Live Local: Biloxi Walking Tour Stops Seven, Eight, and Nine

Lace up your shoes and take a stroll with News 25’s Lorraine Weiskopf in today’s edition of ‘Live Local,’ a series you can catch here on News 25 on Thursdays.

Today, we take you to stop numbers seven, eight, and nine of the Biloxi Walking Tour with someone who knows the area well.

Take a step back in time as we visit stop number seven of the tour: the Rue Magnolia. Biloxi Library Historian Jane Shambra said, “Rue Magnolia meaning Magnolia Street, this particular area is a walkable area with lots of places to stroll along. Places to visit, eat, little shops, and so forth.”

In the 1970s, this was part of the Urban Renewal Program where walkable areas were created for shopping. On this street you can also see stop number eight on the tour: the Henriques-Slay House. “It’s named after or because of Dr. Henriques who was this amazing doctor. He was very much ahead of his time. He tried to treat people with X-rays and radiation in the early part of the 1900s which is way beyond anything anybody knew about.”

Sitting next to the shotgun style Henriques’ house is stop number nine, the Creole Cottage, receiving its name from its architecture. “It did become the first free library in the state of Mississippi. Later on, it became a regular library before the Brown Library we visited a couple weeks ago. It became an art studio. All these buildings have evolved from what it was today.”

Like many of the other buildings on the walking tour, the Creole Cottage has been moved from its original location. Yet unlike the other buildings, this building has been moved three times yet its appearance stays the same. “You can see that the architecture this way is unlike anything we’ve seen in this neighborhood. It is very, very old. It has been restored all to the standards of historical architecture.”

Live Local is made possible through the support of the Biloxi Library System. Tune in next Thursday as News 25 continues our Live Local series.