April 8, 2011 Biloxi, Jeff Davis, and Katrina...

After Mobile we return to I-10 then cut south to the waterfront to take a look at Biloxi, Mississippi.

Our first stop is a gigantic casino on the water where we have lunch. There is no obvious RV parking so we park across the street in an area of city blocks and slab foundations but no buildings, except for our casino and another one of recent construction. We go for the 2-for-1 special buffet but find nothing very good and leave full but unsatisfied.

Marcia's passenger-side visitor in Biloxi.

Typical block in coastal Biloxi five years after Katrina.

On leaving we realize these vacant blocks must be the aftermath of Katrina. We continue along the waterfront and for uncounted miles see nothing but derelict piers and half-completed (or half-surviving?) casino construction on the coast, and next-to-nothing landward but old foundations and porch steps. New Orleans got the network coverage but this is where the hurricane really hit.

Beauvoir, Jefferson Davis' last home, in the late 1800s.

Eventually we come to Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis. Davis lost most of his wealth in the Civil War and could hardly afford Beauvoir but was making payments when the owner died; she did not believe Davis would accept charity but knowing herself to be in poor health she wrote her will so Davis received full title at her death. This was his home for the last twelve years of his life.

The white dates from when this served as a Confederate veterans home. 

Cedar, carefully painted to look like oak.

The home is interesting for what it isn’t: a fancy mansion. Only one story, it is built on piers 23 feet off the ground. The interior woodwork is mostly pine and cedar; the latter painted to look like oak. Trompe-l'œil techniques are used to give the interior walls an appearance of elegance and fine craftsmanship.

Hours after Katrina in 2005 and a 24 foot storm surge.

Katrina damaged silver from the Davis home.

The home, built partly with slave labor, has been here since 1852. It survived 140+ hurricanes but Katrina about did it in. The storm surge reached 24 feet so the steps and porches washed away and the interior flooded a foot deep, the furniture pushed to the back walls. Most of the damage has been repaired and work is underway on the neighboring “presidential library”.

Beauvoir remained in the Davis family until 1903, when it and the surrounding property were converted for use as a home for Confederate soldiers and their families.