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Mobile, Alabama
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History
ColonialThe settlement of Mobile, then known as Fort Louis de la Louisiane, was first established in 1702, at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on the Mobile River, as the first capital of the French colony of Louisiana. It was founded by French Canadian brothers Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, in order to establish control over France's Louisiana claims with Bienville having been 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-Vallier, Bishop of Quebec. The parish was the first established on the Gulf Coast of the United States. The year 1704 saw the arrival of 23 women to the colony aboard the Pélican, along with yellow fever introduced to the ship in Havana. Though most of the "Pélican girls" recovered, a large number of the existing colonists and the neighboring Native Americans died from the illness.
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Encyclopedia
History
ColonialThe settlement of Mobile, then known as Fort Louis de la Louisiane, was first established in 1702, at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on the Mobile River, as the first capital of the French colony of Louisiana. It was founded by French Canadian brothers Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, in order to establish control over France's Louisiana claims with Bienville having been 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-Vallier, Bishop of Quebec. The parish was the first established on the Gulf Coast of the United States. The year 1704 saw the arrival of 23 women to the colony aboard the Pélican, along with yellow fever introduced to the ship in Havana. Though most of the "Pélican girls" recovered, a large number of the existing colonists and the neighboring Native Americans died from the illness. This early period also saw the arrival of the first African slaves aboard a French supply ship from Saint-Domingue. 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 River and Mobile Bay in 1711. A new earth and palisade Fort Louis was constructed at the new site during this time. By 1712, when Antoine Crozat took over administration of the colony by royal appointment, the colony boasted a population of 400 persons. The capital of Louisiana was moved to Biloxi in 1720, leaving Mobile in 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 Condé in honor of Louis Henri, Duc de Bourbon and prince of Condé.
In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the French and Indian War. The treaty ceded Mobile and the surrounding territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain, and it was made a part of the expanded British West Florida colony. The British changed the name of Fort Condé to Fort Charlotte, after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, King George III's 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. 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 War, West Florida and Mobile became a refuge for loyalists fleeing the other colonies.
The Spanish captured Mobile during the Battle of Fort Charlotte 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 Florida, for the most part, remained loyal to the British Crown. The fort was renamed Fortaleza Carlota, with the Spanish holding Mobile as a part of Spanish West Florida until 1813, when it was seized by the U.S. General James Wilkinson during the War of 1812.
19th century
When Mobile was made a part of the Mississippi Territory in 1813, the population had dwindled to roughly 300 people. The city was included in the Alabama Territory in 1817, after Mississippi gained statehood. Alabama was granted statehood in 1819 and Mobile's population had increased to 809 by that time. As the inland areas of Alabama and Mississippi were settled by farmers and the plantation 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. With its location at the mouth of the Mobile River, a river system that served as the principal navigational access for most of Alabama and a large part of Mississippi, Mobile was well situated for this purpose. By 1822 the 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 fire-proof brick warehouses. The exports of cotton grew in proportion to the amounts being produced in the Black Belt and by 1840 Mobile was second only to New Orleans in cotton exports in the nation. With the economy so focused on this one crop, Mobile's fortunes were always tied to those of cotton and the city weathered many financial crises during this period. Though Mobile had a relatively small slave owning population itself compared to the inland areas, it was the slave-trading center of the state until surpassed by Montgomery in the 1850s. 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 America. The population in the whole of Mobile County, including the city, consisted of 29,754 free citizens, of which 1195 were African American. Additionally, there were 1785 slave owners, holding 11,376 slaves, for a total county population of 41,130 people.
During the American Civil War, Mobile was a Confederate city. The first submarine to successfully sink an enemy ship, the H. L. Hunley, was built in Mobile. One of the most famous naval engagements of the war was the Battle of Mobile Bay, resulting in the Union taking possession of Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864. On 12 April 1865, 3 days after the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, the city of Mobile surrendered to the Union army to avoid destruction following the Union victories at the Battle of Spanish Fort and the Battle of Fort Blakely. Ironically, on 25 May 1865, the city suffered loss when some three hundred people died as a result of an explosion at a federal 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 Democrats 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 centuryThe turn of the century brought the Progressive Era 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, which drastically deepened the shipping channels in the harbor. During and after World War I manufacturing became increasingly vital to Mobile's economic health with shipbuilding and steel production being two of the most important. During this time social equality and race relations in Mobile worsened, however. In 1902 the city government passed Mobile's first segregation ordinance, one that segregated the city streetcars. Mobile's African American population responded to this with a two-month boycott which was ultimately unsuccessful. After this, Mobile's de facto segregation would increasingly be replaced with legislated segregation.
World War II led to a massive military effort causing a considerable increase in Mobile's population, largely due to the huge influx of workers coming into Mobile to work in the shipyards and at the Brookley Army Air Field. 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 at its Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company to support the war effort by producing ships faster than the Axis powers could sink them. Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation, a subsidiary of Waterman Steamship Corporation, focused on building freighters, Fletcher class destroyers, and minesweepers.
