Mobile’s Bienville Square will celebrate its 200th anniversary as a public park next year, but Mobile officials hope it’s revitalized before then.

Once a site of an old Spanish hospital, and where President Theodore Roosevelt gave a rousing address in 1905, the park remains somewhat diminished since it took a beating by Hurricane Sally nearly three years ago.

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A $3.2 million project, which is expected to be completed before the end of the year – or before Mardi Gras at the latest – aims at restoring the historic park that is popular place for brown bag luncheons and squirrel feeding.

“The park has been called Mobile’s living room since it first began to take shape in the middle of the 19th century,” said Carol Hunter, spokeswoman with the Downtown Mobile Alliance. “The park has undergone a lot of changes over the decades. The goal now is that this new plan (for Bienville Square) reflects more of the way current users use parks with flexible seating and a seat wall that greatly expands where people can be (seated) in the Square.”

The Mobile City Council is expected to vote in the coming weeks on a contract with Mobile-based JPayne Organizations LLC. The company will oversee a project that includes, among other things, the return of the park’s iconic cast-iron fountain removed in 2021 for refurbishment.

The Ketchum fountain, built in 1896 and to honor physician George Augustus Ketchum, was damaged by the storm. It has since been refurbished by Robinson Iron Works of Alexander City, which dismantled it in 2021 and has since restored it to include the construction of a new basin.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming the fountain back and have it displayed in all its splendor,” said Kellie Hope, president of the board of directors with the Downtown Parks Conservancy.

Other new park features, according to Hunter, include:

• New LED lighting in and around the fountain that will be computer controlled and will give the city an opportunity for a lighting scheme around the iconic structure once its returned. The lighting, Hunter said, could be coordinated to match similar colors that illuminate the 35-story RSA Tower.
• A low brick “seat” wall with a broad top encircling the fountain that will allow visitors extra spaces for seating within the Square.
• New paving around the central plaza area will feature blue stone and granite, Hunter said. She also said that the walkways will be redone, although the general layout of the park will remain the same.

Hope said her organization is “thrilled” the project will soon be underway, calling it “transformational to be able to restore and rejuvenate” the Square.

Hunter said the park will function as a “passive space” for people who are living downtown.

“With more and more people living downtown in apartments and condos, they don’t have backyards or front yards,” Hunter said. “Our green space is critically important for our residents who need respite from that built-in environment. That’s what we want Bienville Square to be.”

Hunter said the council’s vote will cover the entire master plan for the park.