The Bernheimer House (sometimes known as the Bernheimer Complex) was built by brothers Samuel and Jacob Bernheimer, Austrian Jewish businessmen. The Bernheimers moved to Port Gibson in the 1840s to the town and started a mercantile.

During the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant used the home that was on this site as headquarters during the Battle of Port Gibson. Grant deemed Port Gibson ”a town too pretty to burn,” so it did not experience the type of destruction other towns did. However, the Civil War financially destroyed the Bernheimers, but they eventually rebuilt.

In 1872, the Bernheimer house and commercial buildings on Walnut Street were built together to form the “Bernheimer Complex.” The Italianate house is covered in glass tiles made by the Kokomo Opalescent Glass Company, the oldest American opalescent glass maker. The company is still operating today.