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J. F. H. CLAIBORNE HOME DESCRIBED BY A VISITOR IN 1937
WPA - 1937 - Hancock County
Historical Research Project by Emma A. Clay, Nary L. Jokich, vith Fay H. Edwards, County Supervisor
On Friday, August 28th, 1936, at 10 A.M. I together vith four other enthusiastic explorers set out for parts unknovn because while we all had the same objective, the old plantation home of Col. J. F. H. Claiborne, none of us knew just how to get there but we did know that it is in the southwestern corner of Hancock County.
Turning south from the Old Spanish Trail below Waveland we drove over a graveled road to the Gulfview School. We drove west over a dirt road to Ansley where we stopped for greeting with the busy, smiling postmistress Mrs. Fred Buffa. Here we were given directions for the latter part of our Journey, a distance yet to be covered of approximately five miles.
After going over a dirt road with scarcely a house in sight through two pasture gates and fording one small branch we at last reached the spot sought called by one of the party "Lands End11 and saw the house which was formerly the home of Col. J.F.H. Claiborne and dating back to Spanish occupation.
The house rises above the ground and faces South overlooking the marsh where in the distance you can see the L. & N. R. R. from the broad front porch.
The house stands on high brick pillars and is reached by broad steps from the ground.
There are four large rooms with fourteen foot ceilings and a broad hall, the wide door of which has the sidelights or side transoms. There are double storm shutters at the openings and two "Queen Anne" gable windows rising from the tin roof.
The screened back porch seems to be a later addition to the house which is of Spanish architecture.
Among the very early land owners of this section were John Ji B. and Philip Saucier whose land holdings date back to the 1700s but no record is found where they are of the same family. The land upon which this home stands, five acres of which are covered with virgin pine, is evidently a part of the Spanish grant to John B. Saucier.
He built this house about 1800 with the timber from the surrounding forests. It is natural to suppose that he made his own brick.
There is a small ravine near by which you can cross on your way to the house. It rises from a spring where Choctaw Indians camped as these Indians came to the coast in the summer. A short distance east of the house is the	remnants	of the mound
they left made of small clam shells.