POSTCARD COURTESY RANDY RANDAZZOThe Gulfport Grocery Company donated groceries and other items to churches, nonprofit organizations and other causes in the Mississippi Coast community.
Pictured here circa 1920, the Gulfport Grocery Company opened in 1903 on 13th Street and soon grew into an enterprise of "mammoth" proportions. The company built its own grain elevator, had its own water tower and brought in goods by schooner, barge, and by rail on its own L&N Railroad spur.
By 1910 the company was the largest of its kind in South Mississippi. Its inventory included groceries, feed, wagons, vehicles, harnesses, saddles, clothing and shoes.
The company also gave back to the community, donating grocery and non-grocery items for many causes, including Christmas dinner turkeys for Confederate veterans at Beauvoir.
In 1920, the company published this recipe for an egg-less, milk-less, butter-less cake, made with name-brand products that the store carried. "Boil together three minutes the following: 1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup Snowdrift Lard, 1/2 cup Hershey's Cocoa, 1/2 grated nutmeg, 1 teaspoon water. When thoroughly cool, add 2 cups Baby Doll Flour and bake in a slow oven."
The cake didn't include eggs, milk, or butter, but it certainly wasn't heart-healthy. with all of that lard.
The Gulfport Grocery Company remained in operation through the early 1930s.
Murella Powell, a local historian, writes Flashback. To submit a photo, please send a description with your name, address and daytime phone number to Flashback, the Sun Herald, P.O. Box 4567, Biloxi, MS 39535, or call 896-2424.
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