Tom McGehee
Ask McGehee: What is the history of Mobile’s Admiral Hotel?
The 12-story hotel was opened in November 1940, and named in honor of Mobile’s Admiral Raphael Semmes. It had been constructed over a course of 15 months at a total cost of $1 million — well over $21 million in today’s dollars.
Ask McGehee: What was the Zimmer Memorial Home?
In October of 1923, Catholic Bishop Edward Patrick Allen dedicated the Zimmer Memorial Institute at 2567 St. Stephens Road in Toulminville.
Ask McGehee: What are the details of the marker concerning a lynching in Mobile?
At roughly 1:15 a.m. on the morning of January 23, 1909, a group of two dozen armed, masked men strolled into what was then called the New Jail at 104 Church Street and held a gun on a deputy to obtain the keys to the cells. A prisoner was taken by force out onto the street and dragged west.
Ask McGehee: Where did the name of the Leinkauf historic district originate?
That designated district, located south of Government Street, is named for the historic public school located on Church Street.
Ask McGehee: Who was Emma Roche?
Emma Langdon Roche (1878 - 1945) once described herself as an “artist, writer, housekeeper and farmer.” In retrospect, she could well be termed Mobile’s “Renaissance Woman.”
Ask McGehee: What is the history of “Skull Island?”
“Skull Island” or “Massacre Island” were names given to what we have long known as Dauphin Island.
Ask McGehee: What’s the story of the First National Bank building on St. Francis...
Although Mobile’s First National Bank will long be identified with the skyscraper which is now home to the New Year’s MoonPie, the bank had a few former homes.
Ask McGehee: Who designed Mobile’s Battle House Hotel?
Although routinely missing from a list of his creations, the Battle House Hotel was designed by renowned architect Frank Mills Andrews in 1906.
Ask McGehee: Do any of the characters in HBO’s series “The Gilded Age” have...
The lead character, social climber Bertha Russell, was certainly inspired in part by Mobile-born Alva Smith Vanderbilt.
Ask McGehee: What’s the history of the Girls’ Preparatory School of Mobile?
Girls’ Preparatory School would probably have enjoyed a long run, but the stock market crash and untimely death of the school's founder caused the institution to close its doors.