Biloxi, Mississippi: Home of Tasty Shrimp and Beautiful Hotels

Shown here are pictures of three landmark hotels built in Biloxi in the mid-1920’s, during a boom time for tourism on the Mississippi coast.

The Edgewater Gulf Hotel was designed by the Chicago firm of Marshall and Fox that also designed the Edgewater Beach Hotel on Lake Michigan and the Drake Hotel in downtown Chicago. The front of the hotel faced north, toward the resort’s train station, where tourists disembarked. The property extended north to the Biloxi Bay; outdoor amenities included trails through the gardens, golf, tennis, horseback riding, and a swimming pool. The south side faced a small beach and long pier on the Mississippi Sound.

The Buena Vista Hotel and the Tivoli Hotel were designed by Biloxi architect Carl Matthes. Originally from Chicago, Matthes married Biloxian Buelah Dukate in 1919, whom he met while stationed at the Gulfport Naval Training Center during World War I. He designed numerous Biloxi buildings, including schools, churches, hotels, a hospital, a library, retail, and more. The Buena Vista Hotel had a long pier in front, and an open-air dance pavilion over the water, as seen here. Popular dance bands from New Orleans and the Coast played there, including the Buena Vista Orchestra. The pavilion was destroyed in the 1947 hurricane. 

The Buena Vista opened in 1924 on Biloxi’s central beach area. The hotel declined in the 1970s and even more so in the 1980s with the building of the I-110 expressway and loop immediately adjacent to it. It was damaged by fire in 1991 and demolished in 1993. The Edgewater Gulf opened on West Beach in 1927. It was demolished with explosives in 1971 for the expansion of Edgewater Mall. The Tivoli opened in 1927 on East Beach between Holley and Kuhn Streets. Damaged by Katrina, the building was demolished in 2006. 

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