D'Iberville, on the north shore of Biloxi's Back Bay, is named for the French-Canadian explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. In February 1699 soldiers he sent to explore the Bay of Biloxi found no Native settlements on either shore. In 1721, when the French colonial headquarters moved to New Biloxi, colonists found excellent brick clay here, and in 1726 a brickyard under Captain Joseph Moran produced 400,000 bricks, some used in New Orleans buildings such as the Ursuline convent. The yard changed hands several times, burned in 1853, and ran as the Imperial Brickyard until 1908.
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In 1832 a later Joseph Moran bought land on the bay and built a wharf, cabin and warehouse managed by José Santa Cruz, who bought the property in 1848 for $170. Santa Cruz Landing became a social and trading center with a ferry dock, mail service and weekend dances, until the 1893 hurricane and a new bridge shifted growth eastward. Nearby, Emanuel Sanchez built a home and the Back Bay Chapel in 1833; the land later held the Back Bay School (1875) and Sacred Heart Church (1884). A cross found in the old Sanchez garden in 1910 is believed by some to have been left by Iberville's expedition.
The scattered settlements began to grow together after the first street, today's Central Avenue, was paved in 1926. In 1937, during the Depression, residents formed the D'Iberville Community Club with help from the Works Progress Administration, and the Community House was finished in 1939. D'Iberville became a city in 1988, and it was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005.
Sources
The Historical Marker Database: The Old Brickyard; Santa Cruz Landing; The Land and Legend of the Cross; Original D'Iberville Community House (D'Iberville Historical Society)
Wikipedia: D'Iberville, Mississippi