Oldfields: Where It All Began

I lived In this house from birth until the summer of my fourth year, when in 1948, my mother, sister, brothers and I went to live in Ocean Springs to be near my father, who had left us almost a year before to devote himself to his art. Oldfields now stands derelict, still on the bluff overlooking the sound in Gautier, Mississippi, but these days, instead of unspoiled woods stretching behind it, a subdivision is the surreal background for its beauty. Yes, it is still beautiful, though various owners have done what they would to make it their own. During my childhood it drew us back again and again for picnics and sleepovers. For two summers, it was the home of a day camp run by my mother. Mama's salary as a first grade teacher was never enough. Eventually, Oldfields had to be sold. Property taxes could not be paid.  

When Katrina struck, the current owner was out of the country, and never responded to the appeals of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to allow restoration. So ten years later the house still stands in broken splendor, still waits in a sad sort of limbo for what may never come.

The extra is of a plaque that sits behind the house. It has also been broken by the storm, but some of the history of the house can still be read.