Living on the River

Views of the massive and mysterious Mississippi River have captivated people for centuries. Its 2,300-plus miles of raging waters have long been the subject of literary works, photographs and songs, and, for some lucky river-lovers, it’s the view from homes.

“It’s a million-dollar view,” said Linda Hall of her home overlooking the Mississippi River in Vicksburg.

Vicksburg

To a Vicksburg physician and his ailing wife, that view 35 years ago was priceless.

“He would do anything to make her happy,” said Georgia Horn Terry, the daughter of the late Dr. and Mrs. L.G. “Gebe” Horn. “Daddy was wonderful to my mother.”

While driving around, the couple found a 760-square-foot shotgun house perched high over Pearl Street, just off Mattingly. The two-room house was in terrible condition, but the view was magnificent and just what Libby Horn dreamed of.

“Libby just loved it. She loved the river,” said Carol Horn, who was married to the couple’s son Jeff.

They renovated the house and created a retreat, where they would host parties and have drinks while they watched the sun set and breathed in the river air. The Horns dubbed their afternoon cocktail hour “stoop time,” Carol said.

“They would go about 5, sit on the balcony and watch the river traffic,” she said. “It was the nicest getaway.”

Eventually, the Horns built a deck that overlooked Ol’ Man River and Gebe, a highly regarded pediatrician at Mercy Hospital, bought a radio so he and his wife could listen to the boat traffic as they watched the tugs meander up and down the river.

“It was something different and fun,” Georgia said.

Her parents kept up their nightly and weekend ritual until Libby lost her battle with breast cancer in 1984. Gebe kept the “little river house” for a year or two after her death.

“He kept it for a while because there were too many memories,” Carol said.

Much like her mother, Georgia has an affinity for the river and for Vicksburg.

“We went out on the river every weekend. My brothers learned to ski on the river,” she said. “I moved to Colorado 24 years ago and moved back four years ago. I just missed it. I missed the bluffs and the ravines. It’s a special place. I don’t want to live anywhere other than Vicksburg.”

The little house that gave Libby Horn so much joy in her final moments is still a happy place full of memories. The 1920s-built river shack is now home to Fred Katzenmeyer, who bought it in 1999 after it had been used for about two decades as rental property. But, the home’s condition was no match for the astounding view.

“That’s the one and only reason to live here,” Fred said, pointing to the river that peeks out between a line of trees. “When I first walked up here and sat on the deck, that was the end of the story.”

It took him a year of working nights and weekends to do the extensive renovations. He replaced rotten floors in the kitchen and bathroom and screened in the front porch. He also stripped nine coats of paint and re-did everything but the electrical work.

Fred also bought the 900-square-foot house next door, which has been his project for the past 10 years. He has a couple of years of work left, but he plans to live in it and rent the little house, likely for short-term spans. The two houses are situated on six city lots that are prime real estate. He even has a garden on the hill where he grows squash and hot banana peppers.

“You can’t hardly find any property for sale that’s overlooking the river,” he said. “I tell you what. It will ruin you. I’m spoiled. I’m so grateful to have it. I can’t believe I was able to get my hands on it.”

“Idyllic” is the word that comes to Fred’s mind when describing his position overlooking the river, where winds come across and create a cool breeze even on the hottest summer days.

When it’s hot, though, Fred is all set with his row of claw-foot bathtubs, all taken from homes that were being torn down, positioned to overlook the river. He fills the tubs with hose water and uses them as a perch for river-viewing. He even built a small deck around them and a ledge to hold drinks while cooling off.

“You fill them up with water and get you a pitcher of adult drinks and sit out and watch the sunset,” he said.

The tubs are shaded by oak and cedar trees and provide a fun and unique party atmosphere.

“It’s very relaxing to just sit and watch the boats going by,” he said. “It’s a party house. It’s a good place to watch the sunset and party.”

Fred has spent a lifetime on the Mississippi, skiing and camping on the sandbars.

“We should be capitalizing on this more,” he said. “Vicksburg is missing the boat on this.”

Homes overlooking the river are pretty rare all along the river in Mississippi, though. And, while Vicksburg is high on a bluff, mostly protected from frequent river flooding, other areas aren’t always so fortunate.