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 take over and most of the old military bases were converted to civilian uses. This period saw the end of racial segregation with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Though many in Mobile had considered the city to be tolerant and racially accommodating compared to other cities in the South, with the police force and one local college becoming integrated in the 1950s and the voluntary desegregation of buses and lunch counters by the early 1960s, Mobile's African American citizens were not nearly as content with the status quo as some believed. In 1963 three African American students brought a case against the Mobile County School Board for being denied admission to Murphy High School. 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.
Mobile's economy took a large hit in late 1960s with the closing of Brookley Air Force Base. This and other factors ushered in a period of economic depression that lasted through the 1970s. Beginning in the late 1980s, the city council and mayor began an effort termed the "String of Pearls Initiative" to make Mobile into a competitive, urban city. This effort would see the building of numerous new facilities and projects around the city and the restoration of hundreds of other historic downtown buildings and homes. This period also saw a reduction in the rate of violent crime and a concerted effort by city and county leaders to attract new business ventures to the area. The effort continues into the present with new city government leadership. Shipbuilding began to make a major comeback in Mobile with the founding in 1999 of Austal USA, a joint venture of Australian shipbuilder, Austal, and Bender Shipbuilding.
Geography and climate
GeographyMobile 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.
ClimateMobile's geographical location on the Gulf of Mexico provides a mild subtropical climate, 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 WeatherBill, 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.
Being on the Gulf, 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 3 Hurricane Frederic passed over the heart of the city. The storm caused tremendous damage to Mobile and the surrounding area. Mobile received moderate damage from Hurricane Opal on 4 October 1995 and Hurricane Ivan on 16 September 2004. Mobile also received moderate damage from Hurricane Katrina on 29 August 2005. A storm surge of damaged eastern sections of Mobile and caused extensive flooding in downtown.
CultureMobile is home to an array of cultural influences with its French, British, Spanish, African, Creole and Catholic heritage distinguishing it from all other cities in the state of Alabama. The annual Carnival celebration is perhaps the best illustration of this. 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 balls, with the parades usually beginning after January 5. Carnival celebrations end promptly at the stroke of midnight on Mardi Gras, signaling the beginning of Ash Wednesday and the first day of Lent. Mardi Gras, though literally meaning Fat Tuesday and thus the last day of the Carnival season, is normally used locally to refer to the entire Carnival season. During this time Mobile's mystic societies build colorful Carnival floats and parade throughout downtown with masked society members tossing small gifts, known as throws, to the parade spectators. Mobile's mystic societies also give formal masquerade balls, 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 Site. Mobile's first Carnival society began in 1711 with the Boeuf Gras Society (Fatted Ox Society). Mobile's Cowbellion de Rakin Society was the first formally organized and masked mystic society in the United States to celebrate with a parade in 1830. The Cowbellions got their start when a cotton factor from Pennsylvania, Michael Krafft, 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 Society was formed in 1843 and is the oldest remaining mystic society in the United States. Carnival celebrations in Mobile were canceled during the American Civil War. Mardi Gras parades were revived by Joe Cain in 1866 when he paraded through the city streets on Fat Tuesday while costumed as a fictional Chickasaw chief named Slacabamorinico, irreverently celebrating the day in front of the occupying Union Army troops. The year 2002 saw Mobile's Tricentennial celebrated with parades that represented all of Mobile's mystic societies.
Archives and libraries
The National African American Archives and Museum 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 Paris, London, Seville, and Madrid. The Mobile Genealogical Society Library and Media Center is located at the Holy Family Catholic Church and School complex and features written and published materials for use in genealogical research. The Mobile Public Library 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 Church.
Entertainment and arts
The Mobile Museum of 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 Symphony and
Space 301, a contemporary art gallery. It also serves as a small concert venue for the city. The Mobile Civic Center 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 Opera and the Mobile Ballet. The 60-year old Mobile Opera 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.
Tourism
MuseumsMobile is home to a variety of museums. Battleship Memorial Park is a military park on the shore of Mobile Bay and features the World War II era battleship USS Alabama (BB-60), the World War II era submarine USS Drum (SS-228), Korean War and Vietnam War 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). The Oakleigh Historic Complex features three house museums that interpret the lives of people from three levels of Mobile society in the mid-19th century. The Mobile Carnival Museum, which houses the city's Mardi Gras history and memorabilia, documents the variety of floats, costumes, and displays seen during the history of the festival season. The Bragg-Mitchell Mansion (1855), Richards DAR House (1860), and the Conde-Charlotte House (1822) are historic antebellum house museums. Fort Morgan, Fort Gaines, and Historic Blakeley State Park figure into local American Civil War 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 Exploreum is a non-profit science center located in downtown. It features permanent and traveling exhibits, an IMAX dome theater, a digital 3D virtual theater, and a hands-on chemistry laboratory. The Dauphin Island Sea Lab is located south of the city near the mouth of Mobile Bay. It houses the Estuarium, an aquarium which illustrates the four habitats of the Mobile Bay ecosystem: the river delta, bay, barrier islands and Gulf of Mexico.
