Posted on 10/10/2005 3:06:59 PM PDT by WestTexasWend
BILOXI, Miss. — The beachfront cottage where Jefferson Davis wrote his memoirs stood for a century and a half in the shade of towering oak trees, but Hurricane Katrina reduced it to rubble in just a few hours.
Like nearly all historical homes on Mississippi's Gulf Coast, the cottages at Beauvoir were swept away by Katrina's winds and storm surge.
"It's a horrifying site," said Todd Sanders, a coordinator with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. "It's hard for me to put into words."
The main house at Beauvoir, built in 1852, survived the storm better than most buildings. A blue tarp covered a hole in the roof, and the house itself has been gutted, but Sanders believes it can be saved.
Other famous homes on the coast, with their large columns and wraparound porches, are simply no longer there.
"Businessmen from New Orleans and upcountry planters always built the finest homes," Sanders said. "They built these estates along the water, (and) now they're gone. Beauvoir, the Longfellow House and a couple of others are the only antebellum houses that remain on the coast."
The Longfellow House was built in 1850 and remains largely intact on Beach Boulevard in Pascagoula. The home, which took its name from a local legend that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once stayed there, now towers over the bare foundations where neighboring homes once stood.
Homes such as Beauvoir and the Longfellow House can be saved if the restoration process is swift enough to stabilize the structures before they are further deteriorated by the elements, said Mississippi Heritage Trust director David Preziosi.
But it will be up to local leaders and property owners whether the homes that were destroyed are rebuilt.
"We've lost a great deal of our cultural history," Preziosi said. "Even if you rebuild one, you lose an actual piece of history."
A dozen miles west of Biloxi, down a tree-lined gravel road in Ocean Springs, the family of late artist Walter Anderson sifted through what's left of two homes built in the 1830s. The artist's son, John Anderson, wiped his brow and said, "There's nothing left."
At least 16 buildings were destroyed at the Shearwater artist community made famous by his father's nature works, including Shearwater Pottery's showroom and a vault that housed most of the painter's work.
"You expect to see something, boards or something. But there's nothing there," he said in a soft voice.
Blue tarps covered what was left of the Sullivan House, designed by renowned architects Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. Only two of the original four structures remained after the storm, but the wood shell of those — painted nearly the same hazy blue as the nearby Gulf — has been heavily damaged.
An uprooted tree and scattered debris is all that's left on the site of the Dantzler House, which once faced the Gulf of Mexico with wide porches and tall white columns. It was home to a Mardi Gras museum.
"It sort of erases a part of the past," Preziosi said. "You no longer have that visual history."
The Brielmaier House, built in 1895 and home to the Biloxi Visitor's Center, was known for its Victorian woodwork and arched lattices before Hurricane Katrina leveled it.
And the Pleasant Reed House, built by a freed slave around 1887, once gave a glimpse into the lives of a black family in early 20th-century Biloxi. Now, nothing remains but the chimney.
"A lot of the collections in the house were moved before the storm, but the actual house is gone," Preziosi said. "Even if you rebuild one just like it, it's not his house. It's not the one he built."
Preziosi said the Pleasant Reed House would likely be rebuilt, but it's hard to know if any other homes would be resurrected. In the meantime, preservationists are wondering how Katrina will change the way the past is viewed.
"It's making us look at the way we can preserve the history of the coast," Sanders said. "We've lost major character-defining buildings. These were buildings that defined the community."
Mississippi Heritage Trust:
http://www.mississippiheritage.com/HurricaneKatrina.html
Beauvoir: http://www.beauvoir.org
Mississippi Department of Archives and History: http://www.mdah.state.ms.us/
MS ping
I drove along the coast of Mississippi in '91. The old estates along the beach were breathtakingly majestic and seemed to go on forever.
A huge loss.
Davis' Memoirs: "Rise and Fall of the Confederate States", in two volumes. A definitive account of the war. Required reading for my siblings and me during adolescence. I still have the books.
Thanks for the ping. Beauvoir is one of my earliest childhood memories. It breaks my heart to see these post-Katrina pics.
Thanks for the ping. The Shearwater pottery folks was my favorite place to visit. It's just so very sad.
Thank you for the article and, most especially, the links.
So sad...
The pics at the first link are just unbelievable.
Hope many will be moved to contribute to preserving what's left.
God bless the good folks of MS and keep you strong.
That's one beautiful home/restaurant. The owners must still be in shock somewhat that it's completely gone.
Shearwater Pottery was in Ocean Springs MS, on a cool, heavily treed lot. The family put some of Walter's and the other family members' artwork in a makeshift vault, for safekeeping from the storm, but the storm surge broke it open and the art went everywhere. Some pieces can be restored, but not others.
I finally made it to the Walter Anderson museum in OS this past summer, and it was very interesting! I didn't realize that he did so much work that was in the 'Arts and Crafts' style, which is one of my favorites. I think the artworks in the Museum were not damaged, which is good news.
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