Hannagan Meadow Lodge

1 • Alabama

Fort Conde Inn

Mobile, Alabama https://www.fortcondeinn.com/

The haunting of the Fort Conde Inn has less to do with this manor turned hotel and more to do with the history of the land it occupies. Before the house ever existed, the French stronghold of Fort Conde (otherwise known as Fort Charlotte) dominated this portion of Mobile.

Constructed in 1723 and named after Louis Henry de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, the fort protected the Gulf Coast of Mobile from Spanish and British attack until 1762. Then the British took over, changing the name to Fort Charlotte. The Spanish moved in after them in 1780, and then in 1813, American soldiers finally took possession. Congress determined that the fort was no longer needed in 1820 and it was dismantled.

The Hall-Ford House was built after the removal of the fort in 1836. It’s a classic, three-story Greek Revival masterpiece built from a fortune made in the cotton business. It would serve as a family home for several generations of the Hall and Ford families, even during the dark years of Mobile’s red-light district.

Throughout the 1800s, prostitution was commonplace along the waterfront of Mobile in an area known as Shakespeare’s Row. The French would bring ladies of the night from as far as Paris, and it was quite common for the girls to work in multiple towns, including the famed Storyville section of New Orleans. By the 1880s, bordellos had infested the local saloons and were quickly becoming a problem for the city.