Carlen House

Carlen House is a historic Gulf Coast cottage located at the northern edge of the Murphy High School campus in Mobile. The structure was built according to the regional construction methods typical of 19th-century coastal dwellings and remains visible on the school grounds today.

The house was built in 1843 by Irish immigrants Michael and Mary Carlen, who raised their large family there while farming the land. In 1923, the Mobile County School Board purchased much of the original property to establish an educational campus.

The house displays the features of Gulf Coast cottage design that was common in the region during the 1800s. This style of building reflects how people lived and constructed homes along the coastal area at that time.

The house sits on active school grounds and cannot be visited by the public from inside. You can view the structure from outside along the campus perimeter while respecting school property boundaries.

The original property covered about 38 acres, though only a small portion with the house remains today. Most of the land was developed in the following decades and is now part of the school campus.