Built 1836, Fort Conde Inn is Mobile, Alabama’s second oldest house and its interior and exterior finishes reflect its architectural vintage from original heart pine flooring and customer-milled stairways, moldings, and window and door trim to marble fireplace mantle, plaster walls, 12-foot ceilings and crystal chandeliers. Walking into the Inn today is like taking a step back in time to when the home was originally built.
Its owner, Lawrence Posner, can tell you all about what it took to save this area and make it the little gem of an area near downtown Mobile that it is today. For years it has been the intention of the City of Mobile to restore Fort Conde Village to its original splendor, but efforts by several developers had fallen flat. Posner says he didn’t ever feel that this section was an eyesore because the buildings were beautiful to him, even in the dilapidated state. Thanks to Posner, the area is now history reconstructed and everything from the gas lamps that light the cobblestone streets to the buildings themselves, shows it. Meticulous restoration is blended with modern conveniences to make these properties both beautiful and livable. The hotel is one of 11 projects that this former attorney from New York has completed here. The other houses of Fort Conde Village are used as office spaces, ideal for their downtown location. Their Victorian parlors are now conference rooms warmed by fireplaces and gas-style chandeliers. Posner says fixing up grand old properties has “become like an addiction to him.”
