the cotton trade. The waterfront was developed with wharves, terminal facilities, and fireproof brick warehouses. The exports of cotton grew in proportion to the amounts being produced in the
Black BeltThe Black Belt is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama, and part of the larger Black Belt Region of the Southern United States, which stretches from Texas to Maryland. The term originally referred to the region underlain by a thin layer of rich, black topsoil developed atop the chalk of the Selma...
; by 1840 Mobile was second only to New Orleans in cotton exports in the nation. With the economy so focused on one crop, Mobile's fortunes were always tied to those of cotton, and the city weathered many financial crises. Though Mobile had a relatively small slave-owning population compared to the inland plantation areas, it was the slave-trading center of the state until surpassed by
MontgomeryMontgomery is the capital, second most populous city, and the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the Southern U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. The city population was 201,568...
in the 1850s. By 1853, there were fifty Jewish families living in Mobile, including Philp Phillips,an attorney who was elected to the Alabama State Legislature and then to the United States Congress. By 1860 Mobile's population within the city limits had reached 29,258 people; it was the 27th largest city in the United States and 4th largest in what would soon be the
Confederate States of AmericaThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
. The free population in the whole of Mobile County, including the city, consisted of 29,754 citizens, of which only 1195 were black. Additionally, 1785 slave owners held 11,376 slaves, for a total county population of 41,130 people.
During the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
, Mobile was a Confederate city. The first
submarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has only limited underwater capability...
to successfully sink an enemy ship, the
H. L. HunleyHunley may refer to:People*Horace Lawson Hunley , American marine engineer*Con Hunley , American country music singer*Helen Hunley , Canadian politician*Leann Hunley , American actor...
, was built in Mobile. One of the most famous naval engagements of the
warThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
was the
Battle of Mobile BayThe Battle of Mobile Bay of August 5, 1864, was an engagement of the American Civil War in which a Federal fleet commanded by Rear Admiral David G. Farragut, assisted by a contingent of soldiers, attacked a smaller Confederate fleet led by Admiral Franklin Buchanan and three forts that guarded the...
, resulting in the
UnionDuring the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty-three states which were not part of the secession attempt by the 11 states that tried to form the Confederacy...
taking possession of
Mobile BayMobile Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the...
on 5 August 1864. On 12 April 1865, 3 days after the surrender of
Robert E. LeeRobert Edward Lee was a career United States Army officer, an engineer, and among the most celebrated generals in American history. Lee was the son of Major General Henry Lee III "Light Horse Harry" , Governor of Virginia, and his second wife, Anne Hill Carter...
at
Appomattox CourthouseThe Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought on the morning of April 9, 1865, was the final engagement of Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the end of the American Civil War...
, the city of Mobile surrendered to the
Union armyThe Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
to avoid destruction following the Union victories at the
Battle of Spanish FortThe Battle of Spanish Fort took place from March 27 to April 8, 1865 in Baldwin County, Alabama, as part of the Mobile Campaign of the Western Theater of the American Civil War....
and the
Battle of Fort BlakelyThe Battle of Fort Blakely took place from April 2-April 9, 1865 in Baldwin County, Alabama, as part of the Mobile Campaign of the American Civil War....
. Ironically, on 25 May 1865, the city suffered loss when some three hundred people died as a result of an
explosionOn May 25, 1865, in Mobile, Alabama, in the Southern United States, an ordnance depot or "magazine" exploded, killing some 300 persons. This event occurred just after the end of the American Civil War, during the occupation of the city by victorious Federal troops....
at a
federalThe federal government of the United States is the central government entity established by the United States Constitution, which shares sovereignty over the United States with the governments of the individual U.S. states. The federal government has three branches: the legislative, executive, and...
ammunition depot on Beauregard Street. The explosion left a deep hole at the depot's location, sunk ships docked on the Mobile River, and the resulting fires destroyed the northern portion of the city.
Federal Reconstruction in Mobile began after the Civil War and effectively ended in 1874 when the local
DemocratsThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
gained control of the city government. The last quarter of the 19th century was a time of economic depression and municipal insolvency for Mobile. One example can be provided by the value of Mobile's exports during this period of depression. The value of exports leaving the city fell from $9 million in 1878 to $3 million in 1882.
20th century
The turn of the century brought the
Progressive EraThe Progressive Era in the United States was a period of reform which lasted from the 1890s to the 1920s.Responding to the changes brought about by industrialization,the Progressives advocated a wide range of economic, political, social, and moral reforms....
to Mobile and saw Mobile's economic structure evolve along with a significant increase in population. The population increased from around 40,000 in 1900 to 60,000 by 1920. During this time the city received $3 million in federal grants for harbor improvements to deepen the shipping channels in the harbor. During and after
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, manufacturing became increasingly vital to Mobile's economic health, with shipbuilding and steel production being two of the most important. During this time, social justice and race relations in Mobile worsened, however. In 1902 the city government passed Mobile's first
segregationRacial segregation is the separation of different racial groups in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a washroom, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home. Segregation may be mandated by law or exist through social...
ordinance, one that segregated the city streetcars. It legislated what had been informal practice, enforced by convention. Mobile's African-American population responded to this with a two-month boycott, but it did not change the law. After this, Mobile's
de factoDe facto is a Latin expression that means "by [the] fact". In law, it is meant to mean "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but without being officially established"...
segregation was increasingly replaced with legislated segregation as whites imposed
Jim Crow lawsThe Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
to maintain dominance.
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
led to a massive military effort causing a considerable increase in Mobile's population, largely due to the massive influx of workers coming to Mobile to work in the shipyards and at the
Brookley Army Air FieldThe Brookley Complex , also known as the Mobile Downtown Airport and as Brookley Field, is an industrial complex and airport located south of the central business district of Mobile, a city in Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The complex lies along the western shore of Mobile Bay. It is...
. Between 1940 and 1943, more than 89,000 people moved into Mobile to work for war effort industries. Mobile was one of eighteen U.S. cities producing Liberty ships. Its
Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding CompanyThe Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company located in Mobile, Alabama, was one of the largest marine production facilities in the United States of America during the 20th century...
supported the war effort by producing ships faster than the Axis powers could sink them. Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation, a
subsidiaryA subsidiary, in business matters, is an entity that is controlled by a separate entity. The controlled entity is called a company, corporation, or limited liability company and in some cases can be a government or state-owned enterprise, and the controlling entity is called its parent...
of
Waterman Steamship CorporationWaterman Steamship Corporation is an American deep sea ocean carrier, specializing in liner services and time charter contracts. Waterman was founded in 1919 in Mobile, Alabama by John Barnett Waterman, T.M. Stevens, W.D. Bellingrath and C.W. Hempstead following their departure from the British...
, focused on building freighters,
Fletcher class destroyerThe Fletcher-class were a class of destroyers built by the United States during World War II. Some went on to serve during the Korean War and into the Vietnam War.The United States Navy commissioned 175 Fletcher-class destroyers between 1942 and 1944...
s, and
minesweepersA minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations...
.
The years after World War II brought about changes in Mobile's social structure and economy. Instead of shipbuilding being a primary economic force, the paper and chemical industries began to expand, and most of the old military bases were converted to civilian uses.
After World War II and their sacrifices in service, African Americans stepped up their efforts to achieve equal rights and social justice. Some residents of Mobile had considered the city to be tolerant and racially accommodating compared to other cities in
the SouthThe South may refer to:Titled expressive works:*The South or El Sur, a 1983 drama film by Victor Erice*The South , a 1990 novel by Colm Tóibín*"The South" , a 1953 short story by Jorge Luis Borges...
, especially as the police force and one local college became integrated in the 1950s. Buses and lunch counters were voluntarily desegregated by the early 1960s. Mobile's African-American citizens were not as content with the
status quoStatus quo, commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" literally "the state in which", is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...
as such residents believed. In 1963 three African-American students brought a case against the Mobile County School Board for being denied admission to
Murphy High SchoolMurphy High School, located in Mobile, Alabama, is a public high school operated by the Mobile County Public School System that educates grades 9-12.-History:...
. The court ordered that the three students be admitted to Murphy for the 1964 school year, leading to the desegregation of Mobile County's school system. The Civil Rights Movement led to the end of legal racial segregation with passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed racial segregation in schools, public places, and employment...
.
In the late 1960s, Mobile's economy was dealt a blow with the closing of
Brookley Air Force BaseThe Brookley Complex , also known as the Mobile Downtown Airport and as Brookley Field, is an industrial complex and airport located south of the central business district of Mobile, a city in Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The complex lies along the western shore of Mobile Bay. It is...
. This and other factors ushered in a period of economic depression that lasted through the 1970s. Beginning in the late 1980s, the new mayor,
Mike DowMichael Craig Dow is an American politician who was the four-term mayor of Mobile, Alabama , and is widely credited in the area, along with Arthur Outlaw, whose 15 year plan he followed, of spurring the redevelopment of downtown Mobile...
, and the city council began an effort termed the "String of Pearls Initiative" to make Mobile into a competitive city. The city initiated construction of numerous new facilities and projects, and the restoration of hundreds of historic downtown buildings and homes. Violent crime was reduced, and city and county leaders attracted new business ventures to the area. The effort continues into the present under the current mayor,
Sam Jones-Music & Entertainment:* Samuel Jones , U.S. bassist, cellist, and composer* Samuel Jones , U.S. composer, conductor* Sam Jones , character in Doctor Who spin-off novels* Sam J...
, and city council. Shipbuilding began to make a major comeback in Mobile in 1999 with the founding of
Austal USAAustal USA is the American branch of operations for Australia-based shipbuilder Austal. The facility is based in Mobile, Alabama and employs more than 1000 workers with expansions currently underway.-Projects:...
.
Geography
Mobile is located at 30°40'46" North, 88°6'12" West (30.679523, -88.103280), in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Alabama. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 412.9 km² (159.4 mi²). 305.4 km² (117.9 mi²) of it is land and 107.6 km² (41.5 mi²) of it is water. The elevation in Mobile ranges from on Water Street in downtown to at the Mobile Regional Airport.
