Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 18, 1995 TAG: 9506170004
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB WILLIS
DATELINE: M0BILE, ALABAMA LENGTH: Long
Arching over downtown and residential streets ... spreading their low, Spanish moss-laden branches wide over lawns and sidewalks ... looming huge out of the gloaming. Their thick trunks are testimony to the antiquity of the community where they are rooted.
Mobile retains the flavor of the Old South. But there's much that is new.
This includes, along the waterfront, a modernistic convention center that already is among the 25 busiest such facilities in the country. Across the street is the sparkling new, avant-garde Mobile Government Plaza, combining county administration and courts.
Several chemical industries are here and in the environs. The city of some 200,000 people has professional baseball, ice hockey and soccer, as well as greyhound racing. There are local ballet, chamber music, opera and theater groups.
Mobilians readily admit that the summer heat in this Gulf Coast community can be nearly unbearable. They have emerged from an era when city government was notoriously corrupt, but citizens remain wary of trusting later administrations with much money, and as a result public schools have long been in decline.
Still, the city and adjacent areas have much to recommend them, especially to tourists.
Large, beautiful, gracious old homes abound. Some 1,800 have been designated historic; the preservation effort is strong, and there are several historic districts. In March, there is a formal tour of Mobile homes; at other times, self-guided tours, by car or on foot, can be rewarding. Architecture is remarkably varied, including antebellum, Greek Revival, Italianate, Federal, Victorian, Queen Anne and Creole cottage.
Some background: The Spanish mapped the present-day Mobile area as early as 1519. Toward the end of the 17th century, Louis XIV of France instructed the French in Quebec to put a settlement here to further his design of driving the English out of the New World.
Jean Baptiste Lemoyne, Sieur de Bienville, established a riverfront site 27 miles to the north, naming it for the Maubilla Indians. A few years later, flooding and poor defenses led the colonists to move to the city's current location, on the Mobile River 30 miles above the Gulf of Mexico. That was in 1711.
The French influence lingers. Mobile claims to have held North America's first Mardi Gras -- well ahead of ''that other city'' a short drive to the west - and the festivities recur annually as Lent approaches.
That is a grand two weeks for tourists. But in a city where society matters, it is also the greatest social event of the year. Some museums and historic homes display the ostentatious gowns worn by past Mardi Gras queens; they must be seen to be believed.
Set aside some time to see downtown Mobile. In addition to its old homes, the city has a number of worthy museums, including the Phoenix Fire Museum, in a 136-year-old firehouse; the Mobile Museum of Art, with a permanent collection of 4,900 works; the Museum of the City of Mobile, stressing local history; and the Carlen House Museum, like a visit to a 19th-century farmhouse. Admission is free (they're closed Mondays).
Several old homes are also kept open for visitors, with moderate entrance fees. Among these are Oakleigh, which dates to 1833; the stately Bragg-Mitchell Mansion, 1855; the Richards-DAR House, 1860; and the Conde-Charlotte Museum House, 1822. That last is about as old as it gets in Mobile, where fires in 1827 and 1839 destroyed buildings from the colonial French, Spanish and English periods.
The visitors center is at Fort Conde, a French fort partially reconstructed as a Bicentennial project in 1976. It's jarringly new looking, but hews closely to plans (from France's archives) by which the original fort was built in 1724-35. Actors garbed as French soldiers of the period serve as guides and, from time to time, fire off replicas of period cannons and rifles. There's a museum too.
Good eating is available downtown and in the environs. Gene Owens, former editorial-page editor of this paper, is now an assistant managing editor of the Mobile Press-Register. Along with my wife, Karen, and her mother, Alice Engwall, we had an excellent lunch at the Almost 6 restaurant on North Jackson Street, where Owens says the newspaper maintains an account. A good recommendation.
Farther out, on the lengthy Old Shell Road, is the Dew Drop Inn, which claims to be the city's oldest eatery and is certainly a Mobile tradition. It specializes in chili, hot dogs, oyster loaf, gumbo, sandwiches and other tasty basic fare, and it is always thronged at midday. Go around 1 p.m. and you shouldn't have to wait for a table.
Morrison's, known to most Roanokers only for its cafeterias, is headquartered in Mobile which has some of the chain's upscale restaurants, including Mozzarella's. Our meal there was outstanding in every respect.
Across the bridge on Highway 98 is the Original Seafood and Oyster House. Very popular too. Great seafood is available, and if you check out the waters that lap the shore a few feet from the restaurant, you may spot an alligator or two.
Not far from this restaurant the battleship Alabama and the submarine Drumare permanently moored. There are tours daily except Christmas, and aboard the big ship catered meals are even available. Space can be reserved for youth groups to stay overnight.
Poking its head above the water nearby is Goat Island, man-made for a Confederate gun emplacement. At low tide, I'm told, you can walk out to it. It's uninhabited now, but years ago it was home for a legendary local hermit.
The city holds a number of festivals. In October the theme is shrimp. In February, the Africatown Folk Festival is commemorated by descendants of the slave ship Clotilde that landed near Mobile in 1859. In spring comes the Azalea Trail Festival, with arts, crafts and music.
Spring has to be the best time to visit the Bellingrath Gardens, about a half-hour south of the city via Interstate 10 or U.S. 90. That time of year there are said to be 25O,OOO azaleas in bloom. But thousands of other flowers - not to mention birds - can be admired at other seasons.
The Bellingrath mansion, built in 1935 and now a museum, holds many rare and beautiful pieces of furniture, crystal and Boehm porcelain. Stroll down to the dock and take a riverboat cruise along the scenic Fowl River.
Baldwin County, adjoining Mobile County to the south, merits at least a day's visit. Here, in the Gulf Shores area, are sunny beaches with clean white sand, plus a number of interesting little communities with sights of their own.
Point Clear has the well-named Grand Hotel, long a resort mecca and no longer just for the wealthy. Million-dollar homes dot the roadside.
Bayou le Batre is a shrimping village. Not beautiful, but picturesque. There's a large Vietnamese population, evident not only from the shops and restaurants but also the names on the boats.
Fairhope has a unique history. It was founded late in the 19th century by a group of Iowans who wanted to live by Henry George's single-tax theory, based on the value that use gives to land. Whatever the cause, the town, now with 20,000 people, prospered. It also has a strong civic sense, evidenced in its parks and other public grounds.
We closed our visit with a stop at Fort Gaines, on Dauphin Island. This and Fort Morgan, a mile or so across the water, formed a Confederate pincer guarding the entrance to the bay. But these redoubts fell in the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864.
Union Adm. David Farragut's ship, the USS Hartford, and others in the fleet were taking terrible punishment from the Rebel guns and mines, or torpedoes. The attack was faltering when Farragut roared to the pilot: ''Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead!''
The Union forces went on to carry the day, and Farragut's words went down in history. In the courtyard of Fort Gaines, the Hartford's anchor is on display. Also in the fort are many cannons of the period, letters from Civil War soldiers and other memorabilia. Admission is a modest $2 and well worth it.
Bob Willis is former associate editor of the Roanoke Times & World-News editorial page.
by CNB