Page 159 - South Mississippi Living - February, 2017

picnics, horseback riding, tennis, archery, water skiing, fishing and great food,” Walker said.
A $25,000 Hollywood size swimming pool opened in June 1950, and the Pink Pony Lounge that overlooked the pool was the coolest place to hang out. The most famous celebrity to enjoy Gulf Hills Dude Ranch was Elvis Presley. He stayed at a
house near the resort each summer from 1951-57. Dickie Waters taught him how to waterski and he learned to ride a horse, Pinson said.
Gulf Hills reached another low point in 1971 when the hotel burned. It was rebuilt. In 1998, SSM Group, LLC, a local family, purchased the property. Today it’s known as Gulf Hills Hotel & Conference Center sitting on 11 acres with 52 boutique rooms. The hotel works closely with the Gulf Hills Golf Club so that locals and visitors alike can continue
to enjoy the 18-hole course. The homes surrounding the hotel and golf course make up the second oldest residential
neighborhood on the Coast.
“No matter what happens you can’t take away from what Gulf Hills
has been to this Coast and to Ocean Springs,” Brown said. “You can’t take it away.”
photo credit: Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, C.C. “Tex” Hamill Down South Magazine Collection
GULF HILLS DUDE RANCH was conceived in the early 1950s bringing a taste of the West to South Mississippi.
photo credit: Mary C.
THE FIRST ROOM depicts the upper-crust who enjoyed the resort in its early days.
photo credit:
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Dixie Press Collection
TRAVELING FROM HIS HOME IN CHICAGO to the golf course adjoining his home in Gulf Hills in 1929 was a matter of a few hours to B.J. Grigsby of Chicago, president of the Grigsby-Grunow Co., manufacturer of the Majestic Radio, in his twin-motored Sikorsky amphibian plane. The original Gulf Hills Resort is on the hill.
photo credit: Courtesy of Ocean Springs Museum of History
GULF HILLS STYLE SHOW was a five day golf tournament for women held in February of 1927. With tea and haute couture gowns from Paris.
FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net February 2017 • SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living 159
photo credit: Mary C.
PAT PINSON, Ph.D., AND DENNIS WALKER spent six months getting the exhibit together.
THE EXHIBIT:
Ocean Springs Museum of History
second floor of the Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center
1600 Government St., Ocean Springs | 228.818.2878 Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday from noon-4 p.m. free self-guided tours
Meet the people who were part of the Gulf Hills Dude Ranch during a reception on Thursday, March 30, from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Ocean Springs Museum of History.