Beauvoir work begins

[dusty27]

Beauvoir work begins
Rebuilding will take a year
By KAT BERGERON
kbergeron@sunherald.com

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunhera...l/16549696.htm

BILOXI - Construction fencing will soon encircle Beauvoir and by Feb. 5 workers will begin restoration work on the 1850s National Historic Landmark, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The $3.9 million project is expected to take a year.
Restoration of the battered home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis took a forward leap Thursday with a contract signing. At 10:27 a.m. Jerry Lathan, president of The Lathan Company of Mobile, committed to restoring the rare survivor of the antebellum raised cottage style perfected on the Gulf Coast.
Lathan, the lowest of four bidders on the project supported by federal preservation money, started his company 25 years ago.
"I like historic structures and restoring them," said Lathan, whose workers put final touches on the restored cupola of the New Orleans' Presbyter as Katrina approached. "It's fulfilling and satisfying, and you get to write your own chapter in the history of the building."
The contract-signing took place on the second floor of the Davis Presidential Library, which Beauvoir has turned into work central as the only other remaining structure on the 52-acre site.
"The national media reported Beauvoir destroyed, but I turned on U.S. 90 on the Thursday after the storm and there stood the house," said Richard Forte Sr. of Hattiesburg, chairman of Beauvoir's boards of trustees and directors. "It didn't look good but I said, 'We can fix that.'
The land is 12 feet above sea level and 12 feet of Katrina water topped that, but with Beauvoir's raised cottage style the worst swept underneath. The distinctive front porch disappeared, but interior floors and walls survived.
"Beauvoir is an icon of recovery," said Ken P'Pool, historic preservation division director at the Mississippi Department of Archives & History. "Beauvoir's design was the perfect marriage of function and beauty, adapting to climate with its raised 'basement' of brick pillars to take a storm surge, and its frame construction on the upper floor for coolness."
Katrina restoration is another chapter for Beauvoir, originally constructed as a planter's summer home. Houses from that era were built with artisan-slave labor and freed skilled tradesmen who bought freedom through paid work.
The project architect is Larry A. Albert of Hattiesburg, who will oversee the work that must follow Department of Interior standards. "We hope Beauvoir will serve as a spiritual boost in the recovery of the Coast," said Albert, whose firm oversaw a 16-year restoration before Katrina.
Other Beauvoir buildings did not fare as well. Museum artifacts from the library and another museum were scattered as walls crumbled. Staff and volunteers recovered about 65 percent of the artifacts; many can be restored.
But for now, the concentration is getting Beauvoir House open by June 2008, to mark the 200th birthday of Davis.

[SCTiger]

Re: Beauvoir work begins

Dusty:

I visited Beauvoir yesterday and the place needs a lot of work! Pictures and words can't convey the entire scene of devastation. Besides the beach and casinos, there is nothing in Biloxi for a tourist to "tour." I stayed for twenty minutes and six people showed up to the construction entrance. This has to be one of the most important tourist attractions for the Gulf Coast, aside from it's historical significance.

We still need to make contributions. People may feel that they should donate their money to other charities affected by Hurricane Katrina, but look at it this way; when Beauvoir is totally restored, this will attract the kind of tourists that spend money at retail shops, hotels and restaurants. This translates into more jobs and greater long term prosperity for the entire Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Also by coming to the Gulf Coast, more people will see the destruction and perhaps more will be done. This was nothing like anything that has ever hit SC. There was a 28 foot storm surge that struck Beauvoir.

Anyways, everyone needs to see the Gulf Coast. It is far from being rebuilt or restored.

[dusty27]

Re: Beauvoir work begins

	Posted on Sun, Feb. 11, 2007
	Beauvoir materials will be reclaimed By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunhera...e/16673623.htm BILOXI - The retirement home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, battered by Hurricane Katrina but still standing, is about to get a painstaking face lift. Later this month, workers embark on a yearlong, $4 million project to repair and restore Beauvoir, the only national historic landmark Katrina severely damaged on Mississippi's Gulf Coast. George Fore, an architectural conservator, is studying the home's painted walls and ceilings by chipping away layers of paint on the damaged frescoes. He is digging through the work of previous restoration projects to examine the original paint job. "The design became less and less like the original with each repainting," he said. It's Fore's job to help re-create what the home looked like during the decade that Davis lived there. "Nothing was lost in total. Nothing totally disappeared," he said. Some of the home's storm-tossed remnants aren't gone for good. Workers plan to recycle piles of bricks, slate and plaster that broke off the home to rebuild the structure. Flowers said slate for the new roof will be imported from the same company in Wales that provided the original material for the home. The color might differ slightly, because the slate is drawn from a different part of the same mine. "They are still mining that same slate," he said. "It's just unreal." In addition to rebuilding the home, Beauvoir's stewards hope to construct replicas of other Davis-era structures that no longer exist on the property, including a carpenter's shop, maids' quarters and foreman's house. Beavoir averaged about 100,000 visitors annually before Katrina. In the storm's aftermath, the state's Department of Archives and History fielded hundreds of phone calls and e-mails from people concerned about the building's fate, said Ken P'Pool, a deputy state historic preservation officer. "In many ways, it symbolizes the revitalization of the entire Gulf Coast," he said of the home's restoration. "There are an awful lot of people who know and recognize that building." Beauvoir already has had two major restorations, in 1941 and 1978. This project will be funded by a combination of public and private dollars. FEMA has agreed to pay for roughly 75 percent of the $4 million. Flowers said government red tape has slowed down the pace of the project. "Once they start actually taking hammers to nails and start the rebuilding," he said, "I will feel like we've finally turned the corner."