Ocean Springs is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi (USA), about 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Biloxi. It is part of the Pascagoula, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 17,225 at the 2000 census.
Beach Blvd.The town has a reputation as an "arts community." Its historic and secluded downtown area, with streets lined by Live Oak trees, is home to several art galleries and shops plying shiny wares new and old alike. It is also home to a number of ethnic restaurants, relatively uncommon in surrounding communities.
Welcome to the City of Discovery
Come stroll through downtown Ocean Springs. Walk underneath the billowing oak trees while you browse the numerous boutiques and art galleries that dot the road. Satisfy your cravings by grabbing a delicious cappuccino from one of our many coffee shops, but don’t forget to wander into the candy store for sweet treat afterwards. Once the shopping’s done, get off your feet and enjoy some lunch at one of our well-known restaurants or indulge in an exotic massage at one of our many health spas. Our community is rich in history, so we encourage you to roam through our many museums here. When the sun goes down, take a ride down Bienville Boulevard and check out the plentiful dining, shopping, and entertainment options available there. We promise you’ll enjoy your day in Ocean Springs and it won’t take long for you to understand what we are all about.
Chamber of Commerce-Main Street Tourist CenterOcean Springs is a quaint community of nearly 18,000 in the heart of the Beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast. Locally, we are known as an artistic community. We are proud of the many nationally recognized painters and potters who call Ocean Springs home and of the more than 100 unique shops, museums, and galleries that support of our artistic heritage. Ocean Springs is a Mississippi Main Street community. We pride ourselves on our walk able downtown and our many thriving business districts. We also support the preservation of our many historic buildings. Even our own Chamber of Commerce- Main Street & Tourist center, which is housed in the historic L & N Train Depot, is turning 100 in 2007. These buildings give character to the landscape and make our downtown unmistakably our own.
Mayor Connie MoranOcean Springs was the hometown of the late Walter Inglis Anderson, a nationally renowned painter and muralist.
Reflection in a Pool" by Walter AndersonWalter Inglis Anderson (September 29, 1903 - November 30, 1965) was an American painter, writer, and naturalist. Known to his family as "Bob", he was born in New Orleans to George Walter Anderson, a grain broker, and Annette McConnell Anderson, member of a prominent New Orleans family, who had studied art at Newcomb College, where she had absorbed the ideals of the American Arts and Crafts movement.
Ocean Springs Marina
Anderson was the second of three brothers, the eldest being Peter Anderson (1901 - 1984) and the youngest was James McConnell "Mac" Anderson) (1907 - 1998). The two older brothers attended St. John's School in Manlius, New York until their schooling was interrupted by World War I and they enrolled in the prestigious Isidore Newman School (then called Isidore Newman Manual Training School) in New Orleans.
In 1918, the Andersons purchased a large wooded tract of coastal land in Ocean Springs. It was Annette's firm intention that all three of her sons become artists, and her husband's, that they learn to make a living from it. By 1924, a year after the family moved to Ocean Springs, Peter was experimenting with pottery, and in 1928, after training with Edmund deForest Curtis at the Conestoga Pottery (Wayne, Pennsylvania) and with Charles F. Binns at the School of Clay-Working and Ceramics at Alfred, New York, the Andersons opened a family business, Shearwater Pottery, which is still in operation in Ocean Springs.
Shearwater Pottery:
Dreaming in Clay on the Coast of Mississippi:Devoted to the History of Shearwater Pottery
Ocean Springs, Mississippi
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The workshop at Shearwater PotteryShearwater Pottery is a small family-owned pottery in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, United States founded in 1928 by Peter Anderson (1901-1984), with the support of his parents, George Walter Anderson and Annette McConnell Anderson. From the 1920s through the present day, the Pottery has produced art pottery, utilitarian ware, figurines, decorative tiles and other ceramic objects. Two of its most important designers were Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965) and his brother James McConnell Anderson (1907-1998). Although Shearwater was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the workshop was rebuilt and restored by Jason Stebly. Pottery continues to be thrown by Peter’s son James Anderson and the latter's son Peter Wade Anderson, and decorated by Patricia Anderson Findeisen, Christopher Inglis Stebly, Adele Anderson Lawton and others. Michael Anderson heads the Shearwater Annex, and Marjorie Anderson Ashley is business manager.
James McConnell "Mac" Anderson (August 9, 1907, New Orleans – 1998, Jackson County, Mississippi) was an American painter, muralist, and pottery designer and decorator, youngest of the three brothers (along with Walter Inglis Anderson and founder Peter Anderson) who collaborated at Shearwater Pottery, Ocean Springs, Mississippi (Ocean Springs Archives).
Born in New Orleans, Anderson attended schools there (Isidore Newman School) and in Chattanooga (the McCallie School), graduating in 1926, and studied briefly at Tulane University with William Spratling before devoting himself to the family business. In Shearwater's third year of existence (1931), he joined his brother Walter ("Bob") in a new business venture, "the Shearwater Annex", where, over the years, the two of them designed and produced inexpensive decorative objects ranging from sets of ceramic baseball and football players, to humorous figurines of Southern blacks and legendary pirates, to lamp bases, and smaller objects called "widgets", which "filled spaces in the kiln under the larger pieces to increase the value of the firing" (Lebow, "James McConnell Anderson"). Characteristic pieces included the baseball player series, woodpecker mugs, small fish and animals (Patti Carr Black, p. 200). The figurines, which appealed to Gulf Coast tourists, received national publicity in the early 1930s and helped Shearwater survive the Depression.
James McConnell Anderson, "Cat Vase", "Oyster Tongers"More important to Anderson's artistic legacy were his meticulously decorated vases and bowls, several of which won recognition in the Robineau competition at Syracuse University); his ceramic murals, done with his brother Peter, for the Ocean Springs Public School under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project (1934) (Murals) and, beginning in the 1940s, his oil paintings, fabric designs, block prints, and private and public murals.
Unable to devote himself full-time to his art, in the early 1940s, he began working for Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi, as a "straightener" and later at Delta Shipyard, New Orleans, as straightener and pusher (it was his job to flatten and straighten the metal plates used in shipbuilding, an "awe-inspiring job," he once joked. "When you’ve got a blow torch in one hand and a stream of water in the other, people tend to get along with you!" (Lebow).
During his time in New Orleans, "Mac" Anderson painted and took biweekly classes at the Arts and Crafts Club, in New Orleans, where he studied under Uruguayan artist Juan José Calandria (Calandria Fine Art). In 1946 he married Sara Lemon of Ocean Springs, who had begun working at Shearwater in 1936 and who continued working in the showroom. On returning to Shearwater he renovated the Annex, installed a new kiln and other equipment, and designed new figurines and widgets.
His daughters, Marti and Adele were born in 1947 and 1951, respectively. Years later, Adele Anderson Lawton worked as a decorator at Shearwater and as painter of the linoleum block prints cut by her uncle Walter Anderson (Carr, p. 201) as well as the silk screens made from those prints; assisted her father with the reproduction of his graphic works; and developed a family store in Ocean Springs "featuring fabrics, clothing and prints of Walter Anderson's designs" (Walter Anderson website) (Carr, p. 201). In 2006, Adele resumed her work at Shearwater Pottery as a decorator and painter, and is now actively involved with the restoration of Mac's work that was damaged in Katrina.
In 1952, Mac went to work as a technician at Ferson Optics (Ferson Optics) in Ocean Springs, where, for the next twenty years, he corrected prisms for gun sites and tanks and collaborated, in the early 70s, on the optics used in one of NASA's Mars shots. During the 1950s he also created a number of murals in homes and businesses in Ocean Springs, and in surrounding areas. Many are now lost. One of the largest was the 40-ft.long "Scene of the Singing River" (1959) painted on canvas and affixed to the walls of the waiting room in the Singing River Hospital, Pascagoula. Retrieved by local historians Tom Wixon and Ray Bellande (Ocean Springs Archives) from a hospital storeroom in 1999, the mural was restored and reinstalled in the Jackson County Courthouse, Pascagoula. Another large mural (11' x 20'), inspired by Anderson but much later in date, adorns the entrance to the Ocean Springs Civic Center. It was done in mosaic by Mississippi artist Elizabeth Veglia (Elizabeth Veglia's works) who modeled her work after one of his paintings (Jackson County Sun Herald, June 24, 1989, p. 1).
After his retirement in 1972, Anderson was able to devote himself more fully to his art and spent the remaining decades of his life at Shearwater, painting, decorating pottery (Dreaming in Clay.com), and making prints. Anderson's work drew its inspiration from the flora, fauna, and characteristic figures of the Gulf Coast (oyster tongers, hunters, flounderers), and from the African-American community of New Orleans. Instinct with "order, quietness, and beauty" (in the words of Mary Anderson Pickard) his oil paintings were done on masonite rather than canvas. As he told an interviewer, "I liked the idea of making any size you wanted just by taking the saw to it" (Lebow).
James McConnell Anderson, "Cat Vase", "Oyster Tongers"A retrospective exhibition was staged in January 1992 at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art. In the museum's archives is a videorecording of his remarks, on that occasion, about his own life and works. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed the unique rammed-earth house and studio Anderson had ingeniously constructed at Shearwater in 1937, severely damaging the family's collection of his art works, which now awaits restoration. His prints (Anderson Art Gallery), paintings (Anderson Arts Gallery and vases are highly prized by collectors; one of his slip-painted bowls sold for $3760 at Neal Auction in 2005 (Dreaming in Clay).
Fragment of "Cat Vase" found after Hurricane KatrinaThe town plays host to several festivals, including its Peter Anderson Festival and The Herb Festival.
Pelican in Ocean SpringsOcean Springs was severely damaged on August 29, 2005, by Hurricane Katrina, which smashed many buildings along the shoreline, including the Ocean Springs Yacht Club, and the historic wooden Fort Maurepas, and gutted or flooded other buildings. Katrina's 25 ft storm surge also destroyed the Biloxi Bay Bridge, which connected Biloxi to Ocean Springs.
History,
One of the oldest cities in the United States, Ocean Springs was founded in 1699, under the authority of King Louis XIV, as Fort Maurepas by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. It was the first permanent French outpost in French Louisiana and was established as a foothold to prevent Spanish encroachment on France's colonial claims. The site was maintained well into the early 18th century.
Shrimp boats in Ocean SpringsThe name Ocean Springs was coined by Dr. William Glover Austin in 1854. He believed the local springs had healing qualities. Ocean Springs became a prosperous resort town and after several years reinvented itself as a history oriented residential community. The history of the town is celebrated annually in reenactments depicting d'Iberville's landing near a replica of Fort Maurepas.
From colonial times to present day, seafood has been celebrated. The abundance of seafood allowed French and French-Canadian explorers and settlers to thrive within the Fort Maurepas/Old Biloxi area. In the late 19th century, the development of ice plant industries along the coast increased seafood sales. Locals and tourists can still purchase freshly harvested shrimp, fish, crabs, and oysters to this day because of this thriving industry.
Ocean Springs was in the international spotlight following Hurricane Katrina's landfall on August 29, 2005. The city, part of the Mississippi Gulf Coast directly hit by the storm, sustained significant damage. The Biloxi-Ocean Springs bridge, part of Highway 90 along the beach, was destroyed and was a widely broadcast visual testament to the hurricane's impact.
Five Centuries on Biloxi Bay: A Chronology of Ocean Springs, Mississippi
Washington Avenue, Ocean Springs, Mississippi circa 1903.
The Davis Brothers Store is situated in the large building on the right.
The view is south from Old County Road, now Government Street.
[photo by Winifred Norwood Shapker (1870-1937). Courtesy of Lynne Ann Shapker Sutter]
Web Site
THE MAGINNIS ESTATE
ARTHUR AMBROSE MAGINNIS (1815-1877)
A.A. Maginnis Estate
The commencement of the Maginnis family history at Ocean Springs is obfuscated somewhat by the destruction of the land deed records of Jackson County before March 1875. It is very probable that during the post-Bellum years and pre-1875, Arthur Ambrose Maginnis (1815-1877) and or his son, A.A. Maginnis Jr (1846-1901), two of the wealthiest men at New Orleans, purchased several lots in Block 17 (Culmseig Map of 1854), Section 25, T7S-R9W. Here on a high bluff, at the west beach, with over six-hundred feet of water front acreage, between present day Hillendale and McNamee, the Maginnis family erected a large mansion and several outbuildings. C.E. Schmidt (1904-1988) in his Ocean Springs French Beachhead (1972), describes the Maginnis estate as "along the Bay front East of Hillendale, and back to Porter Street. There was also a smaller house on the front, and servant cottages on Porter".
This beautiful site with an outstanding view of the Bay of Biloxi and Deer Island was just west of Oak Cottage, the family boarding house, owned by Irish immigrant, Julia Ward (1830-1894+). Charles W. Ziegler (1865-1936) and the Puringtons later occupied the Oak Cottage site.
The Maginnis family at New Orleans was synonymous with cottonseed oil and cotton mills. Arthur A. Maginnis Sr. (1815-1877), a native of Maryland, was the pioneer in the making of cottonseed oil at the Crescent City, when in 1856, he commenced the A.A. Maginnis' Cotton Seed Oil & Soap Works, and later Maginnis' Oil & Soap Works. With John H. Maginnis, possibly a brother or nephew, Arthur A. Maginnis founded A.A. Maginnis' Sons, who in 1882, promoted the Maginnis' Cotton Mills. The Maginnis' Cotton Mills were bounded by Calliope, Poeyfarre, Annunciation, and Constance Streets. The mills were considered models of their kind and employed nine hundred people. These workers operated 12,000 looms and 41,000 spindles to produce over 21,000,000 yards of cotton sheeting, shirting, osnaburg, yarn, bating, and duck cloth from over 12,000 bales of cotton.
Arthur Ambrose Maginnis married Elizabeth Jane Armstrong (1822-1901). She was a native of Liverpool, England, and immigrated to the United States with her Scottish parents as a small child. Her mother was Sarah Affleck Armstrong (1796-1882). The Maginnises had a least nine children: Sarah M. Nolan (1841-1894), John H. Maginnis (1845-1889), Arthur Ambrose Maginnis Jr. (1846-1901), Emma M. Gilmore (1849-1901+), Margaret C. Pescud (1852-1919), Charles B. Maginnis (1856-1909), William D. Maginnis (1858-1938), Laura M. Penrose (1861-1933), and Albert B. Maginnis (1864-1917).
From the land deed records of the Chancery Court of Jackson County, Sarah Armstrong, A.A. Maginnis's mother-in-law, also acquired a summer home at Ocean Springs. In 1862 and 1863, she bought eighty-two acres for $2200 from Joseph R. Plummer (1806-c. 1864) in Lot 5, Section 24, T7S-R9W. This is on the Bay of Biloxi in an area of town that is now called Lovers Lane.
This estate came into the Maginnis family in January 1882, when Mrs. Armstrong sold it to her daughter, Elizabeth A. Maginnis. Benjamin F. Parkinson (1859-1930) of New Orleans purchased the property in June 1907, for $2000 from the A.A. Maginnis Land Company. Parkinson was in the insurance business at New Orleans and Ocean Springs. He raised prize-winning chickens as a hobby at Ocean Springs.
A.A. Maginnis Jr.
Arthur A. Maginnis Jr. (1846-1901) succeeded his father in the company operations and management. As such he was the president of Maginnis' Cotton Mills, Lafayette Warehouse Company, Planters Fertilizer Manufacturing Company, Hermitage Planting and Manufacturing Company, and the Louisiana Oil Company. Mr. Maginnis was also resident vice-president of the American Surety Company of New York.
A.A. Maginnis Jr. married Julia C. Fassman (1848-1867) of New Orleans. She died in the Crescent City on September 21, 1867, shortly after their espousal. He then wedded Mary Amelia Tweed (1851-1887). She may have been the daughter of William Marcy Tweed (1823-1878). W.M. Tweed was born at New York City and became leader of Tammany, the New York City Democratic political machine. He controlled party nominations and was known as Boss Tweed. His brother, John H. Maginnis (1853-1882), was married to Elizabeth Cornellson Tweed, possibly a sister of his wife. Arthur A. Maginnis Jr. and Mary A. Tweed had two children: Arthur A. Maginnis III (1874-1895) and Charles D. Maginnis (1878-1880).
As a child, A.A. Maginnis Jr. attended the New Orleans public schools. He abandoned his studies in 1862, to enlist in the forces of the Confederates States of America. At the mere age of fourteen, Maginnis was known as the youngest Rebel in active service. He served with his uncle, Captain John Tighlman Nolan, until the unit was disbanded. Maginnis was honorably discharged in 1864, as a member of the Miles Legion. After the Civil War, Arthur A. Maginnis Jr. was sent to New York to manage the family cottonseed oil company, which was headquartered at Coscob, Connecticut. In 1871, he returned to New Orleans and soon took command of the many Maginnis' family enterprises.
As a man of affluence at the Crescent City, Maginnis belonged to many social and fraternal organizations. He was one of the organizers of the Southern Yacht Club. Mr. Maginnis enjoyed several yachts. In addition to his flagship, Pickwick, which was built at New Orleans, he owned the Gypsy and Agnes. Maginnis served as Commodore of the Southern Yacht Club from 1881-1883, and was a member of Chalmette, Louisiana, La Variete, French Opera, Louisiana Jockey, and the Pickwick Clubs. In addition, his interest in Carnival saw him reign as Rex in 1880. At New Orleans, the family resided on the corner of Jackson Avenue and Prytania Street.
At his west beach villa at Ocean Springs, Mississippi, A.A. Maginnis Jr. owned a large olive grove planted with thousands of bearing trees imported from Italy. He also attempted to grow peanuts on his estate to manufacture peanut butter. This venture attracted two German immigrants, Augustus von Rosambeau (1849-1912) and Charles E. Pabst (1851-1920), from the Leon Godchaux sugar plantation in Louisiana to Ocean Springs. Although the peanut butter venture failed, von Rosambeau and Pabst remained at Ocean Springs and made successful careers here in business and horticulture respectively. Maginnis also oversaw a 3,000 acre sugar plantation at Ascension Parish, Louisiana near Donaldsonville. His sister, Mrs. John T. Nolan, probably lived on the farm with her family.
In an interview by Captain Ellis Handy (1891-1963), a writer for The Gulf Coast Times, Joseph L. "Dode" Schrieber (1873-1951) related the following about A.A. Maginnis Jr.:
Ambrose McGinnis (sic) was a wealthy New Orleans man who built a large home here on the front beach not far from the bridge today. He commuted to work on the Club car of the Coast train. He was connected with Boss Tweed of New York by marriage. He planted olive trees, which did not do well. He raised cotton in the hope of developing a good oil from it. He raised peanuts in shares in the hope of making a butter from them. It was this venture, which brought Pabst and Rosambeau to Ocean Springs. Pabst sold out his share for three dollars. A son was killed by a flash of lightening as he came out of swimming.
Mr. McGinnis was a very positive man who wanted a yes or a no. He complained that the train whistles annoyed him and had the L&N put up signs "Blow Softly". He told his Negro manservant he was tired when he got in from the train and wanted a cold glass of milk brought to him each time he arrived. The man milked a half hour before train time and put the milk in bowls on ice. When Mr. McGinnis tasted the tasted the milk he said it was sour. The man said it could not be as he had just milked. Mr. McGinnis pulled a gun and made the man drink all the milk about two gallons, for contradicting him.(September 2, 1949)
While at Ocean Springs, the Maginnis family suffered several misfortunes and tragedies. In February 1888, the residence was burglarized. A.A. Maginnis Jr. lost $50 in cash and a gold watch and chain, which had been a gift to his late wife. It was valued at $500. In addition, the suspect, one John Clark, alias Doyle, had filled his satchel with food and wine from the Maginnis pantry. Clark had just been released from the jail at Biloxi.
The gale of August 1888 uprooted trees and dispersed limbs and leaves on the grand lawn of the Maginnis estate. They were less fortunate on July 4, 1889, when their brother, John A. Maginnis, was killed by a lightning bolt on the Maginnis pier as he returned from a swim in the bay.
A.A. Maginnis died on December 27, 1901, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. He was taken ill by a disease, which puzzled the finest physicians of Gotham and expired two weeks after succumbing to the malady. His brothers, Albert and Charles Maginnis, sister, Mrs. Thomas Gilmore, and nephew Harry Maginnis, were at his death bed.
The corporal remains of Arthur Ambrose Maginnis Jr. were sent to New Orleans and interred in the family mausoleum at the Metairie Cemetery. The large Maginnis tomb is on "Millionaire Circle" next to the twin mausoleums of the Schmidt and Ziegler families. It is interesting to note that the summer estates of these very wealthy New Orleans men were also contiguous to each other on the front beach at Ocean Springs, extending from present day Hillendale to just west of Martin Avenue.
The A.A. Maginnis Land Company of New Orleans took title to the Maginnis lands at Ocean Springs in the early 1900s. In December 1911, they leased the Maginnis property to the Keewatin School for Boys from Mercer, Wisconsin. The lease had a three year term with an option to purchase. Professor Keewatin's philosophy of education was to offer a maximum of outdoor life while maintaining a high grade of scholarship.
The Maginnis estate began to break up in June 1913, when the A.A. Maginnis Land Company sold a one-acre lot off the northeast corner of the tract to Katherine C. Ver Nooy (1863-1953).(5) Mrs. Ver Nooy was the daughter of D.V. Purington (1841-1914) and Jennie Purington (1846-1933) who resided east of the Maginnis property. Her husband, Charles B. Ver Nooy (1860-1921), was the vice-president and treasurer of the Illinois Brick Company of Chicago.
In April 1917, during WW I, The Jackson County Times reported that a squad of Mississippi soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Bond arrived at Ocean Springs to guard the L&N railroad bridge across the Bay of Biloxi. The small span across Davis Bayou was also under their surveillance. The troops were bivouacked on the Maginnis estate. By late April, the soldiers made their first arrest when Halstead Staples was incarcerated for failing to obey Lieutenants Bond's order to pass only through the draw. Staples in a skiff was attempting to pass under the bridge and was fired upon by one of the soldiers.
In June, the Army troops hosted a large picnic for the benefit of the Red Cross at their camp on the Maginnis estate. A large group of people attended the outdoor fete with their well stocked picnic baskets. A string band played music. There was also dancing, games, and amusement for everyone. In August 1925, the Maginnis Land Company sold the old Maginnis vacation home and the seventeen acres associated with it to Frederick B. Thomas for $8,500. F.E. Lee (1874-1932) was their real estate agent. Mr. Thomas came to the area from Winnetka, Illinois, and owned a home on East Beach, called "Oak Haven". Here he had an orange grove, Japanese persimmons, and a pecan orchard. James S. Bradford (1884-1963) was the manager of the Thomas orchards. Thus ended the long reign of one of New Orleans most wealthy families at Ocean Springs.
In the April 1943, Marko Skrmetta (1889-1943+), a native of Dalmatia and resident of Biloxi, acquired approximately three-quarters of the west segment of the former Maginnis estate from Marian L. Thomas, the widow of F.B. Thomas, for $8,000. Mr. Skrmetta platted the Oak Bluff Subdivision here in September 1950.
It is believed that the large Maginnis home was damaged by fire in the 1940s and dismantled. The heirs of F.B. Thomas may have been the owners at this time.
The Case-Russell Home: (1881-1933)
Washington Avenue
Dr. Don Carlos Case
In a 19th Century Ocean Springs, the Dr. Don Carlos Case family lived on the southwest corner of Porter and Washington Avenue. They had relocated to Ocean Springs from New Orleans in June 1878. Dr. Case was lauded by The Pascagoula Democrat-Star as, “an eminent and experienced physician and surgeon of over thirty years practice in New Orleans and the Mississippi valley…in offering his professional services to our people he is also willing to hold consultations with the other physicians along the coast”.(The Pascagoula Democrat-Star, June 7, 1878,)
In December 1880, Mrs. Martha A. Case purchased Lots 9 and 10 of Block 34 (Culmseig Map of 1854) from Margaret Anderson of Round Island. The combined lots had an area of 1.36 acres.(Jackson County Land Deed Bk. 5, pp. 16-17).
At this excellent location, in the heart of a vibrant tourist community, the Cases built, commencing in January 1881, a large neo-colonial style home costing $2000. The two-story, wood frame, edifice had over 5000 square feet of living area and a 500square-foot front gallery. The small office of Dr. Case was attached to the northwest corner of the house and faced Porter Avenue.(The Pascagoula Democrat-Star, February 4, 1881, p. 3 and Sanborn Insurance Map, Ocean Springs-July 1898, Sheet 2)
Dr. Don Carlos Case
Dr. Don Carlos Case (1819-1885) was born at Albany, New York on December 27, 1819. He attended the University of Missouri Medical College at St. Louis. Case was issued a license No. 1425 to practice medicine in Jackson County, Mississippi on June 8, 1882. His initial medical experiences commenced in 1847, probably at Missouri.(Rodgers, 1990, p. 9)
Dr. Case married Martha A. Thomas (1829-1902) who was born at Bouie County, Kentucky. Her father was a native of Virginia while her mother was also a Kentuckian. The Cases had three children: May Jane Case Emery (1860-1902+), Francis "Fanny" Shiloh Case Leftwich (1863-1947), and Charles T. Case (1867-1896). The girls were born at New Madrid, Missouri. It is believed that the Case family left New Madrid for New Orleans during the Civil War. Charles T. Case was born in the Crescent City.
May Jane Case
May Jane Case married Charles F. Emery (1855-1943) on July 24, 1878. He was a graduate of Duke University where he had studied law. Prior to becoming an ordained minister, Mr. Emery was elected principal of the public schools at Pascagoula. He came highly recommended as a teacher and gentleman.(The Pascagoula Democrat-Star, January 14, 1881, p. 3)
Gunfight with Father John C. Ahern
In early March 1881, a confrontation occurred on the street at Ocean Springs between Father John C. Ahern, the local Catholic priest, and Mr. C.F. Emery. In a duel-like scenario, Emery and Ahern, each armed with pistols, met and a single shot was fired by the Reverend Ahern. Sheriff John E. Clark was summoned from Pascagoula to bring peace. Professor Emery surrendered to the Justice of the Peace, Harry H. Minor (1837-1884), and was released on his own recognizance. Father Ahern was not as docile. He belligerent behavior before Judge Minor’s court resulted in his incarceration and a $35 fine. Professor Emery and family left the Pascagoula public school system for Fort Smith, Arkansas at the close of the school term in May 1881. He planned to practice law in Arkansas.(The Pascagoula Democrat-Star, March 11, 1881, p. 3 and May 20, 1881, p. 3)
Reverend Emery
Circa 1890, C.F. Emery became a Christian minister. He served as the pastor of Methodist Episcopal parishes at in the Mississippi towns of: Columbia, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, Brandon, Meridian, Vicksburg, Natchez, Hattiesburg, Waynesboro, Tylertown, and Fayette.
Charles and May Case Emery had at least two children: Charles Franklin Emery (1879-1950) and Don Carlos Emery (1880-1907). Charles Franklin Emery practiced law. He died at Corpus Christi, Texas on February 13, 1950. Don Carlos Emery named for his grandfather, Don Carlos Case, died at Brandon, Mississippi. Both are buried in the Evergreen Cemetery at Ocean Springs in the Case-Emery Family plot.
Fanny Shiloh Case
In 1881, at Ocean Springs, Fanny Shiloh Case married Jesse Bion Leftwich (1857-1923), a native of Florence, Alabama. Leftwich was the son of Jessie George Washington Leftwich (1823-1906) and Agnes Pollock Leftwich (1831-1915). They were natives of Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee and Ohio respectively. In May 1877, Agnes Leftwich purchased the John H. Brown house on Fort Bayou, now 810 Iberville, from George A. Cox (1811-1887). Here J.G. Leftwich made his livelihood as a sugar planter. In September 1887, the Leftwich family sold their Ocean Springs property and moved to Mobile.
