January 13, 2022
BELLINGRATH GARDENS AND HOME
12401 Bellingrath Gardens Rd, Theodore, AL 36582
“Bellingrath Gardens and Home is the 65-acre public garden and historic home of Walter and Bessie Bellingrath, located on the Fowl River near Mobile, Alabama. Walter Bellingrath was one of the first Coca-Cola bottlers in the Southeast, and with his wealth built the estate garden and home.” Wikipedia
Beautiful gardens. Beautiful home. An interesting story.
The story from the Garden’s brochure:
“Bellingrath Gardens and Home is the creation of Walter and Bessie Bellingrath. In 1917, Mr. Bellingrath, who was Mobile’s first Coca-Cola bottler, was advised by his physician to buy an abandoned fishing camp on the Fowl River so that the overworked businessman could “learn how to play.” The couple named the property “Belle Camp,” and Mrs. Bellingrath brought in azaleas and camellias to beautify the camp.
In 1927, the Bellingraths hired local architect George B. Rogers to convert the property into a country estate. The original design included flagstone pathways, fountains, a formal rose garden and a conservatory.
In April 1932, the couple placed an ad in the Mobile newspapers, inviting citizens to come out on Sunday April 7, to view the spring flowers. More than 4,700 people took them up on the invitation, creating one of the region’s worst traffic jams. The Bellingraths, amazed by the response, decided to open the Gardens to the public for part of the year, charging a small admission. In 1934, the Gardens were opened to the public year-round.
George B Rogers also designed the 15-400m Bellingrath Home, completed in 1935. The house features antique bricks and cast iron galleries salvaged from historic Mobile buildings. Today, the Home still contains the period furniture, porcelain, silver and crystal collected by Mrs. Bellingrath over a span of more than 35 years.
Bessie Bellingrath died in 1943. At his 80th birthday celebration in 1949, Walter Bellingrath announced the formation of the Bellingrath Morse Foundation, created to honor his wife’s memory and to oversee the Gardens and Home. The Foundation, which also benefits three Christian colleges and two local churches, has provided hundreds of scholarships over the years. Walter Bellingrath died in 1955, and the Home was opened to the public in 1956.
Bellingrath Gardens and Home continues to follow Walter Bellingrath’s charge to maintain the property “as a fitting and permanent memorial to my wife.”
Side notes: Mrs. Bellingrath, besides being a avid gardener, loved to shop for antiques. The home is furnished almost entirely with antique furniture and porcelain pieces she bought in antique stores in New Orleans and in Europe. As the brochure noted Mr. Bellingrath set up a foundation and stipulated that the house would become a museum upon his death, therefore all of the furnishings inside the house are originial to the house.
When the Bellingraths lived on the property they had a staff of 40 to tend to the Gardens, I have no idea how big the staff is now, but there were a lot of people working on them while I was visiting. And while the Gardens were beautiful when I visited, I really want to come back in the spring sometime to see the azaleas in bloom.
The Gardens
The fountain in the center of the Rose Garden.
One of the roses in the Rose Garden, which contains more than 2,000 plants representing numrous varieties and is a test site for All-American Rose Selection roses.
I saw several workers tending to the gardens.
The Grotto.
the Dwight Harrigan Exxonmobil Bayou Boardwalk
Mirror Lake
The Mermaid Fountain
The entrance to the Oriental Gardens
The Delchamps Gallery of Boehm Porcelain. The building was originally a six-car garage with guest bedrooms on the second floor. The Boehm Porcelain was given to the Gardens in 1967. It represents the largest public display of the works of American sculptor Edward Marshall Boehm. The pieces were stunning.
This porcelain piece looked real.
The Home
The courtyard. The bricks were salvaged from a house and the cast iron railings from a hotel in Mobile being demolished.
The date the house was finished was emblazoned on the down spout.
The Living Room. The portraits are of Mr. and Mrs. Bellingrath.
The antique furniture in the living room.
The formal dining room. The table could seat up to 16 people.
The mirror above the buffet was so everyone could see the Fowl River from the table.
The first of two guest bedrooms in the main house. Each bedroom had its own bathroom.
One of the guest bathrooms.
The sitting room on the second floor.
One of the many porcelain pieces in the house.
The second guest bedroom.
The Tiffany lamp in the second guest bedroom.
Mr. Bellingrath's desk in the outer room of the Master Suite.
The Master Suite
The silver and crystal room.
The informal dining room.
A display of different bottles Bellingrath used to bottle Coca-Cola.
One of the nine sets of china.
An antique French silver tureen that dates to the opening of the Suez Canal.
The china on display.
The "porch" where the Bellingraths ate a lot of their meals.
And the sitting area/porch which opened out to the Fowl River.