Tom McGehee
Ask McGehee: What ever happened to the old Malbis bakery?
The Malbis Bakery, although owned by Jason Malbis, was never actually located in the Baldwin County town. In the early 1920s, Jason Malbis crossed...
Ask McGehee: I heard one of the old homes that used to be in...
According to local folklore, the city’s oldest house stood at 190 St. Anthony St., with a portion of the house dating to the city’s Spanish period...
Ask McGehee: How old are the oaks in Bienville Square?
According to Ron Jackson, the longtime urban forester for Mobile, live oaks have been in that location since at least 1812. At that time, land...
Ask McGehee: Didn’t Mobile once have two different daily newspapers?
In the late 1920s, Mobile had only one newspaper, which published a morning and weekly afternoon edition. Mississippi-born Frederick Ingate Thompson owned The Mobile Register, ...
Ask McGehee: Didn’t Mobile’s Saenger Theatre originally have a pipe organ?
According to news clippings from the opening in January 1927, the Saenger Theatre had every luxury at the time – air-conditioning, uniformed usherettes and “program girls,...
Ask McGehee: When was Government Plaza built, and how did that design ever get...
A Mobile County Courthouse had stood on the southwest corner of Government and Royal streets since 1822. The fifth and last incarnation had been built in 1958, ...
Ask McGehee: Recently a brick building on Government Street, just east of Broad Street,...
The building, located at 850 Government St., dated to around 1944 when it housed a new A&P grocery store. Until 1928, this lot had held...
Ask McGehee: What is the history of Baytreat at Battles Wharf in Baldwin County?
Nestled among the waterfront estates of Battles Wharf is a facility owned and operated by Mobile’s Government Street Presbyterian Church. While architecturally resembling many of its neighbors with...
Ask McGehee: A “Warehouse District” in Mobile?
While it was not officially called the warehouse district, there was, beginning in the 19th century, a small city of warehouses between Water Street and...
Ask McGehee: What ever happened to the Bienville Hotel?
In 1900, it was announced that Mobile would soon have a new hotel on the northwest corner of St. Francis and St. Joseph streets. The northern side...
