The Dr. Joseph A. Tabor House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. [‡]
Description
The Dr. Joseph A. Tabor House (also known as M.M. Flechas House) is situated in the northeast portion of an urban corner lot at 520 Live Oak Avenue and Magnolia Street. The site has various shrubs and plants arranged in an informal manner. The large yard in the western half of the lot has two large trees and slopes downward. The site is enclosed by a chain-link fence.
The irregular massed two-story wood frame house faces north fronting on Live Oak Avenue. The Dr. Joseph A. Tabor House has a gambrel roof covered in asphalt shingles and no visible chimneys. The gable ends of the roof has boxed eaves with a segmental arch wood siding and a pair of double-hung windows, these windows frame diamond pattern tiles in the upper sash, a single light lower sash and a simple frame.
The north elevation of the Dr. Joseph A. Tabor House has a solid brick foundation, wood siding with corner boards recess for the entrance bay and a porch wrapping partially down the east side. The porch is independently roofed with a shallow pitch and supported in Doric columns set in wood pilasters irregularly spaced. Between the pedestals spans a wood railing with turned banisters.
The front door has a three-light transom, single light over panel sidelights and a pair of single light over panel doors. In the projecting bay under the porch is a pair of one-over-one double-hung windows with blinds. The east elevation has a one-story bay with a pair of one-over-one double-hung windows. The rear of the house (south elevation) has a porch surrounding a small appendage. The west elevation is relatively simple. There are three one-over-one double-hung windows on the first floor and two dormer windows, similar to the north elevation. Across the rear of the house is a wraparound porch supported on turned wood columns, between which spans a wood railing. There has been a second floor addition to the rear of the house which consists of a ribbon of one-over-one double-hung windows and a flat roof.
The east side of the Dr. Joseph A. Tabor House has a bay with three double-hung windows whose upper sash has decorative diamond pattern. There is also a large dormer window. To the rear of the house are two one-over-one double-hung windows.
The Dr. Joseph A. Tabor House is first covered by the 1909 Sanborn insurance map, and its footprint has not changed since that time.
The interior floor plan has changed little since the Dr. Joseph A. Tabor House was built. The front door leads into the "living-stairhall" typical of late-nineteenth/early-twentieth century floor plans. Opposite the front door is the decorative staircase, with large wood newel post, closed stringer and turned wood banisters. There is a bay window just before the stairway. To the right of the hall is a pair of rooms with corner fireplaces. The mantels in the front room has an oval, beveled mirror; the mantel in the second room is Colonial Revival, with a rectangular, beveled mirror, tall columns, applied ornament, ceramic tile surround and hearth, and a decorative summer front. The floors downstairs are 3-1/2" wide pine; the base is a large wooden one. The chair rail is simple; cornerboards are turned, and there are no cornices. Interior doors are four-panel with single-light transom.
Upstairs, the plan is more irregular than downstairs, with two rooms across the front, separated from the rear and stair hall by an irregularly planned hall which appears to be original. The upstairs mantels are similar in spirit to those downstairs, but less elaborate. All rooms have picture moldings.
In the rear, a glass-enclosed room has been added over what appears to have been originally one story.
Significance
The Dr. Joseph A. Tabor House at 520 Live Oak Avenue is significant architecturally within the context of Pascagoula's residential elements. It is the town's best example of a Dutch Colonial Revival residence. The house is also significant for its association with Dr. Joseph A. Tabor, a prominent local physician, and with M.M. Flechas, owner of one of Pascagoula's major lumberyard/shipyard, M.M. Flechas Saw, Planing & Shipbuilding. The picturesque gambrel roof, asymmetrical massing, decorative window lights and wraparound porch combine to create a superior example of the early free-spirited mode of the Dutch Colonial Revival. This style is relatively scarce in south Mississippi. In 1905 Dr. Joseph A. Tabor purchased this site and built the present residence shortly thereafter. Dr. Tabor was born in Chicago in 1870, where he received his early education in that city's schools. In 1889 he moved to New Orleans, where he found employment at the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Eventually, he took up medicine, graduating from Tulane University. During the Spanish American War, he served in Cuba as a brigadier surgeon and personal surgeon to General Ludlow and General Shafter. Tabor resigned his commission after the war, and located in Pascagoula in 1899. Dunbar Rowland in 1907 wrote that Tabor was "one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Jackson County, is a successful practitioner in Pascagoula where he is held in high esteem as a skilled member of his profession and as a citizen, his practice being of representative character, where he is popular in the business and social circles of the town." Dr. Tabor was a member of the American Medical Association, the Mississippi Medical Society, and the Gulf Lodge No. 419 of the Masonic Order. The house remained in the Tabor family until 1930, when it was sold to local shipbuilding entrepreneur M.M. Flechas. Flechas's yards were established during the early twentieth century, and were located on the former estate of Sidoine Krebs at the intersection of the Pascagoula River and Krebs Lake. The Flechas complex in 1918 had a planer machine, a 25-hp engine for woodworking, a warehouse and drafting room, and a yard for the shipbuilding plant along Krebs Lake, and a sawmill, planing mill, several lumber sheds, and an artesian well in the lumberyard along the Pascagoula River. The company was subsequently purchased by Pointeven Bros. While Flechas owned the plant, he resided on the premises beyond 1941 the historic time frame established in this nomination.
‡ Robert J. Cangelosi, Jr., Architect, Koch and Wilson Architects, PC, Dr. Joseph A. Tabor House, Jackson County, Mississippi, nomination document, 1991, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
Live Oak Avenue