The 2013 Centennial Celebration
The Centennial event was held in December 2013
There are sixty-four windows in the old Webb School, so even on cloudy days, it’s a building filled with light.
Its architect understood that abundant natural light would make lessons easier on young eyes. And he knew those same windows would tempt breezes through the school’s two enormous classrooms in the sultry days of early summers.
Celebrating its 100th year in 2013, the mission-style elementary school in Bay St. Louis was designed by architect John Henry. But while Henry may have been a gifted designer, he couldn’t have imagined the different roles the Webb School would play in Bay St. Louis over the next century.
While the unique building served as a school for grades 1 – 4 for nearly 50 years, it has since been used as a community center, a meeting place for those struggling with substance abuse, and even an impromptu shelter for neighbors after Hurricane Katrina. If walls could talk, the ones at Webb School would have some fascinating stories to tell.
Historians are hoping that locals will share some of those stories about the building during an open house and oral history gathering on Saturday, December 7. The event will take place 11am – 5pm at the former school, located at 300 Third Street in the Depot District of Old Town.
A team from Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast University, with support from the Mississippi Humanities Council, will be on hand to celebrate the building’s centennial and working with the building’s current owners to document more of the building’s history.
During the open house, two videographers will be available to document locals’ recollections of the building. Event organizers hope to record memories from former teachers, students, and neighbors – in short, anyone who has information about the school and would like that knowledge saved for future generations.
A small collection of old photographs and original plans of the Webb School will be on exhibit during centennial celebration and open house. Organizers are hoping to add to that collection on the 7th. A scanner will be set up all day and visitors are encouraged to bring newspaper articles, photographs or other memorabilia pertaining to the building. Items will be scanned immediately, so the original material will return home with the owner that day. State archives will safely store the digitized copies.
Webb School is a designated Mississippi Historic Landmark, the state’s highest recognition of a building’s historic importance. It currently serves as a home for coast architect Larry Jaubert and his wife, writer Ellis Anderson. Anderson purchased the building in 2002 and spent three years working on its restoration before Hurricane Katrina. After the storm, she began documenting accounts of the actual storm and the arduous process of recovery.
Webb School suffered less damage than most of the surrounding houses since it was stoutly built atop massive concrete pilings. During the hurricane, it served as shelter for those fleeing for their lives in the unprecedented tidal surge. In fact, a boat arrived at the peak of the storm with desperate neighbors clinging to the sides.
While the school sustained damage itself in the storm, it was still able to provide shelter to survivors and act as a distribution point for supplies driven in by volunteers. Anderson soon began blogging about the ordeals of the storm itself, and the long-term recovery.
In 2010, Anderson’s book, expanded from her blog and written mostly in Webb School - was published by University Press of Mississippi. “Under Surge, Under Siege, the Odyssey of Bay St. Louis and Katrina” has remained a local best-seller, winning the Eudora Welty Book Prize (2010), and being short-listed as a finalist for Stanford University International Saroyan Book Prize (2012).
Anderson and Jaubert are hoping to eventually produce a broadcast quality short documentary video about Webb School. It won’t be the first school project the couple has undertaken.
Jaubert was the architect for the restoration of the Randolph School in Pass Christian, one of the nationally treasured Rosenwald Schools built across the South for African-Americans in the early 1900’s. In 2014, Jaubert was honored with a Mississippi Heritage Trust Award for the project.
Anderson produced a documentary short about the Randolph restoration on behalf of Mississippi Department of Archives and History. She also recently completed a second video short for MDAH, documenting the history and restoration of the Charnley-Norwood House in Ocean Springs, designed by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.
“Webb School has a wonderful story to tell,” says Anderson. “Part of the building’s charm is the way it’s been repurposed by the community through the last century. Hopefully this event will help us discover information about it that might have been lost forever.
“For instance, recently someone came forward with information that the school housed an amazing Eskimo Art exhibit from Canada in the mid-sixties. Who would have guessed?”
Its architect understood that abundant natural light would make lessons easier on young eyes. And he knew those same windows would tempt breezes through the school’s two enormous classrooms in the sultry days of early summers.
Celebrating its 100th year in 2013, the mission-style elementary school in Bay St. Louis was designed by architect John Henry. But while Henry may have been a gifted designer, he couldn’t have imagined the different roles the Webb School would play in Bay St. Louis over the next century.
While the unique building served as a school for grades 1 – 4 for nearly 50 years, it has since been used as a community center, a meeting place for those struggling with substance abuse, and even an impromptu shelter for neighbors after Hurricane Katrina. If walls could talk, the ones at Webb School would have some fascinating stories to tell.
Historians are hoping that locals will share some of those stories about the building during an open house and oral history gathering on Saturday, December 7. The event will take place 11am – 5pm at the former school, located at 300 Third Street in the Depot District of Old Town.
A team from Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast University, with support from the Mississippi Humanities Council, will be on hand to celebrate the building’s centennial and working with the building’s current owners to document more of the building’s history.
During the open house, two videographers will be available to document locals’ recollections of the building. Event organizers hope to record memories from former teachers, students, and neighbors – in short, anyone who has information about the school and would like that knowledge saved for future generations.
A small collection of old photographs and original plans of the Webb School will be on exhibit during centennial celebration and open house. Organizers are hoping to add to that collection on the 7th. A scanner will be set up all day and visitors are encouraged to bring newspaper articles, photographs or other memorabilia pertaining to the building. Items will be scanned immediately, so the original material will return home with the owner that day. State archives will safely store the digitized copies.
Webb School is a designated Mississippi Historic Landmark, the state’s highest recognition of a building’s historic importance. It currently serves as a home for coast architect Larry Jaubert and his wife, writer Ellis Anderson. Anderson purchased the building in 2002 and spent three years working on its restoration before Hurricane Katrina. After the storm, she began documenting accounts of the actual storm and the arduous process of recovery.
Webb School suffered less damage than most of the surrounding houses since it was stoutly built atop massive concrete pilings. During the hurricane, it served as shelter for those fleeing for their lives in the unprecedented tidal surge. In fact, a boat arrived at the peak of the storm with desperate neighbors clinging to the sides.
While the school sustained damage itself in the storm, it was still able to provide shelter to survivors and act as a distribution point for supplies driven in by volunteers. Anderson soon began blogging about the ordeals of the storm itself, and the long-term recovery.
In 2010, Anderson’s book, expanded from her blog and written mostly in Webb School - was published by University Press of Mississippi. “Under Surge, Under Siege, the Odyssey of Bay St. Louis and Katrina” has remained a local best-seller, winning the Eudora Welty Book Prize (2010), and being short-listed as a finalist for Stanford University International Saroyan Book Prize (2012).
Anderson and Jaubert are hoping to eventually produce a broadcast quality short documentary video about Webb School. It won’t be the first school project the couple has undertaken.
Jaubert was the architect for the restoration of the Randolph School in Pass Christian, one of the nationally treasured Rosenwald Schools built across the South for African-Americans in the early 1900’s. In 2014, Jaubert was honored with a Mississippi Heritage Trust Award for the project.
Anderson produced a documentary short about the Randolph restoration on behalf of Mississippi Department of Archives and History. She also recently completed a second video short for MDAH, documenting the history and restoration of the Charnley-Norwood House in Ocean Springs, designed by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.
“Webb School has a wonderful story to tell,” says Anderson. “Part of the building’s charm is the way it’s been repurposed by the community through the last century. Hopefully this event will help us discover information about it that might have been lost forever.
“For instance, recently someone came forward with information that the school housed an amazing Eskimo Art exhibit from Canada in the mid-sixties. Who would have guessed?”