The genesis of Old City Hall in 1854 was as the Southern Market where folks could buy and sell vegetables, meat and fish. As construction was progressing the existing city hall, sited at Jackson and Conti streets, went up in flames. When the Italianate building designed by Thomas Simmons James opened in 1858 it contained the marketplace, space for the local militia to assemble and offices for the municipal government. Alterations through the years have resulted in a complex of four rectangular sections linked by three arcaded passageways. You could still buy a basket of vegetables here as late as 1942; since 1997 the building has housed the Museum of Mobile. Mobile’s City Council continues to convene in this building a few times a year in order to carry on the tradition of having met in this location continuously since its opening in 1858.
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