Old Shieldsboro

The town was called Shieldsboro from 1802 until the legislature restored the name Bay Saint Louis in 1875, and it fought Gainesville for the county seat. A law of 1846 made Gainesville the permanent seat. After a vote in March 1867 the Board of Police declared Gainesville the winner, but the circuit court ruled in April that Shieldsborough had won a majority of legal votes. On May 6 the board made Shieldsborough the permanent seat and named the old Custom House the courthouse. Wealthy New Orleanians were by then summering here.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• INFINITY Science Center — 16 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.
• Ship Island and Fort Massachusetts — 22 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.
• Crosby Arboretum — 24 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.
• Biloxi Beach Wade-In Marker — 26 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.

More markers nearby

• St. Stanislaus College — 0.2 mi
• 100 Men D.B.A. Hall — 0.3 mi
• St. Augustine's Seminary — 0.8 mi
• Elmwood Manor — 1.4 mi