Slavic Benevolent Association

Eleven Croatian men in Biloxi, then counted as Austrians, formed this society in December 1913 and incorporated it in 1921 as the Slavonian Benevolent Association, St. Nicola. In 1927 Croatian families gave $176.50 for flood victims in Louisiana, collected by a committee of fishing captains. The society planned a new home in 1938, and the two-story lodge, built for about $20,000 by Collins Brothers to a design by the architect Jack Fayard, was dedicated on November 20 of that year.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum — steps away
  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.
• Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art — 0.7 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.
• Walter Anderson Museum of Art — 2.3 mi
  A museum in downtown Ocean Springs built around the artist who rowed to Horn Island to paint, with his 1952 murals of Iberville's 1699 landing and the Seven Climates of the town.
• Biloxi Beach Wade-In Marker — 2.4 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

• Tullis-Toledano House — 0.6 mi
• Tivoli Hotel — 0.8 mi
• Birthplace of Barq's — 1.1 mi
• Debuys-Hermann-Keller House — 1.2 mi