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If there was one location that united all my historical novels it would be The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The first Catholic Parish in Mobile was founded in 1703 at the site of the previous town settlement—upriver from what is now the city, though it moved south less than a decade later. To say the parish was well-established by the Progressive Era would be an understatement. Now dignified as a Basilica, the current building’s cornerstone was laid in 1835. Characters from Fortitude, The Possession Chronicles, The Malevolent Trilogy, and Washington Square Secrets have all attended Mass within these walls.

Here’s a photo taken by me on April 12, 2025, while standing in Cathedral Square.

Compare it to this ariel view from around 1900. It looks like it might have been taken from the roof of a building near Conception Street, a couple blocks east of the church. Be sure to notice Barton Academy’s gleaming structure and dome, just beyond and to the left (southwest) of the cathedral. Did you read my previous blog post about Barton?

I do my best to keep things historically accurate in my stories, but there is one big change I made regarding the cathedral. The lovely expanse of Cathedral Square as we know it today wasn’t across South Claiborne Street during the Progressive Era. As mentioned in my author’s note in Perilous Confessions (The Possession Chronicles #1), I placed a park across from The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the winter of 1905 and in all mentions of that city block in subsequent books/stories I’ve written since then.

Why? Check out the following photo.

During the era I write about, if you were standing on the portico of the cathedral, you would have had a not-so-lovely view of an alley created by the buildings that faced Conti and Dauphin Streets. When Alexander and Lucy leave Christmas Eve Mass to meet up together, I couldn’t have them stroll a debris-laden alley. They needed a park in the open to walk together so they could at least claim to have been within sight of the cathedral rather than in the shadows when a family member finds them. Propriety and all. Chivalry was still alive and well—for the most part. Though I don’t describe the park across from the cathedral the way Cathedral Square looks today, I do hope modern readers can walk the public space and imagine my character there.

When I’m downtown, I often stop in The Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception to enjoy the peaceful garden, observe the sunlight streaming in the stained-glass windows, or feel small amid the giant columns of the portico.

What’s your favorite thing about the cathedral?

This blog series is made possible through a partnership with Historic Mobile Preservation Society. The historic photos in this post are used with the permission of Historic Mobile Preservation Society for my “Fragments Observed: Life During Mobile’s Progressive Era” blog series. Be sure to check them all out here.

To see the HMPS online archives, including requests to use photographs from their collection, please visit
https://historicmobile.catalogaccess.com/home

P.S. The cathedral is even on the cover of one of my books.