10 Hidden Gems in Mobile, Alabama (That Most Visitors Miss)

Most visitors see the USS Alabama, walk Dauphin Street, and head home. They miss the best parts. These ten spots are the ones I point out on the tour that make people stop and say, “I had no idea.” Some are hiding in plain sight downtown; a few you could walk past a hundred times without knowing the story. Here’s what to look for.

1. The 1907 Peanut Roaster at the A&M Peanut Shop

That wonderful smell drifting across downtown? It comes from a single roaster that has been running since 1907. The A&M Peanut Shop opened in 1947 as part of the Planters Peanut chain, and when the chain sold in 1963, the original store manager bought it and renamed it for himself and his wife Mary. The machine still roasts peanuts, pecans, and cashews on-site every day. Walk in for the smell alone.

2. The 53-Foot Marble Soda Fountain Legacy at Van Antwerp

The Van Antwerp Building was Alabama’s first skyscraper and the first on the Gulf Coast, completed in 1907. Its ground floor once held a 53-foot white marble soda fountain advertised as the finest in the United States. Here’s the detail I love: nobody initially wanted offices above the fourth floor because Mobilians weren’t used to working that high up, so the architect, George B. Rogers, moved his own office to the top to prove it was safe. Doctors and dentists followed. The building became a true one-stop shop, prescription, milkshake, dry cleaning, flowers, and a taxi home, all under one roof.

3. The Oyster-Shell Indian Mounds on Dauphin Island

Long before the French, Native peoples lived along this river going back to the Mississippian period (roughly 1000–1500 AD). They grew corn, beans, and squash, hunted deer, bear, and even buffalo, and harvested oysters by the thousands. On Dauphin Island, you can still see the Indian Shell Mounds, some 25 feet high, built entirely from oyster shells and fish bones, meal after meal, over centuries. It’s a humbling, quiet place that most visitors never reach.

4. The Egyptian Revival Scottish Rites Temple

At 351 St. Francis Street stands the only Egyptian Revival building in Mobile, designed by George Rogers in 1921. Its stuccoed, battered walls slope inward like an ancient temple, and the entrances are flanked by a pair of sphinxes. You won’t find another building like it in the city.

5. Bishop Portier’s Creole Cottage and Crypt

Near Cathedral Square sits the modest Creole cottage built in 1834 for Bishop Michael Portier, the man who helped raise the funds to build the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and founded Spring Hill College, the oldest Catholic college in the South. Portier himself is buried in the crypt beneath the cathedral. The cottage still stands quietly nearby, easy to miss and full of history.

6. The Birthplace of America’s First Volunteer Fire Company

At 13 North Dearborn Street, the Creole Fire House #1 was built in 1872 to house the Creole #1 Fire Company, the first volunteer fire company in Mobile, founded in 1819 by members of the city’s Creole community. There’s a wonderful local legend that the Creole #1 was usually first to every fire because they bought rejected racehorses, including one named Jack who could follow his nose straight to the flames.

7. The Cast-Iron Stairway at the Joseph Silver House

At 257 St. Francis Street, the Joseph Silver House (1845) was built by a master mason and has a main entrance on the second level, reached by a dramatic cast-iron stairway rising straight from the sidewalk. The cast-iron porch dates from the 1920s and replaced an earlier wooden one. It’s one of the most photogenic and overlooked façades downtown.

8. The Sears, Roebuck Bandstand in Bienville Square

Everyone walks through Bienville Square. Almost nobody knows the bandstand at its center was a 1941 gift to the people of Mobile from Sears, Roebuck and Company. The square’s fountain, placed in 1890, honors Dr. George Ketchum, who brought safe drinking water to the city. Before all that, in the city’s rougher early days, people pastured cows, pigs, and horses here and washerwomen hung laundry on the grass.

9. The Real (Tattooed) Story of Bienville

This one’s a story, not a building, and it’s the one that surprises people most. Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, founded Mobile in 1702 and named these streets, Royal, Dauphin, St. Francis. To build trust with the Mauvilla people (who gave Mobile its name and taught the French to grow the crops that became our cuisine), Bienville would strip down to a loincloth, paddle a canoe upriver, and have them tattoo him. Explorers wrote that he was covered head to toe, and was especially fond of snake tattoos. Ask about him at Bienville Square and watch people’s faces when you tell them.

10. The Cadillac Connection at Squid Ink

Inside Squid Ink, one of downtown’s newer restaurants from celebrity chef Panini Pete, you’ll find nods on the walls to famous Mobilians, including Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. Cadillac founded Detroit, then did a stint as governor here in Mobile, and centuries later had a luxury car named after him. The menu itself is a hidden history lesson: fried calamari nods to Mobile’s British heritage, and paella fritters (fried like a hush puppy) nod to the Spanish. A meal here is a quiet tour through Mobile’s six flags.

See These Stories Come Alive

Half the fun of these spots is the story behind them, and stories are what we do best. On the Downtown Mobile Food Tour, you’ll hear these and a dozen more while you eat your way through the historic district. Check tour dates and times →

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some hidden gems in Mobile, Alabama?

Some of Mobile’s best-kept secrets include the 1907 roaster at the A&M Peanut Shop, the only Egyptian Revival building in the city (the Scottish Rites Temple), the oyster-shell Indian mounds on Dauphin Island, and the cast-iron stairway of the Joseph Silver House. Many are tucked into the downtown historic district.

What do tourists usually miss in Mobile?

Most visitors stick to the USS Alabama and Dauphin Street and miss the layered history downtown: the story of the city’s tattooed French founder Bienville, the Sears-gifted bandstand in Bienville Square, and the birthplace of Mobile’s first volunteer fire company in 1819.

What’s the most unusual building in downtown Mobile?

The Scottish Rites Temple at 351 St. Francis Street is the only Egyptian Revival building in Mobile, with inward-sloping walls and entrances flanked by sphinxes. The Van Antwerp Building, Alabama’s first skyscraper, is another standout.

Written by Chris Andrews, founder of Bienville Bites Food Tour, author of A Culinary History of Mobile, and host of the Port City Plate Podcast. Chris has guided thousands of visitors through downtown Mobile and knows every block, every building, and every good place to eat.