Antonio Franco was a Portuguese immigrant who settled on the southern shore of Fort Bayou in Ocean Springs in 1874. There, he built a home and raised a family. Franco utilized his property and became the first to operate a ferry across Fort Bayou to the northern shore. After his death, Franco's family sold their property to Dr. H.B. Powell in 1896, who added to the home and opened a sanitarium, utilizing the natural spring waters on the property which were boasted to have healing properties. Dr. Powell closed down his sanitarium in 1913, and opened the property as the Bayou Inn. After changing hands and many years, the Bayou Inn was converted into a convalescent home in 1944 and renamed Chateau Bayou. In more recent years, it has been the home to what was advertised as a "cultural complex" with a restaurant occupying the basement area, and finally an Aunt Jenny's Catfish Resturaunt.