GULFPORT - Where Your Ship Comes In

Gulfport Brochure – Gulfport is the "key-city to the Misissippi Coast."


People loved to come to the coast according to this introduction to Gulfport - a city with a "refreshing new note."


A vintage aerial view of Gulfport Harbor. A $1,150,000 pier and warehouse were built to meet the needs of the future. Some of the industries included fertilizer manufacturing, a creosote plant, and shrimp packing. It's interesting to note that the Wallcott-Campbell Spinning Mill was taken over by another firm that promised "within a year to give employment to 1,000 girls." Girls being the key word here. . . sounds very archaic.


Cotton days and the Business District. Gulfport was the leading exporter of the long leaf pine "a generation ago," but cottonreplaced it as the leader and a large cotton compress and warehouse were built at the port.


Gulfport had a seawall where people could walk unobstructed or sit and soak up those wonderful gulf breezes that are still blowing today – one of the few things that is ever-present and continuous. As the brochure says, "Gulfport is in the vanguard of playground development."


"A Beauty, a Boat, a Breeze" – what more could one ask for. Except for this tidbit: "Gulfport is fast gaining favor as a rendevous for devotees of the fox hunt." Who knew. . .


It appears that the goal of those in the city wanted "to extend a hand of welcome to others seeking homes where every factor justifies a promising destiny for those who would really live while they make a living, at Gulfport, Mississippi."


During this time period federal statistics rated "Mississippi as one of the healthiest states and Harrison as the healthiest county in the state."

Gulfport appealed to residents and visitors alike and called itselft "the heart of" "resort retreat."
The Edgewater Gulf Hotel and the Great Southern Hotel, seen in this image, must have been something to behold indeed.

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What we have lost.