Mississippi City Courthouse

Mississippi City was meant to be a port. In 1837 investors formed the Mississippi City Company to build one, and in 1841 the town became the seat of the new Harrison County. That January it also lost, by 58 votes to 57, the legislature's choice of a site for the state university, which went to Oxford. The county government stayed until 1902. In March 1888 Jefferson Davis, living at Beauvoir, spoke at the courthouse and pleaded for unity among all citizens after the Civil War. Katrina destroyed the last original courthouse building in 2005, and a re-creation followed.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Biloxi Beach Wade-In Marker — 8.6 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 — 8.6 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 — 10 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 — 11 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

• Centennial Plaza — 0.5 mi
• Mississippi City Colored School — 0.8 mi
• Mississippi City Cemetery — 0.8 mi
• Grass Lawn — 1.3 mi