Gulfside Assembly

Bishop Robert E. Jones, the first Black general superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church, conceived Gulfside while speaking at Lakeside Assembly, a white Methodist campground in Ohio. On the Gulf Coast, hotels, restaurants and beaches were largely closed to Black visitors, so he built a place where Black Methodists could pray, study and rest. The land was secured in April 1923, and Gulfside was incorporated in January 1924. It hosted youth programs, church training and civil rights meetings. Hurricane Katrina destroyed it in 2005; Bishop Jones, his wife Elizabeth and Bishop Brooks lie buried on the grounds.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• INFINITY Science Center — 13 mi
  NASA's visitor center for Stennis Space Center, at the Mississippi welcome center near the Louisiana line, with a Saturn V booster outside and a story of five river towns that were moved.
• Crosby Arboretum — 23 mi
  A Mississippi State University arboretum in Picayune showing the plants of the Pearl River basin, with Fay Jones's Pinecote Pavilion among the pitcher plant savanna and pines.
• Ship Island and Fort Massachusetts — 25 mi
  A barrier island twelve miles off the Mississippi coast with a brick fort burned half-built in 1861, a Union prison camp, and the garrison post of the 2nd Louisiana Native Guard.

More markers nearby

• Sea Song Plantation — steps away
• Brown's Vineyard — 2.5 mi
• Pearl Rivers — 2.7 mi
• 100 Men D.B.A. Hall — 4.6 mi