Jessie B. Leftwich and Fanny Case had five children: Alma L. Fullton (b. 1882), Velma L. Lassiter (b. 1882), Beulah L. Norquist (b. 1884), Jessie Bion Leftwich (1890-1892), and Jess Harold Leftwich (b. 1896). In 1902, the family resided at 811 Dauphin Street in Mobile, Alabama.(Laura Lee Norquist, Mobile, Alabama)
Charles T. Case
Charles T. Case (1857-1896) married Roberta Staples (1864-1928) on July 10, 1886. She was the daughter of L. Gordon Staples of Greensboro, North Carolina and Adeline A. Terrell (1829-1902) of Covington, Louisiana. The Staples resided at New Orleans and owned property on the Fort Point peninsula at Ocean Springs.
Roberta S. Case had many siblings. Among them were: Mary Eleanor “May” S. Poitevent (1847-1932), Lillian Clotilette S. Ryan (1850-1928+), Frederick Staples (1852-1897), Louise V. Staples (1853-1910+), Walter Solomon Staples (1855-1856), Mathilde Lenora Lewis (1858-1928+), Gustave Toussant Beauregard Staples (b. 1861), Laura Estelle Staples (b. 1865), Volumnia H. Davis (1867-1897+), and Stella Staples (1871-1928+).
The union of Charles and Roberta Staples Case produced three sons: Carl Theodore Case (1888-1927+), Gordon Staples Case (1890-1927), and Frederick Pendleton Case (d. pre-1924).
In October 1896, Charles T. Case died at Nashville, Tennessee where he worked as the private secretary of H.C. Fisher, the Superintendent of the Southern Express Company.(The Pascagoula Democrat-Star, October 16, 1896, p. 30
His widow, Roberta S. Case, was residing at 1109 Rokeby Place at Nashville, in 1902. She moved to Ocean Springs before 1920, and resided on front beach at “Case Villa” with her sons, Carl T. Case and Gordon S. Case, a medical illustrator. Circa 1911, Carl T. Case had married Edwina Lynd (b. 1892) of New Orleans. Her father, Thomas B. Lynd (1862-1915), was an affluent cotton broker.
In March 1893, Thomas B. Lynd had purchased a 9.67-acre estate on front beach west of the present day Inner Harbor from Caroline Vahle Nill (1862-1949). He called it "Lyndhurst". When Lynd's son-in-law, Carl T. Case, resided here, it was known as "Case Villa". The Lynd-Case home burned in December 1922, when owned by the Charles Grady Parlin (1880-1940) family. The late Albert B. Austin (1876-1951) and Alice T. Weir Austin (1908-2001) resided here from June 1940, until their deaths. Alice Austin Martin, their daughter, owns this marvelous home today at 545 Front Beach Drive.(The Jackson County Times, December 23, 1922, p. 5)
Roberta Staples Case expired at her Biloxi residence on April 29, 1928. Her remains were passed through St. John’s Episcopal Church prior to interment in the Evergreen Cemetery at Ocean Springs.(The Jackson County Times, May 5, 1928, p. 2)
Anecdotal Dr. Case
Descendants of the Case-Leftwich families, Velma Croom, Francis Danley, and Laura Lee Norquist, residing in Mobile today, relate several family anecdotes passed down about Dr. Don Carlos Case. One of the most interesting tells how Dr. Case treated patients afflicted with skin cancer by focusing natural sunlight (ultraviolet radiation) with two cobalt vases. The "cobalt radiation" was directed to the cancerous tissue.
Another tale involved one of the yellow fever epidemics, which struck the area. Dr. Case was called to the home of a sea captain infected with the virus. The delirious seaman told Dr. Case that he knew he was going to die and wanted to clear his conscious. As a youth, the captain had been a pirate. The motley crew had come ashore near Ocean Springs and buried a treasure. The dying man gave Dr. Case exact directions to the location of the interred valuables. Because of the man's condition, Dr. Case disregarded the tale as a dying man's hallucination. Several weeks later Case was near the purported treasure site and recognized some of the landmarks described by the deceased sea captain. When he approached the exact site, Don Carlos Case found a gaping hole in the earth. There was a family living nearby. Dr. Case asked them if they knew about the hole. "Yes", they replied. "Several weeks ago a small ship dropped anchor in the bay. A dinghy came ashore. The sailors left in a jolly mood"
Dr. Don Carlos Case died at Ocean Springs on January 7, 1885. Martha T. Case passed on at Waynesboro, Mississippi on April 22, 1902, while at the C.F. Emery residence. They and many of the Case-Leftwich Family members are interred at the Evergreen Cemetery at Ocean Springs.
Case family postscript
It is interesting to note that in the late 19th and early 20th Century, the Maxwell-Gottsche families of Ocean Springs acquired the family names of Case-Lynd. Examples cited are: Karl Case Maxwell (1893-1958) and Albert Lynd Gottsche (1902-1974)
Hiram Fisher Russell
In September 1905, the Case family home and property was sold for $3300 to Ocean Springs entrepreneur, Hiram F. Russell (1858-1940), by Charles F. Emery and J.B. Leftwich, the executors of the estate of Mrs. Martha A. Case. The Jeremiah J. O'Keefe home, which was built in 1906, on Porter Avenue was an architectural replication of the Case-Russell home.(Jackson County Land Deed Bk. 30, pp. 203-204).
In late January 1906, The Pascagoula Democrat-Star announced that, “Mr. H.F. Russell has commenced improvements on his lately acquired property corner of Porter and Washington. The residence will be fitted up in first-class style and when finished will be the home of the Russell family”.(The Pascagoula Democratic-Star, January 26, 1906, p. 3)
Prior to moving into the large Case home on Washington and Porter, the Russell’s resided above their furniture store on the northeast corner of Washington and Bowen. This edifice had been built in the spring of 1891, by Mr. Russell’s brother-in-law, John Duncan Minor (1863-1920), an architect and contractor. The Russell family planned to move into the new residence around May 10, 1891. Mr. W.A. Whitfield took the house formerly occupied by the Russell family.(The Pascagoula Democrat-Star, May 1, 1891, p. 2)
Hiram Fisher Russell (1858-1940) was born at Yazoo City, Mississippi on March 10, 1858, the son of William Russell and Mrs. Russell. Mr. Russell arrived at Ocean Springs in 1880, and was associated with R.A. VanCleave (1840-1908) in the mercantile business. In 1888, he commenced his own enterprises in real estate, insurance, furniture, stationary, and sewing machines. Like his mentor, Mr. VanCleave, H.F. Russell was also the local postmaster serving the community from 1885-1889.(Dyer, 1895)
In April 1988, the A.P. Moran family who has successfully continued the business traditions of their patriarch, H.F. Russell, into the 21st Century, had a centennial celebration to observe his 1888 commencement of commerce in Ocean Springs.(The Mississippi Press, April 17, 1988, p. 6)
H.F. Russell married May Virginia Minor (1866-1910) on June 15, 1887. She was the daughter of Harold Henry Minor (1837-1884) of Tennessee and Virginia Doyal (1844-1903), a native of New Orleans. Her siblings were: Harold H. Minor II (1862-1905), John Duncan Minor (1863-1920), Philip T. Minor (b. 1870), and Ada Minor Switzer (1875-1914).(JXCO, Ms. MRB 3, p. 432)
The H.F. Russells had five children: Frederick R. Russell (1889-1889); Hazel May R. Robinson (1890-1920), the spouse of Pomeroy Robinson; Hiram Minor Russell (1892-1940) who married Ethel Duffie; Harry Turner Russell (1898-1899); and Ethel R. Moran (1899-1957), the wife of A.P. “Fred” Moran (1897-1967).
In the spring of 1909, May V. Russell went to a sanitarium at El Paso, Texas for rest and medical treatment. She returned to Ocean Springs in June for a short stay, before going to spend the summer at Ashville, North Carolina. Mrs. Russell returned to El Paso the next spring. She expired there on April 1, 1910 with malarial symptoms.(The Ocean Springs News, June 12, 1909, April 2, 1910, p. 1 and April 9, 1910, p. 1)
J. Lillian Miles
Several years after Mrs. May V. Russell’s untimely demise, H.F. Russell and Miss J. Lillian Miles (1890-1929) wedded on May 4, 1915, at her mother’s home in Newton, Mississippi. Miss Miles had come to Ocean Springs to teach in the public school.(The Ocean Springs News, April 29, 1915, p. 3 and May 13, 1915, p. 1)
In early August 1929, Mrs. Lillian Russell was killed when she fell from a train near White Oaks, Virginia. She was on her way to visit her ill mother at Roanoke. Mrs. Lillian Russell was considered, “ a brilliant woman who possessed out of the ordinary literary knowledge”. (The Jackson County Times, August 3, 1929, p. 1)
Politics and family business
In addition to his real estate and insurance operations, H.F. Russell was considered a powerful politico in Jackson County, once having served as chairman of the JXCO Democratic Executive Committee. He was an avid supporter of Governor James K. Vardaman (1861-1930) and Senator T.G. Bilbo. When he and Mrs. Russell went for a holiday to the spas of Hot Springs, Arkansas in the spring of 1921, they were guests of Mississippi Governor, Lee Russell and spouse, at the governor’s mansion in Jackson.(The Jackson County Times, May 21, 1921, p. 3)
In August 1924, Mr. Russell was under the care of a physician at the Hill Crest Manor, a private sanitarium, in Asheville, North Carolina. He had a slight stroke in Ashville which affected his right side.(The Daily Herald, August 29, 1924, p. 8)
Before Mr. Russell’s demise on May 5, 1940, his daughter, Ethel R. Moran (1899-1957) was running Russell’s Ocean Springs Insurance Agency, which became the Moran Agency in 1942. Her husband, A.P. “Fred” Moran (1897-1967), began the Ocean Springs Lumber Company in 1924, and was a member of the JXCO Board of Supervisors from 1929 until 1967. In September 1935, at the height of the Depression, Mrs. Moran won $2500 in a contest sponsored by The Item-Tribune of New Orleans. Some of the money was used to pay taxes and probably saved some of her father’s real estate holdings.(The Jackson County Times, September 21, 1935, p. 1)
The 1933 Fire
A damaging conflagration occurred in the H.F. Russell home on February 11, 1933. Although the fine structure was not destroyed in the fire, its fine furnishings and interior were ruined. Due to the financial woes of the Depression, the Russell family lost their home.
The Ocean Springs State Bank
In January 1935, Fred Taylor, Special Commissioner, conveyed Lot 17 of Block 3 of the Clay Strip and seven other parcels of land formerly owned by Mr. Russell to the Ocean Springs State Bank for $5000.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 70, pp. 546-547)
H.F. Russell had sued the Ocean Springs Bank in December 1934 for the relief from $4000 of his indebtedness on two notes held by the bank. He had borrowed about $8600from this financial institution. Mr. Russell’s collateral was eight lots that he owned in Ocean Springs, including his magnificent domicile on the southwest corner of Washington Avenue and Jackson Avenue. The Ocean Springs State Bank had required Mr. Russell to insure his home for not less than $4000.
In his plea to the Chancery Court, he stated that he could not afford the insurance and requested that the bank procure its own fire policy on the edifice. When the H.F. Russell home was damaged by fire on February 11, 1933, it was not protected with fire insurance. From the derelict structure, Mr. Russell recovered bath fixtures, electric light fixtures, some doors and windows, as well as window screens and grates. In December 1934, Judge Dan M. Russell, Chancellor of the 8th Chancery Court, determined that the Ocean Springs State Bank had the legal authority to seize H.F. Russell’s property to satisfy his indebtedness to them. Judge Russell awarded the Ocean Springs State Bank $9750, which included the principal and accrued interest on Mr. Russell’s two mortgages, and attorney fees.(JXCO, Ms. Chancery Court Cause No. 5606, H.F. Russell v. The Ocean Springs State Bank-December 1934)
Mae and Lynd Gottsche
In September 1934, Mae Kettle Gottsche (1907-2001) and spouse, A. Lynd Gottsche (1902-1974,) acquired the remains of Case-Russell house. It had been gutted by fire in the past year. They planned to salvage the fine lumber from the floors and other structural members and utilize them to construct their family home on Ocean Avenue. The derelict Case-Russell structure was demolished and removed from Washington and Porter where it had proudly stood for fifty-three years.(The Jackson County Times, September 29, 1934, p. 2)
In late 1934 and early 1935, Lynd and Mae K. Gottsche built their residence at present day 915 Ocean Avenue and called it “Lyndwood”. The large lot was acquired in November 1933, from Miss Annie O. Eglin (1881-1963). The former Gottsche home is now occupied by the Reverend Andy Wells and family and owned by the First Presbyterian Church of Ocean Spring who acquired it in December 1989, from A. Lynd Gottsche Jr.(The Jackson County Times, January 5, 1935, p. 3, JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 66, pp. 100-101 and Bk. 950, p. 488)
Epilogue
The lot for the former Case-Russell Home is certainly one of the most commercially viable and visible in Old Ocean Springs. Its ideal location, on US 90 before this thoroughfare was rerouted in the 1950s, was conducive for the erection of a gasoline service station and tourist cottages by J. Brice Bridges (1869-1959) in 1938. He had come to Ocean Springs in 1937, and served as president of the local Rotary Club in 1939-1940.(The Jackson County Times, April 222, 1939, p.1)
In October 1941, Albert A. Auer acquired the Bridges Tourist Court. Mrs. Anne Auer sold it to Clifton L. Beckman (1933-1984) in October 1966. In January 1969, Dr. Beckman sold the attractive lot to George Sliman (1934-1997). Jim(West)-Ray Builders built the current business situated here, the Cedar Oaks Apartments. Cedar Oaks is owned by the Elmore family of Biloxi, Mississippi in 2002. (The Ocean Springs Record, January 30, 1969, p. 3)
The Toups building on the corner of Washington and Porter was built by E.W. Pettus for Dr. Beckman.(Mary Marr Beckman, February 5, 2002)
MISS-LA-BAMA: THE SCHMIDT-WALKER HOUSE: 1884-2006
243 Front Beach Drive
Miss-La-Bama-situated at 243 Front Beach Drive, this structure began as the Alabama pavilion at the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, which was held at New Orleans in 1884 and 1885. It was acquired by William B. Schmidt (1831-1901), a wealthy merchant in the Crescent City, and relocated by barge to his large estate on the beach front at Ocean Springs. The small structure which was modeled after the Alhambra in Spain was utilized as a music hall for the Schmidt children.[The Ocean Springs News, July 30, 1964]
The Schmidt-Walker House, known as Miss-La-Bama, at 243 Front Beach Drive is arguably the most interesting 19th Century domestic structure remaining at Ocean Springs. It’s relatively high topographic elevation, raised foundation, and sound construction saved it from Katrina’s massive storm surge on the morning of August 29, 2005. Mexican Gulf waters flowed underneath and around the house presenting it for several hours as an ‘island in the storm’, as surrounding structures were inundated, damaged, and destroyed. Miss-La-Bama’s gallery and carport at the rear of the structure did receive serious impairment from the hurricane’s winds and high water.
Almost immediately after the late August tempest had moved on, William ‘Bill’ Ballard, the son of the owner, Jan Gallaspy Ballard Walker, began cleaning up the damage to the old edifice. Ms. Walker hired several craftsmen, a structural engineer, and an architect to assist Bill with the planning and refurbishing of the foundation and rebuilding the gallery and carport. Their work continues today. Old house aficionados will be delighted to know that the vinyl siding has been removed from the Schmidt-Walker residence exposing the pine and cypress weatherboards of the original building and those of later additions to this fine house.
It should also be noted that Bill Ballard made digital images of the Katrina event commencing on Sunday eve and ending late Monday afternoon. He has night as well as daylight images.
Early history
The Schmidt-Walker residence at 243 Front Beach Drive in Ocean Springs, Mississippi was erected as the Alabama headquarters for The World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, which was held at New Orleans in 1884 and 1885. The Alabama pavilion was described in 1885, as follows:
The [Alabama] headquarters were in an alcove jutting off from the [Main] building, and were very artistic in design, and after the Morro-Arabic style-planned after the celebrated Alhambra, of Spain, and built entirely of Alabama pine. The various pieces of wood were highly polished and the walls made still more attractive by pillars and arches carved in bas-relief. The headquarters were divided into a suite of rooms consisting of a private office and three reception rooms. Heavy damask curtains and choice rugs were displayed in harmony with elegant furniture.(Fairall, 1885, p. 31)
The Main building of the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition was 1378feet long and 905 feet wide and covered an area of thirty-three acres. It was constructed of wood in a series of trussed sections divided by rows of tall pillars, which were covered by a continuous, mainly glass roof. At the time, it was the largest exhibition hall ever built,(Kendall, 1922, p. 461)
After this international event, the Alabama pavilion was acquired by W.B. Schmidt (1823-1901), a merchant and civic minded entrepreneur, of New Orleans. Mr. Schmidt had been appointed to a committee to solicit funds for the Cotton Centennial Exposition. The Times-Democrat was the first to subscribe — pledging itself for $5,000. The people of New Orleans, the railroads, the banks, the Cotton Exchange and other corporations, all subscribed until the sum of $225,000 was obtained. Only one subscription came from the North, that of Potter Palmer, for the sum of $1,000. (Kendall, 1922, p. 458)
Mr. Schmidt had the building dismantled and shipped to Ocean Springs on barges where it was reassembled on his beachfront estate. It acquired the moniker, Miss-La-Bama, from Bernadine Wulff (1899-1992), a later owner, because of its relationship to the three states, i.e. it is now in Mississippi; was built and utilized in Louisiana; and was the Alabama headquarters for the 1884-1885 World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition.(The Ocean Springs News, July 30, 1964)
William B. Schmidt: The Merchant Prince
The story of Miss-La-Bama is such an integral part of the chronology of the W.B. Schmidt family of New Orleans that one would be remiss without knowledge of them and their cultural and social affairs at Ocean Springs. Of all the people who have been a part of the history of Ocean Springs, one man, William B. Schmidt (1823-1901), stands alone. His transient tenure here during the final decades of the 19th Century, was marked by entrepreneurship, patriotism, and philanthropy. Schmidt although a resident of New Orleans, owned the Ocean Springs Hotel, the Seashore House, the Medical Lot at Marble Springs, an estate called Summer Hill on the front beach, and other real estate throughout the town.
When Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) came to town on September 9, 1882, to review the Reichard Battalion and German Guards of New Orleans, Schmidt sponsored a champagne punch reception for President Davis in the parlor of the VanCleave Hotel. The troops were under the command of Major Maximillian Hermann and accompanied by Wolf's Band. The festivities of the day were concluded with a grand military ball at Schmidt's Ocean Springs Hotel. This was certainly our most historic day since the Le Moyne landing of April 1699.(The Daily Picayune, September 11, 1881, p. 1)
William B. Schmidt was born at Schwenningen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany on April 10, 1823. His parents immigrated to the United States and settled initially at St. Louis, Missouri and Lexington, Kentucky before establishing permanent residence at New Orleans in 1838. In 1845, at the age of twenty-two, young Schmidt commenced a business relationship with Francis M. Ziegler (1818-1901), also a native of Baden-Wurttemberg in southwestern Germany. Their firm, Schmidt & Ziegler, began as a small wholesale grocery business on Old Levee street in the Vieux Carre. It later moved to South Peters. By 1900, Schmidt & Ziegler had expanded to eleven stores. The firm was the pioneer in New Orleans international trade initiating commerce with South and Central America.
In January 1849, W.B. Schmidt married Virginia Ann Jackson (1835-1912). She was born at Philadelphia of Cuban parentage. Francis M. Ziegler married Schmidt's sister, Adrienne Schmidt (1831-1886), on the same day at the Third Presbyterian Church in New Orleans. In later life, it is believed that Schmidt converted to Roman Catholicism.
The Schmidts had eleven children. At the time of Mr. Schmidt's demise in 1901, seven children were living: Victoria A. Maes (1851-1926) married Albert Maes (1846-1885); James J. Schmidt (1852-1920), Richard R. Schmidt (1854-1900), Ruby Lillian Donovan (1856-1901+), Florence J. Donovan (1861-1901+), Charles D. Schmidt (1863-1920), Louise May Schmidt (1869- 1935), and Theodore Louis Schmidt (1871-1909). Two sons died at Ocean Springs prior to 1896, and were interred at the Bellande Cemetery. In 1895, Schmidt asked the city government for permission through his spokesman, Gregoire Wieder (1844-1899), to disinter their bodies and move them to the family tomb at the Metairie Cemetery on Millionaire Circle.(Minute Book Town of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, p. )
Both the Schmidt and Ziegler families owned summer homes at Ocean Springs west of their hotel. Schmidt became established on the front beach in 1878-1879, when he purchased Lots 16 thru 25 in Block 16 (Culmseig Map of 1854) from George A. Cox and Julia Ward. He called this property "Summer Hill". Schmidt's holdings were of estate proportions with over seven hundred feet on the bay front.
Several writers visited Ocean Springs in the 1890s and commented on the W.B. Schimdt estate. T.H. Glenn in The Mexican Gulf Coast Illustrated (1893) said:
The grounds of Mr. Schmidt are the largest and most highly improved in the place (Ocean Springs) and are among the finest on the Coast. Besides the improved grounds there is a park of several acres. The family residence is not pretentious but very comfortable and supplied with modern conveniences. It is lighted with gas manufactured on the place. An artesian fountain gives a full supply of water brought from a depth of 450 feet; a hydraulic ram forces the water over the place. There are several fish ponds supplied with green trout (bass) and other kinds of fish. The grounds immediately around the residence are highly improved and richly ornamented with rare flowers and plants. Mr. Schmidt is not only a very successful business man, but keeps abreast with the latest improvements in whatever pertains to matters where his interest are affected. He has adopted sub-irrigation and sub-drainage on his own extensive grounds where vegetables and fruits for his own use are grown, and his table in the Crescent city when the season for their maturity arrives, is supplied with these products fresh from his own grounds. He has the Scuppernong grape, the pecan in its best state, and other specialties too numerous to mention in detail. There are also a number of high bred milch cows kept, and every morning the Coast train takes fresh milk to the city (New Orleans) for the use of his family. The yield per acre of crops of vegetables raised is often phenomenal.
Charles L. Dyer in Along The Gulf (1895) described the W.B. Schmidt property at Ocean Springs as follows:
The finest most elaborate and most expensive estate on the entire Gulf Coast is that of W.B. Schmidt, of New Orleans. Covering as it does an immense territory of hilly land, with beautiful ponds, of which there are three large islands, namely Dog, Crane, and Deer Islands each of which have immense iron figures according to these names. These beautiful spots are connected with one another and the main island with rustic bridges. The house, which is an elaborate modern structure, sits on a high bluff, surrounded by beautifully mowed lawn, with numerous beds of rare flowers and majestic oaks, magnolias, and cedars. The tall stately pines are in abundance in the rear of the estate, through which runs numerous walks and drives. The house itself is one of the most elaborate on the coast. It is large being located on a hill, near the water's edge, the stiff gulf breeze is generally blown through the house, which is magnificently furnished with everything necessary for the comfort of its owner. Mr. Schmidt has spent nearly $40,000 on improvements alone, so the reader may form an idea of the magnificence of the estate.
‘Lake View’, the F.M. Ziegler Cottage
‘Lake View’ was the summer home of Francis M. Ziegler (1818-1901). Mr. Ziegler was a partner of W.B. Schmidt (1823-1901) in Schmidt & Ziegler, a large wholesale grocery business at New Orleans. Their company was the pioneer of New Orleans international trade initiating commerce with South and Central America.
Charles W. Ziegler (1865-1936), a son of F.M. Ziegler, sold "Lake View" to Dillwyn V. Purington (1841-1914), a native of Sydney, Maine and Jennie Barnes Purington (1846-1933), a native of Bath, New York. After the Civil War, he moved to Chicago and became involved in the lumber and brick business. He was president of Purington Paving Brick Company at Galesville, Illinois and Purington-Kimball Brick Company at Chicago.
The Puringtons called their place "Wyndillhurst".
In August 1926, Katherine Ver Nooy became the owner of this property. The home is believed to have been destroyed by fire in the 1940s. The Purington place was located at present day 221 Front Beach.
Wyndillhurst’, The Purington Place‘Summer Hill’, The W.B. Schmidt House
‘Summer Hill’, the old W.B. Schmidt (1823-1901) residence at present day 227 Beach Drive is extant and owned by Dr. James Moore Carter and wife, Patti Swetman Carter. In August 1919, Miss Louisa May Schmidt (1869-1935) of New Orleans, a spinster daughter of W.B. Schmidt and Virginia A. Jackson Schmidt (1835-1912) conveyed her Beach property to Hiram F. Russell (1858-1940), a local entrepreneur, for $16,000. David M. Davis (1880-1943+) of New Orleans acquired the old Schmidt property in May 1925. In the 1930s, he rented it to the Captain Ellis Handy (1891-1963) family. Roswell Kimball (1886-1948) and Elva Stiglets Kimball (1888-1980) acquired it from David M. Davis in 1942. ‘Summer Hill’ remained in the Kimball family until January 1996, when James A. Smith was vended it by the Heirs of Roswell S. Kimball Jr. (1921-1995).
HANSEN-HANEMANN COTTAGE: "BREEZY HILL"
305 Beach Drive
Hansen-Hanemann Cottage-Destroyed by Katrina in August 2005, this Creole cottage was probably built in the early 1870s by Lawrence N. Hansen (1823-1900), a Danish born mariner who settled at New Orleans. Captain Hansen later resided at 520 Jackson Avenue where he expired in October 1900. Image by Ray L. Bellande in June 1995.
Prologue
The Hansen-Hanemann Cottage at 305 Front Beach Drive was another victim of Hurricane Katrina. The structure was damaged beyond salvation and the remains of what were once a charming, vernacular, beach cottage were removed from the lot in the post-Katrina cleanup of late 2005. As of this date, the lot remains empty.
The Hansen-Hanemann Cottage was situated at an elevation of about 10-13 feet above mean sea level in Lot 2 and Lot 3 of the Austin tract, which was surveyed by H.A. Boudousquie in March 1872. These two lots have an 80-foot front on the Bay of Biloxi and run back to the north approximately three hundred-fifty feet.
Falterman FamilyThis vintage image was made circa 1920 on the pier of Clebert J. Falterman (1865-1934) in front his vacation cottage, now 305 Front Beach Drive. Mr. Falterman lived at Napoleonville, Louisiana were he was operated a successful mercantile business. Note the bath houses at the pier heads.[l-r: Corrine T. Falterman (1866-1921); C.J. Falterman (1865-1934); Tiv Falterman (1887-1930+); Agnes Falterman Delaune (1890-1979); and Louis A. Delaune (1885-1947). Courtesy of Mille R. Delaune-Biloxi, Mississippi.
