The City of Gulfport celebrates 127th birthday

GULFPORT, Miss. (WXXV) — Monday marked the 127th birthday of Mississippi’s second most populated city.

We sat down with the Gulfport Museum of History to learn more about where we came from and where we’re headed. Since 1898, a lot has changed. We got the chance to speak with those at the Gulfport Museum of History to dive into the coastal town’s rich history.

Now, the city holds the county seat alongside its Biloxi neighbor and is home to over 70,000 people according to a 2020 census. It’s important to remember where we started and how we got here, while looking toward the future of this continuously developing city.

David Hall, a volunteer at the Gulfport museum says that the lumber and shipping industry are what put Gulfport on the map.

The museum calls the old passenger train station home. The building dates back to the early 1900’s and pays homage to Gulfport’s history, highlighting original buildings like the Markham which still sits downtown, and The Great Southern Hotel, which has since been destroyed.

Notable Gulfport natives are also highlighted, like John C. Robinson, a Tuskegee Airman who helped found an Ethiopian airline after WWII.

The Gulfport Museum of History is working to share their archives, depicting the rich history of the coastal town.

They are busy digitalizing, annotating, and uploading photos into the Mississippi Digital Photography Database to make the information available to those locally and nationally, preserving these pieces of history forever.