Update: MS Coast city ends lease with museum after months of turmoil. Here’s why

The Alice Moseley Folk Art Museum will leave Bay St. Louis’ Historic L&N Train Depot next year after the City Council voted Tuesday night to end the museum’s lease.

The 5-2 vote came three months after city leaders asked all nonprofits housed in city-owned buildings to share financial records before the council offered new leases.

The museum had not provided all the financial information the council requested by Tuesday night’s meeting. Lonnie Falgout, the museum’s executive director emeritus, said he cannot answer the council’s questions until the museum clarifies legal disputes over the estate of Alice Moseley’s son.

Council President Jordan Bradford said city leaders had been “very patient” but could not wait longer.

“It’s a time constraint,” Bradford said. “We’ve been waiting a while.”

Falgout called the council’s request “overreaching” and said the museum is already getting fewer visitors since the Hancock County Tourism Development Bureau and the visitors center inside the depot closed this fall.

“It’s a travesty,” Falgout said on Monday.

The decision means the museum will leave the building at the end of February. Its future after that is unclear, but Falgout said he would seek another place to display Moseley’s art.

The vote also raises new questions about the depot’s future. The landmark property is beside Bay St. Louis’ new Amtrak stop, but the museum is the only attraction still open in the building.

The museum was founded after Moseley’s death in 2004 and has become a beloved part of the city’s artistic culture. Moseley, a former English teacher, began painting late in life and chronicled her childhood memories in the South. The museum displays dozens of her original acrylic works, and the blue cottage where she spent the last years of her life sits just across from the depot.

The turmoil began when tenants’ leases expired at the end of June. Council members have said they were not against leasing to the museum, which spent $150 a month on utilities and paid no rent under its previous lease. But city leaders said they needed to ensure all nonprofits in city buildings were financially stable before offering discounted rates.

The museum gave the council several financial records, including a profit and loss statement, by October. But council members asked for more clarity on a nonprofit tax form and a foundation that supports the museum.

The city intends to sort out leases with all nonprofit tenants by the end of the year.

“We’ve got to make a decision and move forward, so the council can focus on other issues and projects,” Councilman Josh DeSalvo said earlier this week.

Council members hope to decide lease terms with the Boys and Girls Club and Senior Citizens Center in the next several weeks. The Hancock County Chamber of Commerce signed a new $1,200-a-month lease in November for the old City Hall building on 2nd Street. Bradford said the chamber gave the council detailed financial records.

Some artists and residents who adore Moseley have worried this year that the council might turn over depot space to retailers or merchants now that Amtrak is running for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. City leaders have insisted they did not intend to force the museum out and only wanted due diligence for all tenants.

Council members said there were no immediate plans for the depot. Falgout said the museum could try to return to Moseley’s blue cottage, which her son sold before his death.

“The depot is a wonderful place,” Falgout said. “But Alice belongs in her own house. That has been our goal from day one.”

This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM.