National Register of Historic Places
Old Bay St. Louis Historic District
Bay St. Louis, Hancock County, Mississippi
The record
- Listed
- July 8, 2010
- Type
- Historic district
- Address
- Roughly bounded by Beach Blvd, Third St on the E; Breath Ln and Hwy 90 on the N; Seminary Dr, St. Francis St, and..., Bay St. Louis
- County
- Hancock
- State
- Mississippi
- Contributing resources
- 675 buildings, 4 sites, 2 objects
- Coordinates
- 30.31911, -89.32765
- Reference number
- 10000441
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
The Old Bay St. Louis Historic District is a historic district in Bay St. Louis, Hancock County, covering 504 acres with 675 contributing buildings, four contributing sites and two contributing objects. It was listed in the National Register in 2010.
Why it's listed
It was listed under criteria A and C, with local significance in architecture, community planning and development, and social history. Its period of significance runs from 1850 to 1960, opening with the Masonic Temple built on Main Street that year.
Physical character
Its buildings range from vernacular shotgun houses and rectangular cottages to Queen Anne, Greek Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman and Art Deco design. Most stand on brick or concrete-block piers, with weatherboard or wood novelty siding and asphalt-shingle or metal roofs. Bay High School gained a new gymnasium in 1937.
Historical context
Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville established Bay St. Louis in 1699, and the town, incorporated as Shieldsborough in 1818, was reincorporated as a city and renamed Bay St. Louis in 1875. The New Orleans, Mobile & Chattanooga Railroad began construction through the town in 1869 and was acquired by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in 1878, and a fire in 1907 destroyed most of the buildings in its path. The Woodmen of the World built a hall on South Second Street in 1909, and it later became the home of the Sea Coast Echo newspaper in 1956.