Natchez

Natchez native and resident Peter Trosclair purchased and renovated his 1870s river shack, originally a two-room house about 175 yards from the river, in 2008.

Peter bought the house in 2006, restored the original rooms and added about 2,000 square feet. He also raised the structure four-and-a-half feet to, hopefully, avoid high waters. Peter’s house is the only residence below the bluff in Natchez, he said.

“It’s right on the river, and I’ve always loved the river,” he said. “It’s the only house on the river that close to the river.”

The abundance of wildlife, deer, rabbits, snakes, turtles and even alligators, makes it seem like he’s “30 miles from the middle of nowhere,” but Peter’s only two minutes from work and about six blocks from where he grew up.

“We would swim in the river when we were kids. I’ve hunted on the river for 35 years,” he said.

Three years after moving in, the Great Flood of 2011, a historic flood that set new record stages at Vicksburg and Natchez, came along, displacing more than 20,000 people in Mississippi.

Peter, his wife, Lisa, and the couple’s 11-year-old son, Rhett, along with their five dogs and 10 chickens, were among those forced to run, moving out for three months after their home took on a foot of water.

Greenville

About three hours north of Natchez and just north of Greenville, Mark and Kathy Fratesi and their son, Jason, have learned what it means to live in a flood zone. But, they’re willing to take their chances.

“It’s paradise and the price you pay for it is a flood, so if you’re willing to put up with the flooding, you won’t find a better place to live,” Jason said, quoting a family friend and hunting buddy. “I’ve heard him tell about 15 people that.”

In 2011, when the water was approaching its crest of 64.2 feet in Greenville, up more than 16 feet from flood level, Kathy was told the water most certainly would come inside the house. She told her husband she was going to dig up all of her plants around the house. Then she did.

“We potted every plant in this yard, and we put them on a trailer and we took them to the farm,” she said. “Well, you could drive by on Highway 82, and you could see (the plants). People started thinking, ‘Mark’s starting a nursery.’ He got phone calls, ‘You’re starting a nursery?'”

Mark is a farmer and part-owner of Fratesi Planting Company in Leland. He also owns Fratesi Grocery, a popular Delta eatery.

The Fratesis’ home overlooks Lake Ferguson, an oxbow formed by the Mississippi River. It’s about as close as you can get to living on the river in Greenville.

“The Corps of Engineers built a dike to protect the city of Greenville from current, because when the river would get really high, the current would turn and hit the city. Part of downtown Greenville fell into the river,” Jason said. “They made the river turn to not go through Lake Ferguson anymore to try to save the city. At one time all of Lake Ferguson was the Mississippi River. They put the dike there and made it go straight instead of it turning.”

Mark and Kathy’s five-bedroom, four-bathroom house is full of family at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving.

“By the time you get all the Fratesis here, plus my kids and grandkids, it’s about 40 or 50 people,” she said.

The home’s interior is decorated to reflect the outdoors. Paint colors are earth tones and the decor is elegant with a touch of rustic charm. The bedrooms and game room upstairs display the Fratesis’ focus on family and fun.

Mark and Kathy had to do a complete renovation of their home after the flood, but there was no doubt they would come back to live where the breeze blows and the Delta river living is peaceful.

“After the flood, they tore out this entire house. You could see all the way from the front door to the back,” Kathy said. “You gotta’ love living here more than you hate that flood. You can’t leave. You just get like addicted to it.”

The Fratesis have experienced three floods since they moved into their 5,000-square-foot house seven years ago. Kathy and Mark and their four children and six grandchildren spend almost all of their time in the summer enjoying the water. They actually spend more time in the river, which is less than a mile from the lake.

“That is where we go is to the river. In the summer, when we’re in our boats, we go to the river, to the sandbar,” Kathy said.

“The reason we always go is because it’s about 15 degrees cooler than any lake around here. During the heat of the summer, there is always a wind blowing on the river. It can be so hot it’ll take your breath in the woods, but the wind is always blowing (on the river), because it’s so big and open,” Jason said.

Jason, his wife, Jaime, and their three children have a cabin, just across the way and about 10 miles around the levee, that overlooks Archer Lake. The house is on land that is part of a hunting club in which the Fratesi families are part-owners. Jason was 15 when his family started going out to the hunting club, and he is keeping the tradition alive.

