Old Spanish Fort (Pascagoula, Mississippi)

The LaPointe-Krebs House, also known as the "Old Spanish Fort" and "Old French Fort," was built on the shore of Lake Catahoula (Krebs Lake) near what is now Pascagoula, Mississippi, on land granted to the French Canadian Joseph Simon dit La Pointe. Construction of the house is tentatively believed to have begun circa 1757 based on dendrochronology of structural timbers in the earliest portion of the structure, making it Mississippi's oldest extant historic building and the only French colonial-era structure in the state. It is the oldest scientifically confirmed standing structure on the Gulf Coast of the United States, although the Old Ursuline Convent in New Orleans is known to have been designed by Ignace François Broutin in 1745 and completed by 1753. The LaPointe-Krebs House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was designated a Mississippi Landmark in 1984. The LaPointe-Krebs House is owned and operated by the LaPointe-Krebs Foundation as a museum.