Plans under way
to restore Beauvoir
LISA M. KRIEGER
SUN HERALD
September 14, 2005
Despite
massive storm damage, the historic Beauvoir House is structurally
sound and can be restored, with time and money, according to the
Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
"Plans
are already under way,'' said Richard Cawthon, chief architectural
historian for the department. "Architectural specialists have
examined the home and found it preservable.''
The beachfront retirement home of Confederate President Jefferson
Davis, and the only national historic landmark in Harrison County,
the Beauvoir house has lived through the Civil War, attempted
arson and 21 other hurricanes during its 150-year life.
But Hurricane Katrina was almost fatal.
 Beauvoir's
elegant porches, recently refurbished, are gone. So is the
graceful front staircase. Entrance doors, each with nine oval
glass panes, were destroyed. A corner of the roof is missing.
Original windows have been broken. Louvered green shutters are
badly damaged.
A cherished example of "Raised Cottage" Gulf Coast architecture,
its design is credited with the survival of the house. It is built
on slightly elevated ground, and the main structure of the house
stands 12 feet off the ground on brick piers, allowing floodwaters
to surge through.
The wraparound porches may have offered some protection, said
Cawthon. And its broad and low hipped roof, with a slope on each
side, was less vulnerable to wind than a traditional vertical
roof.
"The house was designed to accommodate weather conditions that
occur on the Gulf Coast,'' he said. "It was constructed to
maximize its survivability."
Beauvoir fared better than many other landmarks in Biloxi. The
Dantzler House, a cottage dating back to
the 1850s, was destroyed. The Brielmaier House is missing. Only a
chimney is left of the Pleasant Reed House, built by a former
slave and home to a museum of African-American history.
The first step in Beauvoir's restoration will be to repair the
roof, so that rain does not further damage the interior, said
Cawthon. Because the foundation of the house is sound, it will be
able to support its weight during restoration.
Unfortunately, its surrounding structures did not fare so well.
"It is with great sadness that the Library pavilion, where
Jefferson Davis penned "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate
Government,'' the Hayes Cottage, Soldier's Home Barracks replica,
Confederate Soldier's Museum, giftshop and director's home were
totally destroyed,'' according to the Beauvoir Web site. The
Presidential Library lost its first floor.
Beauvoir is owned by the Mississippi Division of the Sons of
Confederate Veterans, which will lead fundraising and restoration
efforts.
Flooding carried away antique furniture and many priceless
artifacts, including uniforms and weapons. It is feared that some
rare rifles are gone, along with the saddle on which Davis rode
into the Mexican war and the wooden hearse-like structure that
carried his body to the grave.
Because an inventory is still under way, historians do not yet
know how many artifacts were lost. Beauvoir historians reportedly
provided a list of military artifacts to the eBay online auction
Web site, so that any items listed for sale can be confiscated and
returned to the estate.
The jacket of a confederate soldier was found suspended from a
bush, along with other flotsam and jetsam.
To deter looters, the National Guard now patrols the site at
night. A private security guard is posted during the day.
The good news is that the second-floor reference library of the
Presidential Library survived. Two small cottages and a barn in
the back of the property were untouched by flooding.
Its survival is a priority, agreed officials with the Washington
D.C.-based National Trust for Historic Preservation and
Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
"Beauvoir is a very important historic site because of its
association with a very historic figure,'' said John Hildreth,
director of the southern chapter of the National Trust for
Historic Preservation.
It attracts between 80,000 and 100,000 visitors a year. In 2002,
the Mississippi Tourism Association named the estate the top
tourism destination in Mississippi.
Because of its link to the Confederacy, "It is a lightning rod for
a lot of people, which gives us an opportunity to explore a lot of
themes in our history ‹ themes that have an impact on our current
culture,'' he said.
South Mississippi historian Charles Sullivan calls it "a shrine" a
memorial to a lost cause. Jefferson Davis is a symbol of a cause
that failed.''
"It is a tangible connection to a past that wasn't so long ago. In
the 7,000 years of human history, the Civil War was just an
eyeblink ago. It just happened. Because of Beauvoir, Jefferson
Davis is still with us,'' Sullivan said. "In the words of William
Faulkner, 'The past is not dead. It is not even past.' "
Its restoration will be a delicate and deliberate process.
Because Beauvoir is listed as a National Historic Landmark by the
National Park Service, it will be eligible for federal restoration
money. Private donations are also being sought. After restoration
of the Beauvoir House and Presidential Library, officials hope to
build replicas of missing structures.
Jefferson Davis is said to have savored the climate of Biloxi,
once saying that "the soft air is delicious.''
With air that was neither soft nor delicious, Katrina almost
claimed the site.
"But we'll fix it,'' said Sullivan. "We're used to defeat. We'll
restore it. It will rise again."
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