“The Pass” stretches approximately five miles along the beach and has only a small downtown, anchored by two iterations of the Hancock Bank: the small Classical Revival building (1905; 113 Davis Avenue) and the larger two-story classical building (1928, William T. Nolan; 265 E. Scenic Drive). Dubbed the “Newport of the Gulf Coast” by William Faulkner, the town became the summer playground for New Orleans’ wealthiest families beginning in the 1840s. Nineteenth-century hotels mingled with large estates along what one newspaper in 1907 called “the most beautiful driveway on the Mexican Gulf.”
In August 1969, Hurricane Camille made landfall at Pass Christian with a surge of 24.6 feet, destroying many structures on W. Scenic Drive; most were rebuilt. During Hurricane Katrina, the highest recorded storm surge (27.8 feet) in U.S. history occurred here, carrying many houses several blocks inland. Houses on E. Scenic Drive, which runs along a high bluff fared better, although most were flooded. Much has been restored or rebuilt, following Pass Christian’s design guidelines, and most of the live oaks that line the drive have recovered.
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