City of Mobile history

When Mobile became an American city in 1813, its population was multicultural, differentiating it from other Alabama cities.

In 1821 a treaty was ratified completing the sale of Spanish Florida to the United States, thus removing any lingering European claims to Mobile.

The Jesuit Order of the Catholic Church established Spring Hill College, one of the oldest Catholic schools in the country, in 1830.

Nearby is the Cox-Deasy Creole House Museum, built around 1850.

In 1860, the Clotilde, the last known ship to arrive in the Americas with a cargo of slaves, was abandoned by its captain near Mobile.

During the American Civil War, Mobile was one of the most important Confederate ports, and it maintained its trade with the West Indies and Europe despite a Union blockade begun in 1861.

The port functioned until August 1864, when the Battle of Mobile Bay, fought between the opposing Union and Confederate fleets, was won by the Union admiral David Farragut.

In 1879 the municipality went bankrupt, but the economy gradually improved.

In 1913, the Whitney/Bodden family of Mobile, started a 20 ship fleet of lumber schooners that lasted until the mid twenties.

1919 saw the beginning of Waterman Steamship Company.

The University of Southern Alabama, founded in 1963, is one of Alabama's fastest growing universities.

The current Fort Conde, about one third of the original fort, recreated in 4/5ths scale, opened on July 4, 1976, as part of Mobile’s United States Bicentennial celebration.

The city formally twinned with the Japanese city of Ichihara on November 10, 1993.