Bellingrath Gardens and Home, located on Fowl River, is a 65-acre (26 ha) botanical garden and historic 10,500-square-foot (975 m2) mansion that dates to the 1930s. Mobile is home to the Azalea Trail Run, which races through historic midtown and downtown Mobile. South Alabama basketball is a mid-major team in the Sun Belt Conference. The top graduating high school seniors from their respective states compete each June.
The Oakleigh Historic Complex are three house museums that portray the daily lives of enslaved, working class, and upper-class people during the 19th century. The Mobile Carnival Museum houses the city’s Mardi Gras history and memorabilia. The Mobile Police Department Museum chronicles the history of the city’s law enforcement.
Current companies that were formerly based in the city include Checkers, Minolta-QMS, Morrison’s, and the Waterman Steamship Corporation. Between 1993 and 2003 roughly 13,983 new jobs were created as 87 new companies were founded and 399 existing companies were expanded. Aerospace, steel, ship building, retail, services, construction, medicine, and manufacturing are Mobile’s major industries. Mobile became a majority-minority city, with Black or African American residents remaining the largest racial group.
The territory was split in 1817, and the eastern half, including the Mobile Bay area, became the Alabama Territory for two years before being admitted to the union as the state of Alabama. In 1766, the town’s population was estimated to be 860 people, although the borders were smaller than during the French colonial period. The Treaty of Paris ceded French territories east of the Mississippi River to Britain, including Mobile. French Canadian brothers Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville founded the site to establish control over France’s claims to La Louisiane.
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Fires in 1827 and 1839 destroyed the city’s remaining wooden colonial architecture. The Bragg-Mitchell Mansion (1855), Richards DAR House (1860), and Condé-Charlotte House (1822) are antebellum house museums. The Mobile Medical Museum in the French colonial-style Vincent-Doan House chronicles the history of medicine in the city.
- The city initiated construction of numerous new facilities and projects, and the restoration of hundreds of historic downtown buildings and homes.
- It features the World War II era battleship USS Alabama, the World War II era submarine USS Drum, Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials, and historical military equipment.
- Beginning in the late 1980s, newly elected mayor Mike Dow and the city council began an effort termed the “String of Pearls Initiative” to make Mobile into a competitive city.
- Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships and trains.
- Between 1993 and 2003 roughly 13,983 new jobs were created as 87 new companies were founded and 399 existing companies were expanded.
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Protestant schools include St. Paul’s Episcopal School and Faith Academy. Many parochial schools belong to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile, including McGill-Toolen Catholic High School. MCPSS has an enrollment of approximately 52,000 students at 92 schools, employs approximately 7,200 public school employees, and had a budget in 2024–2025 of $843 million.
In 2008, the University of South Alabama opened the Mitchell Cancer Center Institute, which includes the first academic cancer research center in the central Gulf Coast region. It includes their flagship hospital Mobile Infirmary, two emergency centers and three outpatient surgery centers. Infirmary Health is Alabama’s largest nonprofit, non-governmental health care system. The 200-year-old Mobile County Health Department (MCHD) provides education and preventive health services to Mobile and surrounding areas. When MAWSS was founded in 1814, it used Three-Mile Creek to provide water to the city. lolajack casino The public terminals handle containerized, bulk, breakbulk, roll-on/roll-off, and heavy-lift cargoes.
The Alabama State Port Authority owns and operates the public terminals at the Port of Mobile. The linear park will ultimately span seven miles, from Langan (Municipal) Park to Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Avenue, and include trailheads, sidewalks, and bike lanes. Baylinc is a public transportation bus service provided by the Baldwin Rural Transit System in cooperation with the Wave Transit System that provides service between eastern Baldwin County and downtown Mobile.
- The Mobile Police Department Museum chronicles the history of the city’s law enforcement.
- In September 2010, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 995 people were killed by drivers distracted by cell phones.
- The State of Alabama operates the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science on Dauphin Street in Mobile, which boards advanced Alabama high school students.
- Mobile’s public transportation is the Wave Transit System which features buses with 18 fixed routes and neighborhood service.
- Many parochial schools belong to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile, including McGill-Toolen Catholic High School.
- Handsets with more advanced computing ability through the use of native software applications are known as smartphones.
The port is also home to private bulk terminal operators, as well as a number of highly specialized shipbuilding and repair companies with two of the largest floating dry docks on the Gulf Coast. Mobile’s public transportation is the Wave Transit System which features buses with 18 fixed routes and neighborhood service. Founded in 1927, Bishop State Community College is a public, historically African American, community college with four campuses in Mobile.
The council members are elected from each of the seven city council single-member districts (SMDs). It features the Arches of Friendship, a fountain presented to Mobile by the city of Málaga, Spain. Bienville Square is a historic park in the Lower Dauphin Street Historic District.
The Ladd-Peebles Stadium opened in 1948 and has a current capacity of 40,646, making it the fourth-largest stadium in the state. Mobile’s Jewish community dates back to the 1820s, and the city has two historic Jewish cemeteries, Sha’arai Shomayim Cemetery and Ahavas Chesed Cemetery. The Church Street Graveyard contains above-ground tombs and monuments spread over 4 acres (2 ha) and was founded in 1819. Several historic cemeteries were established shortly after the colonial era.