Clebert J. Falterman
Clebert Joseph Falterman (1865-1934) was born on July 7, 1865 in Assumption Parish, Louisiana. He was baptized “Joseph Cabert Falteman” at the Immaculate Conception Chapel at Canal des Attakapas near Napoleonville, Assumption Parish, Louisiana. Some of his siblings were: Selma Falterman (b. 1851), Numa Falterman (b. 1853), Elphege Falterman (b. 1860), and Louis? Falterman (b. 1864). Clebert’s parents were Ursin Falterman and Emelie Gautreaux (b. 1845), the daughter of Marcelin Gautreaux (1818-1870+) and Paulina E. Gautreaux (1810-1870+).(Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records (1863-1867), Volume 10, p. 207 and Joseph and Cavilier, 1998, p. 110)
Circa 1886, Clebert J. Falteman married Corrine Templet (1866-1921). They were the parents of eleven children. Seven lived into the 20th Century: Evelina [Tivelle] Falterman (1887-1930+), called Tante Tiv; Clara Falterman (1888-1900+) married Mr. Blanchard; Ondine Falterman (1889-1900+) married Anatole Foret; Agnes Falterman (1890-1979) married Louis A. Delaune (1885-1947); Arthur Falterman (1891-1900+); Emelie Falterman (1892-1900+) married Philip Percle; and Ursin Falterman (1894-1900+).(1900 Assumption Parish, La. Federal Census, T623_577, p. 8B, ED 8, and Millie R. Delaune)
In Assumption Parish, Louisiana, Clebert J. Falterman made his livelihood as the proprietor of a mercantile store in 1900 and 1930. He farmed in 1910 and 1920.(1900 Assumption Parish, La. Federal Census, T623_577, p. 8B, ED 8; 1910 Assumption Parish, La. Federal Census, T624R508, p. 178A, ED 8; 1920 Assumption Parish, La. Federal Census; and 1930 Assumption Parish, La. Federal Census,R783, p. 38, ED 7))
C.J. Falterman sold the Hansen-Hanemann cottage to Arthur B. Hunt on May 28, 1921, for $1925. The sale included all furniture.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 50, p. 410)
Corrine Templet Falterman expired at Napoleonville, Louisiana on November 12, 1921. Clebert passed on April 4, 1934. Their corporal remains were interred in the Immaculate Conception Cemetery at Canal, Louisiana near Napoleonville.(Joseph and Cavalier, 1998, p. 110)
Arthur B. Hunt
Arthur Bradlee Hunt (1876-1951), was born on January 29, 1876 at New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Edward Reynold Hunt (1837-1903) of Boston and Emma R. Cutter Hunt (1846-1926), a native of Cleveland, Ohio. In 1880, the E.R. Hunt made his livelihood in the Crescent City as the assistant U.S. Postmaster. His family was domiciled on St. Charles Avenue. Another son, William Cutter Hunt (1882-1884?), was born at New Orleans on October 6, 1882.
Arthur B. Hunt made his livelihood at New Orleans in 1910 as an oil salesman. By September 1918, he was working for the Emergency Fleet Corporation in the Hibernia Building in New Orleans and residing with his mother at 1644 State Street. In 1920, Arthur was representing an iron works and at home with his mother on State Street.(1910 Orleans Ph., La. Federal Census T624_524, p. 9B, ED 226; WW I Draft Reg. Card, Orleans Ph., La. R1684926-Draft Bd. 13, and 1920 Orleans Ph., La. Federal Census T625_624, p. 19A, ED 247)
Rose M. Viguerie
Post 1920, Arthur B. Hunt married Rose Mary Viguerie 1893-1972?), the daughter of Frank Camille Viguerie (1855-pre-1920) and Ernestine Bergerie Viguerie (1861-1944) of Weeks Island, Iberia Parish, Louisiana. Rose M. Viguerie was probably born in rural St. Mary Parish on the main road between Franklin and Baldwin, Louisiana. Here her father and mother farmed and reared seven children: Frank C. Viguerie Jr. (1885-1939); Ernest Denis Viguerie (1887-1964); Rose Mary Viguerie Hunt (1890-1972?); John Pierre Viguerie (b. 1891); Virginia Rosa Viguerie (b. 1893); Duke J. Viguerie (b. 1896); and Earl C. Viguerie (1902-2003).(1900 and 1910 St. Mary Ph., La. Federal Census and T623 582, p. 01A, ED 78 and T624_531, p. 33B, Ed 88)
Arthur B. Hunt and Rose Viguerie Applegate were the parents of two children: Dorothy Barbara Hunt Applegate Pennebaker (b. 1921), and Arthur Bradlee Hunt Jr. (1922-1944).
Dorothy B. Hunt
Dorothy Barbara Hunt was married in her family home at Ocean Springs to Captain Edwin Cuyler Applegate (1899-1974) on June 14, 1939. She was a 1936 graduate of Ocean Springs High School, Ashley Hall at Charleston, South Carolina, and Marot Junior College at Thompson, Connecticut. Edwin C. Applegate was the son of W.E. Applegate (1876-1948) and Mable Howe Applegate (1881-1937) formerly of Louisville, Kentucky, but residing at Gulf Hills. Captain Applegate was retired from the US Army. After a Florida honeymoon, the newlyweds planned to make their home in Ocean Springs.(The Jackson County Times, June 18, 1939, p. 4 and JXCO, Ms. MRB 29, p. 418)
Captain Applegate’s father, William E. Applegate Jr. (1876-1948) of Louisville, Kentucky, built a Dutch Colonial style at present day 13605 Paso Road in Gulf Hills. It may be oldest home extant at Gulf Hills. The Applegate home was considered a very modern home since it was equipped with the following conveniences: artesian water well; indoor plumbing facilities; hot water heater; electric plant for lights, refrigeration and ice; automatic sanitary sewerage disposal system; and an acetylene gas plant for cooking.(The Jackson County Times, August 30, 1924, p. 5)
Edwin C. and Dorothy Hunt Applegate had three children who were reared at Charleston, South Carolina: Susan Applegate, Samuel Applegate, and Arthur Hunt Applegate. In later life, Mrs. Applegate remarried to W.F. Pennebaker, a retired corporate lawyer who resided at Midland, Texas. They alternate their time between Charleston and Midland and are domiciled on East Battery Street on Charleston harbor.
Arthur B. Hunt Jr.
Lieutenant Arthur B. Hunt Jr. was killed in action November 21, 1944, at The Battle of the Bulge in Europe, while serving with the 323rd Infantry, 34th Division, U.S Army. He was a 1938 graduate of Ocean Springs High School and also attended Tulane University and The Citadel at Charleston, South Carolina.(The Jackson County Times, December 9, 1944, p. 1)
Lindbergh connection
Mr. Arthur B. Hunt was a first cousin to Elizabeth Reeve Cutter Morrow (1873-1955), the spouse of U.S. Senator Dwight W. Morrow (1873-1931) of New Jersey, the American ambassador to Mexico from 1927-1930. Mr. and Mrs. Morrow were the parents of Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh (1907-2001), wife of famous aviator, Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974), who flew The Spirit of St. Louis, the first aircraft to make a nonstop solo flight, across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.(Dorothy Hunt Applegate Pennebaker, June 13, 2000)
The Jackson County Times of June 15, 1929, announced that "Mr. and Mrs. A.B. Hunt and family were honored by the newly wedded Lindberghs having received individual boxes of wedding cake. With the cake were cards in which had been written "with love Anne". The Hunts are related to the Morrow family".
In February 1934, Dorothy Hunt received a personally autographed photograph from Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh. She was frequent correspondent with the Lindbergh family.(The Jackson County Times, February 3, 1934)
Breezy Hill
The Hunt family referred to their cottage on Biloxi Bay at Ocean Springs as "Breezy Hill". Before a road was built on front beach, the home entered from the rear via a driveway from Martin Avenue through the Edward’s hotel property to the west. In the late 1920s, Mr. Arthur B. Hunt developed throat cancer and was sent to New York City in May 1928 for surgery. As a result of the surgery, he lost his voice and had a hole in his throat, which was covered by cheese cloth. He had been operated on at New York City in May 1928. Lost his voice.(The Jackson County Times, May 26, 1928, p. 2)
Mr. and Mrs. Hunt both had cancer and they eventually succumbed to it. He expired at Ocean Springs on December 8, 1951, and his corporal remains sent to the Metairie Cemetery for internment. Mrs. Rose Viguerie Hunt died circa 1972. It appears Dorothy Hunt Applegate inherited the property as she sold it to her son, Arthur Hunt Applegate of Houston, Texas in January 1982. (JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 728, p. 155)
In June 1983, Arthur Hunt Applegate now of Dallas, Texas conveyed the aging Hansen-Hannemann cottage to H. Duane Nowlin and Debra Jean Nowlin.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 768, p. 185)
H. Duane Nowlin
H. Duane Nowlin and spouse were domiciled at Del Ray Beach, Florida when they sold their Front Beach Drive cottage to Carl and Cheri W. Hanemann of New Orleans on February 5, 1985. No further information.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 815, p. 389)
Carl C. Hanemann
Carl C. Hanemann (b. 1944) is the son of Albert H. Hanemann and Marie Blancq. He was born at New Orleans. His father made his livelihood as a coffee taster in the Crescent City. Carl studied psychology at Tulane and matriculated to Harvard Law School where he was awarded a Law degree.(Cheri W. Hanemann, July 8, 2006)
In 1969, Carl C. Hanemann married Cheri Elise W. Hanemann (b. 1946),the daughter of Milton McClellan Walther (1920-1994), a chemical engineer and lawyer, who managed NOPSI gas, and Elise Cambon (b. 1922 ). Elise studied ceramic arts at Newcomb College. Carl and Cheri are the parents of two daughters: Elise “Peaches” Hanemann (b. 1970) and Marilee H. Gloss (b. 1975). Cheri is active in historic preservation in New Orleans and at Ocean Springs, her adopted home. She landscaped a garden in the Little Childrens’ Park, which became known as “the Butterfly Garden”.(Cheri W. Hanemann, July 8, 2006)
'Summer Hill'-the former W.B. Schmidt (1823-1901) summer residence, in Ocean Springs is located at present day 227 Front Beach Drive. The left image was made in July 1993 when Roswall S. Kimball Jr. (1921-1995) owned the home. The right image made in July 2005, depicts the condition of 'Summer Hill' after Dr. James M. Carter working with Carl Germany, AIA, and Paul Campbell, contractor, had replicated the east wing of the old Schmidt house, which had been removed. The home was damaged by Katrina in August 2005, but work continues today on a rear addition. Images by Ray L. Bellande.
Summer Hill and the dissolution of the W.B. Schmidt Estate,
Although the well-manicured grounds, small lakes, cottages, and outbuildings of the W.B. Schmidt era at Ocean Springs have long disappeared, ‘Summer Hill’, the old W.B. Schmidt residence at present day 227 Beach Drive is extant and occupied by Dr. James Moore Carter and wife, Patti Swetman Carter. After the demise of Virginia Jackson Schmidt (1835-1912) in 1912, her surviving children inherited the Schmidt family real estate at Ocean Springs.(JXCO, Ms. Chancery Court Cause No. 3957, March 1915)
On August 4, 1919, Commissioner Fred Taylor of the Jackson County, Mississippi Chancery Court sold four land parcels at Ocean Springs to W.B. Schmidt’s daughter, Louise May Schmidt (1869-1935) of New Orleans, for $15,000. There is a high degree of certitude that this sale was made to clear title on the W.B. Estate at Ocean Springs. It was Lot 1 of this sale known as “Beach Place” that contained ‘Summer Hill’, the W.B. Schmidt home and his children’s music hall, which would become known as Miss-La-Bama. In the Commissioner’s Deed to Miss Louise May Schmidt, Lot 1 was described as follows:
Begin at a point on Cleveland Avenue about 370 feet west 22 degrees north of the SW/C of Cleveland and Martin; thence west about 50 degrees north 719 feet along a fence line; thence south 29 west degrees 630 feet along a fence line to the beach; thence 707 feet along the beach; thence north 29 degrees east 590 feet to the place of beginning. This tract is approximately ten acres and is known as the Beach Place.(JXCO, Ms. Record of Deed Bk. 47, pp. 96-97 and JXCO, Ms. Chancery Court Cause No. 3920)
The ‘Beach Place’
In August 1919, Miss Louisa May Schmidt conveyed her ‘Beach Place’ to Hiram F. Russell (1858-1940), a local entrepreneur, for $15,000. In January 1921, H.F. Russell and H. Minor Russell (1892-1940) conveyed the Beach Place to Herbert and Nina McNamee of Cook County, Illinois.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. Bk. 47, pp. 99-100 and 55, pp. 460-461)
Herbert McNamee
Herbert McNamee (1873-1930+) was born at Chicago on October 14, 1873, the son of James F. McNamee (1845-1880+) and Edith Risley (1851-1880+). His father was a hardware merchant. Herbert McNamee married Nina Royce (1875-1930+), also an Illinois native. They had seven children.
Herbert McNamee made his livelihood as a grain merchant at Chicago and his place of business was 434 Postal Telegraph Building. By 1930, Mr. McNamee was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and his two sons, Royce McNamee (1904-1930+) and Risley McNamee (1908-1970) were clerks working for the Board of Trade. The family resided on Sheridan Road in the Village of Glencoe. Their house was valued at $55,000.(1930 Cook County, Illinois Federal Census R503, p. 20A, ED 2005)
In May 1925, Herbert McNamee sold the Beach Place to David M. Davis of New Orleans. The selling price was $50,000. McNamee Street acquired its name from this Chicago family.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 55, pp. 461-462)
David M. Davis
David Matthew Davis (1880-1950+) was born in New Orleans on November 24, 1879 to Aaron Davis (1855-1922) and Dora Haspel Davis (1856-1925). David M. Davis grew up in Plaquemine Parish, Louisiana, south of New Orleans where he father was a retail merchant. In February 1905, David M. Davis married Bertha Weiss (1882-1920+), the daughter of Leopold Weiss (1850-1895) and Adelina or Ada, Levy (1859-1943). In 1920, the David M. Davis family lived on Robert Street in the Crescent City. At this time, David M. Davis managed a store. In 1913, he and Bertha had Leonie Davis, a daughter.(1880 Plaquemine Parish, Louisiana Federal Census T9_465, Ed 140 and 1920 Orleans Parish, Federal Census T625_624, p. 17B, ED 230)
d’Iberville Subdivision
In August 1941, David M. Davis platted the d’Iberville Subdivision from the old Schmidt Beach Place. The d’Iberville Subdivision was bounded on the north by Cleveland Avenue; on the east by the property of Captain Francis O’Neill (1849-1936); on the south by Biloxi Bay; and on the west by the lands of D.V. Purington (1841-1914). The original street names in this tract were McNamee; Russell, now Schmidt; and Davidson, now Oakwood.(Plat Bk. 1, p. 142 and Plat Bk. 2, p. 18)
‘Summer Hill’ was situated in Lot 1 of the d’Iberville Subdivision and sold by Mr. Davis in March 1942 to Elva Stigletts Kimball (1889-1980), the wife of Roswall S. Kimball (1886-1948). Mr. Kimball, a native of Scriven County, Georgia, came to the Coast in 1913. Before moving to Ocean Springs, Roswall S. Kimball operated a general store near the L&N depot at Gautier. He later was a pulp wood agent. It is believed that the Kimball family referred to their estate as ‘Kimcrest’.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 79, pp. 406-407)
Roswell S. Kimball Jr. (1921-1995) inherited ‘Summer Hill’ and other real estate in 1987 from his mother’s estate. Like his father, he made his livelihood in the timber and pulp wood business. After Mr. Kimball’s demise, ‘Summer Hill” was acquired in January 1996 by James A. and Dorothy E. Smith from Thomas B. McIntosh, the executor of the Estate of Roswall S. Kimball Jr.(JXCO, Ms. Chancery Court Cause No. 40,293-June 1987, JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 889, p. 349 and Bk. 1079, p. 58)
‘Summer Hill’ came into the Carter family in July 2004, when it was purchased from the James A. Smith family. Dr. James Moore Carter and spouse, Patti Swetman Carter, reside here today. The Carters have refurbished and made additions to their historic home.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 1347, p. 802)
By Ray L. Bellande
Ocean Springs House Names, Does (did) your house have a name?
It can be observed in the earliest accounts that exist concerning Ocean Springs that some people named their homes. Probably the first homes at Ocean Springs were named by families relocating here in the 1850s from plantations in the Mississippi Delta and South Louisiana. House naming may have been a function of affluence, family tradition, pride of ownership, etc. The reason isn't relevant to the fact that house nomenclature is now an integral part of our local history.
If your home has a name and it hasn't made this list and you would like to share this information, or if it is on this list and you find fault, please contact me and I will make appropriate changes. If anyone has photos of these older homes especially those that no longer exist, I would appreciate knowing that some historical record is available. In addition, I would sincerely appreciate some input into this column. Please address all comments, questions, etc. to: PO BOX 617, Ocean Springs, Ms. 39566-0617. Merci beaucoup!
Home Names at Ocean Springs
ALLANDALE - Eighteen and one-half acre farm located in the N/2 of the NE/4 of the NW/4 of Section 28, T7S-R8W when owned by Nels and Anna Strale of Chicago, Illinois. Bought by Robert T. Harvey in January 1924, and became known as the Harvey Farm. Greyhound Stadium located here today.
ANCHORAGE - Silas Weeks-Mrs. J.M. Boyd home on Shearwater Drive circa 1890-1940. Miss Jessie M. Boyd (1881-1963) was probably the last owner. Destroyed by demolition according to G.E. Arndt. Joseph Rogers Taylor (1875-1945), a lawyer and writer, may have built a home at this site later.
ARBOR VITAE - Bungalow of Walter G. Minnemeyer, Chicago glass manufacturer and yachtsman, at 1106 Iberville Drive circa 1933-1950s. He also owned a summer home at Duquesne Island, Georgian Bay, Ontario. Extant.
ARNDT HOUSE - George E. Arndt (1857-1945) built rental cottage at 822 Porter. Erected 1895 on land purchased from A.E. Lewis, the "artesian prince". Extant
ARTESIAN HOUSE - Early hotel located on the SW/c of Porter and Jackson. Built by A.E. Lewis (1862-1933) circa 1893. Later known as the Oak View Hotel, Anderson Apartments, and White House. Demolished in 1936.
AUDUBON - two-story home of Colonel Frederick Le Cand (1841-1933) on Government Street (County Road) in 1905.
AUDUBON PLACE - Miss Bessie Collier of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania here in September 1925.
AUSTIN SPRING LOT - Located at the NW/C of Martin and Cleveland
BALLYSHEAR-1940s home and estate of Sarah Gardner Brown at 310 Shearwater Drive.
BAY HOME - Captain Junius Poitevent (1837-1919) built this wonderful Greek Revival home at 309 Lovers Lane in 1877. Extant. Also used for the Adeline A. Staples home next door.
BAYOU HOME - Franklin Sumner Earle (1856-1929) home from 1890-1902 at Gulf Hills. House located approximately where the clubhouse now sits. Destroyed by fire?
BAYOU HOME - Joseph Bacon Garrard (1871-1915) and Carrie Ann Johnson (1886-1968) Colonial Revival home at 1119 Iberville. Mrs. Garrard married Alexander Fleet Everhart (1881-1957) in 1924. Now owned by Jack K. Garrard.
BAYOUSIDE FARM-A.R. Pecaut place north of Ocean Springs.(JXCOT, LNI, 9-8-1917)
BAY VIEW - A.G. Tebo home on Beach Front Drive near present day OSYC in early 1900s. When used by D.H. Holmes as summer vacation home for their women employees it was called "Haven-on-the- Hill". Later owner, O.D. Davidson (1872-1938). Destroyed by demolition circa 1940?.
BAY VIEW - Parker Earle (1831-1917) home located at Fort Point (Lovers Lane) from 1887-1902. Later owned by Annie L. Benjamin (1848-1938) of Milwaukee and called Shore Acres. Demolished in the 1940s, probably after the September 1947 Hurricane.
BAYVIEW - Christian Hanson (1845-1914), Danish shipmaster and cotton broker from New Orleans. This Prairie Renaissance home was originally on a 50 acre tract east of the Shearwater Pottery in Section 30, T7S-R8W. Bought from Anna Marks in 1906. Sold to John L. Dickey in the 1920s. Known today as Shadowlawn and the Hanson-Dickey House.
BAYWOOD - Otto Schwartz 1950s home located on Back Bay. Destroyed by Hurricane Camille in 1969.
BEAU-OAKS - Henry "Pee Wee" Beaugez home at 1112 Helmer's Lane. Now owned by Sun Herald reporter, Ken Fink.
BEL VUE - Altered Greek Revival home of Bobbie Davidson Smith at 810 Iberville. Reputed to be the oldest home at Ocean Springs.
BELLE FLEUR - Mrs. Julia E. Brown of Chicago (1902) home located on East Beach. Formerly the Williston home??.
BLUE HAVEN - Alice T. Austin home at 545 Beach Drive.
BIRDWOOD - John Anderson home at Lovers Lane.
BON SILENE - Fred W. Norwood (1840-1921), Massachusetts born lumberman, home at East Beach during early 1900s. Lizzie W. Norwood bought the land from James Charnley in 1896 and conveyed it to Fronie Parks in 1911. Daughter of Norwood, Mrs. Edward Shapker (1909). Owned by Edsel Ruddiman since 1963. Original home designed by Louis Henri Sullivan (1856-1924) or Frank L. Wright. Badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
BONNIE OAKS - East Beach residence of John Alderson of Leadville, Colorado. Acquired from Williams in late 1890s. Now the site of the Gulf Coast Research Lab. Known as the Perryman Place to many octogenarians.
BON SEJOURS - Anthony M. Usner home at East Beach (1929). Betty and Leila Usner. "Good Dwelling" in French.
BON SILENE-James and Helen Charnley Cottage on East Beach (1890-18 ). good silence. Also the name of a variety of roses.
BOULEVARD FARM - Property of Chauncey S. Bell (1842-1917+) owner of the Pine Nursery. The Boulevard Farm was probably located on Holcomb Boulevard in the early 1900s.
BREEZY POINT - Captain Christian Hansen (1845-1914), Danish shipmaster and cotton broker from New Orleans. Breezy Point was located on a 35 acre tract at the west end of Fort Point from 1895 to 1904 until it was destroyed by fire. No known photo.
BRIAR CREST - Home of J.G. Ramsay at Vancleave in 1897.
BRYAN HOME - Queen Anne structure at 406 Jackson Avenue built in 1910 by J.A. Weider (1879-1931) for Frank H. Bryan (1872-1936) on lots bought from L.A. Lundy (1876-1941) in 1910. Formerly owned by Mrs. Julia Love.
CAMELLIA HILL - Cottage at 1210 Sunset owned by the Ames and Catchot families. Present owners Gary and Lois Johnson.
CAMELLIA PLACE - Office of Dr. and Mrs. Jay Segarra at 1300? Government Street.
CARLANA ACRES - Farm of Dr. Carl Lindstrom (1873-1951). Located between Gus Nelson and J.C. Wright farms on Fort Bayou. Came to Ocean Springs in 1929, from Chicago. Native of Sweden. Retired dentist. Named for granddaughter, Carlana Lane, of Pascagoula.
CARR ACRES also called CARRACRUS- Charles Carr (Mount Pleasant, Texas) estate on Holcomb Blvd. Circa 1935 consisted of farm, fish ponds, pecan orchards, and a residence. Formerly the Fish place.(The Gulf Coast Times, 2-3-1954, p. 3)
CARRIES HAPPY HILL - Miss Carrie Seymour Ames home on Calhoun Avenue.
CASA FLORES - F.E. Lee House located on Davis Bayou. Built 1926. Jensen Brothers contractors.
CASE VILLA - Carl T. Case Estate of 9.67 acres west of the Inner Harbor originally called Lyndhurst when Mrs. Carl Case's father, Thomas B. Lynd (1862-1915), owned it from 1893-1915. Case sold to W.R. David in 1919. Charles Grady Parlin bought it 1921, from Edwina David The house burned in December 1922. Now owned by Alice T. Austin.
THE CEDARS - now Conamore at 319 Lovers Lane. Probably called The Cedars by ? who owned the home in early 1900s.
THE CEDARS - appelation used by Rosambeau family for their cottage at 908 Calhoun in 1934.
CEDAR HILL - Former Egan Cottage at 314 Jackson Avenue now owned by Ray and Maureen Hudachek.
CENTENNIAL HOUSE - Carrie Ames Cottage at Calhoun. Owned by Harriet Perry. Name coined by Ray L. Bellande in 1992, as this home was erected in 1892, the year Ocean Springs was incorporated as a town.
CENTENNIAL OAK - Steve and Lana Robinson cottage on a five acre tract at 3305 Government Street. Named for an oak tree planted in 1992, the Centennial Year (1892-1992) for Ocean Springs. Original cottage built by Frank E. Galle (1877-1934).
CHASE VILLA - Tom H. Chase from Rogers Park area of Chicago circa 1915-1918. Located on the Ocean Springs-Vancleave Road.
CHERRY WILD - Home of Bishop Keener on Biloxi Bay (1879).
CHEZ RENE - Eldon Cazaubon home at 517 Front Beach Drive. Owned by Rene Cazaubon (1881-1970) from 1936 until 1953.
CHINQUAPIN FARM - Fort Bayou estate of Fred and Ann Moreton at 2109 Bienville Boulevard named for the edible nut of the dwarf chestnut tree called a chinquapin (Native American origin). The Moretons came to the area from Brookhaven in the mid-1940s. Mrs. Moreton is a distinguished writer and photographer.
CLEMATIS BOWER - Edward E. Young home (1914) probably on Ray Street, or Cox Avenue.
COMMANCHE JUNIOR - The White family of Chicago had a ranch in Michigan called "Commanche". They named their place on Holcomb Boulevard after the Michigan place.
CONAMORE - Queen Anne edifice and estate of Ethelyn Connor and daughter, Patricia Joachim, at 319 Lovers Lane. Ocean Springs first full time mayor, Mayor Donald L. "Pat" Connor (1912-1982) resided here during his lifetime.
COZY NOOK - Jackson Avenue home of Mrs. Edward Brou (NOLA). Destroyed by Hurricane Camille in 1969. Built early 1900s.
DARRACH MO'R - Home of Scotsman, Duncan Sinclair (d.1902 at NOLA), located on Front Beach at present day Gulf Oak Condominiums. Gaelic for "Great Oaks". Frank Faessel took (1870-1953) possession circa 1910.
DE GUISE - Spanish Colonial Revival home of Jacob Guice at 325 Lovers Lane. Formerly called Holmcliffe by original builder R.H. Holmes in 1925.
DE HUTTE-Louis H. Sullivan home on East Beach. Built in 1890.
DELCASTLE - Spanish Eclectic Style home at 3628 Government Street. Built by Jenson Brothers Construction Company for realtor, F.E. Lee, in November 1925, and originally called Casa Flores by Lee. The architect was Gordon Hite of New Orleans.
DILL HILL - Ira W. Simmons home at 703 Cox Avenue. Built 1911. Formerly Laniappe Restaurant.
DOON DOCK-Bache Whitlock home on Hellmers Lane and Inner Harbor.
DOONECOTE - Home of Mrs. Charles M. Carr at Pointe-aux-Chenes in 1964. 1957 Pointe-aux-Chene winter home of Sheldon Widmer of Brown County, Indiana.
DOONGATE or DOONE GATE - James R. Leavell (Lake Forest, Illinois), President Chicago Bank and Trust Co. home at Pointe-aux-Chenes (1944-1968), built by Joe Fountain.
EGLIN HOUSE - Miss Annie Eglin's "tourist home" at 635 Washington Avenue. Damaged by fire in 1964. Demolished in 1968. Villa Maria located here today.
ELK LODGE - East Beach estate of Colonel J.B. Rose (d. 1902 at NYC) from 1895 to 1901. Rose founded the Royal Baking Powder Company. He was a well known yachtsman being a member of the Atlantic Yacht Club (NYC) and Southern Yacht Club (NOLA). Rose owned the large Rose Farm north of Fort Bayou. His yachts were named "Florence" (1896),"Nepenthe" (1899) and "Crescent" (1902). Land once owned by John Martin Tracy (1843-1893) who is remembered in the international art world as "America's Great Sporting Painter".
FAIRHAVEN - named used by Mrs. Annette McConnell Anderson (1867-1964) in the 1920s for her Vernacular Greek Revival cottage at what would become the Shearwater Pottery in 1928. Formerly the Adam DePass (1851-1909) and B.W. Tiffin (1825- ?) of Ohio twenty-four acre estate in Section 30, T7S-R8W..
FELICITY FARMS - estate of Mrs. Victor (Florence) G. Humphreys (1883-1946+) east of Ocean Springs. Used in 1946.