Climate
Mobile's geographical location on the
Gulf of MexicoThe Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United...
provides a mild subtropical
climateClimate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorological elements in a given region over long periods of time...
, with an average annual temperature of . Normal average January through December temperatures range from minimum and maximum. Mobile has hot, humid summers and mild, rainy winters. A 2007 study by
WeatherBillWeatherBill is an electronic commerce website launched in January 2007 that allows companies to buy contracts based on future weather events as a hedge against weather-based business risks.-Investors and underwriters:...
, Inc. determined that Mobile is the wettest city in the contiguous 48 states, with of average annual rainfall. Mobile averages 59 rainy days per year. Snow is rare in Mobile, with the last snowfall being on 18 December 1996.
Mobile is occasionally affected by major tropical storms and hurricanes. Mobile suffered a major natural disaster on the night of 12 September 1979 when
Category 3The Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale is a classification used for most Western Hemisphere tropical cyclones that exceed the intensities of tropical depressions and tropical storms. The scale divides hurricanes into five categories distinguished by the intensities of their sustained winds...
Hurricane FredericHurricane Frederic was the sixth tropical cyclone, third hurricane and second major hurricane of the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season. Frederic was the costliest hurricane to ever hit the U.S. Gulf Coast at that particular time...
passed over the heart of the city. The storm caused tremendous damage to Mobile and the surrounding area. Mobile had moderate damage from
Hurricane OpalHurricane Opal was a major hurricane that formed in the Gulf of Mexico in September 1995.Opal was the 9th hurricane and the strongest of the abnormally active 1995 Atlantic hurricane season...
on 4 October 1995 and
Hurricane IvanHurricane Ivan was the strongest hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. It was often dubbed in the media as Ivan the Terrible. It was the tenth most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. The cyclone formed as a Cape Verde-type hurricane in early September and became the ninth named...
on 16 September 2004. Mobile also suffered US$ millions in damage from
Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest hurricane, as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States...
on 29 August 2005. A storm surge of , topped by higher waves, damaged eastern sections of Mobile, with extensive flooding in downtown,
Battleship ParkwayBattleship Parkway, commonly referred to locally and in the media as the "Causeway", is an elevated long causeway that carries US 90 and US 98 eastbound across Mobile Bay from the Bankhead Tunnel in Mobile, Alabama to Spanish Fort, Alabama. The roadway itself is a four-lane divided highway for...
, and the elevated
Jubilee ParkwayThe Jubilee Parkway is a pair of parallel concrete viaduct bridges that carry Interstate 10 across Mobile Bay from the George Wallace Tunnel in Mobile, Alabama eastbound to Spanish Fort/Daphne, Alabama. The bridges are similar in design to the I-10 Twin Span Bridge near New Orleans, Louisiana. Each...
, destroying the electronic speed-limit fog-warning signals.
Culture
Mobile is home to an array of cultural influences with its mixed French, Spanish, Creole and Catholic heritage, in addition to British and African, distinguishing it from all other cities in the state of Alabama. The annual
CarnivalCarnival is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during January and February...
celebration is perhaps the best illustration of this. Mobile has the oldest
Mardi GrasThe terms "Mardi Gras" and "Mardi Gras season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, ending on the day before Ash Wednesday...
celebration, dating to the early 1700s of
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
colonial times. Carnival in Mobile has evolved over the course of 300 years from a sedate French Catholic tradition into a mainstream multi-week celebration across the spectrum of cultures.
Carnival and Mardi Gras
Mobile's Carnival celebrations start as early as November with several
ballsA ball is a formal dance. The word 'ball' is derived from the Latin word "ballare", meaning 'to dance'; the term also derived into "bailar", which is the Spanish and Portuguese word for dance . In Catalan it is the same word, 'ball', for the dance event.Attendees wear evening attire, which is...
, with the
paradeA parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind...
s usually beginning after January 5. Carnival celebrations end promptly at the stroke of midnight on
Mardi GrasThe terms "Mardi Gras" and "Mardi Gras season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, ending on the day before Ash Wednesday...
, signaling the beginning of
Ash WednesdayIn the Western Christian calendar, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and occurs forty-six days before Easter. It is a moveable feast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter...
and the first day of
LentLent, in Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter.The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus,...
. In Mobile, locals use the term Mardi Gras as a shorthand to refer to the entire Carnival season, although it literally means Fat Tuesday in French, the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. During this time Mobile's
mystic societiesA mystic society is a Carnival social organization, similar to a krewe in New Orleans, that presents parades and/or balls for the enjoyment of its members, guests, and the public. The term came to be used in this context in Mobile, Alabama. Mystic society membership is secret. The societies have...
build colorful Carnival floats and parade throughout downtown with masked society members tossing small gifts, known as
throws, to parade spectators. Mobile's mystic societies, essentially private clubs, also give formal
masquerade ballA masquerade ball is an event which the participants attend in costume wearing a mask....
s, which are almost always invitation only and are oriented to adults.
Mobile first celebrated Carnival in 1703 when French settlers began the festivities at the
Old Mobile SiteThe Old Mobile Site was the location of the French settlement La Mobile and the associated Fort Louis de La Louisiane from 1702 until 1712. The site is located approximately fourteen miles northwest of Bay Minette, Alabama on the Mobile River...
. Mobile's first Carnival society began in 1711 with the
Boeuf Gras Society (Fatted Ox Society). In 1830 Mobile's Cowbellion de Rakin Society was the first formally organized and masked mystic society in the United States to celebrate with a parade. The Cowbellions got their start when Michael Krafft, a cotton factor from
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
, began a parade with rakes, hoes, and cowbells. The
Cowbellians introduced horse-drawn floats to the parades in 1840 with a parade entitled, “Heathen Gods and Goddesses". The
Striker's Independent SocietyThe Strikers Independent Society is a mystic society founded in 1843in Mobile, Alabama and participated in Carnival during New Year's Eve and New Year's Day celebrations....
was formed in 1843 and is the oldest surviving mystic society in the United States.
Carnival celebrations in Mobile were cancelled during the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
. In 1866
Joe CainJoseph Stillwell Cain, Jr. is largely credited with the birth or rebirth of Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama....
revived Mardi Gras parades when he paraded through the city streets on Fat Tuesday while costumed as a fictional
ChickasawThe Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States . They are of the Muskogean linguistic group....
chief named
Slacabamorinico. He celebrated the day in front of the occupying
Union ArmyThe Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
troops. The year 2002 saw Mobile's Tricentennial celebrated with parades that represented all of Mobile's mystic societies, both black and white.
In 2009, for the first time in the city's history, Mardi Gras reached the 1,000,000-attendee milestone during the 5-day citywide celebration .
Archives and libraries
The
National African American Archives and MuseumThe National African American Archives and Museum, formerly the Davis Avenue Branch of the Mobile Public Library, is an archive and history museum located in Mobile, Alabama...
features the history of "Colored Carnival", African-American participation in Mobile's
Mardi Gras; authentic artifacts from the era of slavery, and portraits and biographies of famous African Americans. The University of South Alabama Archives houses primary source material relating to the history of Mobile and southern Alabama, as well as the university's history. The archives are located on the ground floor of the USA Spring Hill Campus and are open to the general public. The Mobile Municipal Archives contains the extant records of the City of Mobile, dating from the city's creation as a municipality by the Mississippi Territory in 1814. The majority of the original records of Mobile's colonial history (1702-1813) are housed in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
,
SevilleSeville is the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level. The inhabitants of the city are known as Sevillanos or...
, and
MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. It is the third-most populous municipality in the European Union after Greater London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third-most populous city by urban area in the European Union after Paris and London.The city is located on the river...
. The Mobile Genealogical Society Library and Media Center is located at the Holy Family Catholic Church and School complex. It features handwritten manuscripts and published materials for use in genealogical research. The
Mobile Public LibraryThe Mobile Public Library is public library system primarily serving Mobile County, Alabama. The system is a department of the city of Mobile and receives funding from Mobile County and the city of Saraland.-History:...
system serves Mobile and consists of eight branches across Mobile County, featuring its own large local history and genealogy division housed in a facility next to the newly restored and enlarged Ben May Main Library on Government Street. The Saint Ignatius Archives, Museum and Theological Research Library contains primary sources, artifacts, documents, photographs and publications that pertain to the history of Saint Ignatius Church and School, the Catholic history of the city, and the history of the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
.
Entertainment and arts
The
Mobile Museum of ArtThe Mobile Museum of Art is an art museum located in Mobile, Alabama. It features extensive art collections from the Southern United States, the Americas, Europe, and non-western art...
features European, Non-Western, American, and Decorative Arts collections. The Saenger Theatre of Mobile was opened in 1927 and is a modern dynamic performing arts center. It is home to the
Mobile SymphonyThe Mobile Symphony Orchestra is the symphonic orchestra of Mobile, Alabama. Scott Speck is its current music director. They perform at the Mobile Saenger Theatre and the Laidlaw PAC Recital Hall at the University of South Alabama.-See also:...
, conducted by Maestro Scott Speck, and Space 301, a contemporary art gallery. It also serves as a small concert venue for the city. The
Mobile Civic CenterMobile Civic Center is a multi-use event center located in Mobile, Alabama. It comprises three venues:- The Theater :The 1,940 seat theater is used for concerts, Broadway shows, and other theatrical events. The Theater is connected to the Arena by a glass promenade. The theater is known for its...
contains three facilities under one roof. The building has an arena, a theater and an exposition hall. It is the primary concert venue for the city and hosts a wide variety of events. It is home to the
Mobile OperaMobile Opera is an opera company located in Mobile, Alabama and is one of the oldest performing arts organizations in the United States, as well as the oldest in Mobile itself, having been founded as the "Mobile Opera Guild" in 1945. Under its founder, Madame Rose Palmai-Tenser, a European concert...
and the Mobile Ballet. The 60-year old
Mobile OperaMobile Opera is an opera company located in Mobile, Alabama and is one of the oldest performing arts organizations in the United States, as well as the oldest in Mobile itself, having been founded as the "Mobile Opera Guild" in 1945. Under its founder, Madame Rose Palmai-Tenser, a European concert...
averages about 1,200 attendees per performance. A wide variety of events are held at Mobile's Arthur C. Outlaw Convention Center. It contains a exhibit hall, a grand ballroom, and sixteen meeting rooms. Additionally, the city sponsors
BayFestBayFest is an annual three day music festival in the heart of downtown Mobile, Alabama.-History:Growing from an initial attendance of 50,000 people in 1995, BayFest has become known for its array of musical talent suited to a wide variety of tastes...
