In Biloxi, the Swetman House Rises out of the Rubble

By Rosa Lowinger

The Swetman House, before and after Hurricane Katrina.

(April 25, 2006) When Katrina's storm surge reached the steps of the Colonial Revival house his grandfather had built along Biloxi's beachfront in 1905, Chevis Swetman knew it was time to get out. Earlier that night, Chevis, who is president and CEO of the People's bank of Mississippi, had decided to ride out the hurricane at home, while his wife Marcia and their grown son Tanner holed up in bank's main branch-a brick building built in 1916. But as he watched the speed with which the dark waves churned above the water mark left by Hurricane Camille in 1969, Chevis had no choice but to bail out the back door and head for the bank.

The next day, after the winds died down, Chevis and Marcia ventured back home through knee-deep water and debris. "The house looked like its back was broken," Chevis recalled. The storm surge had rushed beneath their house carrying fragments of Biloxi's concrete boardwalk, and this had ripped apart the brick foundation piers, causing the facade to sag forward onto the ground. "The walls had caved in on the bed, most of the plaster and the stairs were gone, and there were tree limbs and boardwalk in the living room," said Marcia. "We were sure we were going to lose [the house]."

A few weeks later, Marcia and Tanner were back home removing wood mantels and other architectural details in preparation for demolition, when they were approached by two volunteers who were out surveying historic properties along Mississippi's coast and offering advice to residents. These volunteers were part of the first team recruited by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Mississippi Heritage Trust, and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Patrick Sparks, a structural engineer who is president of Sparks Engineering in Austin, Texas, was part of the team. "Pat showed us how the original long side studs were still holding the structure together, and that a good house mover would be able to jack it up and put it right again," said Marcia. "I couldn't believe it could be done."

Neither could Chevis. But after Sparks explained that house movers had the proper expertise to stabilize the structure and lift it up again, the Swetmans decided to give their butter-yellow home a second chance. "First they had to dig under the house, pull out dirt and sand, and slide beams underneath," said Chevis, of Kosiuscko House Movers, the firm he ultimately hired. Next, the movers installed a series of black rubber pads under the house. Over the next three weeks the pads were pumped with air to raise the structure out of the rubble a few inches at a time. It was a painstaking process; but by November, the Swetman house was miraculously back on its feet.

In order to protect it from future storms, the house now sits on higher concrete foundation piers that will be faced with the brick of the original piers. The Swetmans also hired Sparks to "harden the house," a process that further reinforces the structure with plywood sheathing underneath the siding, and by connecting all structural elements from the roof to the footings with metal bolts, straps, and anchors. Once that work is complete, the Swetmans will turn their attention to rewiring, re-roofing, and re-plastering the house-processes that will take at least another year. They are nonetheless undaunted by the prospect.

"Once we knew our house could be saved, [we] began to feel better about the whole world," said Marcia. "It was that good old construction that let us do it. There's a lot to be learned from looking at the insides of an old house."

Rosa Lowinger is an architectural conservator and the author of Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub.