Mississippi by Air: Edgewater Shopping Plaza and Hotel

Remember last week’s postcard showing the Edgewater Hotel’s scenic, wooded beachfront, complete with bridle paths for long horse rides?

What happened?

Progress, that’s what.

This undated postcard, showing the short-lived coexistence of the Edgewater Hotel and the Edgewater Shopping Plaza, must date to the 1960s. According to Thomas Barnes’s post about the Edgewater Hotel,

The Edgewater Plaza Shopping City, built next door to the hotel in the early 1960s would prove to be the doom of the hotel.  In early 1970, the owners of the hotel, the Wakulla Edgewater Co. of Florida decided to close the fabled hotel.  In 1971, it was destroyed in an implosion performed by Controlled Demolition of Baltimore.  Performed may not be the right word here as the demolition didn’t go quite as planned.  The central tower toppled forward, but several additional blasts were needed to bring the Edgewater to its final end.  An expansion of the mall with a new Sears store followed.

EDGEWATER BEACH ON THE MISSISSIPPI GULF . . . Showing the Edgewater Plaza Shopping Center, Edgewater Beach Hotel and beautiful white sand beach. A Deep South Card.

EDGEWATER BEACH ON THE MISSISSIPPI GULF . . . Showing the Edgewater Plaza Shopping Center, Edgewater Beach Hotel and beautiful white sand beach. A Deep South Card.

Read Thomas Barnes’ full post, “The Edgewater Gulf Hotel, Queen of the Coast



Categories: Biloxi, Gulf Coast, Hotels

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2 replies

  1. I was barely a man helping Big Chief demolition Davie Florida.assist Controlled Demolition with removal of concrete and steel debris and I believe the largest Track Loader at the time.what an amazing adventure being so young.I remember it not falling going back inside. they had to cut 3 inch diameter rebar. And was wrapped with a 1-inch coil of rebar they look like bird cages I believe it was filmed by the local news.anybody have any information about that broadcast. I would love to see it.

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