Pass Christian, MS news and local guide

In 1781 the whole peninsula belonged to Julia de la Brosse, the Widow Asmard. When she died in 1799 she deeded 800 arpents, all of what is now downtown, to Charles Asmar, a free man of color, whose heirs inherited it. Pass Christian was chartered as a town in 1848 and became a famous resort before the Civil War, where wealthy New Orleans families built a row of mansions along the shore. The Southern Yacht Club, founded here in 1849 as the first yacht club in the South and the second in the nation, organized the Gulf Coast's first regatta on July 21, 1849, before moving to New Orleans in 1857. Two of the strongest hurricanes in U.S. history nearly erased the town. Hurricane Camille, on August 17, 1969, destroyed the Richelieu Apartments, killing eight people who had stayed to ride out the storm. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina damaged or destroyed all but about 500 of the town's roughly 8,000 homes, including many of the historic mansions on Scenic Drive. Sources Wikipedia: Pass Christian, Mississippi