The Marking Committee of the MHDC is now accepting applications for the fall Banner and Shield Awards. Deadline for the fall application is October 1. The fall presentation will be held on December 6.

 

To qualify for a Banner and Shield, a structure must be at least 75 years old; or be listed on the National Register of Historic Places and be 50 years old.  The building must retain the original architectural character and be well restored or maintained.

   

 The Banner and Shield Awards are presented twice a year, in the spring and in the fall.  For an application and a detailed overview of the qualifications, please visit our website at www.mobilehd.org. 

The Barton Academy Historic Preservation and Restoration Committee is hosting an art competition to celebrate the beauty of Barton Academy.  The art competition, part public awareness campaign and part fundraiser, will benefit the Save Barton Fund. 

 

A call to artists will be sent out in early August that will include the guidelines for the art competition.  The competition will include two categories: one for all of the public school children in Mobile County, and one for professional artists.  Following the judging, the artwork will be displayed in Cathedral Square during the October LoDa Artwalk where each piece will be available for purchase through a silent auction.  Proceeds from the sale will go towards the Save Barton Fund.

  

 

 

by

Dora Finley, President of MHDC and Chair of the African-American Heritage Trail

 

On Sunday, August 1, Decoration Day was held in the Old Plateau Cemetery.  Decoration Day is a longstanding southern tradition that usually includes the spring cleaning and adornment of graves of the loved ones and family members that have gone before us.  On August 1, Decoration Day had another meaning altogether.  Dr. Neil Norman, archaeologist from the College of William and Mary, accompanied by his archeology students, and members of the Africatown Archaeology and Preservation Project, presented the findings of their research of this historic old cemetery to the public.

 

Africatown contains many stories of perseverance and triumph.  Its founders survived the voyage of the Clotilda, the last documented slave ship to leave Africa for the Americas.  They then forged a vibrant community within the hardships of the post-Civil War American South.  Loss is also part of the history of Africatown.  Cudjo Lewis, the last survivor of the Clotilda voyage, often mentioned his wish to return to his African homeland.  While the stories of Mr. Lewis and the Clotilda are iconic in the history of the African Diaspora and the African American experience, there are others that are equally compelling: Emperor Green served as a Buffalo Soldier in the American West, Edwards Garrett lived his life as a faithful member of the Yorktown Church, and Sophia Adams was a devoted mother who loved through the American Civic War and World War I.  These threads in the historic tapestry of Africatown are recorded on tombstones found today in Old Plateau Cemetery.

 

This summer, members of the Africatown Archaeology and Preservation Project are working to record the history contained in the cemetery, stabilize graves, and archaeologically explore the houses located nearby.    

 

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Alabama African American Heritage Trail, Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood, Mobile Historic Development Commission, Museum of Mobile, College of William and Mary, and Daphne Public Utilities, who provided hot dogs and beverages for Decoration Day. 

      

 

by

Cartledge W. Blackwell, Architectural Historian

 

For most of us neither a swift glance about nor a more lengthy inspection of a mid-century "ranch" house brings to mind the glories of Rome. That said, modern day Rome, a layering of material cultures, and a Mobile variant of the "ranch" house do draw upon a timeless convention. The Eternal City and the Port City both reused the material past in an ever changing present.

 

Spolia or architectural salvage has a long history. The Romans imported figural sculpture and decorative details from Greece to adorn their private villas and public squares. Medieval Romans reused the surface ornament from Classical ruins in their houses and churches. During the early Modern era, antiquarians both restored and marketed the very same ruins and details.

 

A simple fact - as a building is completed, the process of decay commences. Architectural salvage is then a recurring theme across the history of architecture. Deterioration is not the only motivating factor behind spolia though. Sentiment, aesthetics, and economics all come into play. At times the material appropriation can be contentious, take for example the Elgin marbles.

 

While Mobile's shady residential thoroughfares and bustling commercial quarters lacked marble colonnades and classical statuary, the buildings lining the city's streets utilized design details and structural elements which appealed to later users. As urban renewal laid waste to scores of historic structures, vestiges of Mobile's built density migrated westward, with her populace, to the burgeoning suburbs. Masonry and ironwork are the two most

Historic Ironwork Reused on Ranch House

common physical reoccurrences.

 

Cast and wrought iron posts and railings from tiered galleries were reused as security bars, fencing sections, and lampposts. Whether their motives were geometric or vegetative the visual result triggered the reflections of whimsy and delight, however jarring the recombination.