Page 28 - South Mississippi Living - December, 2018

PEOPLE hancock county
BAY ST. LOUIS CITIZENS HOST
Featured
CITY BICENTENNIAL
EVENTS
Celebration
DECEMBER 1-31
story courtesy of Hancock Chamber of Commerce photo courtesy of Ellis Anderson
Snowflakes in the Bay, a driving tour through the Bay. December 1 at 11am is Bay St. Louis Christmas Parade
DECEMBER 3-4
Mississippi Gulf Coast Defense Forum
DECEMBER 4
Hancock Chamber Women’s Leadership Roundtable, Hancock Whitney Bank, Highway 90, Bay St. Louis
DECEMBER 8
Second Saturday Old Town Bay St. Louis & 200th Bicentennial Celebration
DECEMBER 8-9
The Nutcracker presented by Ballet Theatre South
DECEMBER 13
Hancock Chamber Business After Hours hosted by Bijoubel and the shops at 126 Main, Bay St. Louis
For a complete listing go to www.hancockchamber.org
Come to Old Town Bay St. Louis during the Second Saturday Artwalk on December 8
and be a part of the festivities planned to celebrate the Bicentennial
of Bay Saint
Louis. Shops will be open late and entertainment will fill the streets until 8 p.m.
At 2:30 p.m., costumed characters will parade through Old Town led by the Bay Ratz Marching Battery. The parade will begin at Beach and Main
to Second Street to old City Hall. A ceremony, which includes the unveiling of a historic marker, will take place at 3:00 p.m. to celebrate past and present community leaders who have made Bay Saint Louis one of the best small towns in America.
The settlement was founded under the flag of France in 1699, claimed by Spain in 1763 and taken by England
in 1880. The town was incorporated by the first act of the Mississippi Legislature on January 21, 1818,
and named for Thomas Shields, who
had received a Spanish land grant
in 1789. The name, Shieldsborough, simply did not meet everyone’s approval. It was especially unpopular with those of French descent. It had always been “the Baie” to them, short for Bay Saint Louis.
In an attempt to put this matter
to rest, on January 4, 1858, Mayor P.
C. Monet and his board of aldermen officially re-incorporated the town under the name of Shieldsborough. The 1858 re-incorporation was followed by yet another re-incorporation on March 2, 1875, wherein city fathers changed the town’s name to Bay Saint Louis and so it has been ever since.
28 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • December 2018
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