, an annual three-day music festival with over 125 live musical acts on nine stages.
Museums
Mobile is home to a variety of museums.
Battleship Memorial ParkBattleship Memorial Park is a military history park and museum located on the western shore of Mobile Bay in Mobile, Alabama. It has a collection of notable aircraft and museum ships including the South Dakota-class battleship USS Alabama and Gato-class submarine USS Drum...
is a military park on the shore of Mobile Bay and features the
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
era
battleshipA battleship is a large, heavily armored warship with a main battery consisting of the largest caliber of guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers or destroyers. There are currently no battleships in service....
USS Alabama (BB-60)USS Alabama , a South Dakota-class battleship, was the sixth completed ship named Alabama of the United States Navy, however she was only the third commissioned ship with that name. Alabama was commissioned in 1942 and served in World War II in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. She was...
, the World War II era
submarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has only limited underwater capability...
USS Drum (SS-228)USS Drum is a Gato-class submarine of the United States Navy, the first Navy ship named after the drum, any of various types of fish capable of making a drumming sound. Drum is presently on display as a museum ship in Mobile, Alabama....
,
Korean WarThe Korean War is a war that started between North Korea and South Korea on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953...
and
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
Memorials, and a variety of historical military equipment. The Museum of Mobile chronicles 300 years of Mobile history and material culture and is housed in the historic
Old City Hall (1857)Old City Hall, also known as the Southern Market, is a historic complex of adjoining buildings in Mobile, Alabama, that currently houses the Museum of Mobile. The complex was built from 1855 to 1857 to serve as a city hall and as a marketplace...
. The
Oakleigh Historic ComplexOakleigh is a historic house museum in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It is the centerpiece of the Oakleigh Historic Complex, a grouping of buildings that contain a working-class raised cottage, a former slave quarters, and a modern archives building. The name for the estate comes from a...
features three house museums that interpret the lives of people from three levels of Mobile society in the mid-19th century. The
Mobile Carnival MuseumThe Mobile Carnival Museum is a history museum that chronicles over 300 years of Carnival and Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama. The museum is housed in the historic Bernstein-Bush mansion on Government Street in downtown Mobile.-Features:...
, which houses the city's
Mardi GrasMardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama is the oldest annual Carnival celebration in the United States, having begun in 1703,15 years before New Orleans was founded in 1718....
history and memorabilia, documents the variety of floats, costumes, and displays seen during the history of the festival season. The
Bragg-Mitchell MansionThe Bragg-Mitchell Mansion, also known as the Bragg-Mitchell House, is a historic house museum in Mobile, Alabama. It was built in 1855 by Judge John Bragg and is the one of the most photographed buildings in the city as well as one of the more popular tourist attractions. The house has been...
(1855), Richards
DARThe Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization of women dedicated to promoting historic preservation, education, and patriotism...
House (1860), and the
Condé-Charlotte HouseThe Conde-Charlotte House, also known as the Kirkbride House, is a historic house museum in Mobile, Alabama, United States. The earliest section of the building, the rear kitchen wing, was built in 1822. The main section of the house was added a few decades later and is two and a half floors...
(1822) are historic antebellum house museums. Fort Morgan, Fort Gaines, and
Historic Blakeley State ParkBlakeley is a ghost town in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. It was the location of a major fort during the Civil War. The town is now in an Alabama historic state park known as Historic Blakeley State Park near Spanish Fort...
figure into local
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
history. The Mobile Medical Museum is housed in the historic Vincent-Doan House (1827) and features artifacts and resources that chronicle the history of medicine in Mobile. The Phoenix Fire Museum is located in the restored Phoenix Volunteer Fire Company Number 6 building and features the history of fire companies in Mobile from their organization in 1838. The Mobile Police Department Museum features exhibits that chronicle the history of law enforcement in Mobile. The
Gulf Coast ExploreumThe Gulf Coast Exploreum is a non-profit science center that features three permanent exhibitions, a wide variety of traveling exhibitions, a virtual theater, and an IMAX theater in downtown Mobile, Alabama...
is a non-profit science center located in downtown. It features permanent and traveling exhibits, an
IMAXIMAX is a motion picture film format and projection standard created by Canada's IMAX Corporation. The traditional version of IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
dome theater, a digital 3D virtual theater, and a hands-on chemistry laboratory. The
Dauphin Island Sea LabThe Dauphin Island Sea Lab is Alabama's primary marine education and research center. Located on the eastern tip of Dauphin Island, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico, the DISL is the home site of the Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium and founded by an act of the Alabama State...
is located south of the city near the mouth of
Mobile BayMobile Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the...
. It houses the Estuarium, an aquarium which illustrates the four habitats of the
Mobile BayMobile Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the...
ecosystemAn ecosystem is a system of interdependent organisms which share the same habitat, in an area functioning together with all of the physical factors of the environment. Ecosystems can be permanent or temporary. Ecosystems usually form a number of food webs...
: the
river deltaThe Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately 45-mile-long river drains an area of 44,000 sq mi of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee...
,
bayMobile Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the...
, barrier islands and
Gulf of MexicoThe Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United...
.
Parks and other attractions
The
Mobile Botanical GardensThe Mobile Botanical Gardens were founded in 1974, and are located on Museum Drive in the Spring Hill community in Mobile, Alabama. The gardens are situated on and are a blend of cultivated areas and natural habitats, including the Rhododendron Garden, Camellia Wintergarden, Fern Glade, Fragrance...
feature a variety of flora spread over . It contains the Millie McConnell
RhododendronRhododendron is a genus of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. It is a large genus with over 1000 species and most have showy flower displays. It includes the plants known to gardeners as azaleas...
Garden with 1,000 evergreen and native azaleas and the
Longleaf PineThe Longleaf Pine is a pine native to the southeast United States, found along the coastal plain from eastern Texas to southeast Virginia extending into northern and central Florida....
Habitat. The
Bellingrath Gardens and HomeThe Bellingrath Gardens and Home consists of gardens and a mansion located on the Fowl River in Theodore, a suburb of Mobile, Alabama. They contain 65 acres and are open daily for a fee...
are located on
Fowl RiverFowl River is a river in Mobile County, Alabama. It originates at near Theodore and then splits into the East Fowl River and the West Fowl River. The East Fowl River discharges into Mobile Bay at near Belle Fontaine. The West Fowl River discharges into the Mississippi Sound at near Coden...
and contain of landscaped gardens and a mansion dating to the 1930s. The 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center is a new facility for exploring the Mobile, Spanish, Tensaw, Appalachee, and Blakeley River delta." 5 Rivers" as it is affectionately known to locals, was established by the State of AL to be a "Gateway to the Mobile Delta" and contains within its grounds a Theatrette; Exhibit Hall; Meeting, Wedding and Party facilities; a myriad of boat and adventure tours operated by Five Rivers Delta Safaris, walking trails and a Canoe and Kayak Landing.
Mobile has more than 45 public parks with some that are of special interest.
Bienville SquareBienville Square is a historic city park in the center of downtown Mobile, Alabama. Bienville Square was named for Mobile’s founder, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville...
is a historic park dating to 1850 in the Lower Dauphin Street Historic District and is named for Mobile’s founder, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. This park was once a principal gathering place for the citizens of the city and remains popular today.
Cathedral SquareCathedral Square is a municipal park in Mobile, Alabama. It is bordered by the streets of North Claiborne, Dauphin, North Jackson, and Conti.-History:...
is a performing arts park in the Lower Dauphin Street Historic District overlooked by the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.
Fort CondéFort Conde, located in Mobile, Alabama, at 150 South Royal Street, is a reconstruction, at 4/5 scale, as a third of the original 1720s French Fort Condé at the site, also known as Fort Carlota and also Fort Charlotte .The current Fort Conde, spanning almost 1/3 of the original fort, was...
is a reconstruction of the original Fort Condé, built on the old fort's footprint. It is the city’s official welcome center and living history museum. Spanish Plaza is a downtown park that honors the Spanish occupation of the city between 1780 and 1813. It features the "Arches of Friendship", a fountain presented to Mobile by the city of
MálagaMálaga is a city in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. It is the second most populous city of Andalusia, the sixth largest in Spain and 43rd-most populous municipality in the European Union, with a population of 566,447 in 2008...
, Spain.
Langan ParkLangan Park, also known as Municipal Park, is a municipal park in the Spring Hill neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama. The park opened in 1957 and was named for Joseph Langan, former state senator and city commissioner. It features lakes, natural spaces, tennis courts, children’s playgrounds and...
is a municipal park that features lakes and natural spaces. It is home to the Mobile Museum of Art, Azalea City Golf Course, Mobile Botanical Gardens and Playhouse in the Park.
Historic architecture
Mobile has antebellum architectural examples of Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, and
Creole cottageCreole cottage is a term loosely used to refer to a type of vernacular architecture indigenous to the Gulf Coast of the United States. Within this building type comes a series of variations. An expanded version of this type of building is commonly referred to as Gulf Coast cottage, with the...
