Jefferson Davis' last home nearly burned to the ground.

[Cpt Boone]

Re: Jefferson Davis' last home nearly burned to the ground.

Latest on the issue from www.wlox.com our local tv station.

06/14/04
Beauvoir Visitors Disappointed

Investigators are waiting for the lab results to determine what was used to start the fire, and authorities continue to search for the arson suspect who tried to burn down Jefferson Davis's home.

The fire happened June 5th in the early morning, but damage was limited to the doorway. An off duty firefighter, David LeMasters, was passing by and was able to put the fire out.

The home has been closed since the fire, and security has been increased. Officials with the Beauvoir home want the public to know they're still open for business, but some visitors say they were disappointed they couldn't tour the home.

"There are some people who are mainly here to see the house, and so are going to try and come back later. Or may have to see the house at another time, " Beauvoir's Executive Director Patrick Hotard said.

"Oh yeah a little bit. I only heard about the fire a few days ago, but the museum was terrific. But it would be interesting to see the house too," Dr. Richard Wilson from Minnesota said.

"I think it's a shame that we can't see it's history. I think someone thought it was a good prank just to try, and just close that down and not be able to let us see that, " Owen Oliver from Arkansas said.

Hotard said the number one priority is to get the home back open to public tours as soon as possible. The other priority is to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.

"We have augmented our security procedures and we've also added some additional personnel at certain times. We are looking at other intermediate and long term options to better secure the property," Hotard said.

In the short term, Hotard says a lot of painstaking restoration work lies ahead. He feels confident the home can be reopened fairly soon.

"We may even be able to do it in stages where even though some aspects of the job are not completed yet the house will still be able to be opened."

By: Don Culpepper

[dusty27]

Update from Biloxi

ARSON Police seek arsonist who torched porch of historic Beauvoir By ROBIN FITZGERALD BILOXI - To give a tip Anyone with information about the fire that damaged the antebellum home at Beauvoir shortly after 6 a.m. June 5 is asked to call investigators at: • Biloxi Police Department: 228-435-6112. • Crime Stoppers: 800-433-TIPS. Soot still covers the inside of Jefferson Davis' historic home as investigators try to learn who set the June 5 fire and Beauvoir officials work to restore what an arsonist tried to destroy. Police have released no additional information about the fire, except to confirm that whomever started it was on the property when they torched the landmark home's front porch. Beauvoir is the only national historic landmark in Harrison County and is one of only two in South Mississippi. The grounds, library-museum and antebellum home of the last president of the Confederacy attract 85,000 visitors a year. The home was built in 1856. Davis and his wife bought the estate in 1876 and his wife sold it to the Mississippi Sons of Confederate Veterans in 1903. Beauvoir is open for tours, but the home remains closed until further notice. "It's not like repairing a regular home, where you push everything out of the way and rip up what needs to be replaced," said Patrick Hotard, Beauvoir's executive director. "Restoration needs to be more deliberate." Additional security officers have been hired to guard the home and the SCV has set up a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case. Crime Stoppers anonymous tipline also offers a $1,000 reward. Repairs possibly could be done within 30 days, "but I almost hate to set a time limit on it," said Rick Forte, chairman of Beauvoir's board of trustees and board of directors. The fire, discovered by a Biloxi firefighter on his way to work, charred the home's massive front doors and ruined some of the original etched-glass door panels. "It's going to be hard to come up with the same type of glass," Forte said. "Everything in the main floor has to be dusted and cleaned and we still need estimates on repairs," he said. "We might could let people come in the back to tour the home before the front door is taken care of, but we haven't discussed that yet."

[Cpt Boone]

Beauvoir Restoration Information

From WLOX TV. www.wlox.com

06/25/04
Fire Restoration Work Begins At Beauvoir

It will cost about $77,000 to clean Beauvoir House, restore antiques and replace the charred door. On Friday, Beauvoir officials revealed more of the damage caused by an arsonist three weeks ago. It will take a lot of work to save Jefferson Davis' last home.

Artifact experts began the delicate task of removing 60 oil paintings that have decorated the walls of Beauvoir.

Blake Vonder Haar is with the New Orleans Conservation Guild.

"Most of these objects need to be cleaned. They have layers of soot and residue from the smoke damage. Fortunately, the house managed to escape any water damage."

Beauvoir Director Patrick Hotard said, "It's very odd when you're used to coming in and seeing these dominating portraits like Jefferson Davis. All of sudden, it just changes the whole complexion of those particular rooms. It just looks very bare."

The artwork will make the trip to New Orleans, where specialists will cautiously restore them.

"We'll do a dry cleaning, remove the surface dirt and whatever is sitting on the surface. Then we'll go through processes of using various conservation soaps. Sometimes water can be used. Sometimes solvents can be used. It really just depends on each individual item," Haar said.

Everything inside the historic landmark, from carpeting and bed linens to vintage furniture, are getting a deep cleaning. They were damaged June 5th when a fire burned the front door and broke the glass, allowing smoke and ash to pour into the house. Now, a temporary door is in place while the original is transported to a master carpenter in central Mississippi.

