Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Reported by James Gordon for Action News 10, August 29, 1993.
A behind-the-scenes look at Mobile's downtown convention center during its opening era, featuring an enormous 45,000-square-foot glass exhibit hall large enough for two football fields or 20 basketball courts.
Reporter Chris Shaveell meets Lionel Pace, one of the workers responsible for cleaning the convention center's massive amount of glass. The job is no easy task, with construction debris, concrete and waterproofing materials requiring hours of scraping and cleaning.
The report also explores the history of the site. The convention center was built on what had once been Mobile's banana docks, where banana boats docked at the foot of Government Street from the late 1800s through the mid-1980s.
The new facility also provided Mobile residents with something they had never had before—a 600-foot stretch of public riverfront access, including a riverwalk that would remain open around the clock.
Historic 19th-century cobblestones from the original banana docks were preserved and incorporated into the convention center's Water Street entrance.
Reported by James Gordon for Action News 10, August 29, 1993.
A behind-the-scenes look at Mobile's downtown convention center during its opening era, featuring an enormous 45,000-square-foot glass exhibit hall large enough for two football fields or 20 basketball courts.
Reporter Chris Shaveell meets Lionel Pace, one of the workers responsible for cleaning the convention center's massive amount of glass. The job is no easy task, with construction debris, concrete and waterproofing materials requiring hours of scraping and cleaning.
The report also explores the history of the site. The convention center was built on what had once been Mobile's banana docks, where banana boats docked at the foot of Government Street from the late 1800s through the mid-1980s.
The new facility also provided Mobile residents with something they had never had before—a 600-foot stretch of public riverfront access, including a riverwalk that would remain open around the clock.
Historic 19th-century cobblestones from the original banana docks were preserved and incorporated into the convention center's Water Street entrance.