. Later architectural styles found in the city include the various
VictorianThe term Victorian architecture can refer to one of a number of architectural styles predominantly employed during the Victorian era. As with the latter, the period of building that it covers may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria after whom it is...
types,
shotgunThe shotgun house is a narrow rectangular domestic residence, usually no more than 12 feet wide, with doors at each end. It was the most popular style of house in the Southern United States from the end of the American Civil War , through to the 1920s. Alternate names include shotgun shack,...
types, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival,
Spanish Colonial RevivalThe Spanish Colonial Revival was a United States architectural movement that came about in the early 20th century, starting in California and Florida as a regional expression related to both history and environment. The Spanish Colonial Revival Style was also influenced by the opening of the...
,
Beaux-ArtsBeaux-Arts architecture denotes the academic neoclassical architectural style that was taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The style "Beaux Arts" is above all the cumulative product of two and a half centuries of instruction under the authority, first of the Académie royale...
and many others. The city currently has nine major historic districts consisting of
Old Dauphin WayThe Old Dauphin Way Historic District is a historic district in the city of Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was named for Dauphin Way, now known as Dauphin Street, which bisects the center of the district from east to west...
,
Oakleigh GardenThe Oakleigh Garden Historic District is a historic district in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on 13 April 1972. It is centered on Washington Square and was originally bounded by Government, Marine, Texas, and Ann Streets...
,
Lower Dauphin StreetThe Lower Dauphin Street Historic District is a historic district in the city of Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on 9 February 1979. The district encompasses all of Dauphin Street from Water Street to Jefferson Street. It covers and...
,
LeinkaufThe Leinkauf Historic District is a historic district in the city of Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on 24 June 1987. It is roughly bounded by Government, Eslava, Lamar, and Monterey Streets. The district covers and contains 303...
,
De Tonti SquareThe De Tonti Square Historic District is a historic district in the city of Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on 7 February 1972. It is a nine-block area, roughly bounded by Adams, St. Anthony, Claiborne, and Conception Streets. The...
,
Church Street EastThe Church Street East Historic District is a historic district in the city of Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on 16 December 1971. Since a boundary increase on 13 January 1984, it is roughly bounded by Broad, Conti, Water, Claiborne, and...
,
Ashland PlaceThe Ashland Place Historic District is a historic district in the city of Mobile, Alabama, United States. The neighborhood gained its name from a Greek Revival antebellum house called Ashland that once stood on Lanier Avenue. Ashland was famous as the home of Augusta Evans Wilson. The house...
,
CampgroundThe Campground Historic District is a historic district in the city of Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on 7 July 2005. It is roughly bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Rylands Street, St. Stephens Road, and Ann Street The district...
, and
MidtownThe Midtown Historic District is a historic district in the city of Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on 29 November 2001. It is roughly bounded by Taylor Avenue, Government Street, Houston Street, Kenneth Street, Springhill Avenue, and...
.
Mobile has a number of historic structures spread throughout the city. Some of Mobile's historic churches include
Christ Church CathedralChrist Church Cathedral, also known simply as Christ Church, is a historic Episcopal cathedral located in Mobile, Alabama, USA.-History:...
, the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception,
Emanuel AME ChurchEmanuel AME Church is a historic African American church in Mobile, Alabama. Emanuel AME began when church trustees purchased a vacant lot for their church in 1869, as African Americans in Mobile established their own congregations following the American Civil War. The trustees completed a frame...
,
Government Street Presbyterian ChurchGovernment Street Presbyterian Church is one of the oldest and least-altered Greek Revival church buildings in the United States. The architectural design is by James Gallier, James Dakin, and Charles Dakin. The trio also designed Barton Academy, four blocks down Government Street to the west...
,
St. Louis Street Missionary Baptist ChurchSt. Louis Street Missionary Baptist Church is a historic African American church in Mobile, Alabama. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 08, 1976, due to its architectural and historic significance.-History:St...
,
State Street AME Zion ChurchState Street AME Zion Church is a historic African American church in Mobile, Alabama. It is the oldest Methodist church building in Alabama and one of two African American Methodist churches founded in Mobile prior to the American Civil War.-History:...
,
Stone Street Baptist ChurchStone Street Baptist Church is a historic African American Baptist church in Mobile, Alabama. The congretion was established well before the American Civil War, with Stone Street Baptist recognized today as one of Alabama's most influential...
, and
Trinity Episcopal ChurchTrinity Episcopal Church is a historic church in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was the first large Gothic Revival church built in Alabama. The design was by architects Frank Wills and Henry Dudley.-History:...
. Two historic Roman Catholic convents survive, the
Convent and Academy of the VisitationThe Convent and Academy of the Visitation, properly known today as the Visitation Monastery, is a historic complex of Roman Catholic religious buildings and a small cemetery in Mobile, Alabama, United States. The buildings and grounds were documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1937...
and the
Convent of MercyThe Convent of Mercy, known today as the St. Francis Place Condominiums, is a small complex of historic Roman Catholic religious buildings in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It consists of two buildings, the former convent and the former school...
.
Barton AcademyBarton Academy is a historic Greek Revival school building located in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was under construction from 1835 to 1836 and was designed by architects James Gallier, James H. Dakin and Charles B. Dakin of New Orleans. Gallier and the Dakin brothers also designed the...
is a historic Greek Revival school building and local landmark on Government Street. The
Bishop Portier HouseThe Bishop Portier House is a historic residence in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It sits diagonally across from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and faces Cathedral Square. It is owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile...
and the
Carlen HouseThe Carlen House, also known as the Carlen House Museum, is a historic house museum in Mobile, Alabama, United States. The house was built in the Gulf Coast cottage style in 1843. It was the residence of Michael and Mary Carlen, Irish immigrants, and their twelve children. Exhibits on display...
are two of the many surviving examples of
Creole cottageCreole cottage is a term loosely used to refer to a type of vernacular architecture indigenous to the Gulf Coast of the United States. Within this building type comes a series of variations. An expanded version of this type of building is commonly referred to as Gulf Coast cottage, with the...
s in the city. The
Mobile City HospitalMobile City Hospital, also known as Old Mobile General Hospital, is a historic Greek Revival hospital building in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was built in 1830 by Thomas S. James and served as a hospital for the city of Mobile from 1831 until 1966. It was administered for the city by the...
and the
United States Marine HospitalThe United States Marine Hospital is a historic Greek Revival hospital building in Mobile, Alabama, United States. Construction began in 1838 and was completed in 1842. It was designed by architect Frederick Bunnell and was operated by the Marine Hospital Service from its opening until it closed,...
are both restored
Greek RevivalThe Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
hospital buildings that predate the Civil War. The
Washington Firehouse No. 5Washington Firehouse No. 5 is a historic fire station in Mobile, Alabama, United States. The two-story brick Greek Revival building was built in 1851 at a cost of $5,500. It was constructed to house the privately run Washington Fire Company...
is a Greek Revival
fire stationA fire station is a structure or other area set aside for storage of firefighting apparatus , personal protective equipment, fire hose, fire extinguishers, and other fire extinguishing equipment...
, built in 1851. The
Hunter HouseThe Hunter House is a historic African American residence in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was the residence of Bettie Hunter, a former slave who grew wealthy from a successful hack and carriage business she operated in Mobile with her brother, Henry. The fall of New Orleans during the...
is an example of the
ItalianateThe Italianate style of architecture was a distinct nineteenth-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of sixteenth-century Italian architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
style and was built by a successful 19th century African American businesswoman. The
Shepard HouseMonterey Place, best known as the Shepard House, is a historic residence in Mobile, Alabama, United States. The house was designed by architect George Franklin Barber in 1897 for Charles Martin Shepard, the general passenger agent for the Mobile and Ohio Railroad in Mobile...
is a good example of the Queen Anne style. The
Scottish Rite TempleThe Scottish Rite Temple is a historic building in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was completed in 1921 to serve as the meeting place for the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. The building was designed by George Bigelow Rogers, a local Mobile architect who also designed the Bellingrath Home and the...
is the only surviving example of
Egyptian Revival architectureEgyptian Revival is an architectural style that makes use of the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is generally dated to the enthusiasm for ancient Egypt generated by Napoleon's conquest of Egypt and, in Britain, to Admiral Nelson's defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of the Nile in 1798....
in the city. The
Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio Passenger TerminalThe Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio Passenger Terminal is a historic train station in Mobile, Alabama, United States. Architect P. Thorton Mayre designed the Mission Revival style terminal for the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. It was completed in 1907 at a total cost of $575,000...
is an example of the
Mission RevivalThe Mission Revival Style was an architectural movement that began in the late 19th century and drew inspiration from the early Spanish missions in California...
style.
The city has several historic cemeteries that were established after the colonial era. They replaced Mobile's colonial Campo Santo, of which no traces remain. The
Church Street GraveyardChurch Street Graveyard is a historic city cemetery located in Mobile, Alabama. The cemetery is situated on and is surrounded by a brick wall that dates to 1830...
contains above-ground tombs and monuments spread over and was founded in 1819, during the height of the yellow fever epidemics. The nearby
Magnolia CemeteryMagnolia Cemetery is a city cemetery located in Mobile, Alabama, United States. The cemetery is situated on 120 acres and was established in 1836. From that time onward it served as Mobile's primary burial site during the 19th century. It is the final resting place for many of...
was established in 1836 and was Mobile's primary burial site during the 19th century with approximately 80,000 burials. It features tombs and many intricately carved monuments and statues. The Catholic Cemetery was established in 1848 by the Archdiocese of Mobile and covers more than . It contains plots for the
Brothers of the Sacred HeartThe Brothers of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic congregation founded in 1821 by Père André Coindre, of the Diocese of Lyon, France. Its constitutions were modeled upon the constitutions of St. Ignatius based upon the Rule of Saint Augustine. Its members bind themselves for life by the simple...
,
Little Sisters of the PoorThe Little Sisters of the Poor is a Roman Catholic religious order for women. It was founded in the 19th century by Saint Jeanne Jugan near Rennes, France. Jugan felt the need to care for the many impoverished elderly who lined the streets of French towns and cities.This led her to welcome an...
,
Sisters of CharityMany religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity as part of their name. The rule of Saint Vincent for the Daughters of Charity has been adopted and adapted by at least sixty founders of religious orders around the world in the subsequent centuries....
