Water Street to Conception Street

There are seventeen historic markers located in the Water Street to Conception Street area. This area is bounded by St. Louis, Conception, Church, and Water streets. A map of the area is provided on this site.

8: The Hunley.*
Location: SE corner of Church, at Water.
Text: First submarine successfully used in warfare was completed on this site in 1863. Designed by James McClintock and Baxter Watson, and financed by Horace L. Hunley, it was built by W. A. Alexander at the Mobile Machine Shop of Park & Lyons. After trials in Mobile River and Mobile Bay, it was sent by rail to Charleston, where, on February 17, 1864, it sank the USS Housatonic.

Historic Mobile Preservation Society 1957

*This marker cannot be viewed. It is currently stored in the warehouse of the Museum of Mobile.

hunleydraw2.JPG (24067 bytes)
Schematic drawing of the interior of the Hunley.
Courtesy, The Museum of the Confederacy.

cityhall.JPG (25197 bytes) Courtesy, Museum of Mobile.

9: City Hall*.
Location: SE corner of Government, at Royal.
Text: Erected 1853-1858. Southern Market buildings and municipal offices. Also served as a military armory before and after the Civil War. Stalls for farmers, butchers, game sellers, and fishermen were on the ground floor. Officially registered in 1969 in the National Register of Historic Places. Seat of municipal government since 1858.

Historic Mobile Preservation Society 1970

*This location now houses the Museum of Mobile. The marker for this location can be found inside the building. In order to view this marker interested parties would have to purchase a ticket to view the museum.

oldchurch.JPG (18099 bytes)

The original Christ Church,
with steeple. Courtesy,
Museum of Mobile.

10: Christ Church (Episcopal). Location: 115 Church St. (SE corner of Church, at St. Emanuel).
Text: Established in 1823, the first Episcopal congregation in Mobile and in the State of Alabama. Cornerstone of present edifice laid in 1835; building completed and consecrated in 1842 by Leonidas Polk, Bishop of Louisiana and Alabama, later General of Artillery in the Army of the Confederacy.

Historic Mobile Preservation Society 1953

newchurch.JPG (23402 bytes)
Christ Church, ca. 1950,
without the steeple.

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Octavia LeVert, wife of Dr. Henry
LeVert. Courtesy, Historic
Mobile Preservation Society.

11: Office of Dr. Henry LeVert, 1804-1864.
Location: 153 Government, at Royal.
Text: Mobile Physician, 1829-1864. Son of Dr. Claudeus LeVert, who came to Virginia as fleet surgeon under General Rochambeau. This Italianate style building served as a doctor's office for one hundred years, 1858-1954. Preserved by the action of the Mobile County Commission, May 1971. [Also see marker numbers 12 and 17.]

Historic Mobile Preservation Society 1939 (replaced 1979)

12: The Mobile Bar Association.
Location: Next to LeVert Office.
Text: On March 29, 1869, thirty-two attorneys organized the Mobile Bar Association, the first bar association in Alabama and the fourteenth oldest in the entire nation. They filed the Association's Declaration of Incorporation on April 12, 1869, having contributed $5,000 in capital, and established a law library in the city of Mobile. [Also see marker numbers 11 and 17.]

Dedicated in commemoration of the 130th anniversary
of the founding this 18th day of April 1999

barassoc.JPG (17878 bytes)
The Mobile Bar Association is located in the building at the far right. The building on the left contained both the home and offices of Dr. and Mrs. Henry LeVert. Their home was on the far left, while the doctor's office was located on the right. The only portion of the LeVert building still remaining is on the right.

13: Admiral Raphael Semmes Statue.
Location: Government Street, just east of Royal.
Text: Admiral Raphael Semmes, C.S.A. Commander of the most successful sea raider in history, the CSS Alabama. Still, after these many years, his patriotism and heroic deeds inspire us to cherish our American liberties! Centennial Memorial 1900-2000. [Also see marker number 42.]

Sons of the Confederate Veterans, Admiral Raphael Semmes Camp 11, June 27, 2000

14: La Clede Hotel.
Location: NE corner of Government, at St. Emanuel.
Text: Constructed 1855-56-1940. Originally two federal style structures with party walls. Later enlarged to include a third brick building, unified by the overhanging cast iron galley. From shops and private living quarters, it evolved into a popular 19th century hotel and center of social life. The La Clede Hotel continued to function as a hotel until 1963.

Historic Mobile Preservation Society 1983

laclede2.JPG (24542 bytes)

cadillac.JPG (32929 bytes)

15: Cadillac Homesite.
Location: Conti St., 1/2 blk w. of Royal.
Text: Here stood the home of Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, soldier of fortune under Louis XIV. Founder of Detroit, 1701; prominent personage in Canada until 1710. He lived here during his residence in Mobile (1713-1717) as Royal Governor of Louisiana.

