Father Ryan Avenue
This avenue is named for Father Abram J. Ryan (1838-1883), a Catholic priest who was a poet, a writer, a lecturer, and a Confederate chaplain during the Civil War. He is known to have lived briefly in Biloxi. The neighborhood is indicative of Biloxi’s first westward movement along the beachfront and north to the railroad during the 1920s. The avenue’s architecture reflects the trends of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Some of neighborhoods that branch off of Father Ryan to the north were built to house the growing populace associated with Keesler Air Force Base.
Travel west five tenths of a mile to Chalmers Street (on the left before the Biloxi Junior High School complex). Turn left (south) onto Chalmers, which enters the old Methodist Campground (currently the Methodist Seashore Assembly). On the right (west) is the old campground school (painted green with white trim).