27 things about Mobile that you didn't know

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Did you know that Mobile, AL is home to the tallest building on the Gulf Coast between Houston and South Florida? If not, here's 27 other things you probably didn't already know about this deep south seaport city.

  1. Designed to mimick a nautical feel appropriate of Mobile’s port status, the Post-Modernist styled Mobile Government Plaza design was selected from among 195 entries in an American Institute of Architects sponsored national competition.

  2. The Saenger Theatre, designed by noted New Orleans architect Emile Weil, opened its doors on January 19, 1927. The theatre’s decoration was inspired by the city’s coastal location and classical Greek mythology and described as, “the motif of a French palace of the Renaissance.”

  3. Mobile was the first capital of colonial French Louisiana and was a part of Florida until 1813.

  4. In 1840, Mobile was second only to New Orleans in cotton exports in the United States. It was also the last location of the last slave ship from the Africa to enter the United States in 1860. Cudjo Lewis, the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade, was a Mobile resident who died in 1935.

  5. Named so because it was where government-related functions were concentrated in the city, Government Street once had the reputation as Mobile’s mansion or millionaire’s row due to several 19th century mansions lining the street.

  6. Mobile is a major logistics hub that has access to 15,000 miles of inland waterways, two interstate highways, two airports and five Class 1 railroads. A historical shipbuilding and repair hub, more than 6,500 in the Mobile area are employed in the maritime industry.

  7. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1900, Mobile was larger than the cities of Charlotte, NC, Miami, FL Jacksonville, FL and Phoenix, AZ and smaller than the cities of Charleston, SC, Youngstown, OH, Saginaw, MI and Wilmington, DE.

  8. The Temple Downtown is the only intact example of Egyptian Revival style architecture in Mobile.

  9. Mobile is the birthplace of Mardi Gras.

Article by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com