FIELD LODGE - East Beach estate (32 acres) of Major Rushton H. Field, in the 1890s. Field was the proprietor of the Revier House at Chicago (1894). Field Lodge was sold to Captain M.G. May of Pass Christian by his widow, Mary Florence Field, in September 1909 (Jackson County Deed Book 35, pp. 58-60). Purchased in 1941, by James and Francis Tuttle.
FIELD PLACE - Estate (35 acres) of Erastus S. Perryman (1857-1926) who died at Chicago in November 1926. He bought the Lewis Place on East Beach in March 1915 from Annie and I. Giles Lewis (Chicago). The Gulf Coast Research Lab now located here (1947). Mrs. Perryman (1866-1953) died in August 1953, and buried at Mobile..
FORT BAYOU BEND - Home of George C. Kindley, northeast of Ocean Springs. The old Snyder Place on the Ocean Springs-Vancleave Road. Kindley rented fishing boats here.
FOUNTAINBLEAU - Belle Fountaine estate of Robert W. Hamill of Chicago.
FRIED FISH INN - Appelation given to the Rosambeau Cottage at 910 Calhoun when reknown baseball writer and humorist, Charles Dryden (1860-1931) stayed here in the early 1900s.
FRUITLAND - Colonel William R. Snyder (1864-1918) large country estate 6 miles east of Ocean Springs in Section 13, T7S-R8W.
GEHL VILLA - Summer home of John M. Gehl of New Orleans in 1920s. Germaine's located here today. Former home of Mayor Charles R. Bennett
GLENGARRIFF - The estate of Captain Francis O'Neill (1844-1936) of Chicago, Superintendent of Police at Chicago (1901-1905), located on Front Beach Drive. O' Neill was an Irish history and music collector. He also wrote books on Irish music. O'Neill wintered at Glengarriff with his family from 1914-1936. Probably demolished to build El Madrid Apts circa 1969. Former home of J.J. Kuhn, New Orleanian, who owned the artesian waterworks at Ocean Springs in the late 1890s.
GLENGARRIFF II - An Ishee house built in 1965 located at 406 Schmidt. Named by Thomas and Mary Mooney Wade (1910) for Glengarriff, the home of Mrs. Wade's grandfather, Captain Francis O'Neil. Glengarriff was just east of the Wade home.
GRANDVIEW - Built in 1992 by Ken Snider and Kirk Halstead. This attractive, raised oriental style cottage is on Halstead Road facing scenic Halstead Bayou to the north.
GREEN LAWNS - Home of Colonel Frederick Le Cand (1841-1933) at 200 Dewey Avenue. The Le Cand family moved from "Audubon" their County Road estate to Dewey in October 1917. Now owned by the Snyder Family. Rosalie Todtenbier Snyder is the grandaughter of Colonel Le Cand who was locally called Captain Le Cand. Formerly owned by Henry Wirth and Jane Flood (1904).
GREENWOOD LODGE - Home of Idelle B. Watson (1856-1956+) on Iberville Drive. Miss Watson came to Ocean Springs in 1932. Had a travel agency.
GROVELAND PARK - Pecan acreage and or farm of Fred Einfeldt of Brooklyn, New York.
HAPPY HILL - The home of Antonio "Toy" Catchot and Lucy Flower probably located on Sunset near Evergreen Cemetery.
HARBOR HILL - Twin-gabled 1993 built home of Brad and Peggy Bradford at 111 Pine Drive. Features a panoramic vista of the charming Ocean Springs Inner Harbor on a 1.5 acre wooded and landscaped lot.
HAVEN-ON-THE-HILL - O.D. Davidson place on front beach near the Yacht Club, 475 feet on beach. Was bought in August 1936, by Mrs. Lorna Leavell of Chicago. She planned to demolish the old house. Name used by D.H. Holmes of New Orleans for the F.J. Lundy home on LaFontaine at Washington.
HERMITAGE - Lundy rental cottage on Jackson Avenue. Built in 1911.
HERON PLACE - Captain June Poitevent's farm on Heron Bayou. He grew pineapples here in 1915.
HIGHLAND PECAN FARM - Vancleave area 900 acre farm of Edward G. Minnemeyer and Walter Minnemeyer of Chicago. Developed in the 1920s. Minemeyers had summer home at Duquesne Island in Georgian Bay, Canada.
HILLSIDE - Mrs. S.A. Calogne of New Orleans home at 204 Washington Avenue. Built in the fall of 1909 for $3000 (OSN, August 28, 1909). Contractors Weider & Friar (OSN, October 23, 1909). House extant and owned by Miss Litt VanCourt.
HILL TOP - Mrs. Emma Pace of New Orleans (1905), and James Elizardi (1946) home at 207 Washington Avenue. Now owned by the Weldons, John, Germaine, and Jackson (hey, Jackson).
HOLLY LODGE - H. Pitts Flateau home at Pointe-aux-Chenes. Later L.L. Cook
HOLLYWOOD - Residence of Mrs. Martha Lyon Holcomb (1833-1906) of Chicago. Home located on the NE/C of Rayburn and Porter. Built early 1890s. Destroyed after 1915. Dale Cottages located here today.
HOLMCLIFFE -Spanish Colonial Revival built by R.H. Holmes at 325 Lovers Lane. Formerly the Julian Place. Construction commenced November 1929. J.A. Wieder superintendent of construction. Now called De Guise by current owner, Jacob Guice. (see JXCOT, 11-30-1929, L&P).
INDIAN TRAIL LODGE - H. Pitts Flateau (1935), located at Pointe aux Chenes. Friend of Leavells.
INGLESIDE - Mrs. H.S. Davis's country home (1897-1928) near Vancleave. Planted Cedar tree at Community Center of Iberville.
ISLAND VIEW PLACE - home of Mayor F.M. Weed (1850-1926) on East Beach before he moved to Old Fort Bayou.
KIMCREST - Roswell S. Kimball (1886-1948) home on Front Beach. The old W.B. Schmidt home.
KINHEUSE - S.M. Hilligoss, realtor and associate of F.E. Lee, home at Lovers Lane circa 1934. Probably present day Taquino property. Hilligoss from Fort Worth, Texas?
LA BARACA - Guest cottage on Vermont of Ray Allen circa 1947.
LAKEVIEW - Charles W. Zeigler (b. 1865) of New Orleans 1890s -early 20th Century home located on Front Beach Drive. Lot later owned by D.V. Purrington (1841-1914) of Chicago.
LATTITUDE - Dr. William F. Pontius and Molly Pontius home at Hellmers Lane. Home built in 1994 and 1995 by Victor Sheely of Gulfport. Contemporary design of stucco painted coral. Faces small craft harbor.
LAVENDOONE - Appellation used for cottage at present day 1119 Vermont when owned by Chicagoan, Lorna Leavell, who donated its use for the garden club meetings during the 1950s.
LINGER LONGER – home of Olaf K. Petersen of New Orleans.(see JXCOT, 8-3-1929)
LYNDHURST - Thomas B. Lynd (1862-1915) of New Orleans. Lynd was a cotton broker and owned Lynd & Stouse which dealt extensively in cotton futures. Lynd began his career as a clerk for Chaufe, Powell, and West, a New Orleans cotton brokerage. Lynd resided on Prytania Street at New Orleans. His daughter, Edwina Marguerite Lynd, married Carl Case of Nashville, Tennessee in June 1910 (OSN, June 4, 1910, p. 1).
Ocean Springs druggist, Herman Nill, sold this 9.67 acre estate on Front Beach west of Bayou Bauzage (Inner Harbor) to Lynd in 1893 for $6000 (Jackson County Deed Book 14, p. 452). After Thomas B. Lynd died in April 1915, his son-in-law, Carl T. Case, and daughter, Edwina Marguerite Lynd, took possession and called the estate, Case Villa. They sold to W.R. David in July 1918, for $2250 (Jackson County Deed Book 45, pp. 607-608). Elizabeth Parlin purchased the property from Edwina David for $2200 in April 1921 (Jackson County Deed Book 50, pp. 326-327).
The house burned in December 1922, when owned by H.O. Parlin. Now Alice T. Austin at 545 Front Beach Drive.
LYNDWOOD-This home at 915 Ocean Avenue was built in the winter of 1934-1935 by A. Lynd Gottsche (1902-1974) and Mae Kettles Gottsche (1907-2001). The Gottsche family utilized lumber salvaged from the derelict Case-Russell situated on the southwest corner of Washington Avenue and Porter. This edifice had been damaged by fire in February 1933. A. Lynd Gottsche Jr. acquired his childhood home from his parents in December 1972. He and spouse, Patricia Field Gottsche, conveyed Lynwood to the First Presbyterian Church of Ocean Springs in December 1989. The family of the Reverend Andy Wells have lived here since their arrival in Ocean Springs
MAGNOLIA- Home of Dr. Dan Newcomb on Davis Bayou. He spent the spring of 1897 here. Dan and Fred Richardson farmed here in 1897.(The Pascagoula Democrat-Star, March 5, 1897, p. 3)
MAGNOLIA GROVE - Residence of Dr. Edward J. Rodrigues probably at Lovers Lane (1-8-1897). Painted by G.F. Endres of New Orleans in April 1897.
MAGNOLIA HOUSE - Bed and breakfast home of Naomi Fields located at 300 Ward Avenue. Home built by Alcide Veillon circa 1924. The Magnolia House was established in 1994.
MAGNOLIA PLACE - New office complex built by Richard Furr family on Government at M.L. King, Jr. in 1994. Henry Furr, architect.
MAGNOLIA VILLA - Home of Paul Julien of New Orleans. Used October 5, 1906.
MANY OAKS - 315 Front Beach Drive. Dutch Colonial Revival home and estate of John B. Honor (1856-1929) of New Orleans and Margaret Soden (1860-1932). Built in the summer of 1918 by Fred Bradford for $15,000. Now owned by Mary Zala.
MARINER’S REST-Home of Thomas Hanson in present day Gulf Hills.
MARTINDALE - Farm of Alfred Martin of Gary, Indiana. Purchased J.K. Porter land 5 miles east of Ocean Springs in 1909. Adjoined the place of Mrs. T.H. Chase. Set out fruit and pecan tress. May purchase place in town. Martin was steward at Ocean Springs Hotel when it burned in 1905. Moved to Gary, Indiana where he ran the North Works Inn. Made cane syrup. Daughter, Alice Martin. (see OSN, 3-13-1909)
MENDENHALL - Three acre Lovers Lane estate of H.C. Mendenhall (d. 1914) and Lizzie Darrah Bonsal (1850-1933). Land purchased in 1880 from E.I. Israel. Mendenhall sold to Alfred E. Lewis (1862-1933) and Julia Johnson Lewis (1861-1933) in September 1890 (Jackson County Deed Book 12, pp. 96-97). Lewis conveyed to Julia Oser Rodriguez in April 1895 (Jackson County Deed Book 16, p. 398). Located (Lot 10) in Section 24 and Section 25 of T7S-R9W.
MILLSITE - Fort Bayou home of Kentucky born attorney, Ray Allen. Allen resided at Ocean Springs in 1940s. Son and grandson both architects. Grandson. W.R. Allen, Jr and Maria Bargas developed Millsite Subdivision northwest of Vermont Avenue in the 1980s. Home torn down to build present day Weems home at 1229 Vermont.
MAGNOLIA GROVE - 1850s Beach Front home of George A. Cox (1811-1887) probably located near the W.B. Schmidt Estate of later days.
MIRAGE WATERS - formerly the old Hollingworth Place on Davis Bayou at Ravenswood Point. This name was used by soldier, lawywer, traveler, judge, and Illinois born writer, Paul Myron Wentworth Linebarger (1871-1939) when he lived here from 1916-1919. Linebarger wrote under the nom de plume, Paul Myron. Some of his books were: "Bugle Rhymes From France" (1916), "Chinese Interpretive Lyrics" (1920) and "Sun Yat Sen and the Chinese Republic" (1925).
NINE OAKS -
MYRTLES - Home of Charles E. Engbarth (1885-1962) at 1105 Ames Avenue. Built in 1916. When U.S. 90 was built in the early 1950s, the Engbarths sold land south of their home for the new road. Nineteen pecan trees were removed, and myrtles planted for privacy. The name of the house became "The Myrtles" at this time.
NICHE-IN-WOOD - home of M.L. Rose east of Ocean Springs in January 1906.
OAK CIRCLE - 1915, Captain C. Ansel's home (probably at Gulf Hills).
OAK DALE - Childhood home of Mrs. John Tillinghast (nee Cammie Bilbo) outside of Ocean Springs. Located off of Old Spansh Trail, north of Gulf Park estates.
OAKESS - Albert B. Ackander (1858-1926) and Annie M. Nilsson (1870) home on 18.5 acres in Section 28, T7S-R8W bounded by Government, Hanley Road, Pine Hills Road, and the Baben-drier tract to the south. The Ackanders were Swedish immigrants (immigrated 1891) and came to Ocean Springs from Chicago about 1907.
OAK HAVEN - 1926, East Beach home of F.B. Thomas at East Beach. Thomas from Winnetka, Illinois. Thomas grew oranges, Japanese persimmons, pecans, and peaches at his estate. James S. Bradford (1884-1963) was his orchard manager.
OAKNOLIA - Carl Birdsall (Chicago) home at Pointe-aux-Chene adjacent to his associate, James R. Leavell. Circa 1934. Later owned by Wayne Johnson in 1957.
OAK REST - Home of Mrs. C.D. Stuart of Grand Rapids, Michigan (1903).
OAKROYD-Home of Miss Idele Watson on Fort Point.
OAK SHADE - 1993 "bed and breakfast" place of Marion Wingo and Chris Vinsonhaler at 1017 LaFontaine.
OAK SPRINGS - Home of Minnesota native Dudley Scheffer (1873-1929) who arrived at Ocean Springs in 1915 from Sioux City, Iowa. Scheffer bought the Beal Farm in 1915. He later sold real estate. Wife, Lillian A. Hass (d. 1926).
O'KEEFE CASTLE - Appellation for the two story multi-gabled Queen Anne home at 318 Jackson Avenue. Built by Jeremiah O'Keefe (1859-1911) circa 1887. Called the Saxon House when owned by Cecile Brodeur Saxon (1893-1980) who purchased it from Mary C. O'Keefe in 1933. Now the residence of Christopher T. Snyder and Susan O'Keefe Snyder.
OLDFIELDS - Although located on the Mississippi Sound at Gautier, this 1850s A.E. Lewis (1812-1885) built plantation estate home has strong historical and emotional ties with Ocean Springs through the Grinstead-Anderson families who owned it from 1905 to the 1950s. The period of time from 1940-1947 when Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965) lived and painted here has become known as his "Oldfields Period".
PALMETTO - Ed and Mary Anderson Pickard's contemporary home at the Shearwater compound. The structure was built at the waters edge in 1984, utilizing materials indigenous to the area, i.e. cypress and southern yellow pine.
PALMETTO PLACE - New name for the old Young-Shanteau garage on Government at Kotzum. Furr family bought in 1994. Sam Furr, architect.
PARK PLACE - The 1911-1919 East Beach home of Samuel T. Park and Fronie Stealy. The original cottage of James Charnley of Chicago built circa 1890. Now Edsel and Mary Ruddiman. Mr. Park was a retired railroad executive.
PECAN NURSERIES - Charles E. Pabst (1850-1920) homestead on Calhoun Avenue. Later residence and farm of Fred B. Dusette of New Haven, Michigan. Now owned by Cecelia Fink.
PINE ACRES – Dr. J.D. Davenport home on the OS-Vancleave Road.(The GCT, January 13, 1954, .16)
PINE CONE COTTAGE-Home of Mrs. Bruce Fain of Kane, Illinois at 89 Lovers Lane.(JXCOT, I-7-1942, p. 4)
PINECREST - Troy G. Holt home at 1206 Sunset Avenue since 1967. Formerly owned by Mrs. Clendinen B. Smith (1958), the Minnemeyers (1935), and Pfhals (1910). Originally part of the Ames Tract. The Ames Hotel tract and home of Miss Eliza Ames (1845-1917) were located north of Pinecrest.
PINEWOOD - Dr. Charles Albert Babendreer home at 601 Pine Hills Road. Now John Vallor. Used as medical clinic for wife, Dr. Estelle Babendreer.
POPLAR GLEN - Home of Newcomb Clark on Porter. PD-S, OSLN, 6-22-1894.
REBEL OAK - Southern Colonial style home at 343 Lovers lane.
REST HAVEN - Retirement home of Chauncey S. Bell (1842-1925) on Iberville Avenue. Bell was born at New York state and raised in pioneer Michigan. He was a successful lumber and timber man and came to Ocean Springs becuase of his failing health. Here he developed pecan orchards and nurseries on Holcomb Boulevard. Bell lived on Holcomb for more than
thirty years. Moved to Iberville circa 1921.
ROSEDALE- home of Mayor F.M. Weed (1850-1926) on Fort Bayou. Now residence of Ernest Boney at 1007 Iberville.
ROSE FARM - Nearly 1000-acre farm devloped by Parker Earle (1831-1917) and Sons in the 1890s. Bought by New York entrepreneur and yachtsman, Joseph Benson Rose (d. 1902), in 1897. Owned by Colonel H.D. Money (1869-1936) from 1909 until its dismemberment by real estate sales commencing in 1915. The Rose Farm was noted for its fine pecan, satsuma, and grape fruit orchards. Extreme cold weather in 1917 and the 1920s led to demise of citrus growing in the area.
Ocean Springs first golf course and country club was located in the north part of the Rose Farm.
ROSE GARDEN - Ruth Chase of Chicago and Hopkinton, New Hampshire, and F.J.A. Forster (1927) estate probably located on East Beach.
SANS SOUCI - Captain Ralph Beltram home at foot of Jackson Avenue (1886-1899). Later convent of the Sisters of the Holy Cross.
SEVEN PINES - Ralph C. Curtiss of Waverly, Illinois winter home at East Beach in 1897
SHADOW LAWN - John L. Dickey (1880-1938) and Jennie Woodford Dickey (1879-1969) Prairie Renaissance home facing Deer Island east of Shearwater Pottery. The Dickey's purchased from Magdalena Hanson in 1922 when it was called Bayview. Now owned by Ruth Dickey Scharr.
REST HAVEN - Chauncey S. Bell (1842-1925) retirement home on Iberville Drive from 1921 until 1925.
REBEL OAKS - Eldon D. McClain's Southern Colonial style home and historic, oak-landscaped estate at 343 Lovers Lane. Formerly owned by the Dressler Family of New Orleans.
SHADOWS - Named used by Mark Watson and Robert Fisher for the old Thomas R. Friar homestead (1872) on Front Beach and Washington. The Oyster commission may have been located here as Friar was an oyster dealer. Now owned by Ross and Sharon Dodds who call their estate "Villa Rosa".
SHADY NOOK - Ed Brou family home on lowr Jackson Avenue.
SHANNONDALE PLACE - now the Fort Bayou Estates Subdivision. Owned by A.H. Shannon in the early 1900s. It consisted of 540 acres in the W/2 of Section 22 and the E/2 of Section 21 of T7S-R8W. In 1909, it was partially timbered and had a large house. G.E. McEwen bought Shannon place is putting a sawmill on the place having purchased a complete plant from the L.N. Dantzler Co. which operated a Cedar Lake. Mill has capacity of 10,000 board feet per day.(OSN-10-23-1909). Owned by G.E. McEwen in 1915. Also called "Bayou View Orchards".
SHORE ACRES - Appellation first used by Mrs. A.L. Benjamin of Milwaukee (1848-1938) for her Fort Point Estate (called Benjamin Point during her occupation). Her son-in-law, Walter S. Lindsay (1888-1975), adopted the name for his Colonial Revival Home at 305 Lovers Lane after the Benjamin home was demolished in the 1940s. The Lindsay Place is now owned by J.K. and Eleanor Lemon, and retains the name, Shore Acres.
SPRING HILL COTTAGE - Appellation used by Fred Wing (NOLA) in the 1860s for his Greek Revival cottage on Iberville. Now owned by the Bobbie D. Smith.
SPRINGWOOD - Future home of ?? on Perryman Road.
SUMMER HILL - Front Beach estate of German born entrepreneur, W.B. Schmidt (1823-1900) of New Orleans. Schmidt owned the Ocean Springs Hotel and other valuable real estate including the Infirmary Property (Marble Springs) at Ocean Springs. He donated land for St. Johns Episcopal Church in the 1890s.
SUNNY RIDGE FARM - Country estate of Chicagoan J.C. Akely on the Vancleave Road. Son, Nate S. Akely lived at Wilmette, Illinois.
SUNSET LODGE - No information.
SWEET BAY FARM - 105 acres on Bay of Biloxi and Bayou Porteaux owned by Dalton Scales of Dallas, Texas in 1925.
SWEET HEART - The three hundred-twenty acre estate of A.E. Lewis (1862-1933) southwest of VanCleave. The Lewis Family may have relocated here from Ocean Springs after selling Mendenhall in 1895. Located in Sections 23 and 24, T6S-R8W.
TERRACED FIELDS FARM - Townshend, Vermont farm of Mrs. Mignon Courson Lundy, the widow of F.J. Lundy.
TERRACE HILL - German born entrepreneur, John H. Behrens (1848-1918), of Highland Park, Illinois built this bungalow style house circa 1911. It was formerly the Mattie Austin property at 414 Martin Avenue. Behrens founded the Fort Bayou Fruit Company in 1909. The house was later owned by Captain Alex L. Bisso (d. 1950) of New Orleans and his daughter, Mrs. Giles Peresich. Now the residence of Robert L. Hoomes.
THREE OAKS - Adolph Schrieber has purchased a lot from Charles Ruddy (Rudd?) near "Three Oaks" and expects to build a home thereon. (OSN-1-16-1909)
Appellation also used by Canadian, Dr. Henry Bradford Powell (1867-1949), on Front Beach and probably later on Ward Avenue. Now home of Jay and Lisa Segarra at 414 Ward.
In October 1926, Elizabeth Smith, an invalid, of Portage, Wisconsin? died. Owned "Three Oaks".
TWELVE OAKS - S.J. Logan's sixty acre estate at 1112 Hanley Road in the Johanna Blount Subdivision, SW/4 of Section 21, T7S-R8W. Formerly owned by W.L. Barbour (pre-1955).
TWIN CEDARS - Henry Louis Ryan (1900-1947) and Elsie Seymour Ryan (1905-1989) vernacular cottage at 1208 Calhoun. Built in 1941. Ryan owned the Rainbow Inn Restaurant on Government.
TWIN OAKS-Lot 5, Section 13, T7S-R9W. Adelin J. Martin place at Gulf Hills in the early 1900s. Became H.W. Branigar’s home site.
VILLA DEL MARE - Chicago State Street haberdasher, George B. Lytton, circa 1929 built this Mediterranean style home at Arbor Circle in Gulf Hills. Later owned by Dr. Karl Meyer and today home of Robert and Virginia Meyer. Probably built by a New Orleans contractor named Zeigenfelder who built the Peacock Home (now Tomsik) to the west. One of the original Gulf Hills estates.
VILLA ROSA - Ross and Sharon Dodds home at 505 Front Beach Drive and Washington Avenue. Formerly the Fisher-Watson home.
WHILE-A-WAY-LODGE - Dr. William Porter (1850-1921) and Pearl E. Porter (1861-1943) home at Lovers Lane. Demolished.
WHITE HOUSE HILL - Five bay Greek Revival cottage of Amanda Shaffer (1850-1920+) of New Orleans (1911) and "Minerva" in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Located at 214 Washington Avenue on Lots 6,7,8 of Block 5 (Culmseig Map). Formerly Wing Cottage and White-Spunner House. Now owned by Leake Family.
WILDERMEAR - Halstead Family home on East Beach which was destroyed by fire in June 1911. Probably named for David Wileder Halstead (1842-1918) who came to Ocean Springs from Dodge City, Iowa in the Midwest in 1888. Present home on this site built by E.W. Halstead (1876-1933) in 1916.
WILJUMARRIE - built by L.N. Bradford for Mrs. Julia E. Brown of Chicago in Febraury 1894. Located on East Beach, east of Field Lodge. Mrs. Morgan Williams of Leadville, Colorado and Mrs. Rush Field of Chicago was an owner also.
WILDWOOD - Home of W.D. Penick of Des Moines, Iowa (1923). Probably located on East Beach. H.O. Penick moved to Kent, Washington. Spent winter of 1920 at Franklin, La. Wife, daughter of Louisiana Governor Murphy Foster of Franklin.
WINDSWEPT - Home of Neely and Katherine Crane Powers on LaFontaine. Now Irene Endt Powers.
WINTER REST -Rosambeau cottage at 908 Calhoun used as a winter retreat by Charles Dryden (1860-1931), nationally known sportswriter, for about twenty years (1901-1921).
WOODLAWN - Home of Miss L. Ready (1927). Location?
WOODLAWN - Name used by Miss Eliza Ames for her home on Cemetery Road (now Sunset) near Evergreen Cemetery.
WOODVIEW - Home of E.W. Blossman at 206 Shearwater Drive.
WYNDILLHURST - Front beach estate of Dillwyn V. Purington (1841-1914) and Jennie Purington (1846-1933). Mr. Purington was in the lumber and brick business at Chicago. He was President of the Purington-Kimball Paving Brick Company (Chicago) and the Purington Paving Brick Company (Galesburg, Illinois). They arrived at Ocean Springs circa 1904. The Puringtons spent eight months at their Front Beach home, and summered at Chicago and in the northeast. The house burned in the 1940s? Site now occupied by a contemporary structure at 221 Front Beach.
‘Summer Hill’, The W.B. Schmidt House
‘Summer Hill’, the old W.B. Schmidt (1823-1901) residence at present day 227 Beach Drive is extant and owned by Dr. James Moore Carter and wife, Patti Swetman Carter. In August 1919, Miss Louisa May Schmidt (1869-1935) of New Orleans, a spinster daughter of W.B. Schmidt and Virginia A. Jackson Schmidt (1835-1912) conveyed her Beach property to Hiram F. Russell (1858-1940), a local entrepreneur, for $16,000. David M. Davis (1880-1943+) of New Orleans acquired the old Schmidt property in May 1925. In the 1930s, he rented it to the Captain Ellis Handy (1891-1963) family. Roswell Kimball (1886-1948) and Elva Stiglets Kimball (1888-1980) acquired it from David M. Davis in 1942. ‘Summer Hill’ remained in the Kimball family until January 1996, when James A. Smith was vended it by the Heirs of Roswell S. Kimball Jr. (1921-1995).
One of the W.B. Schmidt ponds
The low topography on the W.B. Schmidt Estate was made into ponds. There were three islets in the ponds, Dog, Crane, and Deer, which were named for large iron figures of these animals on the respective islet. Rustic bridges connected the small parcel of land. In the 1930s, Captain Ellis Handy (1891-1963), who was renting ‘Summer Hill’, and three men shot eight water moccasins in a pond in the rear of Miss-La-Bama when it was owned by Bernadine Wulff (1899-1992).(Dr. Thomas Handy, November 17, 2006)
Miss-La-Bama
In August 1928, Bernadine Wullf (1899-1992) acquired the “former music hall” of the W.B. Schmidt children from David M. Davis of New Orleans for $9,000. She studied voice at Newcomb College and was a three-year soloist at Christ Church Cathedral. In New York, Miss Wulff studied under Rochovsky and D’Arnall. Her natural acting ability combined with her trained voice led to many opera and musical theater roles in New York and Chicago from 1924 into the mid-1930s. She chose the stage name “Berna Deane”. Her sister, Vera Adelaide Wulff Cook (1906-1992), was also a talented chanteuse. When the Depression came, they found theatrical work difficult to obtain and joined together as the “Deane Sisters”, performing on radio in New York and Chicago. Bernadine Wulff retired to her Ocean Springs beach front home in 1936. Her home which she called “Miss-La-Bama” had been the Alabama pavilion at the 1884-1885 World Cotton Exposition in New Orleans. It in a much metamorphosed form it is now at 234 Front Drive and owned by Jan Galaspy Walker.
