Hotel Marie reopened on December 15, 1918, after burning in March 1918. Built by W. R. Kirby and named for his wife, Marie Irwin Mangum Kirby, it was tied to one of Tunica's founding families through her father, R. C. Irwin. In the town's early days, when trains ran twelve times daily, with six trips north and six trips south, the hotel was Tunica's undisputed social center, and W. C. Handy played for weekend dances there. Over the years, Hotel Marie also housed a bank, several drugstores, a police department, a grocery store, offices for attorneys, doctors, and dentists, and a liquor store.