The story of Mary Trone’s house at 1456 Beach Blvd. in Biloxi, Mississippi, has a prelude that stretches back more than 100 years, to when a home was first built on the property. Trone lived in that Gulf Coast original for more than 30 of its years.
Then a storm came. “I lost it in [Hurricane] Katrina,” Trone, now 76, told Homes.com. The massive 2005 hurricane is primarily known for its historic impacts on New Orleans but also devastated the surrounding coast.
One-third of the $41.1 billion in total insurance payouts for the storm went to Mississippi, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The Mississippi governor’s office recorded 238 deaths in the state.
Even with the Gulf of Mexico just across the street, Trone’s Biloxi home only took a little flooding, she said. But when inspectors examined the property, they discovered it had to be torn down. “I had asbestos,” she said.
Trone and her husband were forced to demolish their beloved home. But that’s where the story of the 3,193-square-foot house built in 2008 and standing on the 0.3-acre lot now begins.
The home is on the market for $1.35 million. Daniell Barton of Century 21 Busch Realty Group is handling the sale.
Building from the back
The loss of the original house was a blow. “I was sad, and I didn’t think I’d ever build again,” Trone said. “But my son kept saying, ‘Mama, that’s what you do. You love to redo.’”
So Trone and her husband, a former high school football coach, got to work. First, they moved into the carport on the back of the lot that had been spared by the storm.
“We enclosed it, and that’s where we lived,” Trone said. The old carport became an 800-square-foot studio cottage, and the couple started in on rebuilding the main house.
Trone, who had lived in St. Petersburg, Florida, as a child with a military dad, wanted the home to have a Floridian feel. “I went to school for interior design,” she said. “So I designed it myself.”
Some touches were distinctly Mississippian. The archway for the front door is based on the Tullis-Toledano Manor in Biloxi, where her son had been married.
The home also had wraparound porches added on the first and second stories, and it was topped with a cubic cupola that serves as a loft with 360-degree views.
Beyond being fun and grand, the new house was built to survive. It was built with ICF blocks, specialized bricks that combine concrete and foam, often used in bunkers and military installations. The blocks are also pest-resistant and can handle wind and debris at more than 200 miles per hour, according to a report in ICF Builder magazine.
A metal roof and concrete pillars were added for more protection. And the whole house was raised. “We’re a little higher than where Katrina came up to,” Trone said.
Party house returns
Three years and what Trone estimates to be $450,000 later, a beachy peach three-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom mansion came together. The pool in the back is one of the only remaining original elements.
“It broke my heart [losing the old house], but I got what I wanted,” Trone said. “I got through it, but it was hard.”
The Trones invited their old lives into the new home, such as the 300-400-person annual parties they would host.
“It was great,” Trone said. “People parked next door or wherever they could, they brought dishes and whatever they wanted to drink. We had a band. Everybody would bring a chair and sit out front. We did that for a good 20 years.”
Things have slowed since, but the colorful beach house still attracts plenty of visitors. “There’s always somebody here,” she said. “Even just on the beach. Everybody stops for coffee or a glass of wine in the evening.”
Trone and her husband are preparing to downsize. The house they built now has its own story to tell as part of the Biloxi coast.
“I just want to find someone who would enjoy it and love it as much as we did,” Trone said.