Bay St Louis: Celebrating the First 300 Years

From the Centennial to the Tercentenary

In 1958 the Bay Saint Louis Centennial Corporation presented wonderful festivities in honor of the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of our lovely city. There were costumes and parades and an historically important book was published to mark the occasion.

However, being the lovely lady that our city is, she was not quite truthful about her age. In fact, she shaved 40 years from her past. Bay Saint Louis was incorporated under her maiden name, Shieldsboro, on January 4, 1818, making her the oldest incorporated city in Mississippi, as well as the oldest incorporated city on the Gulf of Mexico.

The cover of the book mentioned above reads, “Bay St. Louis Mississippi 1858 Celebrating 100 YEARS of Incorporation 1958,” designed and published by Nel Ducomb of the Mississippi Monitor. With the approaching Tercentenary in 1999, the Board of Directors of the Hancock County Historical Society thought it appropriate to publish a sequel to that book, recording the founding, development and present “state of the city.” Therefore, we present “Bay Saint Louis Mississippi, 1699–1999: Celebrating the First 300 Years.”

There have been numerous delightful books written about Bay Saint Louis and we have combined stories from many of them. Among our favorites are: Along the Gulf, 1894; Sketch Book of Hancock County, 1908; The Coast of Mississippi, published by Hancock Bank; Mississippi Gulf Coast: Portrait of a People by Charles Sullivan; Bay St. Louis Mississippi 1858 Celebrating 100 Years of Incorporation, 1958; A History of Mississippi by R.A. McLemore; Mississippi as a Province, Territory and State by J.F.H. Claiborne; and Journal of the Frigate ‘Le Marin’ and Fleur de Lis and Calumets by Andre Penicaut.