, and
Sisters of MercyThe Religious Order of the Sisters of Mercy is an order of Catholic women founded by Catherine McAuley in Dublin, Ireland in 1831. , the order has about 10,000 members worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations....
, in addition to many other historically significant burials. Mobile's
JewishCongregation Sha'arai Shomayim is the oldest Jewish congregation in the state of Alabama and one of the oldest Reform Jewish congregations in the United States. Located in Mobile, the congregation was formally organized in 1844...
community dates back to the 1820s and the city has two historic Jewish cemeteries,
Ahavas Chesed CemeteryAhavas Chesed Cemetery, is a historic Jewish cemetery located in Mobile, Alabama. It was established by the Ahavas Chesed congregation in 1898...
and
Sha'arai Shomayim CemeterySha'arai Shomayim Cemetery is a historic Jewish cemetery located in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was established by Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim in 1876 after their previous cemetery, Jewish Rest in the adjacent Magnolia Cemetery, was filled to capacity. The cemetery is situated on and is...
.
Demographics
The 2000 census determined that there were 198,915 people residing within the city limits. Mobile is the center of
AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
's second-largest metropolitan area, which consists of all of Mobile County.
Metropolitan MobileMetropolitan Mobile has a population of 406,309 within Mobile County in the southwestern tip of Alabama. The Mobile metropolitan area is the second-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Alabama. The Mobile–Daphne–Fairhope combined statistical area also includes the micro but...
(MSA) had a population of 399,843 as of 2000 census.
There were 73,057 households out of which 22,225 had children under the age of 18 living with them, 29,963 were
married couplesMarriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged by a variety of ways, depending on the culture or demographic...
living together, 15,360 had a female householder with no husband present, 3,488 had a male householder with no wife present, and 24,246 were non-families. 20,957 of all households were made up of individuals and 7,994 had someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The racial makeup of the city was 48.2% White, 47.9% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American, 1.8% Asian, 0.3% Pacific Islander, 0.5% from other races, 0.9% from two or more races, and 1.2% of the population were
LatinoThe demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American or Spanish-speaking descent."* "A Latin American."...
. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.23. Same-sex couple households comprised 0.9% of all households.
The population was spread out with 7.1% under the age of 5, 73.6% over 18, and 13.4% over 65. The median age was 35.6 years. The male population was 47.6% and the female population was 52.4%. The median income for a household in the city was $37,439, and the median income for a family was $45,217. The
per capita incomePer capita income means how much each individual receives, in monetary terms, of the yearly income generated in the country. This is what each citizen is to receive if the yearly national income is divided equally among everyone. Per capita income is usually reported in units of currency per year...
for the city was $21,612. 21.3% of the population and 17.6% of families were below the poverty line.
Government
Since 1985 the government of Mobile has consisted of a mayor and a seven member
city councilA city council is the legislative body that governs a city, municipality or local government area.-Australia:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council may vary slightly...
. The mayor is elected
at-largeAt-Large is a designation for representative members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent the whole membership of the body , rather than a subset of that membership....
and the council members are elected from each of the seven city council districts. A
supermajorityA supermajority or a qualified majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level or type of support which exceeds majority. In some jurisdictions, for example, parliamentary procedure requires that any action that may alter the rights of the minority has a supermajority requirement...
of five votes is required to conduct council business. This form of city government was chosen by the voters after the previous form of government, which used three city commissioners who were elected at-large, was ruled to substantially dilute the African American vote in the 1975 case
Bolden v. City of Mobile. Municipal elections are held every four years.
The current mayor,
Sam JonesSamuel Leon Jones is serving his first term as mayor of his hometown, Mobile, Alabama. He is Mobile's first African American mayor. He ran on a platform of safety, efficient government, historic preservation and bringing employers to the city....
, was elected in September 2005 and is the first African American mayor of Mobile. As of January 2006, the city council is composed of Fredrick Richardson, Jr. from District 1, William Carroll from District 2, Clinton Johnson from District 3, John C. Williams from District 4, Reggie Copeland, Sr. from District 5, Connie Hudson from District 6, and Gina Gregory from District 7. Reggie Copeland, Sr. is currently serving as Council President with Fredrick Richardson, Jr. serving as Council Vice President.
In January 2008, the city hired EDSA, an
urban designUrban design concerns the arrangement, appearance and functionality of towns and cities, and in particular the shaping and uses of urban public space. It has traditionally been regarded as a disciplinary subset of urban planning, landscape architecture, or architecture and in more recent times has...
firm, to create a new comprehensive master plan for the downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods. 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.
Public facilities
Public schools in Mobile are operated by the
Mobile County Public School SystemMobile County Public School System is a school district based in Mobile County, Alabama United States.MCPSS currently serves all areas of Mobile County- including the city of Mobile, except for the City of Saraland which voted to separate from Mobile County in June 2006. MCPSS serves urban,...
. The Mobile County Public School System has an enrollment of over 65,000 students, employs approximately 8,500 public school employees, and had a budget in 2005-2006 of $617,162,616. The State of Alabama operates the
Alabama School of Mathematics and ScienceThe Alabama School of Mathematics and Science is a public residential high school in midtown Mobile, Alabama. Along with the Alabama School of Fine Arts, they are considered the state's top magnet schools and draw students from around the state...
on Dauphin Street in Mobile, which boards advanced Alabama high school students. It was founded in 1989 to identify, challenge, and educate future leaders.
Private facilities
Mobile also has a large number of private schools, most of them being
parochialParochial school is one term used to describe a school that engages in religious education in addition to conventional education. In a narrow sense, parochial schools are Christian grammar schools or high schools run by parishes, but this distinction is not universally made.-United Kingdom:In...
in nature. Many of these belong to the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of MobileThe Archdiocese of Mobile is a Roman Catholic archdiocese comprising the lower 28 counties of Alabama. It is the metropolitan seat of the Province of Mobile, which includes the suffragan bishopric sees of the Diocese of Biloxi, the Diocese of Jackson, and the Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama...
. The private Catholic institutions include
McGill-Toolen Catholic High SchoolMcGill-Toolen Catholic High School, located in Mobile, Alabama, is a private co-educational high school operated by the educational system of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile.-History:...
(1896), Corpus Christi School, Little Flower Catholic School (1934), Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic School (1900), Saint Dominic School (1961), Saint Ignatius School (1952), Saint Mary Catholic School (1867), Saint Pius X Catholic School (1957), and Saint Vincent DePaul Catholic School (1976). The private Protestant institutions include
St. Paul's Episcopal SchoolSt. Paul's Episcopal School is an independent, religious, co-educational preparatory school in Mobile, Alabama.- History :St. Paul's Episcopal School was founded in 1947 with one section of twenty kindergarten students. William S. Mann, former Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, nurtured the...
(1947), Mobile Christian School (1961), St. Lukes Episcopal School (1961),
Faith AcademyFaith Academy is a private, Christian school in Mobile, Alabama. It describes itself as non-denominational and boasts 1900 students in K-12th grade. The school opened as a small offshoot of a church in 1969. In the 2005-2006 school year, Faith Academy received the Blue Ribbon award from the AISA...
(1967), and the Cottage Hill Baptist School System (1970), which operates Cottage Hill Baptist School and Cottage Hill Christian Academy.
UMS-Wright Preparatory School- History :On October 2, 1893, Julius Tutwiler Wright opened the University Military School – an all-boys school - on 559 Conti Street in Mobile, Alabama. The school’s 25 students were taught by 1 teacher and paid 8 dollars per month tuition. Six years later, the school’s enrollment quadrupled to...
(1893) is an independent, non-religious, co-educational
preparatory schoolA university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education. Some schools will also include a junior, or elementary, school...
.
Tertiary
Colleges and universities in Mobile include the University of South Alabama, Spring Hill College, the University of Mobile, Faulkner University, and Bishop State Community College.
The
University of South AlabamaThe University of South Alabama is a public, doctoral-level university in Mobile, Alabama, USA. It was created by the Alabama Legislature in 1963, and replaced existing extension programs operated in Mobile by the University of Alabama...
is a public,
doctoral-levelA doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries represents the highest level of formal study or research in a given field. In some countries it also refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to practice in a specific profession . The best-known example...
university established in 1963. The university is composed of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Mitchell College of Business, the College of Education, the College of Engineering, the College of Medicine, the Doctor of Pharmacy Program, the College of Nursing, the School of Computer and Information Sciences, and the School of Continuing Education and Special Programs.
Bishop State Community CollegeBishop State Community College, founded 1927, is a state-supported, two-year, public, historically black college located in Mobile, Alabama U.S.A.- History :...
, founded in 1927, is a
historically African AmericanHistorically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community...
community collegeIn the United States, community colleges are primarily two-year public institutions of higher education and were once commonly called junior colleges. After graduating from a community college, some students transfer to a four-year liberal arts college for two to three years to complete a...
. Bishop State has four campuses in Mobile and offers a wide array of associate degrees.
Faulkner UniversityFaulkner University is a private Christian university, located in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, and affiliated with the Church of Christ. The University was founded in 1942 as Montgomery Bible School. In 1953 the school's name was changed to Alabama Christian College . In 1965, the college was moved to...
is a four-year private
Church of ChristChurches of Christ are autonomous Christian congregations associated with one another through common beliefs and practices. They seek to base doctrine and practice on the Bible alone, and see themselves as restoring the New Testament church established by Christ.Historically, Churches of Christ in...
-affiliated university based in
Montgomery, AlabamaMontgomery is the capital, second most populous city, and the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the Southern U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. The city population was 201,568...
. The Mobile campus was established in 1975 and offers bachelor's degrees in Business Administration,
Management of Human Resources, and Criminal Justice. It also offers associate degrees in Business Administration, Business Information Systems, Computer & Information Science, Criminal Justice, Informatics, Legal Studies, Arts, and Science.
Spring Hill CollegeSpring Hill College is a private, Roman Catholic Jesuit liberal arts college in the United States. It was founded in 1830 on the Gulf Coast in Mobile, Alabama, by Most Rev. Michael Portier, Bishop of Mobile, Alabama...
