Mary Ellen Alexander, the granddaughter of William James (WJ) Quarles and his wife, Merinda, who were among the first settlers of the City of Long Beach, would be proud to have witnessed the gathering of Quarles descendants, state and business leaders, local dignitaries and members of the Long Beach community who came together for the festive grand opening ceremony of Greenvale, also known as “The Quarles House,” on January 27 at 179 East Old Pass Road in Long Beach.
WJ Quarles built the two-story home for his family in 1894, eight years after moving to Long Beach from Tennessee. At that time, it was known as Greenvale. The 129-year-old home has been sealed off for decades. WJ Quarles died in 1924, and Hurricane Camille severely damaged the house in 1969, leaving the historic house vacant and sealed until recently.
“I feel it's a dream fulfilled,” says Janet Alexander Griffin. “It was the primary wish of our mother, Mary Ellen Alexander, who wrote the town history, Rosalie and Radishes, first published in 1980, and who energized people around local history. That dream is now realized, decades after she and our uncle, WF Watrous, started the effort to save the house.”
Mary Ellen Alexander, the daughter of May Quarles Watrous, also a life-long Long Beach resident, was known as the “History Lady.” She passed away in 2004, but she was instrumental in starting the Long Beach Historical Society and placing historical markers throughout the city.
“Mary Ellen Alexander, along with her brother, WF Watrous, made it her life-long endeavor to preserve the family’s historic home, Greenvale, a site that now fittingly serves as a welcome center and also houses the Long Beach Historical Society, Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and Long Beach Main Street,” says Courtney Cuevas, community affairs director for the City of Long Beach.
As Griffin noted, “When our great grandparents lived in the house at the turn of the last century, the Quarles Family Home was a hub of activity - the site of the first school, the first post office, a place for area business folks to get a lunchtime meal, accommodation for traveling salespeople. It seems fitting that it should be an active center once again and of use to the entire community.”
The house is one of the few historic landmarks - and the only historical house with such deep roots - left standing in the City of Long Beach. Many historic sites and buildings were wiped out by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and earlier hurricanes.
Jim Alexander (named for his great-grandfather WJ but called Jim, as was Jim Quarles) and Janet Alexander Griffin, who had inherited the property, had the house moved in 2010 to be adjacent to the family cemetery. They continued the work that their mother and uncle had begun with the Mississippi Heritage Trust and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to preserve the house and historical furniture and artifacts that are part of the history of the home.
In 2020, they responded to the City’s interest through Mayor George Bass, who, with other officials, saw the potential that Mary Ellen Alexander had envisioned. The family then donated the home and property to the City, so that it could become a public asset to the community.
Crews with J.O. Collins Contractor, Inc. could be seen at the site over the past year renovating the home and property, all in a concentrated effort to restore and historically preserve the house based on research and details gathered from the Quarles family, on-site research and the previous work done through the state’s Department of Archives and History.
Jim Alexander, who with his sister and their other family members traveled great distances to attend the January 27 grand opening ceremony, praises local and state leaders, organizations and agencies, as well as others, for their crucial contributions to secure the funding and resources that went into restoring the historic home to its former glory.
“It is really exciting to see this decades-long project completed,” Jim Alexander says. “I remember (about 2006) when the Mississippi Heritage Trust and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) first became involved, and Jeff Rosenberg and I climbed to the attic and saw that the tin roof was leaking and needed replacement. MDAH stepped up and put on a new roof – that was key to preservation of the house at that time. MDAH deserves a lot of credit for preservation and stabilization of the house (after we moved it in 2010 to its present location) before the City was able to secure the funds to do the restoration. So, not only a local effort headed by the mayor and his staff, but a statewide effort, as well, with State Representative Richard Bennett playing a key supportive role.”
“Through the years, so many have taken an interest in the Quarles House and have supported the work on the house, saving this valuable part of our local history,” Griffin said. “The community - from Long Beach school children who have studied Greenvale as a valuable part of our local history to previous City officials and State agencies - all contributed to this moment. We have been both impressed and moved by the care and commitment of those working on the project.”
In January 2023, following a year of negotiations, the Long Beach Board of Aldermen approved a contract for the restoration of the historic home, receiving nearly $2 million in funding from the Gulf Coast Restoration Fund. They say that investment is now paying off, as people from near and far away can learn about the city and area’s rich history at Greenvale while literally taking a stroll back in time at the iconic house and learning about the family who built it and helped lay the foundation for the city of Long Beach.
“WJ Quarles was an agriculturalist who was influential in putting Long Beach on the map as a center of truck farming, small-scale local farmers of fruits and vegetables that supplied local markets with fresh produce,” Griffin says. “Because Long Beach and the Quarles House were right on the railroad line, they shipped to northern markets, as well. Quarles grew beans and corn and was particularly engaged in hybridizing pecans.”
“When my brother and I were growing up, there were many different varieties of pecans which WJ had grafted and which we still picked up, cracked, and sold, primarily at Gulfport's 4-H market,” Griffin recalls.
“In 1915, our grandmother was sent as a Mississippi representative to the Panama-Pacific International Expo in San Francisco,” Griffin says. “Pecans from WJ Quarles' orchard were exhibited there as part of a ‘Grown in Mississippi’ display. This innovative and hard work from Long Beach's founders is a worthy foundation for the city today. The continuing effort of the mayor, the City aldermen, and so many for positive growth in the community is the legacy of those who began to develop the area one hundred forty years ago.”
The legacy still lives on, through all the chapters of this founding family’s lives, past and present, as reflected by some of the grave markers in the Quarles’ cemetery, located just west of the historic home.
“The cemetery of about thirty-eight graves, which included the extended Quarles family and some friends, was started in the 1890s, when Merinda and WJ Quarles lost four children in the five years between 1892 and 1997,” Griffin says. “These children, all of the Quarles children born after my grandmother May, are buried there in a separate, gated enclosure, now beautifully restored with a headstone our mother [Mary Ellen Alexander] had erected years ago.”
But time marches on, and the legacy of Greenvale and its founders, WJ and Merinda Quarles, lives on, with the pages of history in the walls, halls and grounds of the newly refurbished, renovated and restored Greenvale.
“We hope the traits displayed by WJ and Merinda Quarles – their forward way of thinking, community involvement, collaboration with neighbors, hard work and emphasis on education - will continue to be a model for the citizens of Long Beach for years to come,” Jim Alexander says.
