My friends and I called it “The Murder House.” For 25 years, it sat, decaying, across the street from my home in downtown Gulfport.
On the main drag. Next to the library.
The lot next door was so overgrown, anyone could hide a body there.
The house was 110 years old, at least. Town records call it the “Stratton house” and date it from five years after the town was incorporated. In 1936, the main building was remodeled into five apartments. One tenant was a music teacher.
In 1949, a “grandmother’s club” met there.
After that, records are murky. The home fell into disrepair. Time — and termites — took their toll.
Eventually, repairs became too costly, and the owners had to sell.
On Monday, Demo Dog Demolition spent two hours tearing the house down.
An excavator ripped through shingles and rafters, ate walls and windows, metal gnawing asbestos, wood, glass.
The murder house was being murdered.
“At some point,” said Gulfport code enforcement officer Heather Wyble, “it could’ve been beautiful again.”