Glengariff, the Captain O’Neill Home
[image courtesy of Mary Mooney Wade]
Captain Francis O’ Neill (1849-1936), the retired General Superintendent of the Chicago Police and a resident of 5448 Drexel Avenue at Chicago, Illinois, acquired this summer residence at Ocean Springs of John J. Kuhn in July 1914. Captain O'Neill and his family wintered at Ocean Springs, Mississippi from 1914 to his death on January 26, 1936. He called his retirement home and estate at Ocean Springs, Glengariff, for the Irish resort city of Glengariff near O'Neill’s birthplace on Bantry Bay, Cork County, Ireland. The house was located at present day 253 Beach Drive, near the center of a 5.14 acre tract which ran northeasterly from Front Beach Drive and Martin Avenue, almost 800 feet to the southwest corner of Cleveland and Martin Avenues. The O’Neill tract had a front of 286 feet on the Bay of Biloxi. Today, the Brumfield property west of Martin Avenue occupies the former site of Glengariff.
W.B. Schmidt, the philanthropist
W.B. Schmidt was very generous to the people of Ocean Springs. In December 1883, he donated the land where the Ocean Springs Senior Citizens Building is situated on Washington Avenue to the Ocean Springs Fire Company No. 1. They built a fire house here, which burned in the "Big Fire" of November 15, 1916.(JXCO Ms. Record of Deeds Bk. 7. pp. 52-53)
In August 1891, Schmidt donated land on the northwest corner of Rayburn and Porter to the St. Johns Episcopal Church. Here the parishioners erected a sanctuary, standing today in near original condition, although it was completed in April 1892.(JXCO, Ms. Record of Deeds Bk. 12, pp. 576-577)
In July 1896, several years before his death in 1901, W.B. Schmidt gave the City of Ocean Springs, the Medical Lot on Iberville Drive. This was the site of Schmidt's Marble Springs bathes, which were used by patron of his Ocean Springs Hotel. Between 1979 and 1984 the Marble Springs site was cleaned, surveyed by an archaeologist and restored. In 1982, the City of Ocean Springs received federal funds through a grant, and began the groundwork, which lead to the restoration of Marble Springs. As a requirement of the grant, Dr. Elizabeth M. Bogess, an archeologist from Natchez, was hired by the City to determine the past history of the springs through its archaeological record. In early 1984, the spring house and tubs were renovated at a cost of more than $16,000. The second phase of the springs project consisted of the completion of a retaining wall, landscaping, parking lot and walkways.(The Daily Herald, July 15, 1982 and July 27, 1984, and The Ocean Springs Record, November 15, 1979 and December 6, 1979,
W.B. Schmidt was described as a quiet, thoughtful man with a will of iron and a heart of gold. He was a moving force assisting those less fortunate than himself. At various times, he sent German immigrants to Ocean Springs to work on his estate until they could get a start in life. Among those who Schmidt guided here were Adolph Joseph Schrieber (1835-1875) and Ferdinand W. Illing (1838-1884). They had escaped from Mexico in 1867, after the fall of Emperor Maximilian and his German and Austrian nationals. Both families have left indelible marks in our local history.
Among the organizations and enterprises which he participated during his life, W.B. Schmidt could list the following: Sugar Exchange, Board of Trade, Board of Liquidation, Charity Hospital Board, President of the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, Canal Bank (director), Teutonia Insurance Company, and director of the Texas & Pacific Railroad.
In his obituary, it was said of Mr. Schmidt:
He loved his home, and made his magnificent mansion here (New Orleans), and his house in Ocean Springs havens of happiness and hospitality. He loved to have his family and friends about him and to know that comfort and enjoyment were theirs, but he cared little for what the world calls society, although sociable and companionable to the highest degree. With broad charity in his soul and with the mind's eye penetrating and clear, his helpfulness was one of his strongest qualities, and the individual or cause to which he lent his energy and wisdom were bound to derive great benefit. He knew his duty both as a citizen and as a man and did it well. Institutions and men in the ascendant today know how much they owe to his generosity and public spirit and he will be mourned far beyond the confines of the city he loved and fostered not only as a merchant prince, but as a prince of merchants.
‘Berna Deane’-born Bernadine Wulff (1899-1992) in New Orleans, Miss Wulff starred as an Operetta singer on the Broadway stage at New York from 1924 until the Great Depression reduced the number of active theatres. Miss Wulff and her talented sister, Vera A. Wulff ‘Skees’ Cook (1906-1992), then teamed up as the ‘Deanne Sisters’ for radio gigs on NBC in New York and WEAF at Chicago. Bernadine Wulff was a cultural icon at Ocean Springs from 1936 until her demise in November 1992. Miss-La-Bama her 19th Century Front Beach home has an incredible history as well as being an architectural gem and Katrina survivor.[Images courtesy of Melissa Burkhardt]
Bernadine Wulff
Before David M. Davis (1880-1950+) created the d’Iberville Subdivision in 1941, from the former W.B. Schmidt Estate, known as the Beach Place with ‘Summer Hill’, the former Schmidt residence and large ponds, as the landmark features on the manor, he had sold in August 1928, Miss-La-Bama, the Schmidt children’s music hall, to Bernadine Wulff for $9000. Miss Wulff’s lot had a front of 100 feet on Biloxi Bay and ran 900 feet north to Cleveland Avenue. At the same time, Fred A. Wulff, Bernadine’s father, bought an identically sized lot to the east of Miss-La-Bama for $10,000. It was bounded on the east by Glengariff, the Captain Francis O’ Neill estate. In January 1944, her sister, Vera Wulff Cook (1906-1992), and spouse, John Carter Cook (1913-1999), purchased Lot 6 of the d’Iberville Subdivision also from David M. Davis for $2000. It had 77 feet on Biloxi Bay and was 240 feet deep to the north.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 61, pp. 570-571 and 569-570 and Bk. 84, pp. 562-563)
The Wulff family began their love affair with Ocean Springs in 1928, while spending almost four months at the Edwards House, formerly the French Hotel, a family hostel situated on Front Beach and Martin Avenue. At this time, Miss Bernadine Wulff was already an accomplished operetta chanteuse in New York. Operetta, literally, "little opera", is a performance art-form similar to opera, though it generally deals with less serious topics. When her vocal chords became severely strained, Miss Wulff’s physician recommended a period of rest and recovery in a quiet place. Her parents who were residents of New Orleans chose Ocean Springs, a resort town on Biloxi Bay, which they had visited in times past.(The Ocean Springs Record, July 13, 1972, p. 2)
Miss-La-Bama
As previously mentioned, Miss-La-Bama, the Bernadine Wulff house, had been the Alabama pavilion at the 1884 World Cotton Exposition in New Orleans. W.B. Schmidt (1823-1901) had brought it to Ocean Springs on several barges. Miss-La-Bama has been described as being of the Moorish architectural style and inspired by the Alhambra, a 14th Century Moorish castle complex, located at Grenada, Spain. If one were to view the north elevation of the Patio of Myrtles within the Alhambra, one might imagine that the 19th Century creator of Miss-La-Bama was inspired by the arabesque arches situated here.
The original Miss-La-Bama was a small, T-shaped structure in plan view with an area of approximately nine hundred-fifty square feet. It had a flat roof since it was built as an ‘indoor’ pavilion. The front elevation was about forty-five feet in length and about fifteen feet deep and consisted of three rooms. At the 1884-1885 World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial in New Orleans, the three front rooms were utilized as a guest reception area. They were exquisitely furnished with fine rugs embellishing the Alabama pine floors and heavy damask curtains framing the French doors, which provided some illumination for the space. A large registration book was place here for visitors to sign. The large central room, which formed the base of the T, was fourteen feet deep and twenty feet in length. It was used by the Alabama staff as a private office. It would later serve the W.B. Schmidt children as their ‘music room’. The Schmidt family erected a small stage here on which to perform.(Fairall, 1885, p. 31)
The façade of Miss-La-Bama consisted of a three-bay, main entrance framing three arabesque, horseshoe-shaped arches flanked by two symmetrical wings each with a Moorish arch containing French doors. There are seven large arches with their corresponding French doors in the building.
‘Berna Deane’
Bernadine Wulff (1899-1992) was born on August 6, 1899 at New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Fred A. Wulff (1872-1957) and Charlotte Bernadine Marcella Burkhardt (1874-1938), the daughter of Henry G. Burkhardt (1842-1905), a store clerk, and Charlotte Marie Magdalene Wagatha (1844-1900). At the time of Bernadine’s birth, the Wulff family was domiciled on Louisiana Avenue and her father was a bookkeeper. The Burkhardt family resided on Roman Street at New Orleans.(1880 and 1900 Orleans Parish, Louisiana Federal Census, T9_461, p. 60, ED 31 and T623 575, p. 7B, ED 119)
At New Orleans, Bernadine Wulff studied voice at Newcomb College and was a three-year soloist at Christ Church Cathedral in the Crescent City. In New York, Miss Wulff studied under Rochovsky and D’Arnall. Her natural acting ability combined with her trained voice led to many operetta and musical theater roles in New York and Chicago from 1924 into the mid-1930s. She chose the stage name “Berna Deane”. Her sister, Vera “Skees” Adelaide Wulff Cook (1906-1992), was also a talented chanteuse who performed on the New York stage. When the Depression came, they found theatrical work difficult to obtain and joined together as the “Deane Sisters”, performing on radio in New York, Chicago, and New Orleans. Berna Deane was a soloist on the Luzianne Coffee program with Warren Galjour on WWL Radio, which is housed in the Crescent City (The History of JXCO, Ms., 1989, pp. 399-400 and The Jackson County Times, November 23, 1946, p. 1)
Bernadine Wulff retired to her Ocean Springs beach front home in 1936. Accordingly, Miss-La-Bama had to be refurbished to convert it from a ‘music hall’ to a viable dwelling. The structure was raised and brick piers constructed to support its sills and joist. Plumbing and electricity were added, as well as a bathroom, kitchen and two bedrooms. Miss Wulff also had a twelve-foot by fifty-five foot screened porch built on the façade to enjoy the water front view and afternoon sea breeze from Biloxi Bay.(Jan G. Walker, December 5, 2006 and The History of JXCO, Ms., 1989, p. 400-401)
The Wulff pond
A salient feature on the landscape of the Wulff property was a large, elliptically-shaped, freshwater pond, an aesthetic relic of the W.B. Schmidt era. The Wulff pond was situated in the rear of Miss-La-Bama and was oriented with the long axis striking about 260 feet in a northwest to southeast direction. The Wulff pond averaged about 55 feet in width and was stocked with fish, primarily ‘green trout’, an indigenous moniker for large and small-mouth bass, and perch.(The Ocean Springs news, July 30, 1964 and JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 188, pp. 405-407)
In the 1930s, Captain Ellis Handy (1891-1963) and friends would discharge their firearms at water moccasins inhabiting Miss Wulfe’s pond. On one occasion they killed about eight of the aqueous vipers. At his time, the Handy family was renting ‘Summer Hill’, the former W.B. Schmidt residence, west of Miss-La-Bama.(Dr. Thomas Handy, November 17, 2006)
Bernadine Wulff was also an accomplished marksman and would shoot off the heads of swimming moccasins in her pond with a single shot .22 caliber rifle.(John C. Cook Jr. December 12, 2006)
From surveys of conveyance deeds made by George E. Arndt Jr. (1909-1994), it appears that the Wulff pond was extant until the early 1960s. No further information.
Miss-La-Bama SketchMiss-La-Bama was owned by Miss Bernadine Wulff (1899-1992), star of stage and radio, for over forty years. During her tenure, the former Alabama pavilion of the 1884-1885 World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition was raised and brick piers constructed to support its sills and joist. Plumbing and electricity were added, as well as a bathroom, kitchen and two bedrooms. Miss Wulff also had a twelve-foot by fifty-five foot screened porch built on the façade to enjoy the water front view and afternoon sea breeze from Biloxi Bay. Rendering by Brian K. Heffner made April 30, 1980.
James J. Garrad House
1119 Iberville Drive
James J. Garrard House circa 1917In the later years of the 19th Century, James J. Garrard (1828-1902) and his wife, Victoria Marks Garrard (1839-1907), moved to Ocean Springs into retirement from New Orleans. In the Crescent City, Mr. Garrard had been a partner in the cotton firm of Garrard & Craig. He was a native of Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky having been born there in 1828, the son of Massena Garrard (1800-1850) and Elizabeth Fry (d. 1836). James B. Garrard (1749-1822), the grandfather of J.J. Garrard, was Governor of Kentucky from 1796-1804. A native of Virginia, he made his livelihood as a farmer, miller, whiskey maker, solider, and Baptist minister. As Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, J.B. Garrard worked to reform the organization of the militia, courts, and penal system; added 26 counties to the state’s districts; initiated construction of the Governor’s Mansion; asked the government to provide for public education; and attempted to establish anti-slavery laws. Governor Garrard was one of two governors to ever serve two full successive terms; the first Kentucky governor to live in the Governor’s Mansion; and in 1797 Garrard County, Kentucky was named in his honor.(Ellison, 1991, p. 4, The History of JXCO, Ms., 1989, p. 213, and www.kdla.ky.gov/resources/kygovernors.htm)
Before James J. Garrard settled at New Orleans circa 1870, he may have lived in the 1840s with his family at Marion County, Missouri, which is near Hannibal on the Mississippi River. James. J. Garrard married Francesca Victoria Marks, a Missouri native. Their vows were exchanged at St. Louis, Missouri on January 7, 1861. Miss Marks’ parents were from Connecticut. Before his betrothal to Francesca, J.J. Garrard may have returned to Kentucky from Missouri and been employed as a cabinetmaker in Fayette County, Kentucky.(1840 Marion Co., Missouri Federal Census R 226, p. 94 and 1850 Fayette Co., Kentucky Federal Census M432_199, p. 201).
Ocean Springs
In September 1886, at Ocean Springs, Francesca M. Garrard acquired from Francisco Coyle (1813-1891) and Frank M. Weed (1852-1917) for $490 with other proximate real estate, two lots with a front of two hundred ninety feet on the south bank of Fort Bayou along Iberville Drive. Here in November 1890, the Garrards built a home which they called "Bayou Home". (JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 8, pp. 283-285)
This event was recorded in The Biloxi Herald on November 8, 1890, which related the following:
New Buildings are going up all over this place. J.J. Garrard is erecting a six-room two-story house opposite the marble springs that will be quite an ornament to that part of town.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History survey (1986) of the Marble Springs Historic District describes the Garrard Home as follows:
One-and-one-half story, wood frame house with a side gable roof with large central gabled dormer. Bracketed cornice over side door. Undercut gallery now enclosed with a continuous bank of casements. Colonial Revival. Circa 1890.
Site of the Ocean Springs Fire Brick CompanyThe Ocean Springs Fire Brick Company-was situated on Old Fort Bayou in the N/2 of the N/2 of Section 23, T7S-R8W. The site was well chosen as it had: access to deep water; a cheap and readily available fuel supply for its kilns; and was situated on high ground, which was not inundated by Katrina 2005. In present geographic terms, the brick making operation was along the 8900 block of Dixie Street in the Dixie Subdivision created in 1955 by Wendell Palfrey (1896-1956), which is northwest of the Ocean Springs-Vancleave Road. Ronald ‘Bo’ Hall lives in the immediate area of the old brick works and has found many relic bricks in his yard. Digital image by Ray L. Bellande- May 15, 2007.
The Ocean Springs Fire Brick Company
After his military service during the 1898 conflict with Spain was completed, Joseph B. Garrard returned to Ocean Springs. He became involved with the operations of the Ocean Springs Fire Brick Company. This entity had been incorporated on April 6, 1894, by James J. Garrard (1828-1902), his father, William C. West (1848-1915), Edward T. Firth (1857-1930+), David W. Halstead (1842-1918), and Joseph B. Garrard (1871-1915). The purpose of the Ocean Springs Fire Brick Company was to: manufacture and sell for profit of all classes of brick, tile, and fire clay and other clay products, and to open a general mercantile business to expedite in the development of the brick, tile, and other clay product manufacturing business. The company had capital stock of $100,000 and its charter was approved on May 24, 1894, by J.M. Stone, Governor of Mississippi.( The Pascagoula Democrat-Star, May 18, 1894, p. 2)
D.W. Halstead and son, Ernest W. Halstead (1876-1953), returned to Ocean Springs in early April 1894, from Orange Grove. They had closed their business in that area of eastern Jackson County.(The Pascagoula Democrat-Star, April 13, 1894, p. 3)
Garrard HardwareNW/C Washington Avenue and Desoto
Garrard Hardware was founded in 1909 when James B. Garrard (1871-1915) partnered with George W. Dale (1872-1953), a California transplant, to organize a business called Dale & Garrard Hardware and Plumbing. Mr. Dale was a tinsmith and plumber and operated the ‘outside’ business, while Mr. Garrard worked ‘inside’ and sold ranges and cook stoves, hammocks, water coolers, scales, batteries, kerosene vapor stoves and alcohol stoves at their Washington Avenue location. Before his death in February 1915, Mr. Dale had left the partnership. Joseph B. Garrard’s widow, Carrie Johnson Garrard (1886-1968), continued the family business for many decades on Washington Avenue.
Hardware business
In 1909, James B. Garrard (1871-1915) partnered with George W. Dale (1872-1953), a California transplant who had married Harriette Seymour (1879-1956), the daughter of Narcisse Seymour (1849-1931) and Carolyn V. Krohn (1847-1895), to organize a business called Dale & Garrard Hardware and Plumbing. Mr. Dale was a tinsmith and plumber and operated the ‘outside’ business, while Mr. Garrard worked ‘inside’ and sold ranges and cook stoves, hammocks, water coolers, scales, batteries, kerosene vapor stoves and alcohol stoves at their Washington Avenue location. In the fall of Dale & Garrard contracted with Weider & Friar to build a 1750 square-foot, building on a lot leased from Charles E. Schmidt (1852-1886) and Laura Coyle Schmidt (1857-1931). The Schmidt lot was situated on the east side of Washington Avenue, immediately north of Desoto. Mrs. Laura C. Schmidt and spouse had acquired this valuable commercial tract in May 1880 for $400 from Albert Green and Mary Germain Green of New Orleans. It had one hundred feet fronting on Washington Avenue and ran to Jackson Avenue to the west. The Dale & Garrard building survived with two other wooden structures until the late 1960s, when the First National Bank of Ocean Springs was chartered and acquired the Schmidt lot and built a building here in 1967.(The Ocean Springs News, September 4, 1909, p. 1 and p. 5 and September 18, 1909, p. 5 and The Ocean Springs Record, June 29, 1967, p. 1)
The progenitors of the 19th Century Schmidt family at Ocean Springs were Ernst Charles Schmidt (1852-1886), called Charles Ernest Schmidt, and Laura Coyle (1857-1931), the daughter of Francisco Coyle (1813-1891), a Menorcan immigrant, and Magdalene Ougatte Pons (1813-1904). Charles E. Schmidt of German ancestry came to Ocean Springs from New Orleans, his birthplace, in the 1870s. He was the son of Ernst Schmidt (1827-1873), a German immigrant from Baden, and Euphemie or Euphrosine Schoser (1828-1870+), also a native of Baden, Germany. Ernst Schmidt made his livelihood at New Orleans as the proprietor of a bar room while Charles was a store clerk. Their other children were: Louisia Schmidt (1858-1870+) and Marie Schmidt (1861-1870+).(1870 Louisiana Federal Census, M593R519, p. 402)
Charles and Laura Coyle Schmidt had a large family born and reared at Ocean Springs. A child, Frank Ernest Schmidt (1877-1954), married Antoinette Emma Johnson (1870-1956) of Algiers, Louisiana. Her father was a Danish sea captain, Frederick Oliver Johnson (Jenson) (1851-1938), and mother, Henrietta Hedman (1855-1922). Mrs. Schmidt’s sister was Carrie Johnson Garrard, the spouse of Joseph B. Garrard, thus the link with the Dale & Garrard building on the Schmidt lot. Frank E. Schmidt and Antoinette’s three sons: Dr. Frank O. Schmidt (1902-1975), Charles E. ‘Ernest’ Schmidt (1904-1988), and Dr. Harry J. Schmidt (1905-1997) were an integral part of the 20th Century chronology of Ocean Springs and Biloxi.
Joseph Bacon Garrard (1871-1915)Before his demise in 1915, the Dale & Garrard partnership ceased and Joseph B. Garrard owned the hardware business solely and continued to sell such items as: farming implements, fencing, paints, stoves, and tools. In February 1915, Mr. Garrard advertised that he was selling Sherwin-Williams Paints & Varnishes. This multinational corporation is will celebrates is 150th anniversary in 2016.(The Ocean Springs News, February 18,1915, p. 5)
At Ocean Springs, Joseph ‘Joe’ B. Garrard served as alderman from Ward I from 1911-1912. It is interesting to note that his namesake and grandson, Joseph Bacon Garrard II, was elected to and represented the same city ward from 1993-2001. Joe was also elected Alderman of Wars IV in 1973 and Alderman-at-Large in 1977. He ran unsuccessful campaigns for Mayor in 2001 and 2005.(The Mississippi Press, January 24, 2001, p. 8A)
Joseph B. Garrard was also very active in the Masons participating as a member of the McLeod Lodge No. 426, the Hamassa Temple, and serving as Coast Commander. Mr. Garrard was Warden of the St. Johns Episcopal Church. Before his demise on February 24, 1915, from complication caused by pneumonia, Joseph Bacon Garrard had conveyed his Iberville home and property to his wife, Carrie Ann Johnson Garrard. The conveyance occurred in January 1912.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 37, pp. 586-587 The Ocean Springs News, March 4, 1915, p. 1 )
Mr. Garrard’s funeral was recorded by The Ocean Springs News of March 4, 1915, as: "was one of the largest ever witnessed at Ocean Springs. Forty vehicles were not enough to accommodate the hundreds of mourners that followed the remains to the last resting place in Evergreen Cemetery". Thomas Ewing Dabney (1885-1970), editor of The Ocean Springs News added, "As a father-as a husband--as a friend--well may we pattern ourselves after Joe Garrard."
HONOR-ATTAYA COTTAGE
422 Martin Avenue
This late 19th Century Queen Anne structure located at 422 Martin Avenue is believed to have been built east of its present location and relocated here by John B. Honor (1856-1929) circa 1917, before he had Fred S. Bradford (1878-1951) build ‘Many Oaks’, the Honor-Jensen House, a large Dutch Colonial Revival at present day 315 Front Beach Drive. The Honor-Attaya House was washed off it brick piers during Hurricane Katrina and seriously damaged. It awaits restoration. Image made by Ray L. Bellande in October 2001.
The Honor-Attaya Cottage is located at 422 Martin Avenue in Lot 6 of the Jerome Ryan Tract. The Jerome Ryan Tract is the western most division of the 237-acre, Widow LaFontaine Claim, Section 37, T7S-R8W. Jerome Ryan (1793-1870+), the son of Jean Ryan and Marie Gargaret, acquired this parcel of land by virtue of his marriage to Marie Euphrosine LaFontaine (1803-c.1846), the daughter of Louis Auguste LaFontaine and Catherine Bourgeois, the Widow LaFontaine. Darlene J. Krohn in The Descendants of Jerome Ryan (1995) presents an interesting chronology of this very early Ocean Springs family.
In August 1846, after the demise of the Widow LaFontaine, her property at Ocean Springs, which encompassed all the lands east of Martin Avenue to General Pershing Avenue and from Front Beach Drive to Government Street, was divided into five parcels by her heirs. These parcels ran eastward along the beach front from Martin Avenue to the Andre Founier tract which was located just west of Bayou Bauzage (now the Ocean Springs Inner Harbor). Jerome Ryan was granted Lot No. 1 which ran from J.R. Plummer's line (now Martin Avenue) to a corner 561 feet to the east. The northern boundary of all the Widow LaFontaine tracts is the south line of Section 19, T7S-R8W.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 4, p. 546)
Jerome Ryan divided Lot 1 of the Widow LaFontaine partition into 9 smaller lots which he gave to his children by his first wife, Euphrosine LaFontaine. Victor Joseph Ryan (1840-1878) was given Lot 6 by his father in November 1853. It is within the subdivision of this Lot 6 that the Honor-Attaya House is situated.
1997 Remodeling of Clement House to open THE PORTER HOUSE, fine dining
December 1997 image of David Cole and E. Stephen "Jake" Jacobs, his son-in-law; March 1998 image of the Porter House. Both images by Ray L. BellandeStephen Jacobs and the Porter House
In March 1997, Archie C. Capers conveyed his home on Porter and Martin to E. Stephen Jacobs, et al. Stephen Jacobs called "Jake" comes to Ocean Springs from Beaumont, Texas where he was the general manager of the Tower Club. The Tower Club is a private dining association which in addition to providing gourmet food for its members accommodates banquets, wedding receptions, etc. in its 14,000 square-foot facility. Jake Jacobs, a native of Beaumont, married an Ocean Springs lady, Janet Cole, the daughter of Dave Cole and Sondra Webb. They both earned degrees from Lamar University at Beaumont. The Jacobs are the proud parents of Kaffrey, their seventeen month old son.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 1108, p. 937 and Jake Jacobs)
In the spring of 1997, Jake Jacobs, Dave Cole, and Tommy Capers have been actively engaged in transforming the old E.E. Clement place into Ocean Springs' latest restaurant, THE PORTER HOUSE. With the exception of the masonry and electrical work, Tommy Capers and Dave Cole, owners of C&C Mechanical, and Jake Jacobs have performed the majority of the labor to create a very functional atmosphere for fine, but relaxed dining a' la Ocean Springs. Planes called for antique chandeliers, lanterns, and Homer Louhglin china in the Magnolia Room, Pecan Room 1, and Pecan Room 2. The Texas size kitchen has a wood burning grill, smoker, and steamer.
THE PORTER HOUSE opened in January 1998, Jake Jacobs featuring an eclectic menu with a Continental theme. Their gourmet meals were labor intensive, i.e. prepared from the basic ingredients. In addition to veal, chicken, and seafood, diners had several selections of prime beef to choose from. Smoked Vidalia onion medallions and smoked, pit-dried, Roma tomatoes with roasted garlic and olive oil accompanied meat and pasta dishes.
Each evening, THE PORTER HOUSE, featured an economic "family special entree". Mr. Jacobs planned that basic southern-style recipes, i.e. smoked, baby- backed, pork ribs; chicken fried steak with cut-throat, mash potatoes and cream gravy; blackened, stuffed catfish; and cabbage rolls would be featured. Fresh garden vegetables will be prepared conventionally as well as steamed and roasted.
THE PORTER HOUSE hours were Tuesday thru Saturday from 5 P.M. until 10:00 P.M. Although closed for conventional lunches, THE PORTER HOUSE offered its excellent cuisine and service to organizations and individuals who plan midday private business and auxiliary meetings. The restaurant has seating for 135 persons in full view of a speaker with podium and microphone. Small private rooms for groups of ten or more will be available for luncheons. Jacobs also welcomes private parties and wedding receptions. The facility can accommodate up to 225 people.
THE PORTER HOUSE employed a staff of approximately thirty people. Each dining table was serviced by three person teams. The frontman took orders and provided continuous service, while the backman transported food from the kitchen to the dining surface. The busman served coffee and reset the table.
In November 1998, THE PORTER HOUSE won the Robert and Virginia Meyer Award from the Historic Ocean Springs Association. Due to family problems, the Porter House closed it doors in 2001 and was placed on the real estate market.
