Location Information
(for the Alfred E. Lewis House)
Name:Alfred E. Lewis House ["Oldfields"]
Address:1901 Watersedge Drive
City/County:Gautier, Jackson County
Architectural Information
Construction Date:c.1845
Architectural Styles(s):Greek Revival
No. of Stories:1.5
Registration Information
NR Listing Date:16 Oct 1980
    MPS:Walter Anderson Thematic Group
View National Register Nomination Form
Context/Comments
The Alfred E. Lewis House is an outstanding example of a large Greek Revival cottage of one-and-one-half stories with undercut galleries. The house was built on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico around 1845, across the Pascagoula River delta from what is now Pascagoula. The plantation was instrumental in the settlement of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, for few larger enterprises had been started in the region by that time. Replete with service buildings, docks, racetrack, and cemetery, the house originally stood on a tract as large as 20,000 acres.

This building was individually listed on the National Register on 16 October 1980. It was later included as a component of the Walter Anderson thematic group, which was added to the National Register in 1989.

This building is included in "Historic Architecture in Mississippi" (1973) (p. 100) and "Old Homes of Mississippi, Volume I: Natchez and the South" (1977) (pp. 145-146),
Brief Description
1.5 story, wood-frame house with nine-bays (w-d-w-d-d-d-w-d-w) Greek Revival center-hall house with a side-gable roof. The full-width, inset porch is supported by square tapered posts. All doors are French with 5-light transoms. Center doors on the front and rear contain sidelights and 5-light transoms. Floor to ceiling windows were covered by wooden louvered shutters. All other windows are 6/6 wooden double-hung sash, also with working shutters. The house rests on concrete block piers, and is clad in clapboard and has an asphalt shingle roof.
Historic Information
The Lewis House was constructed c.1845 as the residence for Alfred E. Lewis, a Gulf Coast planter, merchant, politician and Civil War Officer. In 1861, he was a signer of Mississippi's Ordinance of Succession, and Colonel in the Confederate Army. In 1905, the house was acquired by the parents of Agnes (Sissie) and Patricia Grinstead. They both grew up in the house, and later married renowned artists and brothers Walter and Peter Anderson. For several years in the 1940's Walter and Sissie lived at the house, a time when Anderson produced some of his most significant artistic work. The house was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina.