In the last post, I tracked the circle alignment from New Orleans, on the Mississippi River in the southeastern part of Louisiana; across Lake Pontchartrain to Slidell in St. Tammany Parish; to Gulfport on the Gulf of Mexico coast, and the second-largest city in Mississippi after the state capital, Jackson.
I am picking up the alignment in Biloxi, part of the Biloxi-Gulfport Metropolitan area, and is a county seat of Harrison County, along with Gulfport.
Its beachfront lies directly on the Mississippi Sound. A sound is defined as a large sea or ocean inlet.
Fort Maurepas, also called Old Biloxi, and was located at present-day Ocean Springs, approximately 2-miles, or 3.2-kilometers, east of Biloxi. It was said to have been developed by the French in 1699, and we are told it burned down around 1722.
This is Fort Maurepas City Park and Nature Preserve today, which has a pavilion, large green space, playground equipment, and a splash pad.
This is an historic view of Howard Street at Lemeuse Street in Biloxi…
…and Howard Street at Lemeuse today. I find the copper turret, arches, and columns in this photo to be noteworthy.
For comparison, here is a turret from Calpe, Spain on the Mediterranean Costa Blanca. Not identical, but similar in shape.
The City Hall in Biloxi also serves as the Post Office, Courthouse, and Custom House. It was said to have been built by James Knox Taylor as the supervising architect between 1905 and 1908, with its huge columns and arches.
James Knox Taylor was also credited with being the supervising architect of approximately thirty other buildings between 1897 and 1912, like the old post office in Buffalo, New York, in 1901…
…the San Francisco post office and courthouse in 1905. This building is now the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
…and the Alaska Governor’s Mansion in Juneau in 1912.
We don’t question what we have been taught about who built this architecture because why would we?
Does it make sense to have the technology to build architecture like this built in this time period according to the history we have been taught?
Next on the alignment is Mobile, Alabama, the county seat of Mobile County and the principal municipality of the Mobile Metropolitan area.
The Fort of Colonial Mobile, also known as Fort Conde, was said to have been built by the French in 1723. Here is a map depicting it in 1725.
This is what Fort Conde looks like today.
The Old Mobile site was the location of the French settlement La Mobile and the associated Fort Louis de la Louisiane, said to have been built in 1702…
…at a place called Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff on the Mobile River.
Fort Morgan is on Mobile Point at the entrance of Mobile Bay, and said to have been built between 1819 and 1834.
This is an 1892 photograph of the Pincus Building, also known as the Zadek Building, on the corner of Dauphin Street and Royal Street in the Lower Dauphin Street Historic District.
It was said to have been built in 1891 by local architect Rudolph Benz and first housed the Zadek Jewelry Company. When I searched, no biographical information showed up about him.
This is how the Pincus Building looks today. The original round tower and spire were said to have been removed in the 1940s.
I wonder why that was done…the original building sure looked like it was built to last forever!
This is the Old City Hall and Southern Market in Mobile.
It was said to have been built between 1855 and 1857 as a combination city hall and marketplace for selling vegetables, meat, and fish. The architect was Thomas Simmons James. Like with Rudolph Benz, no biographical information came up when I searched for him.
It is said to be an Italianate style in design. Here is a detail of arcade ironwork at the Old City Hall…
…and an octagonal cupola crowning the central section.
This is the Barton Academy, the first public school in Alabama said to have been built between 1836 to 1839, and to have been designed by James Dakin, Charles Dakin, and the New Orleans architect, James Gallier.
So, how are they building buildings of this size and complexity in the 1830s, according to the history we have been taught? And for a public school?
The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception was said to have been designed by Claude Beroujon, a seminarian turned architect, and built between 1835 and 1850.
This is the Passenger Terminal of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. It was said to have been completed in 1907, and designed by P. Thornton Marye.
He is also credited with being the architect for such buildings as the Atlanta Terminal Station, which opened in 1905, and was demolished in 1972…
…and the Birmingham Terminal Station, said to have been completed in 1909, and demolished in 1969.
Next on the alignment is Montgomery, the capital city of Alabama.
Montgomery is named for Richard Montgomery, an Irish soldier first serving in the British army, who later became a Major General in the Continental Army. He was most famous for leading the unsuccessful 1775 invasion of Canada, where he was killed.
It is interesting to note that a major general who was killed during battle in an invasion that was unsuccessful would have so many places named after him. I grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland, which was named after him as well.
This is the Alabama State Capitol Building in Montgomery, said to have been built from 1850 to 1851. They were building massive architecture like this 10 years before the start of the American Civil War?
The capitol building is located on top of one end of Dexter Avenue, along which also lies the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor.
Both of these buildings are recognized as National Historic Landmarks by the U. S. Department of the Interior.
This is a view of the cotton marketing in Montgomery circa 1900. Note the contrast of the rudimentary horse and buggies with the architecture in the square pictured here.
The images we are conveyed historically via literature, movies and television are like these photos from Old Alabama Town in Montgomery.
The architecture from earlier time periods in American history doesn’t match up with the historical narrative.
We have had television shows like “Little House on the Prairie” and “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” informing us about what life was like in the 1800s just like in these pictures from Old Alabama Town. It does not include anything about the monumental architecture that is attributed to the same time period.
Montgomery was said to have had the first city-wide system of electric streetcars in 1886, known as the “Lightning Route.”
For some reason it only operated for 50 years, when in 1936, the streetcars were retired in a big ceremony and replaced by buses. Sounds like a step backwards to me!
The Garden District is a 315-acre, or 127-hectare…
…historic district in Montgomery…
…that has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984.
The Cloverdale Historic District of Montgomery includes Huntingdon College, a private Methodist Liberal Arts College, was established in 1854 first as a women’s college, and this building, Flowers Memorial Hall, was said to have been completed in 1910.
This is an historic photo of the Montgomery Union Station, said to have been built in 1898.
It stopped being used as a railroad station in 1979, but at least the building is still standing and is utilized as the Visitors Center for Montgomery and commercial space for businesses.
Fort Toulouse is an historic park near Wetumpka, Alabama, and is considered part of the Montgomery Metropolitan area. This is said to be a replica of the original fort.
In Wetumpka, there is a place called the Jasmine Hill Gardens which is said to have full-size replica of the ancient Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece.
Must be a replica, right? There couldn’t possibly have been anything like this already here based on the history we have been taught!
West of Montgomery, at Epes in Sumter County, Alabama, was Fort Tombecbe on the Tombigbee River, said to have been built by the French between 1736 and 1737 as a trading post.
The original structure is pretty much not there anymore…
…and is located just downriver from the White Cliffs of Epes in rural Alabama.
The infinitely more famous White Cliffs of Dover are a national landmark of England.
I will end this post here, and pick up the alignment in the next post in Atlanta, Georgia.