HANSON-MITCHELL HOUSE: “Shadowlawn” (1907-2005)
The Hanson-Mitchell House is located at 112A Shearwater Drive in parts of Lot 3 and Lot 4 of Section 30, T7S-R8W. This magnificent Prairie Renaissance structure and five marvelously landscaped acres were most recently possessed by Bill and Nancy White Wilson. Mrs. Wilson’s mother, Ruth Dickey White Scharr, grew up here in the 1930s. Her father, John Leo Dickey (1880-1938), an engineer from Niles, Michigan, who was residing at New Orleans, purchased the property in June 1922, from Magdalena Grob Hanson (1845-1929), the widow of Christian C.A. Hanson. The Hanson’s logically called their home place, “Bay View”, for its excellent southern vista of Biloxi Bay and Deer Island.
Mrs. Ruth Scharr recalls that the nomenclature of their house, “Shadowlawn”, was proposed by her father after he observed how beautiful the night shadows were that developed on the grounds, during moon lit nights. Mr. Dickey suggested the name “Shadowlawn” to his wife, and it was considered a desirable nomenclature.(The Sun Herald, February 7, 1998)
Hanson-Mitchell House (1994)
112A Shearwater Drive
The Hanson-Mitchell Home is described architecturally as:
A one and one-half story stuccoed masonry house with a raised basement and a terra cotta, tiled, hip roof, the slopes of which conceal a cistern. An undercut, U- shaped, wrap around gallery extends for three bays across the south (main) façade and along two bays of the east and west elevations.
The central entrance of the south facade consists of double, glass-paneled doors surmounted by a transom. The flanking windows and the majority of those on the other elevations have one-over-one double hung sash.
A secondary porch and entrance are centered on the north elevation, and a basement entrance on the east side of the house is protected by a canopy. The gallery is enclosed by a parapet, the cap of which encircles the house. This continuous molding conforms to the height and profile of the sills of the larger windows. Masonry piers rise from the parapet to support the heavy, wide-eaved, porch entablature. Like the parapet cap, the entablature continues around the building. It is dropped slightly below the level of the cornice of the hip roof. The outer face of each simply-capped gallery pier features a more complex dropped molding which rises as an arch to frame a foliated cartouche.. It rises to the main floor between intricately undulating parapets. The stuccoed surface of the parapets is scored to suggest ashlar masonry as are the basement walls. A squat, heavily hip-roofed dormer crowns the main façade.(Berggren-1986)
CARTER-CALLOWAY HOUSE
916 State Street
image made February 12, 2001 by Ray L.BellandeThis home is probably one of the most architecturally interesting at Ocean Springs. It is located in a neighborhood once inhabited primarily by black L&N Railroad employees. Compared to the simple cottages that surround it, the home is somewhat ostentatious because of its scale and ornamentation. With some imagination, the Carter-Calloway House resembles a northbound steamboat minus the paddlewheel.
The Carter-Calloway House was commenced in the fall of 1906, by Wilson Louis Carter (1867-1942). Unfortunately, the October Hurricane of 1906 destroyed the incipient structure. This event was reported by The Pascagoula Democrat-Star on October 5, 1906, which related, "the new houses of Mr. Joe Weider (sic) and Wilson Carter, colored, in process of erection were entirely demolished". Alcidia Rochon (1903-2001) remembered that the Carter-Calloway House was rebuilt circa 1912. The Carters had erected a barn on the property after the 1906 Hurricane, and lived there until the new house was completed about 1912.
Wilson L. Carter was born at Pascagoula, Mississippi on February 2, 1867. His father, John Carter, was a native of Louisville, Kentucky while his mother, Emily Vaughan (1850-1895), was probably born at Inverness, Mississippi. The Carters were Methodist.
Wilson L. Carter married Elmira Bardswell (1867-1911) in 1893. She taught school at Gulfport. Elmira had a daughter by a previous marriage named Florence Bardswell (b. 1882). Florence was also a teacher. The Carters had no children.
Wilson Carter worked as a chef at the Great Southern Hotel in Gulfport. His brother, John Hilton Carter (1877- 1920+), lived on Government Street and was a waiter at the same hostelry. Alcidia Rochon remembered that the Carter House was rebuilt circa 1912. The Carters had erected a barn on the property after the 1906 Hurricane, and lived there until the new house was completed about 1912.
In 1911, after the death of his wife, Wilson Carter inherited the property. He then married Blanche L. Raby at Gulfport on July 17, 1912. They were divorced on
June 8, 1927. Carter then married Lettie Paige Smith (1897-1963) circa 1928.
Lettie Paige was born October 10, 1897. Her parents were James Henry Paige and Catherine Bowyer. Before her marriage to Carter, Lettie had married a Smith. She had a son, Robert E. Smith, who was a football line coach at Southern University (Baton Rouge) in 1963. Lettie Carter had a brother, William E. Paige (New Orleans), and a
sister, Doris P. Watts (Detroit). She was a member of the Order of Eastern Star, Victory Chapter No. 423, the House Hold of Ruth No. 6136, and the St. James Methodist Church.
The Carter House is located at 916 State Street on Lot 5 of Block A of the Ames Tract. Elmira Bardswell Carter purchased it and the N/2 of Lot 4 from Mrs. May Virginia Russell (1866-1910) on February 12, 1906.(4) The property had one hundred feet on State Street and one hundred feet on Blount (now Robinson).
The lots had previously been owned by R.A. VanCleave and his son. VanCleave bought the land from the Ames heirs on January 24, 1891, when he acquired 6.26 acres from them between County Road (Government) and the L&N right-of-
way.
The Carter House is located in the L&N Railroad Historical District. The Queen Anne style structure was described in a historical sites survey by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History as follows:
The Carter-Callaway House is a two-story, side gabled, wood frame building, which rests upon continuous brick foundation walls. A rear wing with a low hip roof extends to the east. The facade is four bays wide with transomed single-leaf doors in the outer first floor bays. The inner bays have floor length double-hung sash windows which maintain the dimensions of the entrances. Four less vertically proportioned openings are arrayed across the second floor. A four-bay, two-tier gallery which features a relatively elaborate display of stock sawn and spindle mill work extends across the facade. Two-story bays, which project from the side elevations give the house a nautical flavor. That on the north is two-sided and projects to an acute angle suggests a ships's bow. The "stern" is formed by a southern semicircular bay sheathed in imbricated shingles.
Ca. 1906-1907.
The Honor-Nissen-Redding CottageSituated at 608 Cleveland Avenue, this 1500 square-foot Colonial Revival structure was erected circa 1920, by John B. Honor (1856-1929), a New Orleans businessman. The home is located on a part of Lot 2 of the Many Oaks Subdivision in the Old Ocean Springs Historic District in the Jerome Ryan tract of the Widow LaFontaine land partition of 1846. This circa 1940 image of the Honor-Nissen-Redding Cottage depicts Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas C. Nissen (1863-1941) and a daughter. Mr. Nissen was a German immigrant and Chicago grocer. The home remained in the Nissen family from 1932 until 1954, when the O.O. Redding family acquired it from a Nissen daughter, Sara N. Niblock (1900-1981), of Chicago. Courtesy of Donna Kennedy Jandl-Bradford, Massachusetts.
The Honor-Nissen-Redding Cottage
The Honor-Nissen-Redding Cottage is also situated in the Old Ocean Springs Historic District and has been described as:
One-and-one-half story, wood frame house with side gable roof. Three bay, full-width, undercut gallery. Shed roofed dormer, shed roofed shallow projection from east elevation. Colonial Revival. Ca 1920. Contributing.(National Register of Historic Places-Nomination Form, 1986, p. 14)
The lot on which the Honor-Redding Cottage rests is described as:
Beginning on the south side of Cleveland Avenue 118 feet east and 8 degrees south of the southeast corner of Cleveland and Martin Avenue go south 2 degrees east 350 feet; east 1 degree north 77 feet; north 342 feet; west 8 degrees north 87 ½ feet to the point of beginning. This parcel has an area of approximately .63 acres.
Although no exact date for the construction of the Honor-Redding Cottage has been discovered by the author, Rita Brown Clark Friar, the adopted daughter of John B. Honor, related that it was built as a servants quarters by her father. Mr. Honor possessed this land at Ocean Springs from 1909, until his demise in 1929. A structure built within the years 1909 to 1923, when the land was platted into the Many Oaks Subdivision is consistent with the date estimated by a representative of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.(Walterine “Sis” Redding, December 20, 2002)
THE KNOTZSCH-FUSSELL HOUSE: 305 Ward AvenueKnotzsch-Fussell House-Built in 1923 by Gideon 'Git' N. Tillman for August Knotzsch (1864-1943), a printer and engraver, from New Orleans, this vernacular bungalow is now owned by Phoebe Jane Pedersen Fussell and Jeff M. Fussell. Phoebe is the granddaughter of August Knotzsch and Carrie Jane Baker Knotzsch (1865-1948).[l-r] Jeff M. Fussell and Phoebe Jane Pedersen Fussell. Image made October 27, 2006 by Ray L. Bellande
In a recent conversation with Anne Cavanaugh Burke, the spouse of David Burke, retired marine scientist, and longtime resident of the 1913 Connor-Burke House, situated at 406 Ward Avenue, Anne related to me that I should visit with Phoebe P. Fussell, the delightful lady who lives at 305 Ward Avenue. Anne told me that Mrs. Fussell’s grandfather had built her home and that he hailed from New Orleans. Excited about discovering the origins of another Ocean Springs’ architectural treasure, I soon knocked on her door. Both Phoebe and Jeff M. Fussell, her Texas born spouse, were very hospitable and welcomed me into their well-preserved bungalow. The interior of the Fussell house is in as near original condition of any that I have ever witnessed at Ocean Springs. The Standard toilet is dated January 10, 1923 and the kitchen and household appurtenances are also 1920s vintage.
The Fussells have been working with William “Bill” R. Allen III, local architect, on a large addition to the rear of their home. It will include a bedroom, a bath, utility room, and two-car garage. Construction startup is anticipated in the first quarter of 2007.
Knotzsch family and house
Phoebe and Jeff M. Fussell reside in the Knotzsch House. ‘Knotzsch’ is German and pronounced “Notch”. August Knotzsch (1864-1943) of New Orleans, the first owner of this vernacular bungalow, was Phoebe P. Fussell’s grandfather. August, called Gus, was born at New Orleans, the son of William Knotzsch and Fida Bopp, both European immigrants from Germany and Switzerland respectively. August appears to have had a least two brothers, William Edward Knotzsch (b. 1858) and Edward F. Knotsch (1862-1906). In 1890-1891, the August and Edward Knotzsch were a printer and clerk respectively for John Douglas, a printing company at New Orleans. They resided with their widowed mother at 60 South Prieur Street in the Crescent City.(New Orleans 1890-1891 City Directory)
On February 26, 1895, August Knotzsch married Caroline Jane ‘Carrie’ Baker (1865-1948), a native of Mobile, Alabama and the daughter of William G. Baker, a native of Ohio and Anne Jane Dunlop, (1836-1880), a native of Ireland. William G. Baker married Anne Jane Dunlop at Mobile on May 22, 1861. Anne Jane D. Baker had a sister, Phoebe Dunlop (1828-1912), who married Thomas Moran. The corporal remains of August and Carrie B. Knotzsch, Anne Jane D. Baker, and Phoebe D. Moran were interred in the Magnolia Cemetery at Mobile, Alabama.(King, 1986, p. 58 and Phoebe P. Fussell, October 27, 2006)
MAXWELL-BELLANDE BUNGALOW: 1923-2005525 Jackson Avenue
Location
The Maxwell-Bellande Bungalow is situated at 525 Jackson Avenue in the Old Ocean Springs Historic District. It is located on the S/2 of Lot 8- Block 31 of the Culmseig Map (1854) of Ocean Springs, Mississippi in Section 37, T7S-R8W. Early land conveyances erroneously described the lot that this cottage was built on as the S/2 of Lot 7-Block 31.
Description
One-and-one-half story, wood frame house with a side gable roof. Three bay, full width porch with Doric columns and a shed roof, which breaks into an open front gable over the vaulted middle bay. Central door with the upper panel glazed. Paired double-hung windows in outer bays. Circa 1920. Contributing.(Berggren, 1986, p. 10)
Early history
The Maxwell-Bellande Bungalow was completed in May 1923. The local journal announced on May 19, 1923, that “Karl Maxwell’s new home on Jackson Avenue is completed and ready”.(The Jackson County Times, May 19, 1923, p. 5)
Prior to the erection of a home here by Karl Case Maxwell (1893-1958), the lot had remained vacant since antiquity. The earliest surviving land records of Jackson County, Mississippi indicate that James and Lizzie Friar were in possession of Lot 8, Block 31 until they vended it to Margaret Elywert in August 1871.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 11, pp. 438-439)
Margaret Elywert
Margaret Elywert (d. 1900), sometimes called Margaret Elwood, was an Irish immigrant and spinster lady who resided at Ocean Springs in the late 19th Century. Her sister, Ellen Elywert (1835-1900), married Stephen Starks (1860-1919). Stephen was the son of William Starks, native of Pennsylvania and Nancy Davis (1799-1860+), who commenced her life in Georgia, the daughter of Samuel Davis I (1769-ca 1831) and Sally Balscher Davis (1776-1860+), both natives of North Carolina. Joseph L. “Dode” Schrieber (1873-1951) related in The Gulf Coast Times in September 1949, that, “Steve Stark (sic) planted oak trees along that street (Washington Avenue) on Easter Sunday 1882”.(The Gulf Coast Times, September 2, 1949, p. 1)
2005 Koi pond and landscapingIn the spring of 2005, Ray L. Bellande had a small Koi pond installed in the rear yard. It features a waterfall and stream leading to the Koi pond. An addition to the rear deck was also completed at this time. Graveled and wooden pathways were constructed to connect the water garden to other areas of the property. A sun room on the deck was built in April 2006 and a Mexican tile patio was laid at the entrance to the sun room in June 2006.
HELLMERS-DUCKETT COTTAGE: 1924-2007918 Calhoun Avenue, a vernacular cottage, was built in the fall of 1924 by Frank E. Galle (1877-1934) and his son, Frank E. Galle Jr. (1900-1986), for Henry Hellmers (1848-1934), a retired German immigrant, who had made his livelihood at New Orleans as a hotelier and bar keeper. Mr. Hellmers resided at present day 914 Calhoun Avenue until his demise in October 1934. The Hellmers-Duckett Cottage floated several feet off its foundation to the northwest during Hurricane Katrina on 29 August 2005. In the winter of 2006, Kosciusko Movers raised it and returned it to its former footprint to level. In the spring of 2007, the old Hellmer’s cottage is being refurbished for future rental by the A.B. Duckett clan.[l-r: image of 218 Calhoun made on August 29, 2005 and December 2006, both by Ray L. Bellande]
Early trading at present day 918 Calhoun on the .58 acres lot, 125 feet fronting on the south side of Calhoun and 204 feet to the south, begin in January 1905, when Mattie M. Austin conveyed the tract to Sophia K. Schill of New Orleans for $50. Mattie M. Austin (1842-1916) of New Orleans was the daughter of Dr. William Glover Austin (1814-1894) and Martha Porter Austin (1818-1898) of New Orleans who built the Ocean Springs Hotel on Jackson Avenue in 1853. Miss Austin taught at Newcomb College in New Orleans.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 30, p. 148)
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This is a vintage image of Henry Hellmers (1848-1934), a native of Germany, and Kate Considine Hellmers (1858-1937) of New Orleans, who retired to Ocean Springs from the Crescent City, in the early part of the 20th Century. He owned several houses on Calhoun Avenue and land in the vicinity of the Inner Harbor. Before his demise in 1934, Mr. Hellmers contracted with Frank E. Galle (1877-1934) in 1924, to build a vernacular cottage built at present day 918 Calhoun. The names of Mr. Galle and his son, Frank E. ‘Kiddo’ Galle Jr. (1900-1986), and date October 30, 1924 are written in pencil on the south wall in the front room of the Hellmers-Duckett Cottage. [Mr. Hellmers’ image courtesy of Ted I. Milliet, Groves, Texas and Galle signature image by Ray L. Bellande-March 2007]
Signatures on Wall
Casa Flores-Del CastleThis vintage image of Casa Flores, later called Del Castle, was made by Albert A. Heldt (1882-1926+), an Indiana born photographer, who made many images at Ocean Springs in the late 1920s for the Branigar Brothers of Chicago during the construction of their Gulf Hills resort and golf club. Mr. Heldt captured the Davis Bayou estate of Frederick E. Lee (1874-1932) and Georgette F. Lee (1889-1979) in its final stages of completion. Leon R. Jacobs (1885-1940+), a New York based attorney, who sold the land to F.E. Lee to erect Casa Flores, owned 918 Calhoun from June 1926 until November 1939. Mr. Jacobs was an advisor to Leonard Kip Rhinelander (1904-1936), a New York blue-blood, who made national headlines in the fall of 1925 in his marriage annulment suit to a ‘woman of color’. The two men stayed at Ocean Springs in March 1926. Courtesy of H.R. ‘Randy’ Randazzo-Arlington, Virginia.
Casa Flores-Del CastleIn October 1925, Leon R. Jacobs sold 5 acres in the NE/4 of the NE/4 of Section 34, T7S-R8W to Georgette Faures Lee (1889-1979), the wife of Frederick E. Lee (1874-1932). The Lees who arrived at Ocean Springs circa 1917 were natives respectively of Greencastle and Campbellsburg, Indiana. They made their livelihoods here as realtors and proprietors of a pecan factory. The Lee’s business was called the Atkinson-Lee Pecan Company. It was incorporated in 1919, by Hugh Atkinson of New York City and Mr. and Mrs. Lee of Ocean Springs. The company was organized to grow, bay and sell all manner of agricultural, truck and horticultural products, to own, lease, buy and sell real estate, to own, build and sell houses, to own, operate and control conning, preserving and pickling plants, to build, lease and own club houses and hotels, to do a general mercantile business, to buy, sell, grow and propagate all kinds of vegetables, plants and horticultural products.(The Jackson County Times, August 30, 1919, p. 4)
Commencing in the late fall of 1925, the Lees constructed a home, which they called “Casa Flores”, the house of flowers. Morgan Hite of New Orleans was the architect and the Jensen Brothers Construction Company of New Orleans and Biloxi, erected the one-story stucco home on Davis Bayou.(The Jackson County Times, November 21, 1925, p. 5)
Architectural Description:
Del Castle is a one story, rambling, stuccoed masonry, Spanish Eclectic Style building, which rests on a raised basement and is covered by side gable, terra cotta tiled roofs. The asymmetrical north (main) façade four bays wide divided into two blocks. The main entrance occupies the smaller, lightly recessed, one bay-wide western block. The side-lighted door is approached from the north by a monumental staircase and porch both of which are shaded by a pergola supported by Corinthian columns. The outer bays of the eastern block have paired square-headed casement openings on the basement level and paired round-arched floor length casement windows on the main floor. The latter openings have shaped muntins and are protected by wrought iron balconies. Very small paired casement windows set high into the wall of the main floor occupy the center bay of the eastern block. A wing projects southwards from the rear of the entrance block and a carport occupies a section of the raised basement.(MDAH Report)
Statement of Significance:
Erected in 1925, in the Spanish Eclectic Style for F.E. Lee, Del Castle is equaled in its opulence within Ocean Springs only by the Guice House on Lover’s Lane and the Hanson-Dickey House on Shearwater Drive. The studied informality of its design integrates an irregular plan and such elegant features as wrought iron balconies, arched casement windows with curvilinear muntins, colored tiles, and Corinthian columns with intricately detailed capitals. The grounds of its five acre estate are landscaped in a manner consistent with the relaxed luxury of the architecture.(MDAH Report)
Fred E. Lee dropped dead in the Bailey Drug Store, now Lovelace Drugs, on Washington Avenue on September 2, 1932. His remains were sent to Campbellsburg, Indiana for interment in the Livonia Cemetery.(The Daily Herald, September 3, 1932, p. 2)
During the Depression, Mrs. Lee lost Casa Flores. It was repossessed by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and conveyed to Charles J. Kuhn (1905-1979) for $11,000 in July 1943.(JXCO, Ms. Record of Deeds Bk. 83, pp. 302-304)
In May 1969, Brooks B. Legate and Hazel Alice Vance Legate (1915-2005) acquired Del Castle. It was demolished on March 29, 2007.(JXCO, Ms. Record of Deeds Bk. 357, p. 5and The Ocean Springs Record, April 2, 2007, p. A1)
L&N DepotWhen the Steamboat days came to a quiet end in the 1880s, a period commenced known in the annals of Ocean Spring's history as the Railroad Era. It lasted for approximately eighty years. The Railroad Era left an indelible mark on the town as it influenced the following: commerce and industry, commercial and domestic construction, pecan and citrus agriculture, oyster and seafood wholesaling, and tourism from the Midwest and New Orleans.
Today the salient reminder of this once great era, the L&N Depot, still stands as The Gateway to Ocean Springs. It is the landmark with which most people associate Ocean Springs. Because of its historic and aesthetic significance, the old L&N Depot, must be preserved and protected for this and future generations. The L&N Depot, which now houses the Ocean Springs Chamber of Commerce and several retail businesses, was constructed as a combination station in late 1907 or early 1908. It is not the original depot.
THE DAVIS BROTHERS STORE: 1883-1958The Davis Brothers Store, a large 19th Century wood-framed, structure, was situated at Ocean Springs, Mississippi on a portion of Lot 2 and Lot 8 of Block 27, in Section 37, T7S-R8W. More familiarly, its site was on the west side of Washington Avenue between present day Martha’s Tea Room and the Manhattan Grill and Steakhouse. In 1883, George W. Davis and Elias S. Davis established a mercantile business on the southeast corner of County Road, now Government Street, and Washington Avenue. In 1886, they built a large building on the west side of Washington Avenue to house their merchandise. For over seventy years, it stood as a landmark on the streetscape of the central business district of Ocean Springs, until it was demolished in 1957 by Clarence E. Galle (1912-1986) for the salvage of its valuable, heart pine, lumber.
The Davis Brothers
The Davis Brothers were George Washington Davis (1842-1914) and Elias Samuel Davis (1859-1925). They were the sons of Samuel Davis II (1804-1879) and Alvirah Ann Ward (1821-1901) who married in Jackson County, Mississippi on October 18, 1838. This union created ten additional children: Harriet A. Davis Bilbo (1840-1898), Sarah A. D. Thompson Carter (1844-1891+), Cynthia M. Davis (1846-1866), Abram James Davis (1849-1921), Eleanor Davis Bradford (1851-1938), Henry Simeon Davis (1853-1917), Alvira E. Davis Ellis (1855-1881), Sherwood E. Davis (1857-1891+), Leonella M. Davis (1862-1864), and Belle Davis Hulburt Boucher (1864-1891+).
THE CATCHOT-LEMON BUILDING: (1897-2005)
806 Washington Avenue
The Catchot-Lemon Building located at 806 Washington Avenue on the southeast corner of Washington and Desoto is probably the oldest building in the central business district on Washington Avenue. The edifice is on Lot 1- Block 28 (Culmseig Map-1854) and measures fifty feet on Washington Avenue by eighty-three and one-half feet on Desoto. This site had been in the C.E. Schmidt (1851-1886) and Franco Coyle (1813-1891) families since the 1870s. In January 1894, Laura Coyle Schmidt (1857-1931) conveyed the tract and an old building on it to Louis Daring. By January 1897, Daring had sold the property to Antonio J. Catchot (1864-1954). The tract had one hundred and ninety-two feet on Desoto at this time.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 15, p. 355)
Catchot-Lemon Building (image made 1955)806 Washington Avenue
Note Catchot sign on top of building. Courtesy of J.K. Lemon (1914-1998)
A.J. Catchot
Antonio J. Catchot (1864-1954) is one of the best-known figures in the 20th Century history of Ocean Springs. His life and family narrative was reported in this column on June 1, 1995. Catchot served his fellow citizens as mayor of Ocean Springs (1917-1933), was employed by the L&N Railroad (1882-1947) reaching the position of Superintendent of the Bridge and Building Department of the New Orleans-Mobile Division in 1907. He was also fire chief of the Ocean Springs Fire Company No. 1 for nearly sixty years.
The erection date of the Catchot-Lemon Building is well known as The Pascagoula Democrat-Star on January 29, 1897, announced that "the old landmark known as the Louis Daring property on the corner of Washington and Desoto was sold by Mr. H.F. Russell (1858-1940), (the real estate agent), to J. Antonio Catchot for $1100. A substantial business building will be erected in the place of the one which is now being razed".
Louis Daring was in the fruit and produce business on Poydras Street at New Orleans. The Pascagoula journal later wrote that the foundation was laid for a storehouse building in early February 1897.
During the 1897 Yellow Fever episode at Ocean Springs, The Pascagoula Democrat-Star related on September 17, 1897 that:
The furniture which was located in the Catchot Building, and to which attention was called by the death of Mrs. Saunders, after being thoroughly fumigated, was taken outside the city limits this morning and burned.
The Ocean Springs Saloon operated here in 1897 and 1898. Anthony "Toy" Catchot (1868-1952) was the proprietor. The liquor license was applied for through the city management. When Catchot closed his saloon after April 1, 1899, George E. Arndt's Paragon Saloon on the southwest corner of Washington and Robinson was the only barroom in town. Toy Catchot was the cousin of A.J. Catchot. His parents were, Antonio Catchot (1826-1885) and Elizabeth Hoffen (1832-1916). His brother, Joseph “Joe Tony” S. Catchot (1858-1919), was in the seafood business at the foot of Jackson Avenue for many years.(Minute Book City of Ocean Springs (September 19, 1892 to December 12, 1899), p. 221)
THE ILLING THEATRE: 1910-1958
Washington Avenue
It is difficult to believe, but Ocean Springs had two movie theaters in 1909. Eighty-six years later, it has none. As can best be determined, here is an interpretation of our local movie house history.
Eugene W. Illing Sr.At the turn of the 20th Century, cinema at Ocean Springs commenced in the era of the silent movies. Marion Illing Moran (1899-1993) grew up in the business as her father, Eugene W. Illing Sr. (1870-1947) was the first to open a theater. In an interview in 1992, Mrs. Moran recalled that when she was at the age of five (circa 1904), that the first movie house was located near the present day Arndt Building, now the office of Kirk Halstead Realty, on Washington Avenue. This is corroborated somewhat by an announcement in The Ocean Springs News of February 20, 1909, which related that "S.O. Ingram will soon open a grocery and notion store formerly used as a picture show house in the Horton Building next to the news office". On the 1909 Sanborn Insurance Map of Ocean Springs, the newspaper office is located approximately where the Arndt Building is today.
Mrs. Moran said that the people would leave their children at this early movie house all afternoon while they went shopping. Admission was a nickel to view a one-reel movie, which was played repeatedly through the afternoon. A sheet was used as the screen. She would play with the other children to entertain herself.
Noted local historian, C.E. Schmidt (1904-1988), grew up here during this pioneer cinema era, and remembers these times as well in his classic, Ocean Springs French Beachhead (1972):
The first "features" were two-reelers, with an intermission between to allow the operator to reload. It also gave the audience a chance to speculate as to how the hero would rescue the heroine from the impending doom. Down deep they knew that righteousness would prevail; they didn't pay ten cents to see a tragedy. The show usually opened with audience singing. Illustrated slides were thrown on the screen with the words of a popular song. Piano accompaniment was provided and a local girl led the singing. We still remember Bill Van Cleave shouting to the audience: "Everybody sing".
