Pass Christian, Mississippi. This video takes you along the town's two-and-a-half-mile Scenic Drive - rich with history, classic southern architecture, and thriving live oak trees. Video created Spring 2020.
The Pass - Pass Christian - a Mississippi town steeped in history
Around the 1850's, The Pass became popular as the weekend and vacation playground for its nearby neighbors in New Orleans. Large resort hotels and mansions were built facing the Gulf of Mexico. Tourists from near and far crowded the lawns and beach.
But hurricanes and fires laid waste to many of the elegant homes and hotels throughout the years - including the hurricane of 1947 and Hurricane Camille which ran a destructive path directly through the vulnerable coastal town in 1969.
Over the next thirty-five years, the town rebuilt and regained its place as a travel destination.
The oldest surviving homes - dating from the 1850's - were resilient and stood their ground against new storms maintaining their place on Scenic Drive.
Then came Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The devastating and deadly winds and immense storm surge overwhelmed the old homes. While New Orleans dominated the news coverage that week, the towns along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi suffered badly.
Eighty percent of the homes and businesses in Pass Christian were damaged or destroyed. Many of the houses that once lined historic Scenic Drive were no more. The houses and businesses for blocks both east and west of Market Street were gutted. Piles of debris filled the lots that once contained the historic homes and businesses.
Over the past fifteen years, the town has embraced its past restoring the original houses when they could and constructing many of the new houses in the styles of the historic houses.
Each of these houses opens a window to the past reflecting the beauty and history of the houses that came before them.
So take a stroll down the historic Scenic Drive and get a look at both the old and the new as The Pass rebuilds one house at a time.