The Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel & Spa

Stand on North Royal Street in downtown Mobile, Alabama, during Mardi Gras and the parade passes under the balconies of The Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel & Spa, as it has passed earlier buildings of the same name since the 1850s. The city's carnival is older than New Orleans's, and the Battle House has been its grandstand for most of that history.

History

James Battle and his half-brothers opened the first Battle House in November 1852 on the site of Andrew Jackson's military headquarters from the War of 1812. Millard Fillmore, Stephen Douglas and Jefferson Davis stayed in that building, and it saw out the Civil War and the decades after it. In February 1905 a fire destroyed it. The owners rebuilt on the same ground, and the new Battle House opened in 1908, designed by Frank Mills Andrews, the architect of the Kentucky State Capitol and the Hotel McAlpin in New York. Woodrow Wilson gave a speech here in 1913 as president.

The hotel declined with the city centre and closed in 1974. It stood empty for more than thirty years, roof leaking, until the Retirement Systems of Alabama, the state pension fund, bought it as part of a downtown project. The restoration ran to several years and the hotel reopened in May 2007 under Marriott's Renaissance flag, beside the new RSA Battle House Tower, which at 745 feet is the tallest building in Alabama. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and belongs to Historic Hotels of America.

Architecture and design

Andrews's 1908 building is steel-framed and clad in brick and terracotta, eight storeys with a cornice that reads from the river. Its interior is the reason to come. The lobby rises to a stained-glass skylight, and the Trellis Room beyond it has a domed ceiling of leaded glass and painted trelliswork that survived the decades of closure under layers of grime. The Crystal Ballroom on the mezzanine keeps its original plasterwork and chandeliers. The restoration cleaned and repaired rather than replaced, and the public rooms look much as they did when the building opened.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 238 rooms and suites across the historic building and the lower floors of the tower. Rooms in the old building have higher ceilings and windows onto Royal Street; those in the tower are larger and more uniform, with views over the city and Mobile Bay. Furnishing is traditional, with dark wood and tall headboards, and the suites in the historic wing have sitting rooms under the original mouldings.

Dining

The Trellis Room is the main restaurant, serving dinner under the glass dome. The Royal Street Tavern, off the lobby, is the bar, with live music on some evenings, and Joe Cain Café, named after the man who revived Mobile's Mardi Gras in 1866, serves breakfast and casual meals. The hotel's position a block from Dauphin Street puts the city's own restaurants within easy reach.

Wellness

The Spa at the Battle House offers massages, facials and body treatments, and the fitness centre is open around the clock. The rooftop pool sits on the tower side, with a children's pool and a whirlpool, and looks out over the downtown skyline.

Weddings and events

The Crystal Ballroom is the room every Mobile bride knows, with its mezzanine chandeliers and a long history of debutante balls and Mardi Gras society events; the Moonlight Ballroom on an upper floor is the second large room, and there is a set of smaller meeting rooms in the tower. The hotel hosts weddings, receptions and conferences, and its 16 event spaces make it the largest meeting hotel in the city centre. The parade route past the front door is the detail that decides a Mardi Gras wedding.

Location

26 North Royal Street is in the heart of downtown Mobile, one block from Dauphin Street, the main dining and bar street, and three blocks from the Mobile River and the convention centre. Fort Condé, the Mobile Carnival Museum and the Cathedral Basilica are within walking distance. Mobile Regional Airport is about 22 km west, around 25 minutes by car. Amtrak returned to Mobile with the Gulf Coast service to New Orleans, and the station is on the waterfront a few blocks away. As a luxury hotel in Mobile, the Battle House has no local rival of the same age or scale.