This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

■*
TRADE Si INVESTMENT ADfcrrSORS CO [	312	P0C
S fsm t9->jC«	....
<9»
nited States Department of the interior ationai Park Service
National Register of Historic Places
Continuation Sheet	Onward	OaJcs
Bay St. Louis, Hancock County, Mississippi
ection number---Page —i---------
8,	STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
Built circa 1875, Onward Oaks is architecturally significant as a good example of a raised Creole cottage with eclectic Victorian detailing and is typical of the summer cottages built along the beachfront after the arrival of the railroad in Bay St. Louis in 1872.
The French formally annexed Louisiana as a crown colony in 1699, making Biloxi the first capital * Bay St, Louis, a few miles to the west, was part cf this early French territory. Although Say St.
Leuis was not settled until circa 18GG during the Spanish era, wife Gallic architectural influence remained strong along the Missis^^^pj. Gulf Coast as well as other areas claijned by the French. Onwara oaks is a surviving example that illustrates how this vernacular French colonial architecture persisted well into the American Period, through the late nineteenth century. The unknown builder of this
retained the tra.diti.0n3l characteristics of the raised Creole ffv cottage:	a prominent side-gabled roof with undercut galleries on
fe:	both the front and rear elevations; paired French doors opening into
I.■■■	each of the four rooms; and only one principal raised floor. Onward
Oaks, as a latent Creole house, assimilated a central hall pj.an front the Greek Revival style and ornamented the house with eclectic details that were fashionable in the post-Civil War period.
<-?r:
e
'Bay St, Louis became a major tourist aecca following the ccnntcti -i: u]y~	by"the railroad in 1872 of	the Kississlppi coastal area to New
•V;'~	Orleans and Mobile. With this new convenience, summer cottages v.ere
& .	built all along the beachfront by the affluent: from the Hew Orleans
f	and Mobile areas, as well as from throughout the U.S. Attempts co
<"	;	establish a chain of title	from before 1900 have thus far bo&n
y	unsuccessful. However, it	is believed that Onward Oaks began as «
... typical Gulf coast summer cottage circa 1875 since deed records show that ownership changed several times and none of the names are round in the nineteenth century Hancock County census records, inaxca -absentee ownership.
From circa 1920 to 1969 the property served as Camp Onward,	,	was
a summer camp for children operated by Kingsley House, a New or . -.-s private Catholic organization. In 19€9 Hurricane Camille lef'. ■ historic building and several outbuildings with extensive dair,--, ultimately abandonment, resulted frcm financial difficulties, o. the Camp Onward era. The present owner attended Camp Onward a* ~