Page 26 - Hancock County Tourism ~ 2021 History

Do you know about...
Clermont Harbor
Clermont City was established in the late 1890s, but the name was changed when a new harbor was dug. The population gradually increased and local developers envisioned the area as the “Riviera of New Orleans,” especially when the impressive Clermont Harbor Hotel was constructed. However, the vacation destination that was planned never came to fruition. Now this small enclave west of Bay St. Louis is home to residents who savor the tranquil, easy pace of coastal life.
Among the area’s residents was Hugh Turner Carr, who moved to Clermont Harbor from Maryland in 1925 when he was hired to repair the hotel which had been severely damaged by a fierce hurricane
in 1915. Despite the heat and swarms of hungry mosquitoes, he decided to stay, build a home, and start the Clermont Harbor Lumber Company and Clermont Manufacturing Company. In 1942, he also built a 40-foot tall lighthouse-like tower next to his home as an observation post to
spot enemy aircraft during World War II. Volunteers staffed the tower and called into the Third Fighter Command to report on any planes flying over. When the war ended, he converted the lighthouse to a workshop where he restored and sold antiques. The tower survived the 1947 hurricane and 1969’s Hurricane Camille, but was lost to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Do you know about...
Clermont Harbor Hotel
The Clermont Harbor
Hotel has a rather short, sad history. Built in the early 1900s of cypress wood, the hotel overlooked the Mississippi Sound in Waveland and featured 40 rooms and 20 baths. After a hurricane in September 1915 blew a large schooner into the building, it was restored and operated until it was brought
to financial ruin by the Great Depression in 1929. For the
next 17 years the building sat neglected. When it was finally renovated, it burned to the ground the day after reopening.
The Clermont Harbor Hotel
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