Alphabet File page 386

  It is said a grand hotel is to be built at Waveland; if so, the value of property there will enormously increase, since one can reach this summer resort almost as speedily as one can ride in a street car from the Picayune office to  Audubon Park.  (Daily Picayune July 24, 1892 p 12 c 3 by Catherine Cole) (VF MJS VII 00327) 1894

 

  Waveland, described in 1894 in "Along The Gulf" -

 

  Waveland, almost a suburb of New Orleans.  Its beauties of Field and Foliage, Sea and Shore.  The summer home of many prominent New Orleanians. Waveland, is really the first town of any importance  after leaving New Orleans, and we thought it advisable to  stop over there for a few hours before continuing to Bay  St. Louis where we were to spend several days. Waveland is to all intents and purposes a suburb of New Orleans and is the summer home of many prominent New Orleans people, while not a few also winter there.  It is almost solely a residence place have but one store of note that of Mr. J. B. Ulman which will be described further on in this chapter.

 

  Some years ago, Hon. Alfred A. Ulman, built and started in operation a large woolen mill which proved to be quite a successful enterprise, but which since the death of its projector and owner has been closed.  Waveland is incorporated under the laws of the State and up to the time of his death the above named gentleman occupied the position of Mayor both with credit to himself and benefit to the town. Since that time Mr. Paul Conrad, since deceased also held the office.  The present mayor of the town is Mr. L. H. Fairchild, of whose beautiful residence our artist took a snap shot while we were there.  The residences at this  place are all modern and fitted with many conveniences;  while the lawns and grounds are as a rule tastefully laid  out and well kept.  Being situated on high land and with so  many beautiful residences it is small wonder that land is expensive; the values having increased nearly 500 percent in the past five years.  Besides the beautiful beach drive there is Nicholson Avenue, a broad handsome shell street  which runs from the beach across the L & N track. Waveland is in Hancock County, 48 miles from New Orleans and borders on Bay St. Louis which is just east of it. The most prominent business man, located at the town of Waveland, is Mr. J. B. Ulman, whose general merchandise store is located on Nicholson Avenue a rod from the  Railroad crossing of the Louisville and Nashville.  Mr. Ulman is one of the best known men of Waveland and Bay St. Louis; he occupying at the present time the position of  treasurer of the town of Waveland.  As a business man, Mr. Ulman stands high in the estimation of the local merchants  and as he was born and reared in the town where he at present resides his acquaintance is quite extensive.  When quite a young man he made up his mind to launch out in life on his own hook and see some of the world, so he went to  New York City, where he worked at and learned the plumbing  trade. Tiring of this finally he returned to Waveland and embarked in the general merchandise business in the large building opposite the woolen mill.  Here he was very successful, until September 1894, when he had the  misfortune to be burned out. Not daunted at this, however,  he at once built the present store which he occupies and has met with the success which he so well deserves and now  he is thinking seriously of enlarging his building and increasing the stock which he already carries.  Mr. Ulman is a prominent member of the Knights of Pythias. Very few strangers visit Waveland except as guests of those who own residences there.  Waveland is an exclusive little place and everybody who lives there is well acquainted with all the remainder of the residents of the little town; it is like one large circle of friends.  Nevertheless some of the most expensive residences and most  elaborate grounds and homesteads are to be found at Waveland. Those who reside there in the summer engage people to keep their estates in condition during the  winter, while many of New Orleans' best merchants live over there all the year around, arriving every evening and leaving every morning. 

 

The climate at Waveland is very  healthy and the stiff breeze is always blowing from the Gulf of Mexico.  The water is salty and excellent for bathing purposes, while it is no deeper than that at Bay  St. Louis.  There is an excellent shell road from Waveland  to the Bay, where you can drive all day in one direction. Waveland has an abundance of large oak shade trees a cluster of which we show on this page. Taking into consideration all the advantages Waveland offers, people seeking health can find no better place along the coast than this little town.  We show a number of the most attractive and handsome residences of this beautiful little village, some of which are as near perfection as it is possible for time and money  to get them.  (ATG p 3)

 

Described in ATG in 1894 -

 

  Waveland is very popular with Northern people and quite a celebrated writer of that section having spent some time there and enjoyed the cooling breezes of the Gulf and inhaled the sweet and healthy odors of the flowers and the pines, was so much in love with the place that upon his return he wrote quite an interesting article on the subject of which we reprint a part.  "Waveland - there is magic in the sound." The name suggests lovely views of land and sea, balmy breezes wafting fragrant freshness from afar, velvety lawn with odor of flowers and forest adorn the beach and over ways through woodland dells - and the reality does not belie the name. Within easy reach of New Orleans lies the Mississippi Sound.  This Sound is divided from the Gulf of Mexico by a series of Islands lying at varying distances offshore.  Between these islands are channels and passes and stretches into the open Gulf.  Could this Sound and its coast be transported to the New England or New Jersey shores and made part thereof, Mount Desert and Manchester. Atlantic City and Asbury Park would find a rival whose charms they might well envy and which would surely draw its full quota of admirers from the throng that yearly go down to the sea, not in ships. Still it is true that large numbers of citizen seven of Mississippi and Louisiana familiar with the New England and Jersey resorts know little or nothing of their own beauteous possessions that nature has here lavished with a bountiful hand; and this with the object of rendering familiar the distinctive features of the beautiful and typical town of Waveland that this article is penned not minutely; for the name of Waveland's charms is legion, but broadly sketching the main features that should be wisely, but are comparatively little known, save to the favored few who do know and never tire of reveling in their delights. Coming East from New Orleans, the Queen City of the South via the Louisville and Nashville Railroad many elegant fishing club buildings and various resorts for hunters and fishermen are passed, located on the wide stretches of prairie marshland streams that are continuous characteristics for nearly fifty miles, capable of development as a permanent abiding place for large populations is reached; and here is Waveland fitted by nature and utilized by art for a charming town capable of in definite extension.  At present it consists of lovely homes extending from the famed "Jackson House", said to have been built and utilized for a residence by a nephew of President Andrew Jackson many years ago to the corporation line of Bay St. Louis, with which town without intervention it is connected.  The grounds of each residence adjoin the next, forming a total front of about four miles of beautiful homes and elegant lawns.  Waveland had already many houses back from the beach, and its capabilities for extension are practically limitless but the principal dwellings are on the front in one continuous line, and it is distinctively a town of homes.  Both Waveland and Nicholson Avenue station on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad three miles apart are within the limits of Waveland.  The railroad here runs nearly parallel with and about one quarter mile from the beach through a continuous forest principally of pine, the odors from which are fragrant with the freshness of the woods.