Centennial Plaza

After the First World War the grounds became a hospital for veterans with nervous disorders. In 1921 the Public Health Service opened a neuropsychiatric hospital here, and in 1922 the Veterans' Bureau bought the property, with buildings finished in 1923. Ten Spanish Colonial Revival buildings from 1920 to 1950 still stand. Katrina closed the campus in 2005, and in 2009 the VA transferred it to Gulfport. It became a Mississippi Landmark in 2010 and a National Register district in 2014. A one hundred million dollar renovation reopened part of it as a resort in August 2019.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Biloxi Beach Wade-In Marker — 9.1 mi
  The beachfront parking lot beside the Biloxi Lighthouse where state markers recall the 1959 and 1960 wade-ins that opened Mississippi's public beaches to Black residents.
• Biloxi Lighthouse — 9.1 mi
  A cast-iron tower lit in 1848 on the Biloxi beachfront, kept by women for most of its first century and still in service after Camille and Katrina.
• Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art — 11 mi
  Frank Gehry's pavilions on the Biloxi waterfront, built around the pottery of George Ohr, the self-styled Mad Potter, and the rebuilt Pleasant Reed House.
• Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum — 12 mi
  A Point Cadet museum on Biloxi's oyster, shrimp and schooner past, from the packing houses and the shrimpers' unions to the Vietnamese families who rebuilt the industry.

More markers nearby

• Mississippi City Courthouse — 0.5 mi
• Grass Lawn — 0.7 mi
• Mississippi City Cemetery — 0.8 mi
• Mississippi City Colored School — 1.3 mi