The house is located in the heart of Mobile's Old Dauphin Way neighborhood and was designed by architect George F. Barber. The location was great for us, because we brought our bikes and were spoiled by the fact that Mobile is built on flat ground! (If you like to bike and you live in Birmingham, you understand that this is a luxury!) So, each morning we went out for a great bike ride and explored the neighborhood before breakfast.For most of the first half of the 20th century, Kate Shepard ran a boarding school in the house. However, the house's main contribution to history comes from Kate's ancestors. Kate's great uncle was Colin J. McRae, the Chief Financial Officer for the Confederate States of America. There is an important collection of papers known as the McRae Papers which document conclusively for the first time that the Confederacy was being secretly equipped by arms and equipment sales from England's merchants. Officially, foreign entities were neutral towards the war, and arms sales violated that and exposed them to lawsuits from the U.S. Government, so the business was therefore conducted in secret and most evidence was destroyed after the war. Thanks to the McRae Papers, which detail down to the penny what was bought and who provided it, we now know that there were many English merchants willing to do business with the Confederacy and what was on all of those Confederate blockade-running ships which were bringing foreign goods back into the South.
The McRae Papers were found in the attic of the Kate Shepard House in just the past few years. When William and Wendy James bought the house to run their B&B, they had no idea that there were over 2,500 Civil War documents in the attic! The former owners actually wanted to throw out the "junk in the attic", but the James' said it would be ok to leave it. What a good decision that was... when they discovered what they had, they catalogued it and sold the papers to a museum for $250,000! Civil War scholars get what has been described as one of the most significant Civil War finds in the past century and insight into one of the last unexplored areas of the war's history, and the James' get a huge thrill and windfall.
Wendy told us all about the find and the process of organizing the papers, and all of the other fascinating history. The house has received lots of attention because of it. Several magazines have featured the house, and it has been on HGTV's If Walls Could Talk series. They've filled three display cases in the library with memorabilia from the house's past with the Civil War and the boarding school.
Now, one of the main reasons we were there was for a more modern fame that has come to the house - Wendy's Pecan Praline French Toast! It's on the list of "100 Things to Eat in Alabama Before You Die", and it didn't disappoint. Nothing about Wendy's breakfasts disappoints, so if you ever find yourself in the area, a stay at their B&B is highly recommended!
This was our first visit to Mobile, so we wanted to do plenty of exploring. The first afternoon, we drove over to the east side of Mobile Bay to Fairhope, AL. Fairhope was founded by a bunch of midwesterners (mostly from Iowa - some Minnesotans too!) who wanted to create a new utopian society. While their vision probably didn't come to full fruition, what was left behind was a very nice town with a beautiful walking downtown.
Flowers lined every sidewalk and we really enjoyed window shopping, visiting the cafe and great independent bookstore, and walking through the recently opened history museum. The town also has a great pier out into Mobile Bay.
The next day we explored Dauphin Island, a barrier island out in the Gulf of Mexico a half-hour south of Mobile. Thankfully we had the Subaru... Dauphin Island is maybe one inch above sea level!
While it is a beautiful place, I'm not so sure about the real estate prospects here. I wonder how you get hurricane and flood insurance when your house is already standing in the Gulf of Mexico on a sunny day? These people are brave!
On the east end of the island is Fort Gaines, which protected the mouth of Mobile Bay from enemy warships for over 100 years in the 19th and 20th centuries. We explored the ruins of the fort, and from its walls you could see far out into the Bay. We were fascinated by the dozens of oil platforms which stand just offshore.
On our final morning in the area, we visited the USS Alabama battleship park, which is right in downtown Mobile. The ship won nine battle stars in the Pacific theater of WWII. The entire ship is now open to the public for exploration.
We wandered through the ship for hours. Loren would be right at home in the ship's workshop!
Meanwhile, maybe it's best if Katie doesn't switch careers to run the engine room of a battleship...
It was fascinating to explore all the nooks and crannies. My favorite part was the gedunk, which is apparently what people in the 40s Navy called the ice cream shop. I imagine when you're in the middle of the Pacific for months on end, the ship's gedunkmaster is probably the most popular member of the crew. Word to the wise, though: you did NOT want to have a cavity on the ship - the dentist's office was SCARY!
We had a great getaway in Mobile and we are so glad we finally got to explore that part of the state. We also got in a lot of needed relaxation time at the B&B, spending mornings biking around the area and lazy afternoons reading on the porch. Definitely just what we needed for our anniversary after a long and trying year. We're both very proud of what we've accomplished these first six years. After everything we've been through, we're still going strong!
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