Saucier-Bidwell-Pratt House
Pass Christian, Harrison County, Mississippi
Marker Inscription
Saucier-Bidwell-Pratt House. Built ca. 1855 by Pierre Saucier, whose son was later mayor of Pass Christian, the two-story Greek Revival House located here had a central temple-like portico and square-columned galleries spanning its façade, and an octagonal Gothic Revival outbuilding on its grounds. It was later the home of renowned New Orleans theatre impresario David Bidwell. Known locally as "Union Quarters," the house was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Erected by Mississippi Department of Archives and History
The Story
Pierre Saucier — whose son later became mayor of Pass Christian — built this two-story Greek Revival house around 1855, with a temple-like portico, square-columned galleries, and an octagonal Gothic Revival outbuilding on the grounds. It later belonged to the renowned New Orleans theatre impresario David Bidwell and was known locally as "Union Quarters." Hurricane Katrina destroyed the landmark in 2005.
Why it matters
The house embodied the antebellum architectural grandeur of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and its loss to Katrina marks how a single storm erased irreplaceable historic fabric.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Pierre Saucier
- · David Bidwell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Scenic Drive Historic District
Pass Christian, MS
Along Pass Christian's beachfront, wealthy families built architecturally significant vacation villas beneath live oaks, earning the shoreline the nickname "the Newport of the South." For generations this stretch held the Mississippi Gulf Coast's finest concentration of 19th- and early-20th-century beachfront mansions, later recognized as a National Register historic district. Hurricane Katrina swept away much of that heritage in 2005, especially at the district's western end.
Pottery Hill
Mandeville, LA
Pottery Hill, shaded by the ancient Castain Oak, holds layered evidence of human life reaching back to the late Tchefuncte era around 800 BC and the early Marksville period of the first centuries AD. Pottery shards, bone, and shell deposits show that Native peoples — including the Acolapissa and later the Choctaw — used this ground continuously into the 20th century. Colonial settlers later prized its fine clay, running commercial potteries here until the 1940s.
Flagstaff (c. 1850 Historic Home)
Mandeville, LA
"Flagstaff" is a residence dating to about 1850, from the antebellum era of the Louisiana lakeshore near Mandeville. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 in recognition of its architectural and historical value. Structures like it survive as tangible links to the mid-19th-century Gulf South.
Columbia Street Landing
Covington, LA
Columbia Street Landing was the working waterfront where Covington began. From the early 1800s, schooners and steamers tied up here to move cotton, lumber, bricks, whiskey, and mail between this harbor and the river cities beyond. Oyster luggers still delivered their catch into the late 1930s, and many of the area's first settlers first stepped ashore at this spot.