Occupying a peninsula with the highest elevation on the northern Gulf of Mexico, the village of Bay St. Louis was incorporated as Shieldsborough in 1818 and became the county seat in 1860. The French land division system of long lots with narrow water frontage remains today in the blocks stretching inland. As early as the 1830s, wealthy New Orleanians discovered the area’s cool breezes and artesian wells, and by the 1860s their fine houses and small hotels lined the beachfront. The one-hour commuter train service established in 1870 by the Louisville and Nashville (L&N) Railroad guaranteed New Orleans’ ties to “The Bay,” and free-standing vaults in local cemeteries such as Cedar Rest (opened 1815) reflect that city’s cultural influence. By 1928, U.S. 90 brought automobile travelers down Ulman Avenue and across a wooden bridge (replaced with a concrete bridge in 1954) to Pass Christian.
Because of its seawall and relatively high elevation, Bay St. Louis had largely avoided major hurricane damage before 2005 when Hurricane Katrina’s twenty-five-foot surge spared only a few beachfront houses on the bluff’s highest section and decimated neighborhoods well inland. Lost were landmarks such as the Old Spanish Custom House (c. 1790) and Elmwood Manor (c. 1810–1828), a raised brick French Colonial-styled house. The beach road has been rebuilt, but vacant lots scattered among new buildings have replaced the splendid array of historic houses that once overlooked the bay.
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