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Lecture Tour of America 1882

Writing and Research on Oscar Wilde

Mobile

Alabama

Frascati Theatre

Wednesday, June 28, 1882

The Decorative Arts

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Verification

Newspaper report

The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, LA), June 29, 1882, 4

Newspaper advertisement

Mobile Register, June 28, 1882

Venue

Frascati Theatre

Frascati Park, Old Shell Road, Mobile, AL (on the western shore of Mobile Bay)

Park developed: 1860s (Henry Nabring)

Owner in 1882: Apolonia Horst (widow of Martin Horst, who had purchased the site)

Destroyed (storm): October 2, 1893

Later: Monroe Park

Now: Brookley Field

Accommodation

Battle House Hotel

SE corner of Royal and Francis Streets, Mobile, AL

Opened: November 13, 1852 (James Battle)

Destroyed (fire): 1905

Replaced: 1908 by a second Battle House Hotel, now The Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel, extant

Ephemera

WILDE MEETS JEFFERSON DAVIS

Newspaper article

The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, LA), June 30, 1882

On his way from New Orleans to Mobile, Wilde stopped off at Biloxi to visit Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederate States of America, at his home at Beauvoir.

Sketch of Wilde in Mrs Jefferson Davis’ copy of Wilde’s Poems.

John Cooper on Oscar Wilde © 2026