Work begins on new Jefferson Davis library

Rasp

Senior Editor
Work begins on new Jefferson Davis library

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JACKSON, Miss. -- Bertram Hayes-Davis says the $10.5 million project to rebuild the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum is another opportunity to show his great, great grandfather's legacy shouldn't be limited to a fight to preserve slavery.

"In the American people's minds, that specific association is the only factor they know about Jefferson Davis. I'm working to educate the American public on all of the great accomplishments of this American patriot," Hayes-Davis said in an interview.

The 61-year-old president of the Davis Family Association was the keynote speaker at a groundbreaking ceremony Sunday in Biloxi at Beauvoir, the Mississippi Gulf Coast home where the Confederate president spent the remaining years of his life.

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 damaged Beauvoir, and destroyed the library and museum also located the beachfront Biloxi property.

The ceremony took place on the 120th anniversary of Davis' death of pneumonia while he was on a riverboat in New Orleans.

Hayes-Davis, who lives in Dallas, said the reconstruction of the presidential library will be a historic moment for his family.

"I think the completion of the library will again bring Beauvoir back to its recognition point. We have restored Beauvoir to its original condition," he said. "The library itself is a focal point of documenting all of Davis' life."

Davis was a West Point graduate and an Army soldier who fought in the Mexican War. He later served as a U.S. senator from Mississippi and played a role in what would become the Smithsonian Institute before he was named president of the seceding states that would become the Confederacy.

Funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its state counterpart will pay 90 percent of the nearly $10.5 million project because the site is a national historic landmark, said Beauvoir Director Rick Forte.

Forte said other funding would come from money the museum had before the storm and insurance. The reconstruction is scheduled to be completed in August 2011. The 51-acre Beauvoir site is owned by the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Beauvoir was built in 1852. A hospital was built on the grounds in 1924 to serve aging Confederate veterans and their wives, Forte said.

Katrina caused some structural damage to the house, ripping the U-shaped porch off, and causing roof damage. The rooms and content -- beds, chairs, and bookshelves -- were intact, Forte said.

"The Beauvoir House was built in the right spot. It's been through about 30 hurricanes and it's still there," Forte said.

But tourism traffic at Beauvoir has been down. Forte and local officials cite the recession and the continued recovery of the coast, where Katrina's surge left billions of dollars in damage and initially scattered much of the region's population.

Forte said Beauvoir needs a consistent crowd of about 200 a day to pay the entrance fees that range from $5 to $9 to break even. He said daily visits now average between 100 to 150. The house is open every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Biloxi city spokesman Vincent Creel said the project is significant because the city will be among only a few in the country with a presidential library.

Davis' library isn't officially recognized by the federal government.

"We think it enhances the cultural appeal of Biloxi," Creel said. "It will be something that's not only a showplace, but a resource center for people who are studying the Civil War."
 
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