A 1½-story brick Greek Revival galleried cottage, the plan of which is a cross between the conventional center-hall plan and the three-room Creole plan with rear loggia and cabinets. The house was built on land patented in the 1790s during the Spanish regime by French settler Jean Baptiste Carquote, and it may have been built by the Carquotte family, who sold the land to William Rodgers in 1843. It was owned 1850-72 by John L. Henley, Civil War mayor of Biloxi. The front of the house faces northward, toward Back Bay, rather than toward the street, which was constructed long after the house was built. Restoration as a house museum was begun in 1952 by the Biloxi Garden Center, which formally acquired title in 1966. The house is now owned by the City of Biloxi. It was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina on 29 August 2005, but has been restored. This building was listed on the National Register on 3 October 1973. It was designated a Mississippi Landmark on 8 January 1987. It is included in "Historic Architecture in Mississippi" (1973) (p. 90); "The Buildings of Biloxi" (1976, pp. 115-116; and 2000 & 2010, p. 108); "Maritime Biloxi (Images of America)" (2000) (p. 21); "Biloxi (Images of America)" (2009) (p. 71); and "Buildings of Mississippi" (2020) (p. 352, GC33). |