April 12, 2025
The Old Town Merchants Association (OTMA) welcomes spring during April’s Second Saturday in the Bay with bikes, brunch, and bonnets. At 8:00 am, a morning bike ride through Old Town hosted by the Mockingbird Café and the Bay Rollers Cycling Club starts the morning off right. The club will lead the ride and offer a bike maintenance clinic for youngsters.
Participating Old Town businesses will offer a Shopping Specials Easter Hunt. Stop, shop, and crack open an egg for great spring deals. Several food and drink establishments are offering fresh menu items and spring specialty drinks. Check out 200 North Beach, Trapani’s, Lemoine’s Landing, Dan B’s, Hinge, and the Loft. At 12 pm, the Hancock County Historical Society will host an Easter bonnet contest, a bonnet promenade, and children’s activities on Cue Street. There is a rumor that the Easter Bunny may join the fun!
OTMA invites you to indulge in some springtime refreshments and fun and enjoy a pretty day exploring Old Town on your bike, then visit some of the businesses featured below. Each is a hidden gem and just a short bike ride from anywhere in town.
Hancock County Historical Society
108 Cue Street
Hancock County Historical Society
108 Cue Street | (228) 467-4090
Mon-Fri 10 am – noon, 1:00-3:00 pm
Start your bike ride downtown on Cue Street, a short little cut-through route between Main and Court Streets. The society was founded in 1977, and its mission is to research and preserve the history of Hancock County. Its headquarters, the Kate Lobrano House, is a delightful 1896 shotgun cottage that was donated to the society in 1988 by the grandchildren of Katherine Maynard Lobrano. Most of the original house is used as a turn-of-the-century museum with 150 framed photographs of landmarks in the area. Visit the Historical Society and explore the historical cottage and take a journey back into the past of Bay St. Louis.
Hancock County Historical Society
108 Cue Street
Head towards the Depot area to a quaint cottage located at the edge of the railroad tracks. This is the home of Full Moon Clockworks. The gold sign with the smiling clockface logo indicates you have found the location of one of Mississippi’s last clock repair shops. Clockmaking is a dying art, but the Bay is lucky to have Terry Downs, a clockmaker with over thirty years of experience who understands the value of a treasured clock, many of which have been handed down through generations. She even makes grandfather clock house calls!
100 Men Hall
303 Union Street | (228) 231-1920
Open for special events weekly.
A couple of turns from Full Moon Clockworks is one of the area’s most colorful structures and home to one of the Bay’s most unique venues. An age-old organization, the 100 Men Hall interprets history, preserves culture, and gathers the Bay Saint Louis community to share good times. From its muraled walls to the vibrant art that creates the juke-joint atmosphere, the building is an iconic tribute to artistic and musical greats like Ray Charles, BB King, and Irma Thomas, and welcomes current favorites. It is a dedicated stop on the Mississippi Blues Trail, a testament to the rich birthing of American music and a celebration of African American history that continues to be a vibrant cultural hotspot on the Gulf Coast.
St. Rose De Lima Church
301 S. Necaise Avenue | 228.467.7347
Weekday Mass at 7:05 am and Sundays at 7:00 and 9:00 am
The next stop on your ride is just down the street on Necaise. Simply known as “St. Rose,” the beautiful white stucco church with a three-tiered central tower adorned by a simple cross was built in its current location in the mid-1920s. Historically founded as a Roman Catholic place of worship for African Americans in Bay St. Louis, the church is a diverse, welcoming, active community with a beloved gospel choir. The visual focus of the church’s interior is an extraordinary mural of an African Christ rising before a live oak. In front of this image stands an altar created from a root found near St. Stanislaus College, the “arms” of which seems to be reaching up to the heavens.
The cemetery next to the church is a lovely spot to stroll through the community’s history with memoria dating back to the late 1800s, a handful of which predate the cemetery’s dedication in 1872.
Edmund Fahey Funeral Home
110 S. Necaise Avenue | (228) 467-9031
Continue down Necaise to where Captain J.M. Tyler moved to the bay from Pickens, MS, and opened a mercantile and undertaking business in the Bay in 1895. In 1910, E. F. Fahey, Sr. became an apprentice and subsequently a partner in the funeral service business. E. F. Fahey, Jr. continued in his father’s footsteps until 1947. The current location was built in 1951 but served as a personal residence for one of the business’s partners for just over twenty years until E. F. Fahey III began operating the location for its original purpose. Three generations of the Fahey family served Bay St. Louis until 2021, when the business was entrusted to the O’Keefe family, a well-known local funeral business on the coast. The Edmund Fahey Funeral home, with its generational family history, continues its legacy as a community focused establishment.
Gulf Coast Home
317 Ulman Avenue | (228) 344-3146
Tues-Sat 10 am-5:00 pm
Continue your bike ride across Main Street and pedal to Ulman Avenue, where you will find the opulent Gulf Coast Home. In the fall of 2020, sisters and Bay Saint Louis natives Wendy DeBen and Theresa Lacy made the move from their professional fields in New Orleans to come home to set up their own Gulf Coast Home.
You are embraced by the shop’s gorgeous aesthetic as soon as you walk in. Wendy and Theresa’s exquisite taste is seen throughout their selection of well-curated products, from high-end furniture and beautiful loungewear to unique home decor and local artwork. Gulf Coast Home has a large retail space that is elegantly divided into several household floor plans. Their friendly staff is more than happy to help, and if you are lucky, you may get additional expert assistance from Karen, their fluffy Pomeranian shop dog.