Parks and other attractions
The Mobile Botanical Gardens feature a variety of flora spread over . It contains the Millie McConnell Rhododendron Garden with 1,000 evergreen and native azaleas and the Longleaf Pine Habitat. The Bellingrath Gardens and Home are located on Fowl River 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.
Mobile has more than 45 public parks with some that are of special interest. Bienville Square 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 principle gathering place for the citizens of the city and remains popular today. Cathedral Square is a performing arts park in the Lower Dauphin Street Historic District overlooking the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Fort Condé 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 Málaga, Spain. Langan Park 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 cottage. Later architectural styles found in the city include the various Victorian types, shotgun types, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Beaux-Arts and many others. The city currently has nine major historic districts consisting of Old Dauphin Way, Oakleigh Garden, Lower Dauphin Street, Leinkauf, De Tonti Square, Church Street East, Ashland Place, Campground, and Midtown.
Mobile has a number of historic structures spread throughout the city. Some of Mobile's historic churches include Christ Church Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Government Street Presbyterian Church, and Trinity Episcopal Church. Two historic Roman Catholic convents survive, the Convent and Academy of the Visitation and the Convent of Mercy. The Stone Street Baptist Church is a historic African American church that was established in the 1840s. Barton Academy is a historic Greek Revival school building and local landmark on Government Street. The Bishop Portier House and the Carlen House are two of the many surviving examples of Creole cottages in the city. The Mobile City Hospital and the United States Marine Hospital are both restored Greek Revival hospital buildings that predate the Civil War. The Washington Firehouse No. 5 is a Greek Revival fire station, built in 1851. The Hunter House is an example of the Italianate style and was built by a successful 19th century African American businesswoman. The Shepard House is a good example of the Queen Anne style. The Scottish Rite Temple is the only surviving example of Egyptian Revival architecture in the city.
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 Graveyard contains above-ground tombs and monuments spread over and was founded in 1819, during the height of the yellow fever epidemics. The nearby Magnolia Cemetery 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 Old Catholic Cemetery was established in 1848 by the Archdiocese of Mobile and covers more than . It contains plots for the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, Little Sisters of the Poor, Sisters of Charity, and Sisters of Mercy, in addition to many other historically significant burials. Mobile's Jewish community dates back to the 1820s and the city has two historic Jewish cemeteries, Ahavas Chesed Cemetery and Sha'arai Shomayim Cemetery.
Demographics
The 2000 census determined that there were 198,915 people residing within the city limits. Mobile is the center of Alabama's second-largest metropolitan area, which consists of all of Mobile County. Metropolitan Mobile (MSA) had a population of 399,843 as of 2000 census. As of the 2006 census estimates there were 87,297 total housing units in the city of Mobile. 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 Latino.
There were 73,057 households out of which 22,225 had children under the age of 18 living with them, 29,963 were married couples 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 average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.23.
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 income for the city was $21,612. 21.3% of the population and 17.6% of families were below the poverty line.
Population of Mobile| Year | Population | Year | Population | | 1830 | 3,200 | 1916/17 | 58,200 | | 1840 | 12,700 | 1920 | 60,800 | | 1850 | 20,500 | 1930 | 68,200 | | 1860 | 29,300 | 1940 | 78,700 | | 1870 | 32,000 | 1950 | 129,000 | | 1880 | 29,100 | 1960 | 194,900 | | 1890 | 31,100 | 1970 | 190,000 | | 1900 | 38,500 | 1980 | 200,500 | | 1906/07 | 42,900 | 1990 | 200,000 | | 1910 | 51,500 | 2000 | 198,915 | |
Government
City
Since 1985 the government of Mobile has consisted of a mayor and a seven member city council. The mayor is elected at-large and the council members are elected from each of the seven city council districts. A supermajority 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 Jones, was elected in September of 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 of 2008, the city hired EDSA, an urban design 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.
StateMobile is represented in the Alabama Legislature by three senators and nine representatives. Mobile is represented in the Alabama Senate by Democrat Vivian Davis Figures from the 33rd district, by Republican Rusty Glover from the 34th district, and by Republican Ben Brooks from the 35th district. Mobile is represented in the Alabama House of Representatives by Democrat Yvonne Kennedy from the 97th district, Democrat James O. Gordon from the 98th district, Democrat James Buskey from the 99th district, Republican Victor Gaston from the 100th district, Republican Jamie Ison from the 101st district, Republican Chad Fincher from the 102nd district, Democrat Joseph C. Mitchell from the 103rd district, Republican Jim Barton from the 104th district, and Republican Spencer Collier from the 105th district.
Education
Primary and secondary
Public facilitiesPublic schools in Mobile are operated by the Mobile County Public School System. 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 Science 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 facilitiesMobile also has a large number of private schools, most of them being parochial in nature. Many of these belong to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile. The private Catholic institutions include McGill-Toolen Catholic High School (1896), Co | |
