Of all the jarring and tragic images which poured forth in a torrent in the aftermath of Katrina, among the most poignant were those of the ruins of the Tivoli Hotel. The gaping holes in the building immediately told a tale of loss without redemption. By May, 2006, the tattered remnants met their date with the wrecking ball and all that remains is a weedy lot staring blankly out at the sea. It might not have ended this way, but the stage had been set for change, one way or the other, before Katrina settled its fate.
Built in 1927 and designed by local architect Carl E. Matthes, the Tivoli’s restrained classicism was a good fit for the Coast. Not nearly as large or flashy as the Edgewater Gulf or even the Buena Vista, the Tivoli settled into a modest existence throughout most of its life. Its graceful arcades and verdant gardens rose above a greensward sweeping down to the glassy Gulf below, promising the visitor a quiet respite from the world. The dining room was especially handsome, with Georgian detailing and an elegant mirrored marble overmantel. The lobby was small, but had a stunning barrel-vaulted ceiling. The ballroom also featured carefully executed plaster medallions and wrought iron railings.
The Dining Room- photo- Mississippi Heritage Trust
In the late 1950s, the hotel was remodeled and renamed the Tradewinds. The new moniker came with a low-rise addition of modern motel rooms . Early pictures of the addition suggested something more dramatic than the dismal box which supplanted the addition after Hurricane Camille blasted through Biloxi in 1969. Local people might recall that Robert Mahoney was the General Manager of the hotel from the early 1950s until he and his wife Mary opened the eponymous restaurant we know today as Mary Mahoney’s in 1964.
The 1970s were unkind to the Tivoli and the hotel slumped into senescence as an apartment hotel for transient guests. I went in there once or twice in the late 1970s and in the early 1980s. Its graceful paneling had been draped in the crimson and gold of a bordello and the reputation of the hotel had been all but sundered. A final visit in 1998 revealed a tattiness which went well beyond what I’d witnessed before. The owner, Jerry Kelly, had made attempts to sell the property, but little came of his desire to sell the property to a casino developer willing to retain the building. The last occupants of the Tivoli lived in the shabby little motel building as the stately main building was closed to the public at some time during the early 1990s. Whatever Mr. Kelly’s intentions may have been, the Tivoli suffered under a regime of minimal maintenance and supervision.
A possible savior might have arisen in Mike Boudreaux of Gulf Coast Investment Developers, an aggressive developer of condominium projects on the Coast. In my conversations with Mr. Boudreaux, I understood that plans were laid in late 2004 to retain the Tivoli as the centerpiece in a larger complex of four high-rise residential towers. While not ideal, the plan might have worked.
Tivoli Hotel and Casino Barge, September, 2005 Image MDAH
Tivoli Ballroom After Katrina- photo- Mississippi Heritage Trust
After Katrina, it is questionable if there was really any hope that the building could have been saved. Any real hope for its salvation was likely obliterated when the land was re-zoned for waterfront gaming. While not the determining factor in the fate of the Tivoli, the presence of a ruin on such valuable land may have been seen as an impediment to the redevelopment of the property. The Tivoli was demolished with almost no public discussion about the possibility of saving what remained. The availability of tax credits for historic preservation went unnoticed as well. The fact that it vanished without a trace must serve as a lesson of what can easily slip through the cracks of a great disaster. Unless there is an active willingness to save a landmark, it can easily slip away with the tides.
Tivoli Hotel, May 2006, photo Mississippi Heritage Trust
Categories: Biloxi, Demolition/Abandonment, Gulf Coast, Historic Preservation, Hotels, Hurricane Katrina, Lost Mississippi
Preservation in Mississippi 
There are no words …
LikeLike
OMG so sad…I lived on the 4th floor front apt all crumbled away while on active duty at keesler. Woke up to the gulf lapping near the yacht club every morning with my coffee. What a one of a kind building. I loved it. Like antebellum south. Gone with the Wind….sigh.
LikeLike
When such an important piece of history slips into oblivion we all loose a little something. Buildings today are designed to last and many will be gone to redevelopment long before they can ever be considered historic or important. I think if something of such importance is going to be destroyed we should at least make sure to save whatever we can
LikeLike
My father, Harry H. Compton was the first manager of the tivoli. Sad it’s gone.
LikeLike
My family built the Tivoli Hotel. I knew the hotel was gone, but the pictures were a shock.
LikeLike
My wife and I honeymooned there on March 9th 1985 , it was a little rundown then but still held some historic beauty. We were sad to see it go .
LikeLike
I was a 2Lt. stationed at Keesler in 1982. I lived in the apartment building next to the Tivoli Hotel. I went there quite a bit but I had the impression that it was once a great hotel, it was pretty down on its fortunes when I was there. Sad to see Katrina took it, my apartment building doesn’t seem to have made it either.
LikeLike
I stayed there for a couple of nights in 1978 while living and working in New Orleans. Biloxi had an amazing, somewhat melancholic atmosphere then, and the gently decaying Tradewinds Hotel was part of that. Destruction has been wrought as much by greed and money as by the forces of nature.
LikeLike
As a young boy family spent a vacation in the Trade Winds Hotel. My mother and father both native Mississippians still called it the Tivoli. I was only three of for years old the first time we stayed there but I remember how cold the a/c was in the room and how seemingly big the pool was out front of the hotel. We took a sailboat ride to Deer Island from right out front of the Hotel. When we returned my father took me for a walk around the inside of the hotel and gestured to me to where the “grownups played games.” I wasn’t sure what that meant but in later years I assumed that gambling was still taking place at the hotel at that time and that was where the slot machines were located. It is funny what you remember from childhood but Dad had a cigar in one hand and was holding a JAX beer in the other as he pointed in a sweeping motion to a wall and door at the end of the lobby.
LikeLike
My husband and I stayed there every weekend after being married while stationed at Keesler AFB May-Early June 1980. They were trying to renovate the hotel then. Had scaffolding in the Ballroom, Bar was open, lobby was in disarray. But the rooms were clean. Good memories. I could visualize even then how the Tivoli must looked and even 1989 was still called the Tivoli.
LikeLike
My husband and I stayed there every weekend after being married while stationed at Keesler AFB May-Early June 1980. They were trying to renovate the hotel then. Had scaffolding in the Ballroom, Bar was open, lobby was in disarray. But the rooms were clean. Good memories. I could visualize even then how the Tivoli must looked and even 1980 was still called the Tivoli.
LikeLike
I stayed there when I was young with my step mom and dad it was still called the Tivoli then. I truly think it is where my step sister Tiffany was made. Both of them are gone now my parents and the Tivoli it’s really sad I miss them both
LikeLike