Waveland, MS news and local guide

In the late 1800s Waveland was a resort shore. Brown's Vineyard, established in 1874, was a popular resort whose scuppernong wine was sold across the country, until Prohibition forced it to close in 1920. In 1923 Robert E. Jones, the first Black Methodist bishop, founded the Gulfside Chautauqua and Camp Meeting Ground, later Gulfside Assembly, at the time the only resort on the Gulf open to Black Methodists; the United Methodist Church recognized it as a historic site in 1980. Waveland was incorporated as a city in 1972, three years after Hurricane Camille came ashore here on August 17, 1969, heavily damaging the area south of the railroad. On August 29, 2005, the town was "ground zero" for Hurricane Katrina: the eyewall and a 26-foot storm surge almost completely destroyed everything south of the CSX main line, and about 50 people died. The Waveland Civic and Cultural Center, the only public building left standing, reopened in 2013 as the Ground Zero Hurricane Museum. Sources The Historical Marker Database: The "Pirate House"; Brown's Vineyard; Gulfside Assembly (Mississippi Department of Archives and History) Wikipedia: Waveland, Mississippi