Another Fine Brookhaven Home That Long Leaf Pine Built ...

"This beautiful older home is located at South Jackson Street. According to local residents the home was originally built by S. E. Moreton. Moreton was involved in lumber mills called "Quentin Camps" and also in banking in Brookhaven."-- Library caption.

"Large family group photo. Taken in someone's home. Name of family is S E Moreton. No date." -- Library caption

Both photos from the John Holly Williams Collection at the LLF Library.  

Brookhavenites will recognize this house as one of the premier houses in the area realtors like to call "Old Towne," which was patterned after the Garden District of New Orleans, according to town elders.

UPDATE and CORRECTION, courtesy of Bettie Hatcher Cox: Adeline Moreton Becker is on the far left. Her husband, my Uncle Boozie (Ferdinand F. Becker II), is directly behind her. They married in 1933. The young woman seated on the far right is (I believe) Alice Moreton Johnson ... who was the mother of Phyllis J. Spearman. Phyllis did have a remarkable resemblance to her aunt Adeline at the age in the picture. Mr. and Mrs. S.E. Moreton are seated on the sofa. 
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The history of the S.E. Moreton House is wonderfully recounted in a library interview by Henry Ledet of William F. Crawford, who is a descendent of A.E. Moreton, the Baltimore architect who made a fateful decision one day in 1858 to step off a train in Brookhaven after a chance meeting in a passenger car.  

In doing so, A.E. Moreton and Milton Whitworth, who needed an architect for his planned women's college and urged a homeward-bound Moreton to disembark to help him design the campus and buildings, forever changed the history of Brookhaven.

Interestingly, this grand home, often mistakenly called an ante-bellum, started out life as a much smaller Victorian. Below is an excerpt from that 1998 interview, referencing how the house pictured above came to look as it does today:

"Crawford: The first one was for his eldest son, S.E. Moreton, at 706 South Jackson Street. It was built in 1899 and began its existence as a one and one half storey Queen Anne structure, constructed at the direction of Captain A.E. Moreton for his son, S.E. Moreton.

Its design was similar to the other houses, which were later built by Captain Moreton for his children. So much similar that I think perhaps it was designed by Barber, but I don't know that. You've seen a picture of it. It has a definite flair that would make one think that it was designed by the same architect as the others. It's not identical to the others, but it was Queen Anne and it had the irregular roof line, bays and so forth. 

It was constructed of the finest materials, all long leaf pine. I imagine that lumber was manufactured by Moreton and Helms at Cold Springs because they were still in business at that time.  

Ledet: Was this house a wedding present?  

Crawford: No, they married in 1898 and a bedroom was added to Captain Moreton's house for them and they lived there. All of the children that he built houses for went there and lived at the mother and father's house until their houses were finished and ready. 
Mrs. Adeline Becker, who is the only surviving child of S.E. Moreton, and, by the way, is the only surviving grand child of Captain A.E. Moreton, told me that she was born there at 706 South Jackson in 1911. 

The house was remodeled extensively about 1913 and at that time it was made a full two storeys. The large columns were added, as it looks now. The present summer house, in the front yard, was actually part of the front porch of the original house. It was removed during the renovation and fashioned into a summer house. 

Other buildings on the property included a one and one half storey carriage barn that was later remodeled into a garage. In the early 1950's this building burned and the present three car garage was built in its stead.

There is a quaint cottage located on the northwest corner of the property which was the servants house. After being the home and the gathering place and being loved by several generations of the family, the title to this property passed out of the family in 1995. That's really all I know to say about that."