, chartered in 1830, was the first Catholic college in the southeastern U.S. and is the third oldest
JesuitThe Society of Jesus is a Catholic religious order of clerks regular whose members are called Jesuits.Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church, with 18,815 members—13,305 priests, 2,295 scholastic students, 1,758 brothers and 827 novices—as of January 2008, although the...
college in the country. This four-year private college offers graduate programs in Business Administration, Education, Liberal Arts, Nursing (MSN), and Theological Studies. Undergraduate divisions and programs include the Division of Business, the Communications/Arts Division, International Studies, Interdivisional Studies, the Language and Literature Division, Nursing (BSN), Philosophy and Theology, Political Science, the Sciences Division, the Social Sciences Division, and the Teacher Education Division.
The
University of MobileThe University of Mobile is an American four-year, private, Baptist-affiliated university in Prichard, Alabama, an industrial suburb of Mobile. The master's-level university has an enrollment of 1,577.-History:...
is a four-year private Baptist-affiliated university that was founded in 1961. It consists of the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Business, School of Christian Studies, School of Education, the School of Leadership Development, and the School of Nursing.
Healthcare
Mobile serves the central Gulf Coast as a regional center for medicine. The city is served by over 850 physicians and 175 dentists. There are four major
medical centersA hospital is an institution for health care providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment, and often but not always providing for longer-term patient stays....
within the city limits: Mobile Infirmary Medical Center with 704 beds, Springhill Medical Center with 252 beds,
Providence HospitalProvidence Hospital is a 349-bed high-rise hospital in the U.S. city of Mobile, Alabama. The hospital tower was completed in 1987. The building sits at the center of a campus, it rises approximately and 11 stories...
with 349 beds, and the University of South Alabama Medical Center with 346 beds and a level I trauma center. Additionally, the University of South Alabama also operates USA Children's & Women's Hospital with 219 beds, dedicated exclusively to the care of children and women, and Mobile Infirmary Medical Center operates Infirmary West with 100 acute care beds. In 2008, the University of South Alabama opened the USA Mitchell Cancer Center Institute. The center is home to the first academic cancer research center in the Gulf Coast region. BayPointe Hospital and Children’s Residential Services is a 94-bed psychiatric hospital that houses a residential unit for children, an acute unit for children and adolescents, and an involuntary hospital unit for adults undergoing evaluation ordered by the Mobile Probate Court. The city has a broad array of outpatient surgical centers, emergency clinics, home health care services, assisted-living facilities and
skilled nursing facilitiesA nursing home, convalescent home, Skilled Nursing Unit , care home or rest home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living. Residents include the elderly and younger...
.
Economy
Aerospace, retail, services, construction, medicine, and manufacturing are Mobile's major industries. After experiencing economic decline for several decades, Mobile's economy began to rebound in the late 1980s. Between 1993 and 2003 13,983 new jobs were created as 87 new companies were founded and 399 existing companies were expanded. 1,700 new jobs were created from February 2003 to February 2004. Following the global economic downturn, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated Mobile's unemployment rate at 7.8% in January 2009.
Expansion
Mobile's
Alabama State DocksThe Port of Mobile, located in Mobile, Alabama, United States, is the only deep-water port in the state, and was the 10th largest in the nation in 2006. It is located along the Mobile River where it empties into Mobile Bay...
underwent the largest expansion in its history by expanding its container processing and storage facility and increasing container storage at the docks by over 1,000% at a cost of over $300 million, thus positioning Mobile for rapid container processing growth. As of 2006, the Port of Mobile was the 10th largest by tonnage in the United States.
In 2005
Austal USAAustal USA is the American branch of operations for Australia-based shipbuilder Austal. The facility is based in Mobile, Alabama and employs more than 1000 workers with expansions currently underway.-Projects:...
, based in Mobile, expanded their production facility for US defense and commercial aluminium shipbuilding. Austal announced in late December upon winning another multi billion dollar defense contract it will yet again expand its facilities in downtown. In 2007
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
steel manufacturer
ThyssenKruppThyssenKrupp AG is a large German industrial conglomerate, with more than 200,000 employees. The corporation consists of 670 companies worldwide. ThyssenKrupp is one of the world's largest steel producers. It operates worldwide in three business areas: steel, capital goods, and services...
announced plans for a $4.65 billion steel mill, which upon completion in late 2009, will become the largest steel plant in the world with over 1,200 acres under roof at 7.7 million square feet. The new plant is currently under construction in northern Mobile County. Company officials state that 2,700 permanent jobs will be added to the local economy.
Brookley Complex
The Brookley Complex, also known as the Mobile Downtown Airport, is an industrial complex and
airportAn airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
located south of the
central business districtA central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city...
of the city. It is currently the largest industrial and transportation complex in the region with over 100 companies, many of which are
aerospaceAerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
, and 4000 employees on . Brookley includes the largest private employer in Mobile County,
Mobile Aerospace EngineeringST Mobile Aerospace Engineering provides commercial aircraft maintenance to the North and South American aerospace markets. It is located within the Brookley Complex in Mobile, Alabama and is the largest employer in Mobile County, Alabama. The work force includes technical, engineering and...
, a
subsidiaryA subsidiary, in business matters, is an entity that is controlled by a separate entity. The controlled entity is called a company, corporation, or limited liability company and in some cases can be a government or state-owned enterprise, and the controlling entity is called its parent...
of
Singapore Technologies EngineeringST Engineering is an integrated engineering group providing solutions and services in the aerospace, electronics, land systems and marine sectors. Headquartered in Singapore, the Group reported revenues of $5.05b in FY2007. With a market capitalisation of about $10b, it ranks among the largest...
.
Air
Local airline passengers are served by the
Mobile Regional AirportMobile Regional Airport is a joint public and military use airport located 11 nautical miles west of the central business district of Mobile, a city in Mobile County, Alabama, United States. It is also near Pascagoula, Mississippi....
, with direct connections to five major hub airports:
CharlotteCharlotte Douglas International Airport is a joint civil-military public international airport located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Established in 1935 as Charlotte Municipal Airport, in 1954 the airport was renamed Douglas Municipal Airport after former Charlotte mayor Ben Elbert Douglas, Sr...
,
DallasDallas/Fort Worth International Airport is located between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, and is the busiest airport in the U.S. state of Texas....
,
AtlantaHartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport , known locally as Atlanta Airport, Hartsfield Airport, and Hartsfield–Jackson, is located seven miles south of the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States...
,
HoustonGeorge Bush Intercontinental Airport, is a Class B international airport in the city of Houston, Texas, United States serving the Greater Houston area. Located drive north of Downtown Houston between Interstate 45 and U.S...
, and
MemphisMemphis International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located three miles south of the central business district of Memphis, a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States...
. It is served by
American Eagle AirlinesAmerican Eagle Airlines is a brand name used by American Eagle Airlines, Inc. , based in Fort Worth, Texas, and Executive Airlines based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the operation of passenger air service as regional affiliates of American Airlines. All three airlines are wholly-owned subsidiaries...
,
Continental ExpressContinental Express is the operating name brand of a number of independently owned regional airlines providing regional jet feeder service in association with Continental Airlines. Currently, two carriers operate using the Continental Express brand name:...
,
Delta Air LinesDelta Air Lines, Inc. is a United States airline based and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Delta operates an extensive domestic and international network, spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Australia...
, Northwest Airlink and
US Airways ExpressUS Airways Express is an airline brand name, rather than a fully certificated airline, and as such, the US Airways Express name is used by several individually owned airlines or airline holding companies which provide regional airline and commuter service for US Airways.Operations are conducted...
. The
Mobile Downtown AirportThe Brookley Complex , also known as the Mobile Downtown Airport and as Brookley Field, is an industrial complex and airport located south of the central business district of Mobile, a city in Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The complex lies along the western shore of Mobile Bay. It is...
serves corporate, cargo and private cargo aircraft.
Rail
Mobile is served by four
Class I railroadA Class I railroad in the United States and Mexico, or a Class I rail carrier in Canada, is a large freight railroad company, as classified based on operating revenue.Smaller railroads are classified as Class II and Class III...
s, including the
Canadian National RailwayThe Canadian National Railway is a Canadian Class I railway operated by the Canadian National Railway Company headquartered in Montreal, Quebec....
(CNR),
CSX TransportationCSX Transportation is a Class I railroad in the United States, owned by the CSX Corporation and headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. It is one of the three Class I railroads serving most of the East Coast, the other two being the Norfolk Southern Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway...
(CSX), the
Kansas City Southern RailwayThe Kansas City Southern Railway , owned by Kansas City Southern Industries, is the smallest and second-oldest Class I railroad company still in operation. KCS was founded in 1887 and is currently operating in a region consisting of ten central U.S. states...
(KCS), and the
Norfolk Southern RailwayThe Norfolk Southern Railway is a major Class I railroad in the United States, owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. With headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, the company operates 21,500 route miles in 22 eastern states, the District of Columbia and the province of Ontario, Canada...
(NS). The
Alabama and Gulf Coast RailwayThe Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway is one of several Class III short-line railroad companies owned by RailAmerica, Inc. It currently operates more than of trackage from its rail yards and bulk terminals at Pensacola, Florida and north across much of eastern Alabama into its northwestern terminus of...
, a
Class III railroadA Class III railroad, as defined by the Surface Transportation Board, is a railroad with an annual operating revenue of less than $20 million . The term only applies to United States railroads, but is sometimes applied to other countries...
, links Mobile to the
Burlington Northern and Santa Fe RailwayThe BNSF Railway , formerly known as the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, is an American freight railroad company headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas; it is one of four remaining transcontinental railroads, and one of the largest freight railroad networks, in North America. Only the Union...
at
Amory, MississippiAmory is a city in Monroe County, Mississippi, United States. The population is 6,956 at the 2000 census.
