Cathedral Square (Mobile, Alabama)

Infobox park
park= Cathedral Square


image size=
caption= Western view of Cathedral Square with the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the background.
type= Public park
location= Mobile, Alabama
coordinates=
size= 1 city block
opened= 1997
operator= [http://www.cityofmobile.org/ City of Mobile]
annual visitors=
status= Open all year

Cathedral Square, also known as Cathedral Plazacite web|title="Cathedral Plaza"|work="City of Mobile"|url=http://www.cityofmobile.org/parks/parklist.php?view=full&park=11|accessdate=2008-03-17] , is a municipal park in Mobile, Alabama. It is bordered by the streets of North Claiborne, Dauphin, North Jackson, and Conti.

History

At one time what is now Cathedral Square was part of Mobile's 18th century Catholic cemetery, the Campo Santo. The Campo Santo was roughly convert|400|ft|m long by convert|300|ft|m wide and filled portions of what are now several city blocks between Joachim, Dauphin, Franklin, and Conti Streets. Most of the burials were moved to the new Church Street Graveyard in 1819 as Mobile's city boundary expanded. A few graves continued to be accidentally unearthed along Conti Street as late as the 1890s, however.cite book | last = Hamilton | first = Peter J. | year = 1897 | title = "Colonial Mobile An Historical Study, Largely from Original Sources, of the Alabama-Tombigbee Basin from the Discovery of Mobile Bay in 1519 Until the Demolition of Fort Charlotte in 1821" |pages=370-371| publisher = Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Co]

The area that is now Cathedral Square quickly became a commercial block filled with buildings after the relocation of the cemetery. The buildings were then demolished in 1979 to create a public park facing the Cathedral. The current park layout was implemented in 1997.cite web|title="Main Street Mobile"|work="Dauphin Street Virtual Walking Tour"|url=http://www.mainstreetmobile.org/html/guide/walking.html|accessdate=2007-09-26]

Features

The park features a layout that mirrors the neighboring Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The brick sidewalks mirror the walls and nave of the cathedral while a semicircular colonnade featuring fountains mirrors the apse.

References