Getting the flavor of . . . Mobile’s antebellum mansions, and more

From the magazine:

Mobile's antebellum mansions

“Oh, the stories Mobile’s mansions tell,” said Gary Lee in The Washington Post. This languid Alabama city on Mobile Bay teems with the antebellum homes of cotton merchants and gentlemen farmers, which survive as a map to the city’s history. A good starting point is Battle House, where Stephen A. Douglas stayed on the night in 1860 when he finished last in the four-person election that sent Abraham Lincoln to Washington and sparked the Civil War. Soon after, the announcement that Alabama had seceded from the Union was made from a Battle House balcony. A mile west of downtown is Oakleigh, an 1830s Greek Revival mansion that is now a museum. Unique architectural features include a cantilevered front staircase, “grandly decorated back-to-back parlors,” and slave quarters. Bellingrath Gardens and Home features 68 acres of flowers and exotic flora, including more than 200,000 azaleas. Set on the banks of the Fowl River, the 15-room home also features one of the world’s biggest collections of Boehm porcelain.

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Contact: Historicmobile.org

An unusual Arizona trailer park

If you admire vintage Airstream trailers, you’ll love Shady Dell Trailer Park outside Bisbee, Ariz., said Chris Gray in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Guests at this unusual site can rent a meticulously restored vintage Airstream trailer, complete with a tiki bar and lawn ornaments. Located near “an old mining town turned artsy outpost 20 miles north of the Mexican border,” the park also includes Dot’s, a roadside diner that serves retro Route 66 fare. Our trailer was a 33-foot 1951 Spartan that “had the 1950s down pat”—wood paneling, flower-print curtains, novelty knickknacks, and an original refrigerator. Nearby was a bus-length trailer with its own grass hut. Guests can also sign up for Shady Dell’s “equivalent of a honeymoon suite”—a fully restored 38-foot Chris-Craft yacht. Bisbee, 10 minutes away, is home to the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum. The city’s Copper Queen mine, which once employed 22,800 people, closed after the copper market crashed in the mid-1970s.

Contact: Theshadydell.com