MARKER HIGHLIGHTING KNOWLES STREET

FRONT SIDE: 

Sand Town, the oldest African American neighborhood in the area 

of Spring Hill, in Mobile, Alabama, was established before 1845, by

former enslaved and free, indigenous people of color. Sand Town residents

built their own homes, school and places of worship and founded the Rising

Sons Cemetery. It is a thriving community populated by multigenerational

descendants of the original, proud and hard-working property owners.

The Spring Hill School for Colored applied to open in 1873 and remained

open through the 1948-49 school year. The Mt. Hebron Methodist

Church was formed in 1847. After a fire in 1884, a new church was

constructed at the corner of Spring Hill Avenue and Knowles Street.

Sand Town ancestors, former residents and veterans are buried in the

Rising Sons Cemetery, located at the end of Knowles Street.

In 1937, under the guidance of Spring Hill College, St. Augustine

Catholic Church, a log cabin, was built for Colored Catholics in the

area. It existed until 1963, when many African American Catholics in 

Spring Hill began attending St. Ignatius Catholic Church. Windows and

doors from St. Augustine Church are installed in the Mt. Hebron A. M. E.

Zion Church.

BACK SIDE:

The community and descendants of Sand Town

grew from the original founding families

and residents listed below, who resided on 

Knowles Street:

Christopher Knowles, Lewis Morgan,

Elizabeth Johnson, Theodore Johnson,

Manuel Milligan

Originally, Sand Town was comprised of land

in and around Spring Hill Avenue and Knowles

Street and eventually grew to include Mordecai

and Sheips Lanes and land to Three Mile Creek.