Live Local: Historic Biloxi Walking Tour Stop 10 and 11

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 stops number 10 and 11 of the Biloxi Walking Tour with someone who knows the area well.

Located at the corner of Rue Magnolia and Jackson Street is stop number 10 of the Biloxi Walking Tour. Biloxi Library Historian Jane Shambra said, “This is actually a house belonging to the Cousins, he was actually the editor of the Daily Herald as well as the postmaster. They think the house was built around 1910.”

The Cousins House is a fine example of Queen Anne, the most romantic or feminine of Victorian architectural styles. While the house is newer than the majority of other houses on the tour, it is one of the last standing buildings on its corner.

Where today stands a crepe myrtle tree used to be a caboose where locals could sell their artwork and now where the hospital sits was once the infamous Avelez Hotel. “So, downtown used to look completely different in the 20s, 30s, 40s, and so forth.”

Moving on to stop number 11 which is the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “It is a cathedral. Unlike a regular church, it has a designation that has another level of historical significance.”

The cathedral has been rebuilt three times. The original church was made out of wood and destroyed in a fire in 1870. “And if you look, you’ll see lots and lots of stained-glass windows, which is amazing when you see and these are works of art. These windows are donated from wealthy families in Biloxi and a window tells a history part of something in the Bible.”

Those windows were actually donated all the way from Germany and installed in 1906.

Live Local is made possible through the support of the Biloxi Library System. Tune in next Thursday as News 25 continues highlighting places of interest along the Coast.