"He will take some of the charred wood off, replace that with the appropriate type of wood. Once the door has been re-pieced together, they will bring it back. They will re-attach it to the house, and then the glass people will come install replica glass," Hotard said.

It may take several weeks to repair and return Jefferson Davis' house to its original shape.

"It's a good thing for Beauvoir in the end, because things will come back in a little bit better condition then they were before," Haar said.

"I'm looking forward to having the house back open. I'm looking forward to having everything back, and the house being whole again," Hotard said.

Insurance will cover the entire cost of the restoration work. The house remains closed, but it should be open by the July 4th holiday.

As for the investigation, Biloxi police say they are waiting for lab results and they have no suspects at this time.

by Trang Pham-Bui

[Cpt Boone]

Beauvoir repairs under way

From the local paper. www.sunherald.com

Posted on Sat, Jun. 26, 2004



Beauvoir repairs under way

By TRACY DASH
THE SUN HERALD

BILOXI - Cleaning crews, construction workers and painters will spend the next several days doing the painstaking repair work at Beauvoir just weeks after someone tried to burn the mansion.

Beauvoir officials on Friday said the repairs cost about $77,000, which are covered by insurance, and are expected to be completed in time for visitors to enjoy the last home of Jefferson Davis during the Fourth of July weekend.

The June 5 fire, which police said was deliberately set, destroyed the 10-foot, 7-inch wooden and glass-panel front doors. Temporary doors will be installed until replicas of the original ones can be built.

The 160-year-old home's charred front doors lay on the large front porch Friday while construction workers rebuilt the threshold. Painters added a fresh coat of white paint to the porch railing and giant columns.

Restoration specialists packed about 58 paintings, many of them family photos, in boxes and carefully loaded them into a moving truck. Traveling with a police escort, workers with the New Orleans Conservation Guild Inc. took the paintings to their New Orleans studio to remove soot left by the fire.

Although smoke discolored the draperies and soot covered the antique furniture and china displayed on a dining room table, Beauvoir officials said the fire could have been worse.

"I don't care whether it's Jefferson Davis' home or Martin Luther King's (home)," said Richard Flowers, who works with Beauvoir's collections and archives. "They attempted to rob the future generation of the history of this period."

[dusty27]

Letter to the Editor

June 5 marked the 196th anniversary of Jefferson Davis' birth. Early that morning before the crowd of celebrants arrived, some cowardly arsonist attacked the hallowed old wooden building called Beauvoir which was his last home. It would have been lost, had it not been for an off-duty Biloxi fireman.

It is my feeling that the press coverage given this attack on the Davis home has been muted at best. If someone had firebombed a black church or Muslim mosque, we would have seen front page coverage locally and nationally.

ZIP RIBAR
Long Beach

[MoFed]

Re: Letter to the Editor

It is my feeling that the press coverage given this attack on the Davis home has been muted at best. If someone had firebombed a black church or Muslim mosque, we would have seen front page coverage locally and nationally.

ZIP RIBAR
Long Beach

Dusty,
Just a few months ago an antebellum black church in Virginia was seriously vandalized. It was reported in regional news sources, but not much past that.

Charles D. Hoskins

[dusty27]

Re: Jefferson Davis' last home nearly burned to the ground.

Charles,

The letter was from the SunHerald paper, not my letter. Don't know if you thought I had written it or not.

[MoFed]

Re: Jefferson Davis' last home nearly burned to the ground.

Sorry Dusty, I didn't catch that it was a quote and not editorializing. Guess I was a little quick on the trigger on that one. No offense intended.

None taken. Sorry for the confusion - Mike Chapman

Charles D. Hoskins.

[dusty27]

Jefferson Davis' last home reopens

From the Biloxi paper.............

"Another event expected to draw big crowds this weekend will be the reopening of Beauvoir. Jefferson Davis' home and presidential museum has been closed to the public for nearly a month, so workers could repair the damage caused by a fire police said was deliberately set.

Jennifer Myers, tours and programs coordinator, said she expects more than 1,000 people will visit Beauvoir during the holiday weekend. "We should be pretty close to the crowd we had last year," Myers said. "We've been getting out the word that the house will be open Friday."

That was quick..............

[coastaltrash]

Re: Jefferson Davis' last home reopens

I actually went by the home one nights on lunch right after to check the door out myself and that thing was burned pretty damn bad. I hope they could clean the glass.

On a side note- I wouldn't doubt something like that would come out of Long Beach, it IS the West Virginia of the Gulf Coast. JK.

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Letter to the Editor

Dusty,
Just a few months ago an antebellum black church in Virginia was seriously vandalized. It was reported in regional news sources, but not much past that.

Charles D. Hoskins

I heard about both the church and Jefferson Davis home way out here on the left coast, and was equally apalled by both. Preservation issues small and large, national and local, are everywere if you care enough to notice.