Historic black and white aerial photo of the vast original Naval Training Station with barracks at Centennial Plaza Resort

Mrs. Thomas Prentiss Gary, many years after the event, wrote an account of her family's visit by train in 1896 to the new town of Gulfport. She recalled taking an extended trip down the beach shell road in a wagon pulled by Charley the mule. “…going east, the Seal’s place was the first home, then the Hewes’ homestead at Mississippi City where the Veterans Hospital stands today…” 

The home Mrs. Gary and her two daughters described was owned by F. S. Hewes, Harrison County chancery clerk, where he and his wife raised 18 children. One son, Finley B. Hewes, was appointed Gulfport’s first mayor but was unable to take office as he was actively serving in Cuba during the Spanish American war. 

The F. S. Hewes home is pictured above on October 13, 1916, with Governor Theodore Bilbo speaking from the front porch at the groundbreaking ceremony. A crowd of over 5,000 turned out for the event that was to have been the site for the centennial celebration of Mississippi entering the Union in 1817. 

As soon as Bilbo finished the speech, workmen tore down the old F.S. Hewes house to clear the way for the construction of a new administration building for the 1917 Centennial. 

Black and white photo of a large crowd, including men in military uniforms, gathering at Centennial Plaza Resort
Vintage postcard illustration of the U.S. Veterans' Hospital complex buildings with large towers at Centennial Plaza Resort

The Mississippi Centennial: In Transition

As the scope of the global conflict consumed the nation and the Spanish flu pandemic racked the country, the Mississippi’s Centennial celebration receded into history. The site was given over to the war effort for military training and later became the Veterans Administration Medical Center – Gulfport Division. 

Once again postcard makers shifted designs and produced new cards promoting the Gulfport VA, often using images of the buildings intended for the Centennial.