December Organization Member of the Month
Congratulations to our December Organization Member of the Month, the Condé-Charlotte Museum!
The Condé-Charlotte Museum and its collections are used as tools to educate the public about local, regional, and national history. Docents are committed to imparting its history to visitors, offering tours which last between one and two hours. The first level of the museum features four rooms, each with a unique display representing a distinct portion of Mobile History:
• A British Commandant’s room reflecting Mobile under British rule (the early 1760s through the early 1780s)
• An American Federal dining room representing the early 1800s
• Two Confederate parlors representing the antebellum period in Mobile. An opening in one room’s wooden floor offers visitors a glimpse of a two-foot-thick brick floor dating from the 1820s, when the structure was Mobile’s first jail.
The second floor presents a French sitting room and bedroom representing the early 1700s, and two American bedrooms from the mid-1800s when Jonathan Kirkbride’s family first made it their home. A walled Spanish garden of late 18th century design and a kitchen filled with late 19th and early 20th century equipment complement the house.
Each furnishing in the house was carefully researched and selected by state Colonial Dames for its authenticity and historic significance to the community and region, making the house an excellent teaching medium wherein visitors may surround themselves in history.
The Condé-Charlotte Museum was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 12, 1973.
According to National Register of Historic Places documentation, “the Kirkbride or Condé-Charlotte House is one of Mobile’s older standing structures and is one of the more architecturally interesting homes in the city. The federal period house with its sophisticated Greek Revival portico, added in the 1840s, was constructed in the 1820s on the site of the old Fort Conde, later Fort Charlotte.”
Enjoy the beauty of the holidays at one of the oldest homes in Alabama from November 16, 2023 – January 6, 2024. The variety and authenticity of antiques and Christmas decorations that furnish the Conde-Charlotte Museum reflect Mobile’s history under the five flags of nations that governed the Port City: France, England, Spain, the Confederacy, and the United States. The Conde-Charlotte Museum is open Thursday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. The museum will be closed December 21, 2023 – January 3, 2024. It will reopen on January 4, 2024.