THE OCEAN SPRINGS STATE BANK BUILDING: 1910-20081101 Government
OSSB circa 1910
[note the old Scranton State Bank building in the rear of the OSSB building]
On January 18, 1910, H.F. Russell (1858-1940), chairman of the building committee for the Ocean Springs State Bank accepted the work of contractor, Chevally & Fursdon of Gulfport, who built the new bank building on the northeast corner of Washington Avenue and County Road (now Government). New Orleans architect, William Drago, designed the approximately 4000 square-foot (40 feet x 50 feet), two-story brick structure. The brick and mortar were probably furnished by L.L. Chevally (1870-1957), who was a dealer in bricks, lime, cement, fire bricks, and plaster of Paris at Gulfport. Chevally supervised the construction of such Coast landmarks as: Gulf Park College, L&N RR station at Gulfport, and GCMA.(The Daily Herald, May 6, 1957, p. 2)
The Ocean Springs State Bank was organized on January 20, 1905 by Dr. O.L. Bailey (1870-1938) and F.M. Weed (1852-1926) who served as president and vice president respectively with Alfred L. Staples (1881-1969) serving as cashier. The board of directors were: George E. Arndt (1857-1945), Hugh C. Seymour (1876-1913), Sidney J. Anderson (1867-1917), Alfred L. Staples, F.M. Weed, O.L. Bailey, and H.F. Russell (1858-1940).
The bank opened for business on March 28, 1905 on the second floor of the Ocean Springs Drug Store Building, which is immediately north of the present day structure. This edifice was also known as the Catchot Building for its owner, A.J. Catchot (1864-1954). Catchot purchased the old landmark known as the Louis Darring property in January 1897. Here the foundation for a new building was laid in February 1897. Today, this structure is owned by J.K. Lemon.
The Ocean Springs State Bank would remain here until the Ocean Springs State Bank Building was built in 1909. By the end of the 1905, the bank directors had declared a 4 % dividend for the first nine months of business. The Ocean Springs State Bank was a success.
THE YOUNG-SHANTEAU GARAGE: 1202 GovernmentIs Government Street coming into the 20th Century? Commercial developments in recent years such as, Favorites Book Store (1993), Magnolia Square office complex (1994), Mississippi Mud Works Pottery (1994), Todd Boswell Hair Salon (1995), Britney's Restaurant (1995), Spiral (1995) and the most recent development, Palmetto Place, indicate that upscale commercial and retail activity are slowly shifting to this area of the Old Ocean Springs business district.
Palmetto Place, the newest addition to the developing commercial streetscape here, is the undertaking of the Furr Family. Scheduled to open in November 1995, Palmetto Place, is the concept of architect Sam Furr of Charleston, South Carolina. It will be a 3500 square-foot retail building with two apartments in the rear.
Young-Shanteau Garage ca. 1935
(l-r: unidentified, Marcus F. Shanteau Jr. (b. 1928), Claire U. Scharr (1908-1972), Ferrel L. Seymour (1914-2002), and Lorraine Craft Shanteau (1906-2003). Courtesy of Marcus F. Shanteau Jr.
The present building formerly known as the Young-Shanteau Garage and located at the southeast corner of Kotzum and Government Street was erected between 1915 and 1925. The structure is located in Lot 3 of Block 1 of the Kotzum Subdivision which was platted in January 1895.(Jackson County Chancery Court Plat Book 1, p. 3)
Joseph Kotzum (1842-1915), a Bohemian immigrant settled at Ocean Springs in the 1870s. From the U.S. Census data, one could infer that Kotzum settled initially at New York, where he met and married his wife, Josephine Kotzum (1844-1920). By 1871, the Kotzums were at New Orleans where a son, Anton P. Kotzum (1871-1916), was born.
At Ocean Springs, Kotzum's vocation was blacksmithing. In addition, he was also involved in local real estate. His son, Anton P. Kotzum, also took up smithing as his livelihood. Anton, called Tony, joined with an energetic Canadian of Scotch descent, Orey Alson Young (1868-1938), to establish Young & Kotzum. In 1893, they advertised as:
Machinists and plumbers, horseshoing and general blacksmithing, repairing of all kinds, makers of fine oyster knives.
In August 1896, Orey A. Young bought Lot 3 of Block 1 in the Kotzum Subdivision from Joseph Kotzum for $500. The 80' x 155' lot located on the northeast corner of Old County Road (now Government) and Kotzum. Here Young acquired the old Kotzum blacksmith shop.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 17, pp. 520-521)
From the Sanborn Insurance Maps, the configuration of the Orey A. Young blacksmith-machine shop can be seen in plan view as it existed in 1904, 1909, 1915, 1925, and 1935. A brief description of the structure at these times follows:
1904
At this time, the building was a blacksmith shop of 800 square-feet (20 feet x 40 feet). It was located thirty-five feet east of the southeast corner of Old County Road (Government) and Kotzum. There was a 700 square-foot shed in the rear of the blacksmith shop and an 800 square-foot stable located on Kotzum, southwest of the blacksmith
1909
The main building has the same area and configuration, but it is now a machine shop instead of a blacksmith shop. The rear shed has been reduced in area to 300 square-feet. The blacksmith shop is new and has an area of 672 square-feet. It appears as an addition on the southeast corner of the original building. The stable on Kotzum has been converted to an automobile and wagon shed.
1915
No change from the 1909 framework.
1921
Young's Garage has installed a large electric sign over their place of business and now the name young can be seen at night far up and down Government Street.(The Jackson County Times, August 6, 1921, p. 2).
1925
There is a new building on the Young lot, which appears to be the one that exists here today. It has an area of 4800 square-feet and is juxtaposed to both streets, Government and Kotzum. The building has an 1800 square-foot sales room. The garage is 2775 square-feet in area and has a dirt floor. There is a small blacksmith shop (225 square-feet) in the southwest corner of the structure. The auto and wagon shed on Kotzum has been removed.
1935
The basic building has not changed. The two-story rear apartment has been added. The facade has been changed, and probably was similar to what is here today.
In July 1898, Orey A. Young bought Lots 2, 7, and 8 of Block 1 of the Kotzum Subdivision from Joseph Kotzum for $600. On Lot 7 and a part of Lot 8 located on the northeast corner of Bowen and Kotzum Avenues, Orey A. Young circa 1900, built a Queen Anne cottage which is extant at 1205 Bowen Avenue. Its area has varied from the original 1000 square-foot house to 1400 square-feet which is its present approximate area.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 19, p. 149)
Orey A. Young (1868-1938) was born on February 12, 1868, at Brantford, Ontario, Canada. He married Arminda Sullivan (1871-1922) of Pembroke, Ontario, Canada on July 30, 1888. They moved initially to Denver, Colorado, but after a few years left for Ocean Springs. Their children were: Lorne F. Young (1890-1899) and Orey Alson Young, Jr. (1892-1986).
Circa 1898, Young bought out Tony Kotzum who moved to California. In 1910, Kotzum returned to Ocean Springs to run his father's real estate business. He founded the Eagle Point Oyster Company with Phillip M. Bellman (1872-1927) in October 1915.
In 1905, Orey A. Young became one of the first at Ocean Springs to own an automobile. Some sources report that Dr. Henry B. Powell (1867-1949), also a Canadian, owned the first car. This exclusive club was shortly joined by part-time resident from Milwaukee, Fred Benjamin (1879-c. 1945), and New Yorker, Colonel Newcomb Clark (1836-1913). Dr. O.L. Bailey (1870-1938) was probably the first native Mississippian to possess a car at Ocean Springs.
Shanteau Garage RemodeledIn 1911, Orey Alson Young, Jr. joined his father in the horseshoing and blacksmith shop on County Road. This would evolve into the partnership called, Orey Young & Son.
STANDARD OIL-ZANCA STATION (1926-2005)1926 Standard Oil of Kentucky Oil Station 1000 Government Street
Location: Southeast corner of Washington Avenue and Government Street
Standard Oil Company (Kyso)
The Standard Oil Company in this transaction was the Standard Oil Company of Kentucky. It was formed in 1911, when the Federal Government caused John D. Rockefeller to dissolve his oil monopoly called Standard Oil. The Standard Oil Company of Kentucky, called Kyso, was authorized to market gasoline in Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida. It had no independent production or refining capacity and purchased virtually all of its products from Standard of New Jersey. At the time of the Standard breakup they moved to change their brand from “Red Crown” to simply “Crown Gasoline”. Kyso retained images of a crown in conjunction with their gasoline marketing until after World War II, and used the brand name “Crown” until the company was purchased by Standard of California (Chevron) in 1961.
Ground breaking ceremonies for a $125 million, 100,000 barrels per day capacity, Standard Oil of Kentucky refinery were held on November 8, 1961 in Pascagoula.(The Ocean Springs News, November 9, 1961, p. 3)
Standard Oil station
In early February 1926, the Standard Oil Company commenced erection of their oil station at Ocean Springs. It was similar in design to their plant at Gulfport. The Ocean Springs station was constructed of concrete, brick, and stucco with a tile roof. The new Standard station was estimated to cost $10,000 and after equipping their total investment was about $30,000.(The Jackson County Times, February 13, 1926, p. 1)
Over the next thirty-two years, Standard Oil owned the oil station on Government Street, but leased it out or had it managed by local individuals. Some of the proprietors were: John W. Rogers (1892-1935) and Frank C. Buehler (1909-1985).
THE YOUNG-STEELMAN BUILDING: "fenders, Fords, and food"
The Young-Steelman building is located at 1210 Government Street in Lot 1 of Block 1 of the Kotzum Addition, Section 37, T7S-R8W. The Kotzum Addition land subdivision was plated from the Jean-Baptiste Seymour tract by Joseph Kotzum (1842-1915) and surveyed by Enoch N. Ramsay (1832-1916) in December 1894. Block No. 1 consists of nine lots and is bounded on the north by Government, east by the Duncan Minor Lot on Russell Avenue, south by Bowen Avenue, and west by the Joseph Bellande tract.(JXCO, Ms. Plat Bk.1, p. 3)
Old Steelman Grocery-Furr Building(l-r: refurbishment February 1997; 'Chile Poblano'-September 2004)
Joseph Kotzum
In the 1870s, Joseph Kotzum, a Bohemian immigrant, settled at Ocean Springs with his wife, Josephine Kotzum (1845-1920), and young son, Anton P. Kotzum (1871-1916). Anton, called Tony, was born at New Orleans. Mr. Kotzum made his livelihood initially as a blacksmith, but later acquired large real estate holdings and rental property throughout town. In the 1890s, Tony Kotzum, also a blacksmith, united with a young Canadian immigrant, Orey Alson Young (1868-1938), to form Young & Kotzum. This dynamic duo considered themselves “jacks of all trades" as they advertised possessing the following skills: machinists and plumbers, horseshoeing, and general blacksmithing, repairing of all kinds, makers of fine oyster knives.
In 1896, Orey A. Young went on his own and acquired the old Kotzum blacksmith shop on the southeast corner of Government and Kotzum. Here he built a building between 1915 and 1925, which later became the Marcus F. Shanteau garage and service station. Today, after a 1995 facelift and interior refurbishment by local contractor, Paul Campbell, for owner, Dr. Richard T. Furr and family, the old Young-Shanteau structure is called Palmetto Place. Artifacts, an upscale retailers of European antiques and eclectic home furnishings, operates here at 1201 Government Street.
Bay Bridge By NightIn April 1915, shortly after her husbands demise, Josephine Kotzum sold Lot 1 of Block 1 and other properties at Ocean Springs to her son, Anton P. Kotzum. Tony Kotzum died shortly after this conveyance from his mother. His widow, Mrs. Julia Kotzum, sold her one-third interest in the lot to Orey A. Young Jr. (1892-1986) on July 1, 1919, for $215.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 41, pp. 383-385 and Bk. 47, p. 300)
Orey A. Young Jr. purchased the remaining interest in the tract for $650 from Alice Kotzum (1899-1919+) and Joseph F. Kotzum (1904-1925+), the children of Mrs. A.P. Kotzum. The sale was made to Mr. Young by Commissioner Fred Taylor in August 1919, following a forced heirship suit, Cause No. 3933, in the Jackson County Chancery Court. In the court hearing, Mrs. A.P. Kotzum deposed "that said land consists of a small tract of land or city lot with a small house or cabin situated thereon, which said house or cabin is out of repair because of a decayed roof which is leaking badly and decayed under-pinning and is therefore unfit for human habitation and is not now occupied".(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 47, p. 143)
In the 1920s, Mrs. Julia Kotzum married W.W. Bryan and was residing at San Francisco. In 1918, Alice Kotzum was a ward of the East Mississippi Insane Hospital at Meridian. Joseph F. Kotzum moved to Fresno, California where he was a telegraph operator.
In the twilight years before her demise in June 1920, Josephine Kotzum was cared for at Ocean Springs, by her niece, the widow Anna Rott (1877-1947+), a New Orleans native and Chicago resident. Mrs. Rott inherited Josephine Kotzum's home at 1202 Bowen and other real estate, which consisted of several lots and rental homes in the city.
Orey A. Young Jr.
Orey A. Young Jr. (1892-1986) was a partner in the business Orey Young & Son. He and his father repaired automobiles and did blacksmithing, etc. at their County Road (Government Street) garage. They acquired the local Ford agency in November 1915, from W.B. Hollingworth of South Bend, Indiana. Circa December 1915, Orey A. Young, Jr. married Marinina Moran (1895-1973), a Biloxi girl, at the Back Bay home of her parents, Captain and Mrs. Francis D. Moran. Circa 1920, they erected a one-story, wood frame, bungaloid structure at present day 1212 Government, formerly the home of Mary Elizabeth "Sis" Steelman Hall, but now a gift shop called “Chickadees”. Here the Young's reared their family: Audrey Y. Sterken (b. 1917), Orey Alson Young III (1921-1921), Elaine Y. Miheve (b. 1922), Alan Young (1925-2001), Glenn Young (b. 1925), and Ethel Y. Robbins (b. 1931).
Young’s Garage
Between 1926 and 1933, Orey A. Young, Jr. built a 1400 square-foot, motorcar, repair garage just west of his home. The front of the structure had a second story. Orey A. Young Sr. maintained his living quarters here above the garage as well as a small workroom to analyze automotive electrical systems. Mr. Young took his meals at the venerable Ocean Springs Cafe of Marie E. Fayard (1884-1951) and Alex Fayard (1887-1958) across the street. The upper story of the Young Garage was removed after WW II. Otherwise, this is the basic building today on the Dr. Furr property, which has become known to later generations as the "Old Steelman Grocery" or "Salvation Army" building. The Orey A. Young, Jr. family lost their Government Street home and commercial garage for taxes ($141.77) in September 1933, during the Great Depression. They moved to Long Beach, California for a brief period before returning to Ocean Springs.
Upon returning from the West Coast, Orey A. Young Jr. opened a garage in the 600 block of Washington Avenue on a lot acquired by his sons, Alan and Glenn Young, in December 1945, from M.C. Sherman, a Biloxi realtor.
The Ocean Springs State Bank became the owner of the Kotzum Addition lot and improvements created by the Youngs on Government Street, and now posessed by the Furr family. The bank conveyed it to Charles J. Steelman, Viola M. Steelman, Charles Arnold Steelman, and Allan Steelman in March 1939 for $3307.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 72, pp. 249-250)
The Steelmans
The Steelman family came to Ocean Spring in March 1938, from Birmingham, Alabama, at the request of a son, Charles Arnold Steelman (1914-1970), called "Pee Wee". Pee Wee Steelman worked in Biloxi, for Jaubert J. Viator (1905-1981), a grocer and himself a transplant from Erath, Louisiana in the heart of Acadiana. Depression times were difficult for everyone. The Steelmans, like many others, felt that an economic opportunity to better their lives lie here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Steelman Grocery (1948)(l-r) ?, Vivian 'Sheng' S. Snyder Crysell, Charles J. Steelman, Richard Steelman, (unknown infant), Ronald Steelman, Charles 'Pee Wee' A. Steelman, Viola Steelman, and Ernest Steelman. Courtesy of J. Ronald Steelman (1926-2002).
The family progenitor, Charles J. Steelman (1889-1957), was born at Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He married Viola McLellan (1892-1966) of Geneva, Alabama circa 1912. She was the daughter of Peter and Jeanette McClellan. The children of Charles and Viola Steelman were: Charles Arnold "Pee Wee" Steelman (1914-1970), Allan B. Steelman (1915-1988), Emmett Steelman (1922-1975), Ernest Steelman (1922-1983), Peter Steelman, Mary Elizabeth "Sis" S. Hall (1918-2005), Vivian S. Snyder Crysell (b. 1920), Richard Steelman (1923-1987), and James Ronald Steelman (1926-2002).
Before going into private business with only $37 in his pocket, Mr. Charles J. Steelman and several family members worked for J.J. Viator at the Black and White Store (formerly George Bradshaw's) on the northwest corner of Government and Handy. They lived in the old, two-story house adjacent to the market building. In April 1939, while his Government Street building was being readied, Charles J. Steelman temporarily opened the Steelman Meat Market on the east side of Washington Avenue, adjacent to McFarlands Variety Store, between Bowen and Government. This business was formerly the K.C. Meat Market.
In May 1939, at 35 Government Street, in their refurbished structure, recently acquired from the Ocean Springs State Bank, the Steelman's Food Store and Meat Market commenced business. Market specials for the weekend of May 13, 1939, as advertised, in The Jackson County Times were: Veal Chops, $.15 per lb. Veal Rump Roast, $.16 per lb. Choice Beef Chuck Roast, $.16 per lb. Salt Meat Plate No. 1, $.10per lb. Pure Lard, 2 lbs. for $.17
Mr. Steelman paid himself a salary of $12.50 per week. Other grocery store operators during the World War II years and post-War years at Ocean Springs were: Gottsche's Thrifty-Nifty on Washington at Desoto, Eglin's on Washington between Desoto and Porter, VanCleave's on Washington at Porter, Black & White of J.J. Viator, Jr. on Government, the Ocean Springs Fruit Market of Mr. and Mrs. C.C. McLellan on Washington at Bowen, and the Curb Market Grocery of Matthew "Motto" Talanich on US 90 and Vermont (now M.L. King, Jr.) which was the precursor to Broome's Foodland.
In September 1942, Allan B. Steelman sold his interest in the property for $1130 to the original Steelman group. He joined the military and later the Baptist ministry at Memphis, Tennessee. Peter and Ernest Steelman also became Baptist ministers. A self-effacing, family joke told by Pee Wee about himself and his brothers was: "my parents had seven son, three preachers and four crooks".(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 77, p. 142 and Ronald Steelman)
In November 1943, Pee Wee and Virginia Steelman sold their interest to his parents, Charles J. Steelman and Viola Steelman for $3446. Pee Wee joined the Merchant Marines while younger brother, Ronald, went into the U.S. Navy. With the Steelman men off at war, the store closed for several years. An advertisement in The Jackson County Times on February 16, 1946, stated that Steelman's Food Store and Meat Market reopened for business on February 14, 1946.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 84, pp. 73-74)
The Steelman family removed the second story of the old Young Garage structure after WW II. Pigeons had taken it over as a roosting site. This change left the basic building, which has remained until the recent remodeling and construction. In June 1952, Mr. Charles J. Steelman sold an undivided 1/2 interest in the west thirty feet of Lot 1, Block 1 with "all improvements thereon and all fixtures and equipment in the building thereon said property being situated on the south side of Government Street and known as the Steelman Food Store" to his son, Pee Wee Steelman and daughter-in-law, Virginia Steelman.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 125, p. 82)
In January 1958, after their father, Charles J. Steelman, had passed on, his heirs sold all their interest in the grocery store property to Pee Wee Steelman and Virginia Steelman. The consideration was that their mother, Viola M. Steelman, receive $260 per month for the remainder of her natural life. Ronald Steelman, the youngest of the seven Steelman lads, recalls that his first job at his father's Government Street store was to prepare live chickens for the meat market. The chickens were kept in a pen behind the store. Some customers preferred to buy them alive and slaughter and dress them at home. Later, Ronald Steelman took his years of experience as a grocery man to Butler, Alabama were he was the proprietor of a Jitney Jungle Store.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 178, pp. 387-388)
Richard Steelman once owned a small store on Highway 57 at Vancleave, competing unsuccessfully with C.L. Dees (1886-1963). Ronald Steelman remembers that to keep their grocery business operating efficiently, it had to be continuously supplied with produce, staple goods, fresh meat, and poultry. On Wednesday, Pee Wee Steelman would drive a two-ton truck to the French Market at New Orleans to purchase fresh vegetables. Hubert Mallette of the Fort Bayou community would also supply the shop with fresh garden produce from his fields. Local cattle and pigs could be purchased for $15-$20 and prepared for market at Byrd's, a slaughterhouse, on the Ocean Springs-Vancleve Road.
On some occasions, wholesale grocers from Mobile were employed to supply the Steelman Grocery. Beverly Dalgo (1917-2003), a native son, who represented the John Morrell meat packers from that city, often called on the Steelmans. Generally, the Steelman's handle seafood, but on occasions would purchase shrimp or fish from local boatmen. In former times, staples, such as sugar, beans, etc. came in 100-pound bags from the wholesaler, and had to be weighed and transferred into smaller containers for resale to customers. Candy came in 30-pound boxes and during the festive Christmas season, Mr. Steelman was especially generous as he told his children to indulge themselves in these sucrosic treats as they packaged the candy bags. In the early 1960s, Pee Wee Steelman closed the store and went to work for Curmis Broome. At the time of his demise, he was employed at Broome's in the meat market as a butcher.
THE HEFFNER-COSPER-DALE COURTS: 1941-1995
The construction of the $900,000 Biloxi Bay Bridge commenced on August 12, 1928, when test piles were driven by the Fuller Construction Company of Dallas, Texas. When this vital artery to Ocean Springs opened in early June 1930, it brought the Old Spanish Trail (a grand misnomer) through the heart of Ocean Springs. On dedication day, June 3, 1930, Miss Sarah Lemon, the daughter of the late Beat Four Supervisor, J.K. Lemon (1870-1929), an avid supporter of the project, smashed a bottle of artesian water on the completed structure to christen it as a World War I Memorial. Porter Avenue from the bay bridge to Washington Avenue now became a part of U.S. Highway 90. Naturally, automobiles brought travelers, and travelers need places to eat and rest. It was along west Porter Avenue during the late 1930s and 1940s that several precursors to the modern motel developed. Among these businesses were the Strawn Tourist Camps and Big Pine Inn, which was once owned by Ted Steimer (1884-1967) and Trilby Grenet Steimer (1896-1960). They also developed Trilby's Restaurants at Ocean Springs through the years.
Heffner Cottages (circa 1941)
With the construction of Keesler AFB at Biloxi, in June 1941, the demand for housing in the general area increased dramatically. Ocean Springs, as now, was considered a desirable place to live. Many people here converted their attics to apartments, rented rooms in their homes, or built rental cottages. The Marshall Park bandstand, which had been moved to the Bayou Inn, now Aunt Jenny's Catfish House, by Dr. H.B. Powell (1867-1949) was converted to a small apartment at this time probably by Mrs. Logan who resided at the former hostel.
T.A.E. Holcomb
It was also during these truculent years of World War II, that The Heffner-Cosper-Dale Courts were erected at present day 811 Porter. This locale is the former site of the Thomas A.E. Holcomb home, called "Hollywood". Holcomb probably owned a pharmacy business known as the Central Pharmacy at Kensington, Cook County, Illinois. Thomas A.E. Holcomb (1831-1897) and Vermont born wife, Martha Lyon (1833-1906), settled permanently at Ocean Springs in 1894. They bought property on Porter at Rayburn in three parcels between 1887 and 1890.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 9, p. 78, Bk. 11, pp. 178-180, and Bk. 12, p. 415)
Cochran-Letoha House900 Robinson
This historic home was damaged during Hurricane Katrina and was demolishing by neglect before the 'act of God' finished it.
203 Front Beach
Damaged by Katrina in August 2005 and later demolished. rebuilding commenced in summer of 2006.
Hurricane Katrina's 28-foot (8.5 m) storm surge destroyed the Biloxi Bay Bridge, which connected Biloxi to Ocean Springs. The bridge was completed in 1962, and damaged in 1969 by Hurricane Camille. The Biloxi Bay Bridge replaced the aging War Memorial Bridge which opened in 1930. As of 2007, the majority of the bridge's remains have been removed via cranes based on barges located next to the bridge debris. A crane was nearly lost recently in the removal of a bridge remain. The bridge ruins, capturing the breathtaking results of the force of Hurricane Katrina, had become a popular hot spot of photographers, both professionals and amateurs alike. The construction for the new bridge was projected for completion by April 2008. The new Biloxi Bay Bridge will be 95' in height at its main span, and will support 6 lanes of traffic. As of November 1st, 2007, two lanes of the new 6 lane bridge has been opened. The new bridge has a curving roadway due to the implemented design-build process. In order to speed the process of rebuilding, the main body of the bridge was moved outside of the previous bridge's debris area. The landing points for each side of US Highway 90 match up with the previous bridge.
1962 Ocean Springs-Biloxi BridgeDamaged by Hurricane Katrina, this span was removed in sections between 2006 and 2007
431 East Beach
This home was destroyed by Hurricabe Katrina.
112-A Shearwater
[l-r: image made 1999 from southwest; image made December 2005 from southeast; and image made January 2007 from north]
This fine structure, called Shadowlawn, survived Katrina, but the owner was determined to destroy it and succeeded.
406 Jackson AvenueThe Bryan-Letoha Home was built in 1910 by Joseph A. Wieder (1877-1960) for Frank H. Bryan (1872-1936). It was damaged during Hurricane Georges in 1998 and was demolishing by neglect until Hurricane Katrina destroyed it in August 2005. Image made March 1992.
315 Front Beach Drive-"Many Oaks"-Mary C. Zala Jensen
[l-r: image May 2001; image September 2006; image October 2006, Fayard factory truck in yard; and image July 2006, repairs]
314 Jackson AvenueRay and Maureen Hudachek's "Egan Cottage". Reconstruction of replica began in late August 2006 by Paul Campbell. Carl Germany, AIA.
[l-r: image made July 1993; image made September 2005]
[L-R: Lobrano House 2003; March 2007; September 2005; and December 2005]
241 Lovers Lane
The Dr. William Lobrano home on Seapointe was commenced in January 2001 and complete in the spring of 2003. It was very seriously damaged, but was one of only several homes on this low-lying peninsula between Back Bay and Old Fort Bayou that survived in condition to be restored. Restoration in progress
1909 Eglin House
West side of Washington Avenue between Bowen and Government Street
(image made circa 1935)The Eglin House was a wood frame, one and two-story edifice of approximately 5100 square feet. The front of the house had a hip roof while a flat roof graced the west half of the structure. The facade of the house consisted of five bays. A central, transomed door with side lights was symmetrically flanked by four, full length, shuttered windows. The front galley (350 square feet) was marked by six turned post with decorative sawn brackets, and a fine balustrade. The posts supported a projecting hip roof and a belvedere (135 square feet) which had turned posts, brackets, and balustrade similar to the gallery. This configuration also sustained a projecting gable roof.
AN EARLY BLACK HISTORY of OCEAN SPRINGS
This essay is an attempt to familiarize the reader with the some of the rudiments of Black History that I have discovered while researching Ocean Springs. Like our own, it began shortly after the arrival to these silvery shores of the Mexican Gulf, by French Canadian soldier of fortune, Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville (1661-1706), and his rugged cohorts in February 1699. Several years later when the first Black man arrived in La Louisiane, the French Colony of Louisiana, he was not a “colonist”, but a slave. In French Louisiana, there did become a small segment of the Black population called “free people of color” whose bondage had been lifted for various reasons. In theory, these manumitted slaves had the same rights, privileges, and immunities, as their freeborn Caucasian neighbors.
As we know, the nefarious institution of Slavery lasted in varying degrees of servitude and harshness in the United States until The Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) in January 1863. Out of bondage, the Black man took on a surname, was counted in the 1870 Federal Census as a person, and became more to American society than chattel. The integration of the Black race and culture into the heterogeneous social order called “America” has been slow and continues today.
If you have an interest in our local Black History read on. I now present to you my interpretation of a Black History of Ocean Springs.
