Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/141

Rh In the year 1892 I bought from Mr. J. U. Payne, of New Orleans, his summer home, Rosehart, Pass Christian, Miss. It had been closed for some years. The grounds were grown up with cane and weeds to a colossal height and were impenetrable. The place fronts 250 feet on the Shell Beach Boulevard, from which a beach lot sloped down to the Gulf of Mexico. From this lot a pier 1,080 feet long extended to the channels in the gulf. At the end of it was an octagon house containing eight rooms, for tearooms and bathrooms, surrounded by a gallery. About fifty yards beyond the bath-house was a dance platform in the lake. In the olden times a negro band played on the platform. In the evening the boats rowed up to the pier, which was lighted, and guests were received and entertained there. During the yachting season yachts were anchored along the channels off the pier. On the shore was an old boathouse, with some decayed boats as relics.

The house itself was built in three sections, having pavilions around an open square called the "Plazita." The central section was copied exactly in the building of Beauvoir, which was for years the home of ex-President Davis, and about sixteen miles east of Rosehart. The gallery, about fifteen feet wide and fifteen feet high, extended around the central pavilion, which was on elevated pillars above the ground. The two side pavilions contained bedrooms, kitchen, etc., a two-story gallery extending around them. In the rear were a windmill and deep well, a laundry cottage and a bachelors' cottage, which was used for housing bachelors over Sunday, and for card games at night.