Beauvoir to live again!

[larry_cockerham]

From a recent Sun Herald publication:

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

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.