Photo courtesy Historic Mobile Preservation Society
When the current Battle House Hotel was completed in November of 1908, newspaper accounts described a “Magnificent Convention Hall, as big as a small theater, seating 800” on the seventh and eighth floors. The hotel also claimed that “it is so ventilated that the temperature there in the middle of summer is not over 70 degrees,” and it could accommodate up to 1,200 people.
The long room extended east-west on that level and featured polished maple floors and a “roomy gallery” at its western end. It was designed for “balls, dinners and business or political meetings” and had design elements reminiscent of the lobby below.
The hall had an adjoining kitchen described as “well-ventilated” with serving and stock rooms. And further south on this floor was a huge commercial laundry described as having concrete floors, walls and ceiling to assure a fireproof space.
A marble staircase connected the two floors, allowing guests access to the eighth-floor roof garden, which faced both Royal and St. Francis streets. A succession of arbors, according to one description, gave “a pergola effect representative of an old English garden.” Vines planted in tubs adorned the trellises which also had “hundreds of incandescent lamps.” Although Mobilians today are used to a well-lit skyline, this must have seemed incredible back in 1908.
A Soft Opening
The first use of the auditorium was months before the hotel officially opened. On July 25, 1908, it was used for local leaders to “discuss the question of good roads for the county.” No mention was made as to the participants’ reaction to their surroundings.
Approximately two weeks before the grand opening, the Mobile Register reported that “the auditorium atop the New Battle House Hotel hosted a banquet for the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.”
On November 21, 1908, a two-day open house took place for the public to inspect the new hotel from top to bottom. They raved over the lobby and its adjoining Grand Cafe and Trellis Room. Music was provided by a house orchestra on the balcony of the mezzanine. Two elevators brought visitors to view a few of the 250 guestrooms as well as the Roof Garden and the Convention Hall.
The next night, the Commercial Club held their banquet there. Railroad executive Colonel E. L. Russell served as toastmaster and the event opened with the orchestra playing “The Star Spangled Banner” as the attendees stood at attention.
In December, that hall began a busy schedule which would continue for decades. On December 19, it hosted a conference for the officials of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. The next night it hosted a University Military School “hop,” and the space would host numerous high school fraternity dances in the years to come.
S.C.S. held the first of countless Mardi Gras balls here, filling the space with potted palms and smilax vines for decoration. The Striker’s, Mobile’s oldest mystic society, held their New Year’s Eve ball with guests strolling up to the roof garden where they could hear the sounds of firecrackers and horns ringing in 1909.
Undoubtedly the most historic event to take place here was in 1913. Woodrow Wilson was given a presidential breakfast with the city’s most prominent men in attendance.
In 1926, the hotel underwent numerous updates. Out went the brass bedsteads and claw-foot bathtubs. The Trellis Room was destroyed to create a meeting room on the mezzanine and The Camellia Room, a restaurant beneath it, opening to the lobby.
Competition Arrives
The Convention Hall atop the Battle House survived and would be the city’s largest event space until 1936. That was when a bigger competitor arrived, a newly completed armory, Fort Whiting. Events began moving to the new facility until the arrival of Brookley Air Force base and the start of World War II. Mardi Gras and other festivities came to an abrupt end.
At the start of that war, another event took place in Boston which would also alter history. On a Saturday night in late November, 1942, a fire broke out in the overcrowded Cocoanut Grove night club. In the smoky dark confusion 492 of an estimated 1,000 revelers died and another 166 were hospitalized.
Building and fire codes across the nation were under scrutiny and revised. After World War II both of Mobile’s hotel rooftop gardens were closed. The Cawthon’s Vineyard Cafe was converted into guest rooms and public spaces moved entirely to the lobby level.
In October of 1949, the Battle House underwent a complete renovation costing over $1.8 million (over $24 million today). The Convention Hall was destroyed, its lumber ripped out and used for scaffolding. Its top was cut off and replaced by a concrete floor. The new level had employee lockers and restrooms, a large closet for linen storage and a special locked room for the storage of woolen blankets which could be fumigated for moths.
The adjoining kitchen was gutted for additional guest rooms and two more rooms replaced the marble staircase. The Roof Garden was abandoned and roof top space was taken over by the equipment for a new $250,000 air conditioning system.
On the lobby level, the Grand Cafe was converted into the Crystal Ballroom, which became the favored location for many Mardi Gras events until the arrival of the Municipal Auditorium.
With the more recent renovation of the hotel by RSA, the Trellis Room was beautifully recreated and pergolas returned to the roof top, but the space where a president was once so proudly entertained survives only in photographs.
Battle House Hotel • 26 N Royal St., Mobile, AL 36602 | marriott.com
