Belhaven has Mississippi’s largest number of Craftsman houses, and these two blocks of Gillespie Street show them best. Brick and wood combine at the Alexander-Caldwell House (c. 1913; 720 Gillespie), and its horizontality is emphasized by wooden bands that wrap the corners. The one-and-a-half-story, brick Hampton-Curry House (c. 1922; 719 Gillespie) is enlivened by a Tudor-arched porch and a balustrade, half-timbering, and a jerkinhead roof of green terra-cotta tiles. The house’s architect, N. W. Overstreet, was one of Gillespie Street’s developers. Family tradition dates Carnahan House (749 Gillespie) to 1906, and if so it is the state’s earliest known Craftsman residence. Its spreading porch is finished with rustic board and batten in the gable, and oversized triangular knee braces rest heavily on short paneled piers.
Japanese influence shines in the Moran-Berbette House (1916; 778 Gillespie), with its red tile roof flared at the eaves, Japanese half-timbering (lighter and more regular than European), and porch supports with interlocking pegged woodwork. Positioned on a terraced lawn, the house is by E. J. Hull, who also designed the one-story, stuccoed Isadore Lehman House (1922; 730 Gillespie). Such Craftsman elements as exposed rafter ends and squat porch piers enrich the Graves-Erskin House (c. 1915; 800 Gillespie), a front-gabled bungalow. In 1916, N. W. Overstreet, fresh from his architectural training in Illinois, built his two-story, brick and stucco Prairie Style house at 831 Gillespie.