Historic Mobile Preservation Society 1953

citylimit.JPG (58509 bytes)

16: Mobile City Limits - 1711 (3 Markers).
Location #1: Royal St, between Conti and St. Francis.
Text: When Mobile was laid out, this was the city's northeast boundary point. Royal Street ran along a bluff overlooking the Mobile River. There were no streets between Royal and the river, only marshland.
23:
Location #2: Conception St., between St. Francis and St. Louis.
Text: At this point the northwest limits of French Mobile faded into the dense forest which surrounded the city in 1711 and for many years thereafter. An 1815 map shows the forest reaching Joachim Street, one block west.

29:
Location #3: SE corner of Government, at Jackson.
Text: This site marks the southwestern limit of the city of Mobile in 1711. Known then as Fort Louis de la Mobile [Also see marker numbers 1, 2, and 4], it had been founded by the French at 27-Mile Bluff in 1702 and moved to its present site in 1711. Mobile has been a city under six flags. The French flag was followed by the English, Spanish, American, Republic of Alabama, and again American. This is an unusual record.

Christopher Branch Chapter, Colonial Dames XVII Center (not dated)

17: Site of Sixth Mobile Theater, 1841-1860.
Location: NW corner of Royal, at St. Michael.
Text: Here played the great of the American and British stage, among them: James Wallack, Fanny Kemble, Old Bull, Joseph Field, Joseph Jefferson, James H. Hackett, William Macready, Charlotte Cushman, Edwin Forrest, Julia Dean, Junius Booth, Anna Mowatt, Charles Kean, Ellen Tree, Edwin Booth, and Lola Montez. Henry Clay and President Fillmore attended performances here as the guest of Madame LeVert. [Also see marker numbers 11 and 12.]

Historic Mobile Preservation Society 1940 (replaced 1953)

theater.JPG (39318 bytes)

slave1.JPG (36283 bytes)

18: Slave Markets.
Location: NW corner of Royal, at St. Louis.
Text: On this site stood one of the old slave markets. Last cargo of slaves arrived on the schooner Clotilde in August of 1859.

Historic Mobile Preservation Society 1940 (replaced 1959)

19: John Forbes & Company.
Location: 56 St. Francis St. (NE corner of St. Francis, at St. Joseph).
Text: Here stood in Spanish times the great Indian trading house John Forbes & Company.

(not inscribed)

forbes.JPG (30946 bytes)
From G. M. Hopkins' 1878
City Atlas of Mobile, Alabama.

20: Merchants National Bank Building.
Location: 56 St. Francis St. (NE corner of St. Francis, at St. Joseph).
Text: The incorporation of the Merchants National Bank of Mobile was authorized April 13, 1901 with offices at 56 St. Francis Street. On July 1, 1927, Merchants became a national bank and occupied this eighteen-story building which was dedicated October 11, 1929. Merchants National merged with First Alabama Bancshares, Inc. on October 29, 1983. The name Merchants National Bank of Mobile was changed to First Alabama Bank on July 1, 1985.

(not inscribed)

merchants.JPG (27533 bytes)

cross.JPG (56703 bytes)
St. Andrew's Cross located in Bienville Square.

21: St. Andrew's Cross.
Location: Dauphin St., between Conception and St. Joseph (Bienville Square).
Text: To Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. Native of Montreal, Canada, Naval Officer of France, Governor of Louisiana, and founder of the first capital, Mobile, in 1711. Born: 1680; Died: 1768. With the genius to create an empire and the courage to maintain it, patient amid faction and successful even in defeat, he brought his settlement the prosperity of true civilization and the happiness of real Christianity. He who founds a city builds himself a life-long monument. [Also see marker number 3.]

Colonial Dames of Alabama February 1906

22: Battle of Mobile Bay.
Location: NW corner of St. Joseph, at Dauphin.
Text: In memory of the Battle of Mobile Bay, one of the fiercest and most decisive battles in naval history. Commemorated on the Centennial, August 5, 1964.

City of Mobile; Joseph P. Langan, Mayor of Mobile; Leroy Stevens, Mobile County Commission; Martin J. Johnson, Chairman of Centennial Commission 1964

battle.JPG (33290 bytes)

salarmy.JPG (24403 bytes)

24: The Salvation Army in Mobile.
Location: SE corner of St. Francis St., at Conception.
Text: At the corner of Conception and St. Francis Streets, Captain Edward Justus Parker, Staff-Captain Charles Miles, and a Salvation Army lieutenant conducted an open air meeting on the night of their arrival in March 1887. In contrast to other Salvation Army openings in other cities, the Mobile audience was polite. Men removed their hats as prayer was offered and those in attendance respectfully participated in the singing and dropped coins into the collection plate. Mobile became an official Salvation Army Corps on October 13, 1899, with Captain and Mrs. James T. Cumbie in command. The Army's first Corps Community Center in Mobile was located at 213 Conti Street where it remained from the late 1930s until the late 1960s. The Salvation Army's fight against human suffering, started in 1865 in London by General William Booth, is still helping people to help themselves, though its methods have changed with the times. Dedicated June 14, 1987 by Commissioner James Osborne, Commander of the Army's Southern Territory. [Also see marker number 50 located at 1009 Dauphin St.]

Salvation Army 1987