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Groups to restore two historic Bay homes
SEA COAST ECHO
Two historic homes along the North Beach Boulevard Historic District in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, will be preserved as part of a pilot program organized and directed by the World Monuments	Fund
(WMF).
Master craftsmen specializing in traditional building trades from across the country and graduate students from the University of Florida’s (Gainesville) Historic Preservation program have volunteered their time during the holiday break to assist in the preservation of the two houses.
Using a range of equipment and tools, from a small crane to hammers and screwdrivers, tape measures, drawing materials, and more, the technical team will work on the two houses simultaneously:
They will document and disassemble the Hecker Cottage, a mostly destroyed 18th-century shotgun-type house whose historic timber frame, siding, windows and doors and other surviving details will be used for later reconstruction. The project developed by WMF will serve as a model to demon-
strate options to help mit-	winds and especially the
igate the loss of hun-	storm surge, which
dreds, possibly thou-	reached over 30 feet,
sands of partially ruined	Although the house rep-
historic homes across	resents decades of mem-
Mississippi’s coastal	ories of taking children /
communities, including	and grandchildren to the
the salvage of historic	beach, Mr. Hecker has
building materials for	made the decision not to
reuse or possible recon-	rebuild.
struction.	—	—------75-year-old Dorothy
They will assess the	Phillips, who, because
conditions of the ca.	she weathered Hurricane
1840 center-hall Phillips	Camille in her family I
House to determine a	home without any prob-
plan for its restoration,	lems, decided to do the
With input from the	same with Hurricane
Mississippi Department	Katrina, a decision she
of Archives and History	soon regretted. She is
the technical team	glad to be alive, and glad
assembled by WMF will	that her cat, Big Boy, has
design a period restora-	forgiven her for making
tion, preserving the sur-	him stay through the
viving architectural fab-	storm,
ric and returning the	This project is part of a
house to its original con-	joint effort between the
figuration.	World Monuments Fund
Representatives from	and Preservation Trades
WMF, Preservation	Network, working with
Trades Network (PTN),	Mississippi Heritage
the University of	Trust and Mississippi
Florida’s College of	Department of Archive
Design, Planning and	and History, to demon-
Construction,	the	strate the importance of
Mississippi Heritage	restoring the Gulf
Trust, and the	Coast’s built heritage as
Mississippi Department	part of the region’s long-
of Archives and History	term reconstruction,
will be on hand, as well	Working with local part-
as members of the	ners and community
Hecker and Phillips fam-	groups, WMF will help
ilies, including:	make available to
86-year-old Charles	impacted property own-
Hecker, who has been	ers and the public recom-
summering in his fami-	mendations	and
ly’s house since 1956.	resources for preserving '
The house was almost	and restoring historic
demolished by the high	houses.