Old City Hall, Historic museum building in downtown Mobile, Alabama.

The Old City Hall stands as a well-preserved example of Italianate architecture from the 1850s, featuring stucco over brick construction, decorative brackets, wood trim, and an octagonal cupola that crowns its U-shaped configuration.

Planned in 1854 as the city's main market for vegetables, meat and fish, the complex gained municipal offices after Mobile's old city hall on Conti and Jackson Street burned on 27 December 1855. Architect Thomas Simmons James designed the first phase, and payment receipts show completion by 20 April 1857. In 1910 William L. Denham added a council chamber above a new bridge linking the front and back of the central sections.

The name Southern Market survives from the building's first role, selling vegetables, meat and fish. The History Museum of Mobile has occupied it since 1997; its permanent Old Ways New Days exhibit traces the city from colonization to the present, while Walls and Halls displays furniture, antique silver and artwork. A six-month featured exhibit changes periodically.

Located at 111 South Royal Street in Mobile's historic district, the museum operates with regular public hours and offers educational exhibits that provide visitors with insights into the city's governmental and commercial heritage.

This National Historic Landmark from 1973 originally featured four interconnected rectangular sections linked by three arcaded passageways, making it a rare surviving example of 19th-century multifunctional civic architecture in the United States.