The newly built cabin, an 1,800-square-foot metal building on stilts, is rustic with “a little feminine flare.” The inside walls are covered in wood salvaged from an old barn.

“Once we got the wood, things just started falling together,” Jaime said. “With a metal building you can only do so much within the parameters you’ve got to work in. We basically used every square inch, and it’s all livable space. Nothing’s wasted.”

Their children, twins Ava and Eli, 12, and Jase, who’s 8, are very active and love to be outside, hunting, fishing or swimming in the lake.

“I feel like I can relax here more than I can at home,” Jaime said. “At home, you feel like you’ve got 1,000 things to do. Here, you can enjoy nature. We’re out there fishing or looking for (deer) sheds or riding the sandbar. There’s always something to do.”

Back at Lake Ferguson is Big Blue, an old raft Mark’s brother, Kenny, converted into a slide where the children can slide and jump into the river. The only one of its kind in the area, Big Blue attracts hordes of people throughout the summer.

“During the summer, that thing is covered up,” Jason said. “It’s all about the kids.”

Jason, like his father, farms. He also is a partner in a crop consulting company and the lead singer and guitarist in Jason Fratesi and the Dirt Road Jam Band. He stays busy, especially in the summer, which is his peak time for business, but he can always make the 30-minute drive to his cabin to see his family and spend time on the river.

“This is kind of our vacation. We don’t get to go on family vacations. That’s our family vacation. It’s where we get to spend a lot of time together,” he said. “It was the same way with my dad. He stayed so busy during the summer, we never really went anywhere as a family other than somewhere like this. We’d come and stay a couple of days and fish. That would be a little quick vacation. The next weekend we’d try to do the same thing.”

Vicksburg

Parker and Linda Hall, who live in a 1940s house that is about 150 feet high on a bluff overlooking the river in Vicksburg, are less likely to get out on the river. The couple is more likely to gasp at their daily doses of the breathtaking river views they see from their kitchen, dining area and bedroom.

“The first month we were here, I would get up at night and stand and watch things (on the river). I was so glad we were here, and it’s home,” Linda said.

Parker is the son of All-American football legend Parker Hall and the great-great-grandson of C.J. Tully, the founder of Anderson-Tully, the international lumber company.

He and Linda were living on Baum Street in a house they had been renovating for 13 years, and it was about time to start renovations again.

“Things just kind of evolved. All we knew is that we wanted to get out of that big, ole drafty house,” Linda said.

The 1,200-square-foot river house, an abandoned rental property, was part of some land Parker’s father purchased. It also happened to be next door to his brother, Tully, who had been living with a river view since the 1970s. After extensive renovations, Parker and Linda moved in to their home in 1991.

The couple had wanted to build the house from the movie, “Out of Africa.” They collected pictures from the movie set and had talked to a builder about their vision. But, the framed movie poster in the Hall’s kitchen is as close as they came to reproducing that dream home.

The Halls, instead, concentrated on making their little river abode a cozy home that highlights its expansive river view. They increased the square-footage to 1,700 and dug a footing for a front porch, giving it pierced columns, an architectural element unique to Vicksburg and known as Vicksburg Gothic. They covered the inside of the house with wood from Anderson-Tully, pecan, persimmon, cherry and walnut. They also put in windows designed for the river views.

“I come in the door, and there’s a painting. It’s like a painting of the river,” Linda said. “I love it when the water gets really high.”

The river view has provided them the opportunity to see a plane land in the river, a space rocket floating on a barge, mat sinking units from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, lots of barge traffic, wild hogs, turkeys, wild cats and what they believe to be a Florida panther.

While it appears close, the river is a 15- or 20-minute walk down a steep hill that is beyond the 1.5 acres of land the Halls own. Just below the drop off, barges tie up on a long, steel cable. While the water looks tempting from the “million dollar view” from the bluff, the Halls don’t dare enter the raging river.

“We haven’t done anything other than enjoy the view. It’s always exciting to me to look out and see that much water moving,” Linda said.

STORY Lauchlin Fields
PHOTOGRAPHS Melanie Thortis and Eli Baylis