Page 24 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2016

COASTNOTES
Pascagoula’s La Pointe-Krebs House Opens Museum and Continues Renovation
The house at its original state
RESTORING HISTORY
Pstory by Alexis Williams photos courtesy of Mark Sokolsky Wixon
ascagoula’s La Pointe-Krebs House holds history of over two centuries. The La Pointe-Krebs House Foundation is currently working on restoration efforts to restore the structure so it will be recognized nationally and survive for years to come. On July 1, the La Pointe-Krebs House celebrated the grand opening of its museum.
The home, built in 1757, is the ancestral home of the Krebs family and remained such until about 1910. Recognized as the oldest building in the state of Mississippi and in the Mississippi Valley, the home was built using two antique techniques — tabby and bousilliage. Tabby involves using an oyster shell concrete structure making the walls at least one foot thick. The bousilliage structure uses timber frames and a mixture of Spanish moss and Native American pottery shards found under the home.
“This property is very interesting from under the ground to the top of the house,” says La Pointe-Krebs Foundation Executive Director Mark Sokolsky Wixon. He adds that the home was built on land the Pascagoula Indians used as a trash site for shells from the oysters they ate.
Overlooking Krebs Lake on the Pascagoula River, the house has been undergoing phase one of a restoration process, which may take several more years. According to Wixon, a restoration team recently finished shoring up the attic and lifted sections of the west room more than a foot as they worked to level the historic home. The total cost to restore the centuries old home will be approximately $1.5 million.
Most recently, the home was part of a dendrochronological study by the University of Southern Mississippi. Researchers used tree-ring dating to determine its exact age.
“This house now officially, and undoubtedly, represents the beginning of the international importance that our local area holds,” said Wixon. “Pascagoula is home to a great treasure and beacon of history.”
4602 Fort Street, Pascagoula Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. 228.471.5126 • www.lapointekrebs.org
Restoration of the La Pointe-Krebs House
24 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • July 2016 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net