Mobile, Alabama January21, 2009

We left early this morning in hopes of getting to Mobile before it got too late. My sister, Duanne and I, had originally planned to go to the Ruins of Windsor in Southwestern Mississippi but changed our minds because of travel time. Since this was a short day trip and we needed to be back to Petal, Mississippi by 4 or 4:30 PM. I picked her up at 6:15 and we hit highway 98 East just as the sun was coming over the tops of the trees. It was 23 degrees according to the thermometer in the car. After a stop for breakfast we arrived at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at 2 South Claiborne Street. It is a large Catholic church downtown near the Exploreum. It was open and no one was there so we were free to look around and snap photos without disturbing anyone. A very stately place with huge columns on the front of the brick building. The church is 164 ft. long and 90 ft. wide. It has large 60 ft. arched ceilings with some sort of paintings and 12stained glass windows on the left and right walls plus on the walls of the 2 towers which are 103 feet tall, a large alter and a large statue of Christ. It also has a spiral staircase near the front that descends into an area that had a locked gate on it. Behind the gate was another alter and what appeared to be burial chamber...probably for priests and nuns. There was a large balcony with a gigantic organ.
The cathedral was completed for worship in 1850. The portico was added in 1870 and the towers were added in 1884.
The main stained glass windows on the left and right walls as you walk in are 23 feet tall and 8 feet wide and there are 6 on each side, each depicting an event involving Mary, Mother of Jesus. Two other windows are located under the towers flanking the portico.
We had to backtrack for our 2ND stop: The Visitation Monastery. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't a convent. As soon as we pulled in I started having flashbacks of my catholic school days at St. Jerome's in Baltimore and Mother Superior. I wouldn't even get out of the car. It was a pretty place but I just did not want to stay. We sat there for a few minutes and discussed it an finally to my relief went to our last destination...a graveyard. Much better.

The Historic Magnolia Cemetery is at 1202 Virginia Street and nicely kept. It is the third oldest cemetery on Mobile and covers 125 acres. It was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1986 and has literally hundreds and hundreds of architecturally artistic memorials covering 1700's to the present. Some pieces are damaged related to Hurricanes but from vandalism as well.

Just across the street is the National Cemetery where the veterans and those killed in action are buried and next to that is the Spring Hill Street Temple Cemetery.