Organized in 1896 by Bertha Amis and her half-sister Ruby Thornton, First Baptist Church first met in a rail car in downtown Gulfport. In 1899, a church was built at the corner of 14th Street and 23rd Avenue. The congregation then moved to this beachfront location and constructed a new church in 1915. Badly damaged in Hurricane Camille, it was rebuilt only to be destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. After the congregation relocated further inland, the property was sold to the Gulfport Redevelopment Commission for the Mississippi Aquarium.