By Tom McGehee, Museum Director of the Bellingrath Home When the Bellingrath Home was completed in 1936, it was equipped with something very few homes in Mobile had: Central heat. A large cast iron furnace in the basement bears a…
By Tom McGehee, Museum Director of the Bellingrath Home For the last five decades, fall at Bellingrath Gardens and Home has been synonymous with the chrysanthemum. Each November, the Fall Outdoor Cascading Chrysanthemums show seems bigger and better than the…
By Tom McGehee, Museum Director of the Bellingrath Home In 1950, C. Ernest Edgar Jr. was named as one of the five original trustees of the Bellingrath Morse Foundation. Mr. Edgar was the son of Mrs. Bellingrath’s sister Daisy Morse…
By Tom McGehee, Museum Director of the Bellingrath Home George B. Rogers, the architect of the Bellingrath Home, arrived in Mobile in 1902. By the time he was hired by Walter Bellingrath to design the Home in 1935, he had…
By Sally Pearsall Ericson, Director of Marketing and Public Relations When Hurricane Frederic struck the Gulf Coast on September 12, 1979, the storm dramatically altered the landscape that Walter and Bessie Bellingrath had created on Fowl River. Bellingrath Gardens and…
By Tom McGehee, Museum Director of the Bellingrath Home This is the second of a series of profiles of the original members of the Bellingrath-Morse Foundation. One of the first trustees to serve on the newly-formed Bellingrath Morse Foundation was…
By Tom McGehee, Museum Director of the Bellingrath Home This is the first of a series of profiles of the original members of the Bellingrath-Morse Foundation. Walter Bellingrath set up the Bellingrath-Morse Foundation as he approached his 80th year. He…
Editor’s Note: Kip McConnell, Director of Plant Development Services in Loxley, recently spoke at Bellingrath Gardens and Home as part of our Wonderful Wednesdays summer series. His talk, “New, Better, Yours: Plant the Newest, Best Plants,” gave our guests an…
By Tom McGehee, Museum Director of the Bellingrath Home In 1836, following a series of devastating yellow fever epidemics, the city of Mobile purchased 36 acres to establish the New Burial Ground. Eventually renamed Magnolia Cemetery, the property now covers…
By Tom McGehee, Museum Director of the Bellingrath Home (This is the fifth in a series of profiles of people who managed the Gardens and Home in the early years.) For more than 35 years, Harry F. "Pat" Ryan's name…