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Part Seven, The Cathedral
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…
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Part Six, Barton Academy
Mobile boasts a lot of firsts, records, and odd (but noteworthy) things for the state of Alabama, the region, and even the country. We are the birthplace of Mardi Gras. The first reinforced concrete skyscraper in Alabama was the Van Antwerp building by George B. Rogers, completed in 1907 at the corner of Royal and…
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Part Five, Real Homes in My Historical Fiction
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 HMPS for my “Fragments Observed: Life During Mobile’s Progressive Era” blog series.For more information about HMPS and their mission, please visit:https://www.historicmobile.org/And for their online archives, including requests to use…
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Part Four, Bienville Square
Since the 1820s, Bienville Square has been a central point in Mobile. The downtown park is named for one of the two founders of the city, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, who served for a time as the governor of French Louisiana when Mobile was its capital in the early 1700s. This time, I’m…
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Part Three, The Athelstan Club
Facing the middle of Bienville Square from the north side of St. Francis Street is a building that doesn’t garner much notice unless you know what it is or the stylized AC logo motif on each of the three balconies catches your eye. Organized on January 8, 1873, the Athelstan Club has been a gathering…