After moving to the Mississippi Coast for health reasons, horticulturalist and engineer James M. Sherman (1854–1937) began this idiosyncratic and picturesque poured-concrete two-story house in 1927. Working with an African American (his name now unknown), Sherman fulfilled his personal vision using fanciful motifs gleaned from his travels and reading, including spiral columns based on maritime ropes, balustrades reproduced from church altar rails, Mediterranean red tile over the windows and along the parapet, and a round tower. Only the first floor was livable when he died, and his artist daughter, Jessie Gundlach, completed the house by 1945 with the help of the same African American builder. The only house for blocks to survive Hurricane Katrina, it has remained vacant since and its once-fine garden is overgrown.