Grass Lawn Site — Milner House (Destroyed)

Dr. Hiram A. Roberts built Grass Lawn in 1836 as a summer house — a Port Gibson surgeon with sugarcane plantations in Louisiana who wanted 235 acres between himself and the heat. The house looked over the Mississippi Sound. Wood-pegged construction: hand-hewn longleaf pine timbers, bald cypress walls, heart-pine floors. Black or white marble fireplace mantels. Ten-foot-wide porches on two stories, held up by box columns. In 1905, John Kennedy Milner bought it. Milner later owned the Coast Coca-Cola Bottling Company in Gulfport. The property had been subdivided by then. In 1972, the house went on the National Register for its political, historical, and architectural significance. A year later, the Milner family sold it to the City of Gulfport. For the next thirty-two years it was a community center — private parties, public gatherings, the house still in use. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed it completely. A replica called Grasslawn II was built and designated a Mississippi Landmark in 2010. It was dedicated on July 20, 2012. The city rents it for weddings, receptions, and other events. What stood here from 1836 to 2005 is gone. What replaced it is new construction built to look backward. This is the site of the original house — wood pegs, longleaf pine, marble mantels, 169 years.