The Annex

The Annex

The history and information on The Annex comes from two sources.

First from an article titled “The Beginning of the End”, written by Ann Pugh Doherty for the Sunday Advocate, Baton Rouge, La April 26, 1970.  The Second source is a narrative written by Eleanor Ellis for this Amite City Living History.

Ann  Doherty states the origins are lost in obscurity , but available evidence indicates it was built in 1852 by Mr. Korn, had a number of owners until bought by J.M. Wright family who occupied it for a number of years.  In May, 1886 Thomas Cargill Warner Ellis (TCW Ellis) acquired the house and 70 acres from Mrs. Martha Warren of New Orleans. It remained in the Ellis family until 1960, when Dr James Lenoir of New Orleans bought it.

Eleanor Ellis writes: I don't know who the first occupants were. Possibly some people from New Orleans - people from New Orleans used to come to Amite in the summers to escape the disease and heat of the city. (at one point the Werleins would rent the Annex in the summer, they were around Mama's age, Lorraine Werlein was always a good friend of Mama's, and Betty Werlein, who married Hodding Carter, and I imagine their brothers and parents) At any rate, the Annex was a smaller house at the time, just the back part of the house as I understand it. After the original owners Judge TCW Ellis bought the house and lived there with his two unmarried daughters, Sarah and a daughter called Nini (real name, Martina, named after Martina Virginia Hamilton Ellis). Eventually TCW added the front part of the Annex, the rooms and porch etc.  

Doherty goes further to say (quoting Ellis family members) that TCW Ellis and his wife Martina turned the house into a show place. Martina died in 1891.  In 1908 Ellis and his two daughters had the house extensively remodeled adding the gallery and several rooms.  The Annex contained nineteen rooms, all of them downstairs.  The upstairs was never completed and the imposing stairway leads only to an attic. He called it the Annex as he liked to think of it as an annex to his father's home Ingleside, located not far away.

Eleanor continues the story:   After them, it was lived in by Uncle Bullit Grant and his wife, Aunt Ollie Ellis Grant. They at first lived at Birdwood , then moved into the Annex, I suppose TCW and the two daughters had died by then. After Aunt Ollie died, Heloise Ellis Raacke and her sons Tippy (Norbert) and Stephen lived there with Uncle Bullitt. After he died he left the house to Heloise and Martina Ellis Buck. They sold it to Jim Lenore, who indicated he wanted to repair it and fix it up and live there, and he never did that, although he owned it for a long time. By the time Graden Clemons bought it, there had been so much damage and neglect that it was too late to save the house. There is an old camellia bush in the front yard which my sister Martina once told me is over 100 years old. That seems to be most of what is left. 

Doherty closes with quotes from Mrs. Heloise Raacke (TCW Ellis’ granddaughter) that help was impossible to get, that by that time the house had obtained a reputation for being haunted.  Mrs. Heloise is quoted “You know how people are about old houses, they claim they heard a strange noise and so forth.  I never saw or heard anything unusual the whole time I lived there.”

Ann Doherty writes that neighbors will not go near the place, many swear they see flickering light through the windows at night.  A large owl which can be seen flying around the house in the moonlight is enough to keep the most adventuresome away.

Thank you to Eleanor Ellis for input and to Robert Vernon for newspaper research.

The Annex- Revisited

We went back to see the hundred year old camellia, parked in the Clemons drive and  started taking pictures.  Laura Clemons road up on her bike shortly after we arrived; after introductions and a friendly visit, we asked was there anything else left of the old place.  With super southern friendliness she offered to show us.   So instead of shooting us, she invited us in.  Gradon arrived shortly after and showed us the photos of the place when they bought it.  They showed us how they used the shutters, inside columns, and  the pocket doors they saved from the old house in their new home.   When we thanked them and bid them farewell; leaving thru the front door, they explained that they had placed the new front door in almost the exact same spot  where the old one had been.  We looked across the lawn and thought the view must be much the same, with so many of the live oaks saved.  We came away feeling that although they were unable to save the old place, they saved what they could and showed respect for where it had been.