-History:Amory was the first planned city in Mississippi. The Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad needed a mid-point between Memphis, Tennessee and Birmingham, Alabama for their...
. These converge at the Port of Mobile, which provides
intermodal freight transportIntermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation , without any handling of the freight itself when changing modes. The method reduces cargo handling, and so improves security, reduces damages and...
service to companies engaged in importing and exporting. Other railroads include the Terminal Railway of Alabama State Docks (TASD), a
switching railroadA switching and terminal railroad is a freight railroad company whose primary purpose is to perform local switching services or to own and operate a terminal facility.Switching is a type of operation done within the limits of a yard...
, and the Central Gulf Railroad, a rail ship service to Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. The city was served by
AmtrakThe National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971 to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a blend of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union Station...
's
Sunset LimitedThe Sunset Limited is a passenger train that for most of its history has run between New Orleans and Los Angeles, California, and that from early 1993 through late August 2005 also ran east of New Orleans to Florida, making it during that time the only true transcontinental passenger train in...
passenger train service until 2005, when the service was suspended due to the effects of
Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest hurricane, as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States...
.
Road
Two major interstate highways and a spur converge in Mobile.
Interstate 10Interstate 10 is the southernmost east-west, coast-to-coast Interstate Highway in the United States. It stretches from the Pacific Ocean at State Route 1 in Santa Monica, California to Interstate 95 in Jacksonville, Florida...
runs northeast to southwest across the city while
Interstate 65Interstate 65 is a major Interstate Highway in the United States. The southern terminus is located at an intersection with Interstate 10 in Mobile, Alabama, and its northern terminus is at a traffic light with U.S. Route 12 and U.S...
starts in Mobile at Interstate 10 and runs north. Interstate 165 connects to Interstate 65 north of the city in
PrichardPrichard is a city in Mobile County, Alabama, in the United States.Prichard borders the northside of Mobile, as well as the Mobile suburbs of Chickasaw, Alabama, Saraland, Alabama, and the unincorporated sections of Eight Mile, Alabama. As of 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city...
and joins Interstate 10 in downtown Mobile. Mobile is well served by many major highway systems. United States Highways US 31, US 43, US 45, US 90 and US 98 radiate from Mobile traveling east, west, and north. Mobile has three routes east across the Mobile River and Mobile Bay into neighboring
Baldwin County, AlabamaBaldwin County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is named in honor of Abraham Baldwin, a member of the United States Senate who never actually lived in what would become Alabama. As of 2000 the population is 140,415 . The estimated 2006 population from the U.S. Census Bureau is 169,162....
. Interstate 10 leaves downtown through the
George Wallace TunnelThe George Wallace Tunnel is a tunnel along Interstate 10 in Mobile, Alabama that crosses beneath the Mobile River.It, like the smaller Bankhead Tunnel a few blocks upriver from it, was constructed in Mobile at the shipyards of the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company from 1969-1973...
under the river and then over the bay across the
Jubilee ParkwayThe Jubilee Parkway is a pair of parallel concrete viaduct bridges that carry Interstate 10 across Mobile Bay from the George Wallace Tunnel in Mobile, Alabama eastbound to Spanish Fort/Daphne, Alabama. The bridges are similar in design to the I-10 Twin Span Bridge near New Orleans, Louisiana. Each...
to
Spanish FortSpanish Fort is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, located on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. The 2000 census lists the population of the city as 5,423. It is part of the Daphne–Fairhope–Foley Micropolitan Statistical Area....
/
DaphneDaphne is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The city is located just off I-10, 11 miles east of Mobile and 150 miles southwest of the state capital of Montgomery. The 2000 census lists the population of the city as 16,581 making Daphne the most populous city...
. US 98 leaves downtown through the
Bankhead TunnelThe Bankhead Tunnel is a tunnel in Mobile, Alabama that begins on Government Street in downtown Mobile, travels eastbound under the Mobile River, and emerges to join the Battleship Parkway....
under the river onto Blakeley Island and then over the bay across the
Battleship ParkwayBattleship Parkway, commonly referred to locally and in the media as the "Causeway", is an elevated long causeway that carries US 90 and US 98 eastbound across Mobile Bay from the Bankhead Tunnel in Mobile, Alabama to Spanish Fort, Alabama. The roadway itself is a four-lane divided highway for...
into Spanish Fort, Alabama. US 90 travels over the
Cochrane-Africatown USA BridgeThe Cochrane – Africatown USA Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge carrying mainline US 90 and Truck Route US 98 across the Mobile River in Mobile, Alabama. It was named for the Cochrane Bridge, which it replaced, and for the former community of Africatown, which once stood on the western approach...
to the north of downtown onto Blakeley Island where it becomes co-routed with US 98.
Mobile's public transportation is the Wave Transit System which features buses with 18 fixed routes and neighborhood service. The Wave Transit System also operates the Moda! electric trolley service in downtown Mobile with 22 stops Monday through Saturday. Baylinc is a public transportation bus service provided by the Baldwin Rural Transit System in cooperation with the Wave Transit System that provides service between eastern
Baldwin CountyBaldwin County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is named in honor of Abraham Baldwin, a member of the United States Senate who never actually lived in what would become Alabama. As of 2000 the population is 140,415 . The estimated 2006 population from the U.S. Census Bureau is 169,162....
and downtown Mobile. Baylinc operates Monday through Friday.
Greyhound LinesGreyhound Lines, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, USA, is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States and Canada, operating under the well-known logo of a leaping greyhound. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and incorporated...
provides intercity bus service between Mobile and many locations throughout the United States. Mobile is served by several taxi and limousine services.
Water
The
Port of MobileThe Port of Mobile, located in Mobile, Alabama, United States, is the only deep-water port in the state, and was the 10th largest in the nation in 2006. It is located along the Mobile River where it empties into Mobile Bay...
has public, deepwater terminals with direct access to of inland and intracoastal waterways serving the
Great LakesThe Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth. They are sometimes referred to as the "Third...
, the
OhioThe Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. It is approximately 981 miles long and is located in the eastern United States....
and
TennesseeThe Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley...
river valleys (via the
Tennessee-Tombigbee WaterwayThe Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway is a 234-mile artificial waterway that provides a connecting link between the Tennessee and Tombigbee rivers...
), and the
Gulf of MexicoThe Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United...
. The Alabama State Port Authority owns and operates the public terminals at the Port of Mobile. The public terminals handle
containerizedContainerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using standard intermodal containers that are standardised by the International Organization for Standardization...
,
bulkBulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. These cargos are usually dropped or poured, with a spout or shovel bucket, as a liquid or as a mass of relatively small solids , into a bulk carrier ship's hold, railroad car, or tanker truck/trailer/semi-trailer body...
, breakbulk, roll-on/roll-off, and heavy lift cargoes. The port is also home to private bulk terminal operators, as well as a number of highly specialized shipbuilding and repair companies with two of the largest floating dry docks on the Gulf Coast.
The city is home port for
Carnival Cruise LinesCarnival Cruise Lines is a cruise line operating a large number of cruise ships. Originally an independent company founded in 1972 by Ted Arison, it is now a branded division within Carnival Corporation & plc, a publicly traded company which owns a number of different cruise brands.Carnival was a...
'
MS Holiday cruise shipA cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience. Cruising has become a major part of the tourism industry, with millions of passengers each year...
which sails on four and five day itineraries through the Western
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
from the Alabama Cruise Terminal on Water Street. Holiday will be temporarily replaced by the Carnival Fantasy from November 2009 to May 2010, and then will be permanently be replaced by the Carnival Elation in May 2010.
Print
Mobile's
Press-RegisterThe Press-Register is a daily newspaper serving the southwest Alabama counties of Mobile and Baldwin, continuing its on-going mission to be "a better newspaper everyday" since its first incarnation in 1813, making it Alabama's oldest newspaper...
is Alabama's oldest active newspaper, dating back to 1813. The paper focuses on
MobileMobile County
[p] is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of a tribe of Indians, the Maubila tribe . As of 2008, its population was 406,309. Its county seat is Mobile, Alabama...
and
BaldwinBaldwin County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is named in honor of Abraham Baldwin, a member of the United States Senate who never actually lived in what would become Alabama. As of 2000 the population is 140,415 . The estimated 2006 population from the U.S. Census Bureau is 169,162....
counties and the city of Mobile, but also serves southwestern Alabama and southeastern Mississippi. Mobile's alternative newspaper is the
LagniappeLagniappe - "Something Extra for Mobile" - is a bi-weekly alternative newspaper published in Mobile, Alabama. Lagniappe was first published bi-weekly on July 24, 2002 under the guidance of co-publishers Ashley Toland and Rob Holbert, who serve as editor and managing editor respectively...
. The Mobile area's local magazine is
Mobile Bay Monthly. The
Mobile Beacon is an alternative focusing on the African-American communities of Mobile.
The Mobilian is a web-based, interactive portal with a focus on cultured-living in Mobile.
Television
Mobile is served locally by four television stations:
WPMI 15WPMI is the NBC-affiliated television station for South Alabama and much of the Emerald Coast of Florida. Licensed to Mobile, the station broadcasts on digital UHF channel 15. WPMI's transmitter is located near Robertsdale. The station is owned by Newport Television, LLC as part of a duopoly with...
(
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
), WKRG 5 (
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
),
WALA 10Wala can refer to:*Wala language, a language spoken in the Solomon Islands.*Wala people, an ethnic group in Ghana*Wala , a sun goddess in Australian Aboriginal mythology*Wala, an element in Germanic names, meaning "battle"...
(
FoxThe Fox Broadcasting Company , commonly referred to as Fox , is an American television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, from 2004 to 2009 Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the 18–49 demographic...
), and
WBPG 55WBPG is the CW Television Network affiliate for the Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida market. The station is owned by LIN Broadcasting along with WALA in the same market...
(
CWThe CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
). The regional area is also served by
WEAR 3WEAR is the ABC affiliate for the Mobile, Alabama/Pensacola, Florida viewing area. It is licensed to Pensacola and is one of two major commercial stations in the market that is licensed on the Florida side of the market, the other being sister station WFGX, a MyNetworkTV affiliate...
