The Weston, Built of Brick, Is Credit to the Whole Coast of Mississippi. Finely Equipped.
The Biloxi Daily Herald, October 18, 1924, reported on the opening of “the fine new hotel built by farsighted business men of Bay St. Louis and Hancock county.” The Bay Hotel Company, and president H. S. Weston, was said to represent the latest and best type of hotel construction. Architect Willliam T. Nolan, a Quebec City native who moved to New Orleans in 1900, and contractor/builder Albert Tolle used “tapestry brick” and
The absence of ‘gingerbread’ work and other cheapening effects with a view of hoping to add to attractiveness, was eliminated and in stead we find a building that is actually handsome and imposing [sic].
The “handsome and imposing” building was constructed in the Spanish Mission style according to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Equally amazing in 1924, every room had a telephone. The chef was Henry Gianelloina,
“who ability is well known.” The Weston was the site of a luncheon for local dignitaries at the completion of construction of the HWY 90 bridge across the bay. The dedication ceremony for the new bridge was held at the Weston (Hancock County Historical Society).
After the passing of Mr. Weston, the hotel was was sold to Charles Reed of New Orleans and the name changed in 1930. In 1939, Reed sold the hotel to George Wilkinson of Gulfport and Howard Dayton of Albany, Georgia (Daily Herald, September 29, 1939, p. 6).
At some point, it operated as the Hotel Reed Nursing Home until the 1990s. Two weeks after the city ordered the former hotel demolished in 2011 as a public nuisance, the hotel burned. The remains were demolished in 2012.
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How sad that it is gone. I would like to see pictures of it when new, these make it look almost like school except for the arched windows. It’s parapet is definitely Spanish Mission, but the red brick looks more like what I call traditional Southern LOL.
I actually thought it was a school when I first saw it. That is why it took me so long to figure it out! I will add a link to a vintage photo I found.
It didn’t look like a hotel even then! I wonder if Katrina contributed to its demise. Reminds me of the Texas & Pacific Hospital in Marshall, Texas. I was convinced it was a school, but it was a hospital.
It does look more like a hospital than a hotel, doesn’t it? I think the modern aspect was that other hotels on the beach were wooden, and more Victorian-looking at the time. Apparently, it had been closed (from the nursing home) since the 1990s, and vacant. It really did not look that bad to me in 2011, but the fire finished it off.