The Colonial Days
When the French Beachhead for the Louisiana Colony, proclaimed by Cavalier de La Salle (1643-1687) in 1682, at the deltaic mouth of the Mississippi River, was established at Fort Maurepas (Ocean Springs), in April 1699, by Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville (1661-1706), there were no Black men in his contingent of two hundred odd men. (Higginbotham, 1971, p. 97)
It is interesting to note that the English were the first to import slave labor into North America. Black bondsmen were utilized extensively in Carolina and Pennsylvania for clearing and cultivating the land. These slaves were acquired from slave traders operating on the coast of Guinea. In North America, neither the English nor the French would trade Indian slaves with their Caribbean island possessions since neither colonial power would depart with their Negroes unless they were bad and vicious. (Rowlands et al, 1929, p. 45)
Prior to Black slave labor being introduced into the Louisiana Colony, the French settlers utilized Indian slaves. They were provided to the French by their Indian allies. The Native Americans were good farmers, but found it easy to flee their masters into their indigenous surroundings. (Rowlands et al, 1929 p. 23)
In 1713, a party of three thousand Catawba and Upper Creek braves, who were at war with the English, made an incursion into Carolina to pillage and burn. They captured many English settlers and their Black slaves. Bienville ransomed the English prisoners from these Native American warriors allowing them to return to their homes, if they desired. It seems the Amerinds kept the Black slaves of the English placing them in bondage for their own use.
In October 1708, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne Bienville reported to the Minister of Marine, Count Ponchartrain, that a small ship had arrived at Fort Louis (Old Mobile) in an effort to open a slave trade with the island of Saint Domingue (Haiti) where the French were utilizing Black slave labor for agricultural purposes. The settlers at Old Mobile were willing to give two Indian slaves for one Black from the West Indian base. The Native Americans were of lesser value because the colonists derived more service from the Negro. (Rowlands et al, 1929, p. 45)
French colonists asked for and were willing to pay cash for Black bondsmen. They felt that as a reward for the physical hardships that they had endured in Louisiana, they should receive their servants at reduced prices. (Rowlands et al, 1929, p. 28)
On November 30, 1718, the first shipment of slaves (captifs) for the Louisiana Colony left Whydah (now Ouidah or Wida), a 16th Century French trading port on the west coast of Africa in present day Benin, aboard L’Aurore. Of the 201 slaves on the French transport, 200 lived to see Dauphin Island in 1719. (Hall, 1992, p. 63)
Andre Penicault, a French carpenter, who chronicled his years in La Louisiane, relates that in February 1719, Joseph Le Moyne de Serigny, the brother of Iberville, brought 250 Black slaves to Dauphin Island from France. (McWilliams, 1988, p. 230)
Nouveau Biloxy
It appears that the first Blacks to arrive on the Mississippi Coast disembarked at Nouveau Biloxy (Biloxi) in the early 1720s. This fact is documented by a French cartographic chart of the present day Biloxi-Ocean Springs area made circa 1720. On this map appear the French words, “Habitation pour les Negroes de la camp. Nommes rendezvous”. This translates literally as “Housing for the Negroes of the camp. Called meeting place”. From this 1720 French chart, the Negro camp was located on the south shore of the Back Bay of Biloxi, east of the head of Main Street. A briqueterie (brickyard) was situated just east of their quarters. This implies that Black slaves were used to make brick from the local clay. (Map titled “Nouveau Biloxy”, ca. 1720, Biloxi Public Library, Biloxi, Ms.)
The Chaumont Plantation
It is well documented that there were Black slaves in what is now northern Jackson County, Mississippi working on the Chaumont Plantation as early as February 1721. This 16,000-acre land grant from the Company of the Indies was owned by wealthy Parisians, Antoine Chaumont (1671-1753) and his spouse, Marie-Catherine Barre. The Chaumont Plantation was located on the Pascagoula River about one mile south of the present day Wade Bridge. (Higginbotham, 1974, p. 357)
Eustache Revillion, Sieur des Rondelettes, the director general of the Chaumont Plantation, was quick to recognize the lack of laborers to operate the farm. Bienville had complained to the Ministry of the Colonies that “instead of filling the concessions with so many managers, directors, bookkeepers, foremen, etc., whose wages and food consume the funds of the concession, they had been satisfied with an overseer and a few necessary workmen, and if the salaries of so many useless people and the cost of food supplies to maintain the large families with which these concessions were filled had been employed in obtaining Negroes, we should now be deriving large interest from this money, likewise the company with three-fourths less expense could have brought into the country four to five times as many Negroes as there are”. (Higginbotham, 1974, p. 358)
Le Code Noir
In 1724, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville (1680-1768) formulated Le Code Noir, the Black Code, which contained forty-six regulations to govern Blacks and minorities in the Louisiana Colony. Interestingly, the first article of the Black Code prohibited Jews in French Louisiana. The final act of Bienville’s Black Code dealt with free Blacks. It granted to them “the same rights, privileges, and immunities which are enjoyed by free-persons”. (Historical Collections of La., Vol. III, 1851, p. 89)
Antebellum Days At Ocean Springs
Ocean Springs or East Biloxi, as it was known prior to 1853, when it was Lynchburg Springs, for one year, was a small fishing village with about two hundred inhabitants settled between the Fort Point Peninsula and Davis Bayou to the Ocean Springs-Vancleave Road. There was little commerce other than the steamboat wharf, a general store, a few sawmills, and an incipient tourist industry. Since there was no plantation economy, the few slaves that existed here were primarily domestics and laborers. In addition, the earliest settlers of Ocean Springs were descendants of French Creoles and southern European immigrants who made subsistence livings and could not afford the luxury of captive labor.
Former Slave-Nat Plummer
In 1936, Nat Plummer (ca 1840-1936+), a former slave at Ocean Springs, was interviewed by a writer compiling a History of Jackson County, Mississippi for the Works Progress Administration. Plummer’s interesting history and colloquial dialogue follows:
“Yassum, I was a slave. Dem was de good old days-I had a good master. His name was J.L. Plummer. (sic) We lived in Tennessee and den we moved down heah. Dat was in de days befo’ railroads. Yessum, we came on hoss back and drove ox teams. Dat’s when de steamboats use ta dock heah. Dey’d bring all de mail and provisions. Dey wuz a wharf, and dere was some tracks on it, with a little car to run on it. Dey’s hitch a mule to dat car to bring the cargo from the steamboats to de shore. Den, de ox carts would be loaded to carry it to town."
“But the most excitin’ times was during the war! It was hard too! All de soljers, dey was camped down on the beach on the W.B. Schmidt place-yassum, right dat place is today. You know dem high bluffs? Wall, dat’s were dey kep’ a look-out for dem Yankees."
"One day a message come. You see dat house right on de corner? Dat’s de old Godstine house. Wall, dat’s where they got the message dat de Yankees was comin’. Yassum, can’t you see up dere, dat hole where de wires went through? Dere was a telegraph operator dere who couldn’t pay his board, so he swapped information for his vittles." “And see dat house over yonder? Dat’s de old W.R. Stewart (sic) house. Well, de Yankees went dere and got a man wuz hidin’ dere. Dey called him a conscript."
“Yassum, my old master was good to me, and when he died, his wife’s brother came to live wid us, and he was my young master. He was good too. One day I said, “Massa Sam, when wuz I born? My master’s name was Sam Lauderdale. He said, “nat, you wuz born in 1840’. So dat makes me ninety-six years old. I’se gettn’ old."
“Den, after us niggahs wuz set free, I stayed on with Missus Plummer. I’d burn charcoal and cut wood f’ de steamboats, and when de trains started comin’ through, I cut wood for dem too. Mrs. Pummer, she give me mos’ of de money too.
“Well, I’se getting’ tired now, from settin’ up, but I loves to talk over de good ole’ days-we didn’t need no relief den”. (WPA For Mississippi Historical Data-Jackson County, State Wide Historical Project, (1936-1938), pp. 235-236)
The 1850 Census
The 1850 Federal Census data of the Ocean Springs area indicates a Caucasian population of less two hundred. There were about fifty-two bondsmen or 22% of the local population. Of the thirty-six households surveyed in the village, only ten possessed slaves. The majority of these indentured people were employed as domestics in the large waterfront estates of the wealthy. Only about 25% of the local slave population was used in servile labor-primarily as sawmill workers on Old Fort Bayou.
A summary of slave owners in the Ocean Springs area was taken from the 1850 Federal Slave Census of Jackson County. Since slaves were considered chattel, not people, only their number and sex were recorded.
Martha E. Austin (1818-1898) was born Porter in Tennessee. She was the wife of Dr. W.G. Austin (1812-1894) of New Orleans, who founded the Ocean Springs Hotel, which gave its name to Ocean Springs in 1854. The Austins maintained a home here and at New Orleans. She owned two male and three female slaves.
Philip P. Bowen (1799-1871) was a Baptist minister from South Carolina, who is credited with discovering and developing the mineral springs near Old Fort Bayou in 1852. He served the Tidewater Baptist Church congregation from 1847-1859. Reverend Bowen possessed five male and two female slaves. He expired in Clarke County, Mississippi.
Abram Davis (1811-1850+) was a Mississippi native and farmer. He possessed four slaves-a male and female Negro, and a male and female mulatto.
Andrew B. Dodd (1806-1850+)-was born at Kentucky. He was a physician and an associate of W.G. Kendall. Dr. Dodd owned three male and two female slaves
Edgar James (1797-ca 1858)-was a carpenter born at South Carolina. He possessed four male, two female, and a male mulatto bondman.
William Gray Kendall (1812-1872)-was born at Kentucky. He and his family resided at New Orleans where he was an attorney and served as postmaster. The Kendall summer home at Ocean Springs was situated where “Shadowlawn”, the exquisite Nancy and Bill Wilson residence and tourist home, is today on Shearwater Drive. In 1850, Mr. Kendall was also the largest slave-holder in Harrison County, Mississippi. He operated a brickyard on the old Moran tract at present day D’Iberville where he worked 162 slaves. At Ocean Springs, the Kendalls owned three female and two male slaves.
George Lynch (1815-1850+) was born in Maryland. He operated a sawmill on Old Fort Bayou. In order to process his logs to make lumber and run his household, Mr. Lynch utilized thirteen male, one female, and a female mulatto slave. The village was called Lynchburg Springs in 1853, when the US Post Office was operated by Robert Little.
Warrick Martin (1810-1850+) was a native of Pennsylvania. He was an attorney and land speculator and resided on Biloxi Bay. The Martin household had a male and female slave.
William L. Porter (1811-1850+) was a merchant from Tennessee. His sister was Martha E. Austin (1818-1898), the spouse of Dr. Austin. Mr. Porter possessed one female and one female mulatto. Porter Avenue is named for this family.
Jean-Baptiste Seymour (1812-1887) was the owner of a 13-acre tract of land at Ocean Springs Jean-Baptiste Seymour, which he purchased from Dr. Andrew B. Dodd (1806-1850+), in September 1849. The Seymour tract ran from Government Street to LaFontaine Avenue and was only 150 feet wide, except on its southern termination near present day LaFontaine Avenue, where it widened to 165 feet. Its western perimeter began 200
feet east of Dewey Avenue. Seymour paid Dr. Dodd $11.54 per acre for this land. He owned a male slave.
The 1860 Census
By 1860, the population of Ocean Springs had increased to over three hundred Caucasians. The indentured persons ratio decreased to 15% as the total slave population increased by only five from the 1850 Federal Slave Census to fifty-seven bondsmen. Slave owners and the number of slaves in their possession at Ocean Springs for the 1860 Federal Slave Census of Jackson County, Mississippi were as follows:
Philip P. Bowen owned two male and a female slave.
George Allen Cox (1811-1887) was an entrepreneurial pioneer at Ocean Springs. He was born in Tennessee and settled in Holmes County, Mississippi where he ran a sawmill. In 1850, Cox married a widow, Sarah Ann Sheppard (1820-1860+), the mother-in-law of R.A. VanCleave (1840-1908). The Cox family owned a plantation in Yazoo County, and a summer home, “Magnolia Grove”, on the beach at Ocean Springs, which they had discovered in the early 1850s. By 1854, Cox was well established at Ocean Springs. He owned the local newspaper, The Gazette, and had substantial real estate holdings in the area. Mr. Cox had two male mulattos and four female mulattos in 1860.
Francisco Coyle (1813-1891) was born in Spain. He and his spouse, Magdalena Ougatte Pons (1813-1904), resided on Jackson Avenue where they ran a restaurant as early as 1857. (The Orleans Crescent, June 2, 1857, p. 1) Their daughter, Laura C. Schmidt Brady (1857-1931), married Charles E. Schmidt (1851-1886) and was the grandmother of Drs. Frank O. Schmidt (1902-1975) and Harry J. Schmidt (1905-1997) and Mayor and local historian, C. Ernest Schmidt (1904-1988). The Coyle family had four male mulattos and two female slaves.
A.B. Davis possessed two female slaves.
Samuel Davis (1804-1879) was a native of Burk County, Georgia. At Jackson County, Mississippi he was a farmer and large landholder. Davis married Elvira Ward (1821-1901) and together they reared a large family on Davis Bayou. His sons, George W. Davis (1842-1914) and Elias S. Davis (1859-1925), became successful Washington Avenue merchants. Mr. Davis possessed two male and one female slave in 1850.
John Egan (1827-1875) was an Irish immigrant who lived at the foot of Jackson Avenue. He was active in local commerce as at various periods, Egan operated a mercantile business and barroom, served as US Postmaster, Justice of the Peace, and wharf master of the steamboat landing. Mr. Egan utilized one male mulatto.
Mary Kendall (1816-1878), the spouse of W.G. Kendall (1812-1872), was born Mary Philomela Irwin (1816-1878), the daughter of John Lawson Irwin (d, 1867) and Martha (Patsy) Mitchell (1793-1831), on her father’s plantation, Puck-shonubbee, in Carroll County, Mississippi. She possessed a female slave.
Mary G. Plummer (1808-1878) was the spouse of Joseph R. Plummer (1804-1870+) and possibly a sister of Martha E. Austin. She married A.G. Buford of Water Valley, Mississippi after Plummer’s demise. The Plummers owned a large estate called “Oak Lawn” which was situated in the present day Gulf Hills development. She possessed seven male, four female, three male mulatto, and two female mulatto slaves in 1860. One of the Plummer’s bondsmen, Nat Plummer (ca 1840-1936+), was interviewed by WPA researchers during the Depression.
Jean-Baptise Seymour (1812-1887) raised livestock, primarily cattle, at Fontainebleau until the family moved to Ocean Springs circa 1849. He owned a 13-acre strip of land, which ran from County Road (Government) to LaFontaine. Seymour owned two male and three female mulattos.
Peter Seymour (1810-1888) was also a livestock farmer. After he left the original Seymour homestead at Fontainebleau, he settled at Ocean Springs where he was a butcher be fore he relocated north of Old Fort Bayou. Peter Seymour owned one male slave in 1850.
Belle M. Tiffin (1824-1900) was born at Columbus, Ohio. She was the wife of Dr. Clayton Tiffin (ca 1784-1859) of New Orleans. Mrs. Tiffin resided on an estate fronting on Biloxi Bay, which is now the Shearwater Pottery of the Anderson clan. She owned a female mulatto.
John B. Walker (1813-1860+) was a native of the District of Columbia. He was a boatman and managed the steamboat wharf at the foot of Jackson Avenue. Captain Walker possessed two male and four female slaves.
J.R. (sic) Walker (1817-1897) was a born in the Nation’s capitol. In 1836, he became licensed to preach as a Methodist minister. Reverend Walker resided at New Orleans, but maintained a summer estate on Biloxi Bay near the present day CSX Railroad bridge. The Walker’s owned six females slaves in 1860.
The Eglin House was erected in 1909 by Amelia Krohn Eglin (1855-1916), the widow of Albert M. Eglin (1852-1891).
Annie O. Eglin (1881-1963) acquired it from her siblings in June 1917. It served as an apartment house and "tourist home" until it was severely damaged by fire and water in September 1964. It was removed from the streetscape by Clarence Galle (1912-1986) in January 1968. TIn 1970-1971, the Catholic Charities Housing Association built the Villa Maria retirement home on a portion of the former Eglin House lot.
VanCleave Brothers Store (circa 1908)W.S. VanCleave (1871-1938) and Junius P. VanCleave (1879-1945+), the sons of Robert A. VanCleave (1842-1908) and Elizabeth R. Sheppard (1842-1912), founded this mercantile business in 1904. This building was erected in 1906, by Burk and Shaw on the northeast corner of Washington Avenue and Porter. Gordon R. VanCleave (1906-1964), the son of W.S. VanCleave, ran the store for many years. It was demolished on July 22, 1967. Five Seasons, a health food, vitamin and holistic medicine center is situated here today.
F.E. Schmidt BuildingThe Frank E. Schmidt Building was erected circa 1910 on the northeast corner of Washington Avenue and Desoto as a livery stable for Frank Joachim. It was demolished circa 1967 to erect the First National Bank of Ocean Springs, which opened for business on November 25, 1968. The $104,500 building was erected by J.O. Collins from a Claude Lindsley design. Hancock Bank occupies this edifice today.
1927 Illing's Theatre(northeast corner of Washington and Porter)
The First Baptist Church of Ocean Springs erected a new sanctuary here in 1968-1969. It was dedicated on May 11, 1969.
This Spanish Colonial Revival home was built in 1927 on the southwest corner of Front Beach Drive and Martin Avenue for Hiram Minor Russell (1892-1940) by Joseph A. Wieder (1877-1960) from a design by Shaw & Woleben, Gulfport, Mississippi architects. The Russell home cost $40,000 and was destroyed by fire in late August 1937.
Henry J. Terry (1890-1975) acquired the Russell lot and built a home here in 1941. With the housing shortage created by the erection of Keesler AFB at Biloxi, Mr. Terry acquired more land around his home and built seven duplex cottages, which became known as The Terry Courts.
Artesian HouseIn July, the White House, formerly the Artesian House, was demolished by Charles Braun of Biloxi for its heart pine lumber. A.E. “Fred” Lewis (1862-1933) had erected this small hostel on the southwest corner of Jackson and Porter in 1891.
The Artesian House was built in the Queen Anne architectural style. It was a two-story wood frame structure with an area under roof of 4,320 square feet. An eight-foot wide gallery facing north and east was present on both floors. The kitchen was attached to the rear of the building and had an area of 486 square feet. Located to the rear of the main structure was a small cabin of approximately 300 square feet. North of the cabin there was a small stable of 240 square feet which faced Porter Avenue.
Paragon SaloonThe Paragon Saloon was situated on the southwest corner of Washington Avenue and Robinson. It was probably built by Thomas Cochran (1852-1883), the son-in-law of Antonio Franco (1834-1891). George E. Arndt (1852-1945) acquired the property in 1897 and ran his Paragon Saloon here from about 1892 to 1912. He moved the saloon building to the west and sold the lot to the fledging Farmers and Merchants State Bank in January 1913. The Paragon Saloon until the commencement of the Prohibition era in 1919. Later, the old saloon building served as a boarding house managed by Ona May Seeman Westbrook (1886-1967), the wife of John Westbrook (1886-1922). She rented rooms and prepared meals for itinerant railroad workers. The American Legion Hall occupied the structure prior to 1925. The building was demolished by Charles Braun during the Depression years, and the vacant lot was used by mechanic, Claude Engbarth (1894-1967), to park cars on. The Farmers and Merchants State Bank was erected on the southwest corner of Washington and Robinson in 1913.
Pines HotelThis commercial hotel burned on May 1932. It was situated on the southwest corner of Washington Avenue and Ocean.
The Pines Hotel was a two-story, wood frame building of 4200 square feet. In May 1921, a new wing was commenced on the north side of the building, which was 20 x 30 feet and two stories tall. The first floor of the addition was used as the dining room, and was fitted with the most contemporary electric fixtures and appliances. The upper floor accommodated guests and provided them with adequate bath and toilet facilities. A large gallery graced the front of the building.(The Jackson County Times, May 14, 1921, p. 3)
The completed Pines Hotel contained eighteen bedrooms, six baths, two kitchens, a dining, living, and other rooms. It had the distinction of being the last hotel built at Ocean Springs.
1900 Public School
(northwest corner of Porter and Dewey)This large wooden structure know familiarly as "the Big White School" was built by Frank De Bourg (1876-1954+) and completed in April 1900. It was demolished in June 1927, by R.T. Vaughan for $485 in June 1927. At the time, it was reputed to be the largest wood-frame building on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and built with fine materials. The lumber salvaged from this edifice were utilized to erect a new school for the Black children of Ocean Springs.
R.A. Van Cleave & SonThe R.A. VanCleave & Son, mercantile store, was located on the east side of Washington Avenue, between Robinson and Desoto. It occupied a two-story building, just south of the Van Cleave Hotel. Their slogan was "Best Quality and Honest Quantity". The Robert A. VanCleave (1840-1908) home was adjacent to the store on the northeast corner of Desoto and Washington. This mercantile store burned in October 1926.
Lyndhurst-Case Villa
545 Front Beach[destroyed by fire on December 16, 1922 when owned by Charles Grady Parlin]
Commercial HotelEarly in the morning of October 26, 1920, a fire was discovered in the Commercial Hotel. This canvansary was erected in 1880 by R.A. VanCleave (1840-1908). It was situated opposite the L&N Depot on the southeast corner of Washington Avenue and Robinson. The owner, H.F. Russell (1858-1940) stated that he would not rebuild an inn here. Commencing with the Ocean Springs Hotel in 1905, and the Shanahan House in 1919, the Commercial Hotel became the third Ocean Springs hotel to be lost to fire in these early years of the Twentieth Century.
The Shanahan House
(northeast corner of Washington and Calhoun)On December 24, 1919, the Shanahan met its demise in a roaring conflagration. The structure served as a boarding house-hotel since its inception circa 1894. It was the home of Irish immigrants, John Shanahan (1810-1892) and Maria Torney Shanahan (1826-1909). Little Childrens' Park, a public playground, is here today. In 1959, the land for this recreational space was donated by Katherine Crane Powers (1891-1961), the spouse of Neely Powers (1890-1983).
The Shanahan House was originally the home of John and Maria Shanahan. In April 1897, a second story was added and the structure was probably called the Shanahan House or Shanahan Hotel. At this time the building had a living area of 3360 square feet. By 1909, the building had been enlarged to 9706 square feet. This included the kitchen, dining room, and office. There was a small stable a few hundred feet east of the hotel.
Vahle House (circa 1903)Courtesy of John Sterry Nill-Austin, Texas.
Built in 1900 by the Vahle family from New Orleans, the Vahle House was located on the northwest corner of Washington Avenue and Calhoun.
The Vahle House was a wood frame, L-shaped, two-story structure with 2156 square feet of living area. There was a seven-foot wide wrap around gallery on the first floor which faced east and south. Additional buildings on the lot were a stable of 432 square feet to the rear, and a small ice house of only 180 square feet just north of the hotel facing Washington Avenue.
The Big Fire
The Vahle House was destroyed by a conflagration on November 15, 1916. This fire is known in the annals of Ocean Springs history as The Big Fire. Ocean Springs was fortunate as the great fire started at the leeward end of the business district on the southeast corner of Porter and Washington in the kitchen of the vacant J.P. VanCleave store. A gale force wind blew out of the north and the flames and burning embers were sent south towards the beach with amazing speed. The Richardson Cottage and the Firemen's Hall both near the fire's origin were rapidly consumed by the fast moving conflagration. People on Washington Avenue were on their roofs with buckets of water and brooms to sweep away the fire and burning particles. Suddenly the cry went out that the Vahle place was on fire. This high two-story house made the roof blaze impossible to fight, and soon the flames leaped to the Armstrong and McFarland Cottages on Washington Avenue south of the Vahle House. They were also destroyed. In these times, devastation by fire was complete as buildings were composed almost entirely of wood, a very combustible material. The Vahle House was valued at $2500.(The Jackson County Times, November 18, 1916, p. 1)
J.P. VanCleave Building
(located on the southeast corner of Washington Avenue and Porter)The "Big Fire" of November 1916 at Ocean Springs commenced in the J.P. Van Cleave Store building. It had been vacant for a few months before the conflagration. The rapidly moving, gale driven, blaze destroyed several cottages and the Vahle House on south Washington. Only the valiant efforts of the Ocean Springs Fire Company No. 1, Hook and Ladder Company, and volunteers citizens saved other structure in the path of the fire. Mr. VanCleave had leased the building to Charles Bickham Morrison (1868-1938) in 1914.
circa 1870 Illing House(northeast corner of Washington and Porter)
courtesy of Adrienne Illing Finnie (1925-2002)
The Illing House was erected shortly after the railroad from Mobile to New Orleans was completed in 1870. Its owners were Ferdinand W. Illing (1838-1884) and Rosalie Eglin Illing (1844-1894). They were from Germany and Alsace immigrants respectively. The Illing House was torn down in August 1905 and three Queen Anne cottages were built east of it fronting on Porter. By 1910, and open air theater was on the corner where the large inn had once existed. In 1915, E.W. Illing Jr. (1870-1947)erected Illing's Theatre, which was refurbished or rebuilt in 1927. This theater was demolished between 1958 and 1968 by the First Baptist Church of Ocean Springs.
Nill Drugstore (image circa 1899)The Nill Drugstore was situated on the northwest corner of Washington Avenue and Porter. It was owned and operated by Herman John Nill (1863-1904), a native of New Orleans. The Nill Drugstore came to a dramatic end in a roaring conflagration in the early days of December 1900. The Pascagoula Democrat-Star of December 7, 1900 reported its demise in "Ocean Springs Locals" as follows:The most distressing scene witnessed in our town for a long time was the burning of the Ocean Springs Drug Store and Vahle's Livery Stable Monday night. The fire was discovered about midnight by Walter Davis the night operator for the Cumberland Telephone Exchange, which was on the second floor of the drug building.
THE 1927 OCEAN SPRINGS PUBLIC SCHOOL
The Ocean Springs Public School, which was built in 1926-1927, at present day 1600 Government Street between Ward and Magnolia Streets, by general contractor, Berry & Applewhite of Columbia, Mississippi, replaced the 1900 "Big White School House" on Porter and Dewey. In May 1926, Architect, William T. Nolan, of New Orleans designed the Jacobethan Style edifice. Nolan also designed the Bay St. Louis Junior High School and when with the firm of Nolan & Torre, he designed the 1912 Biloxi Senior High School.(Miss. Dept. of Archives & History, Historic Site Survey, 1985 and The Daily Herald, July 5, 1912, p. 8)
The necessity for a new school had been dictated by the influx of new families into Ocean Springs. The 1920s Florida land boom had spread westward as far as Ocean Springs, and the Public High School on Porter was becoming very crowded.(Schmidt, 1972, p. 70)
OceanSprings High school The Ocean Springs Public School, which was built in 1926-1927, at present day 1600 Government Street between Ward and Magnolia Streets, by general contractor, Berry & Applewhite of Columbia, Mississippi, replaced the 1900 "Big White School House" on Porter and Dewey. In May 1926, Architect, William T. Nolan, of New Orleans designed the Jacobethan Style edifice. Nolan also designed the Bay St. Louis Junior High School and when with the firm of Nolan & Torre, he designed the 1912 Biloxi Senior High School.(Miss. Dept. of Archives & History, Historic Site Survey, 1985 and The Daily Herald, July 5, 1912, p. 8)
The necessity for a new school had been dictated by the influx of new families into Ocean Springs. The 1920s Florida land boom had spread westward as far as Ocean Springs, and the Public High School on Porter was becoming very crowded.(Schmidt, 1972, p. 70)
Presenting the history and genealogy of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, a wonderful and diverse community on the Mexican Gulf, which was founded by French Canadian soldiers of fortune and their French cohorts with the establishment of Fort Maurepas, in April 1699.
Ocean Springs was incorporated in September 1892.
Ocean Springs Archives was created in October 2004 for Ray L. Bellande
LINKS
www.dreaminginclay.com
http://www.oceanspringsarchives.com/