Bienville Square

Bienville Square had its beginnings as a public park in 1824 when the United States Congress passed an act that transferred a large plot of land to the city of Mobile and specified that the property be forever used as a city park. This plot had been the site of the old Spanish Hospital on the southwestern corner of the block, at the corner of Dauphin Street and North Conception Street.^[1] The city began buying the other lots in the block in 1834 and, by 1849, held title to the entire block.

The May 30, 1869 edition of the Mobile Register gives a short history of the square:

For thirty years of more Bienville Square-- the public square as it was called for two thirds of that time-has had an existence, but in its neglected state, a receptacle of trash and a lair for vagabonds, it was an absolute nuisance until it was put into its present condition through the energy, good taste and liberal judgement of Lewis T. Woodruff. Bienville Square as it is, is his creation, and he never ceased to feel an interest in its being properly cared for.

The square was a primary gathering place for residents of the city from the 1850s to the 1940s. By the late 1960s, however, Bienville Square had become rundown as the city lost population to the suburbs in the postwar housing developments.^[2] With the revival of downtown starting in the 1980s, the city renewed the square and its popularity increased.

In September 2020, Hurricane Sally badly damaged a number of the large trees in the square, creating open sky, where a green, shady canopy once was.^[3]

Theodore Roosevelt spoke in the square in 1905 about the importance of the Panama Canal to the port of Mobile.^[4] It was the site of many mass meetings by shipyard workers from Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company during World War II as the company experienced labor disputes.^[5]