Driving very early to Mobile we were expecting fog, but fortunately did not experience any that Wednesday. After leaving the motorhome at the Glass Repair shop for the day, we left to find The Bellingrath Museum Home and Gardens.
It was the home of Bellingrath who had bought one of the first twelve $1500. franchises for a Coca-Cola bottling company. He grew up in Atlanta GA which is probably why he became interested in the CC Company after his first job in Mississippi. He worked from his teen years in Mississippi for the L&N Railroad on their telegraph. He was single at the time of his first career until after his franchise purchase. After settling in Mobile, he realized that he need a clerical person to run the bottling company office. The beautiful lady hired later became his wife and he built this home for her on approximately 60 acres of land just outside of Mobile.
They never had any children of their own, but did dote on their nieces and nephews. Our narrator said that she thought if they had children of their own they would have had nothing but green grass. However, because of his wife's love of flowers, the gardens around their home grew and grew. They are beautiful. There were forty gardeners in those early days, but only twelve maintain the gardens as they are today.
The home is full of the original furnishings as well as some that were added from their first home in Mobile proper. The home boasts three dining rooms and twelve sets of china for all of their entertaining. The chest and it's set of gold tableware was awesome and huge!
We were not permitted to take pictures inside the home, so you will just have to use your imagination. They heated with coal originally. It was built 'ready for electricity', but had a wood burning stove in the original kitchen. This was later removed and replaced with a gas range and an electric range, side by side, and a dish washer. The bathrooms each boasted modern pink or green fixtures with ceramic tile to match, which had been purchased at that year's World's Fair to keep with a modern trend.
Waiting for our tour to begin, we enjoyed a sheltered shady walkway near the side entrance to the home.
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| Rose Gardens outside, and orchids inside! |
Before the tour we had time to go through the terraces beginning around the house, going down to the lake behind. Beautiful!!
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| Grotto down near the lake. |
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| Another fountain behind the house. |
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| Back entrance with a beautiful view. |
From the tour inside, we continued through the grounds to enjoy the flowers. We now offer them to you to enjoy.
The last thing to see was the restored chapel. It's restoration was completed in 1982.
From this tour we returned to the Glass store to check on the motorhome. The windshield was reset but they wanted to keep it until their closing to let it cure. So we went off to do some shopping in a K-Mart nearby. Since many K-Marts are closed across the country, it was nice to find a nice clean one that was pretty well stocked. It made my day. Then on to Hobby Lobby to stock up more on the scrap booking pages and protectors that were 50% off this week!! I had emptied the shelves at the store in Pensacola, so made a big dent in Mobile's store also. I am fully stocked to do our grandson's albums until he graduates! And that will not be too far off, believe it or not. I know that being on the road makes it seem like he should still be little, but NOT!
We took the motorhome from the Glass store and moved it just a few blocks to an Academy Sport store and asked permission to park in their wide open lot for overnight. We felt that it would be good to let it sit longer to cure. They were very welcoming and we had peace of mind as it gave us a traffic light to get out in the morning.
Now, fog? We got it the next morning!! But had a safe trip back home. There has not been much going on since, just a run to a casino in Atmore. It gives us a change of scenery and lunch at Dave's Catfish diner. It also gives me time to check out their acquarium. They were cleaning it this day.
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