The state’s oldest hotel is the work of master builder Charles H. Kaufman, a German immigrant like the original owner, John Hohn. Kaufman used French building techniques and forms such as brick-between-posts and a peripteral gallery sheltered under the gabled roof. After Hurricane Camille destroyed the kitchen and service wing, the two-and-a-half-story building was moved about 100 feet inland and restored in 1972 by the City of Biloxi.
The hotel faces the former Brunet-Fourchy House, Biloxi’s oldest building (c. 1835; 110 Rue Magnolia), known since 1963 as Mary Mahoney’s Old French House. The brick structure with gable-end walls combines a double-pile, en suite plan (rooms connected to one another without a hall) with Greek Revival styling. A courtyard wall from a 1960s remodeling encloses a former servants’ quarters or kitchen. Nearby at 782 Water Street the brick and scored-stucco two-story Scherer or Spanish House (c. 1846) is attributed to Charles H. Kaufman. A locally rare town house with stepped gable-end walls, this is the earliest known Biloxi example of the four-bay two-door facade pattern that defines a “Biloxi cottage” with its en suite plan.