It Came From The Porch : Downtown

 

On a peaceful Sunday afternoon, Bill, Sid and myself headed downtown with the intent of photographing old signage: painted advertisements revealed on the sides of buildings when the adjoining structures had been torn down. Downtown Mobile is more or less deserted on Sundays, and the late afternoon sunlight turned everything golden.

This is the corner of Dauphin & Jackson Street (looking west on Dauphin.) That's Cathedral Square to the left. This is the area of Dauphin undergoing the most revitalization, with lots of clubs, restaurants, etc. to the east and west. The building to the right is the downtown branch of the Mobile Musem of Art. To the left of the museum is A Spot of Tea, a great place to have breakfast on the weekends. It's fronted by huge plate glass windows, so you can sit, drink good coffee, eat and watch the rave kids walk by, still awake from the night before.

Bill enjoys the sunlight down towards Royal Street.

An old standpipe connection outside of Dreyton Place on the southwest corner of Dauphin & Royal.

We turned south down Royal towards Government Blvd. Along Royal, lots of the old buildings are being torn down, revealing signage like this in many spots.

Walking westwards on Government Street. There are no trees in the background because that's where the river is. The low concrete walls to the right surround the entrance to the Bankhead Tunnel, which runs under the Mobile River and carries Highway 90 (Government Street when it's in Mobile) to the Eastern Shore. The round building is the Imax theatre in the new Exploreum.

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