(
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
) and
WJTC 44WJTC is an independent television station in Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida and is owned by Newport Television, LLC, which also owns WPMI in Mobile. WJTC's transmitter is located in Elsanor, Alabama.-History:...
, an independent station. They are both based in
Pensacola, FloridaPensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,255 and as of 2007, the estimated population was 54,283....
. Mobile is included in the Mobile-
PensacolaPensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,255 and as of 2007, the estimated population was 54,283....
-
Fort Walton BeachFort Walton Beach is a city in southern Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. As of 2004, the population estimate for Fort Walton Beach, Florida is 19,992 recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau. It is a principal city of the Fort Walton Beach–Crestview–Destin Metropolitan Statistical...
designated market area, as defined by
Nielsen Media ResearchNielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
, and is ranked 61st in the United States for the 2007-08 television season.
Radio
Thirteen
FMFM broadcasting is a broadcast technology invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong that uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio.-Terminology:...
radio stations transmit from Mobile:
WABB-FMWABB-FM is a radio station broadcasting a Top 40 format serving the Mobile, Alabama area, with coverage in the Pensacola, Florida, area. It first began broadcasting in 1973...
,
WAVHWAVH is a radio station licensed to serve Daphne, Alabama, USA. The station is owned by Bigler Broadcasting, LLC.-Programming:...
,
WBHYWBHY-FM is a radio station licensed to serve Mobile, Alabama, USA. The station is owned by Goforth Media, Inc. It airs a Contemporary Christian music format....
, WBLX, WDLT,
WHILWHIL-FM , is a public radio station in Mobile, Alabama. It primarily features classical music programming in the daytime, along with other genres in the evenings...
,
WKSJWKSJ-FM is a radio station licensed to serve Mobile, Alabama, USA. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and the broadcast license is held by CC Licenses, LLC....
, WKSJ-HD2,
WMXCWMXC is a radio station licensed to serve Mobile, Alabama, USA. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and the broadcast license is held by CC Licenses, LLC....
,
WMXCWMXC is a radio station licensed to serve Mobile, Alabama, USA. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and the broadcast license is held by CC Licenses, LLC....
-HD2,
WQUAWQUA is a radio station broadcasting a Religious format. Licensed to Citronelle, Alabama, USA. The station is currently owned by Family Worship Center Church, Inc.....
,
WRKHWRKH is the call sign for the Mobile, Alabama classic rock formatted radio station known as "96.1 The Rocket". The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications.-Programming:...
, and
WRKHWRKH is the call sign for the Mobile, Alabama classic rock formatted radio station known as "96.1 The Rocket". The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications.-Programming:...
-HD2. Nine
AMAM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation.-History:AM was the dominant method of broadcasting during the first eighty years of the 20th century and remains widely used into the 21st....
radio stations transmit from Mobile:
WABBWABB is a radio station broadcasting a news and talk radio format serving the Mobile, Alabama, metropolitan area. The station is currently owned by Dittman Broadcasting.-History:...
,
WBHYWBHY is a radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. Licensed to Mobile, Alabama, USA, the station serves the greater Mobile area. The station is currently owned by Goforth Media, Inc...
,
WGOKWGOK , "Gospel 900") is a radio station serving the Mobile, Alabama, area with a Gospel music format. The station is under ownership of Cumulus Media.-History:...
,
WIJDWIJD is a radio station licensed to the community of Prichard, Alabama, USA, and serves the greater Mobile, Alabama, area. The station is owned by Wilkins Communications Network Inc. and the license is held by the Mobile Bay Corporation...
, WLPR,
WLVVWLVV is a radio station licensed to serve Mobile, Alabama, USA. The station is owned by WLVV, Inc., based in Baytown, Texas. A sale to Archangel Communications, Inc., of Fairhope, Alabama, is pending approval by the FCC....
,
WMOBWMOB is a radio station licensed to serve Mobile, Alabama, USA. The station, founded in 1961 as WLIQ, is owned by Buddy Tucker Association, Inc.WMOB broadcasts a religious format to the Mobile metropolitan area...
, WNTM, and
WXQWWXQW is a gospel music formatted radio station serving the Mobile, Alabama, market. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and licensed to the city of Fairhope, Alabama....
. The content ranges from Christian Contemporary to
Hip hopHip hop as a cultural movement "manifest in B-boying , graffiti writing, DJing and eMCeeing/rapping – is an artistic commitment to seize freedom from oppressive social conditions...
to Top 40.
ArbitronArbitron is a radio audience research company in the United States which collects listener data on radio audiences similar to that collected by Nielsen Media Research on television audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became bi-coastal by merging with L.A....
ranks Mobile's radio market as 93rd in the United States as of autumn 2007.
Sports
Mobile is the home of Ladd-Peebles Stadium. The
footballAmerican football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, and often as Gridiron or Tackle football outside North America, is a competitive team sport known for combining strategy with physical play. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the...
stadium opened in 1948. With a current capacity of 40,646, Ladd-Peebles Stadium is the 4th largest stadium in the state. Ladd-Peebles Stadium has been home to the
Senior BowlThe Senior Bowl is a post-season college football exhibition game played in Mobile, Alabama which showcases the best NFL draft prospects of those collegiate players who have completed their eligibility. First played in 1950 in Jacksonville, Florida, the game moved to Mobile's Ladd Peebles Stadium...
since 1951, featuring the best college seniors in
NCAAThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a voluntary association of about 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada...
football. The
GMAC BowlThe GMAC Bowl is a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game that has been played annually at Ladd Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama since 1999. From 1999 to 2009, it pitted a Conference USA team against a team from either the Mid-American...
has been played since 1999 featuring opponents from the
Mid-American ConferenceThe Mid-American Conference is a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I college athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from New York to Illinois. Nine of the twelve full member schools are in Ohio and Michigan, with single members located...
and
Conference USAConference USA, officially abbreviated C-USA, is a college athletic conference whose member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports...
. Since 1988, Ladd-Peebles Stadium has hosted the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic. The top graduating high school seniors from their respective states compete each June.
The public Mobile Tennis Center includes over 50 courts, all lighted and hard-court.
For golfers, Magnolia Grove, part of the
Robert Trent Jones Golf TrailThe Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail is a collection of championship caliber golf courses, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., distributed across the state of Alabama, as part of investments by the Retirement Systems of Alabama. The Trail started with 378 holes at eight sites throughout the state,...
, has 36 holes. The Falls course was recently named the best par 3 course in America. Since 1999, the
LPGAThe LPGA, in full the Ladies Professional Golf Association, is an American organization for female professional golfers. The organization, whose headquarters are in Daytona Beach, Florida, is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from...
Tournament of Champions has been played annually at Magnolia Grove. The Crossings course is home of this tournament. Beginning in 2008, the
Bell Micro LPGA ClassicThe Bell Micro LPGA Classic is a standard event on the LPGA Tour. The event is played in Mobile, Alabama, USA.The inaugural event was played September 11 – 14, 2008, at the Magnolia Grove location on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, with total prize money of $1.4 million. It was televised on The...
will also be held in Mobile. Mobile is also home to the
Azalea Trail RunThe Azalea Trail Run is an annual spring race held in Mobile, Alabama and is considered one of the United States' premier road races. Runners, walkers, and wheelchair athletes from around the world and at all levels turn out for the event...
, which races through historic midtown and downtown Mobile. This 10k run has been an annual event since 1978. The Azalea Trail Run is one of the premier 10k road races in the U.S., attracting runners from all over the world.
Mobile's
Hank Aaron StadiumHank Aaron Stadium is a baseball stadium in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It hosts the Mobile BayBears, a minor-league professional team in the Southern League. The stadium opened in 1997 and has a capacity of 6,000. The ballpark was named after Major League Baseball's home run king and Mobile...
is the home of the
Mobile BayBearsThe Mobile BayBears are a minor league baseball team based in , United States. The team, which plays in the Southern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks major league club. The BayBears play in Hank Aaron Stadium, named after baseball's former all-time home run king and...
minor league baseballMinor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in North America that compete at levels below that of Major League Baseball. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses, and many are members of Minor League Baseball, an umbrella organization for leagues...
team. As of December 2007, Mobile's University of South Alabama approved a NCAA Football program to be played at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Sister cities
Mobile has sister city arrangements with the following cities:
Cockburn, AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
HavanaHavana is the capital city, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city is one of the 14 Cuban provinces. The city/province has 2.4 million inhabitants, and the urban area over 3.7 million, making Havana the largest city in both Cuba and the Caribbean region...
, CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
Pau, FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
WormsWorms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over title of "Oldest City in Germany"...
, GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
GaetaGaeta is a city and comune in the province of Latina, in Lazio, central Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is 120 km from Rome and 80 km from Naples....
, ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
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Ichihara is a city located in Chiba, Japan.As of April 2006, the city has an estimated population of 280,178 and the density of 761 persons per km². The total area is 368.20 km².The city was founded on May 1, 1963. It was home to JEF United....
, Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
Veracruz, MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
Gianjin, ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
BolinaoBolinao is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 69,568 people in 12,182 households.-Language:...
, PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
KatowiceKatowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about 50 km on north from the Silesian Beskids and about 100 km on south-east from Sudetes Mountains.It is the central district of the Metropolitan...
, PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
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ConstanţaConstanţa is the oldest living city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast...
, RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
KošiceKošice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the Hornád River at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the borders with Hungary...
, SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
King Shaka, South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
PyeongtaekPyeongtaek is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Located in the southwestern part of the province, Pyeongtaek was originally founded as a union of two districts in 940 AD, during the Goryeo dynasty. It was elevated to city status in 1986, and is home to a South Korean naval base and a...
, South Korea MálagaMálaga is a city in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. It is the second most populous city of Andalusia, the sixth largest in Spain and 43rd-most populous municipality in the European Union, with a population of 566,447 in 2008...
, SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. [The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
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See also
External links