Fort Maurepas stood here in 1699 — the oldest settlement on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, a toehold that became, two centuries later, something France never intended: a haven for artists. The Anderson family arrived in the early 1900s and made it an art colony. Louis Sullivan, father of the skyscraper, built vacation cottages here. Peter Anderson founded Shearwater Pottery in 1928; three generations of the family have hand-thrown every piece since, and the showroom at the end of Shearwater Drive remains the only place in the world to buy their work. His brother Walter rowed alone to Horn Island — 12 miles offshore — to paint birds, waves, and storms that no one else saw. When Walter died in 1965, his family found a locked cottage, walls and ceiling covered in murals he made for no audience. You can stand in that room. It is still there.
