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BALFOUR HOUSE

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1835, William Bobb, builder. 1002 Crawford St.

In 1835 and 1836, William Bobb, one of three brothers from Philadelphia in the building trades, constructed the three-building subdivision that includes the Cobb House (1011 Crawford) and Pemberton’s Headquarters (Willis House) at number 1018. The two-story brick houses formed a huddle of Confederate activity when Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton established his headquarters in the Willis House. Emma Balfour kept a diary recounting the daily difficulties during the city’s siege, noting that the house’s foundations shook when shells hit nearby.

Although all three houses share similar inset entrances with columns in antis and Federal and Greek Revival details, the Balfour House holds architectural supremacy. Its high-quality finishes include tightly laid Flemish bond brick, end parapet walls, Corinthian columns (rather than the simpler Ionic columns on the other two houses), a dentiled cornice, a roof balustrade, and a Doric double-tiered rear gallery. The Cobb House’s single-bay portico is the only original remaining; the Pemberton’s three-bay double-tiered porch is probably 1880s, and the Balfour’s portico was reconstructed in the 1980s. Bobb moved to New Orleans in 1851.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Jennifer V.O. Baughn and Michael W. Fazio with Mary Warren Miller
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Data

What's Nearby

HISTORIC ST. FRANCIS XAVIER SCHOOL AND CONVENT
BECK HOUSE
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY
WALNUT HILLS

Citation

Jennifer V.O. Baughn and Michael W. Fazio with Mary Warren Miller, "BALFOUR HOUSE", [Vicksburg, Mississippi], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MS-02-YB17.

Print Source

Buildings of Mississippi, Jennifer V. O. Baughn and Michael W. Fazio. With Mary Warren Miller. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2021, 78-78.

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