Bessie Bellingrath is the woman behind one of Alabama’s most beautiful destinations
South terrace of the Bellingrath Home. (Image provided by Tom McGehee, Bellingrath Gardens and Home)
In 1992, Bessie Morse Bellingrath was recognized by the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame for her love of beauty and the way she supported the community while she developed the Bellingrath Home and Gardens.
Bessie Bellingrath, c. 1920s. (Image provided by Tom McGehee, Bellingrath Gardens and Home)
The Mobile native was born May 20, 1878 to Sewell and Alice Morse. Bessie grew up in a comfortable working-class home that her father supported as a shipwright for wooden riverboats. While her early interest was in the arts, Bessie attended a business college that taught secretarial skills, including shorthand, to support her family. She began working as a stenographer at the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in downtown Mobile.
While working at the plant, she met the company’s owner, Walter Bellingrath. They married on Nov. 14, 1906 in a small ceremony in the Morse family home.
“Walter did not come from wealth either,” said Tom McGehee, director of the Bellingrath Home. “His father was a German immigrant who worked in the metal industry, first with plumbing and later in the turpentine business.”
Walter Bellingrath. (Image provided by Tom McGehee, Bellingrath Gardens and Home)
Walter was born in Atlanta in 1869. In the 1880s, the family moved to Castleberry, Alabama, where they continued to manufacture tin or copper vessels to collect turpentine.
As a teenager, Walter began working as a station manager with the L&N Railroad, sending and receiving telegraph messages.
In 1903, he and his older brother, William, learned of an opportunity to purchase a franchise to sell bottled Coca-Cola throughout southern Alabama. It was a risky venture because successful soda bottling was a new phenomenon. Soda fountains were commonplace throughout the country, and many believed that they could never be replaced.
“He and William had to borrow the money to buy the Coca-Cola franchise from Montgomery,” McGehee said. “At first, every bank in Montgomery turned them down. … They didn’t see a future in bottling Coca-Cola, but the First National Bank in Montgomery eventually gave them the money – a whole $1,500.”
“The real money for bottlers didn’t come around until after WWI,” McGehee said. “America changed drastically in the 1920s – people were moving around, driving cars … not sitting at the soda fountains anymore. Bottlers were becoming multimillionaires.”
As the Bellingrath’s wealth accumulated, Walter’s business interests diversified – he served on the board of the First National Bank, owned the National Mosaic Tile Co., and helped found the Waterman Steamship Co. in Mobile.
“Walter gave Bessie 49% of the Mobile Coca-Cola Bottling stock, making her president of the company,” McGehee said. “Walter owned the other 51% and served as chairman of the board.”
While Bessie was technically the president of the company, it seems that most of her day-to-day duties were wrapped up in family and taking care of the home, which was commonplace for women at the time. Their home on Ann Street was known throughout Mobile because of the beautiful garden Bessie kept.
Bellingrath Gardens and Home, the creation of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bellingrath, in Theodore. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
In 1917, upon the advice of his doctor (who was McGehee’s grandfather), Walter purchased a fishing camp about 20 miles south of Mobile, along the Fowl River.
“Walter went around town saying this was the best piece of property on the river, highest point of land, best fishing, etc., but he just couldn’t afford it, it was too much money,” McGehee said. “My grandfather told him he needed to learn how to relax … to go buy that fishing camp and learn how to play.
“With such a justification, Walter was now able to say that he never would have spent the money, except that his doctor had recommended it,” McGehee continued.
With Walter busy running multiple businesses in town, Bessie began taking clippings from the garden at home to the Fowl River property. Over the years, Belle Camp, as the property had been named, grew in size, scope and beauty.
Bellingrath Gardens and Home, the creation of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bellingrath, in Theodore. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.)
In 1927, the Bellingraths hired Mobile’s most prominent architect, George Rogers, to design the layout of the property.
Rogers had recently completed Mobile’s first skyscraper, the Van Antwerp Building, and was simultaneously designing the Mobile Public Library. Later in life, he would be named a fellow in the American Institute of Architects – a prestigious honor.
“Bessie was overseeing the plantings and working with the architect and the head gardener to see that things were going smoothly,” McGehee said.
Formally, the Bellingraths were purchasing plants for the gardens from as far away as Mississippi, always on the lookout for different varieties of azaleas and camellias. Informally, without Walter’s knowledge, Bessie made other plant purchases throughout the community as a means to help support struggling families during the Depression.
“She had a group of friends that would call and tell her about people in need … someone whose husband was out of work or had died, households with many children, or families that had brilliant sons or daughters that should be in college,” McGehee said. “She would knock on the door, saying that she hated to bother them, but she had been driving by for years and noticing the blooms in their yards and that she had been looking everywhere for one of those (shrubs, plants, etc.) … they needed it for Bellingrath Gardens – and would they sell it to her.”
“She was paying $400-500 for a single shrub,” McGehee continued. “She did all of these things very quietly, so that it never looked like charity. … They were always doing something to help her.”
Bellingrath Gardens and Home, the creation of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bellingrath, in Theodore. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
In April 1932, Walter placed an advertisement in the local newspaper inviting the public to visit the gardens, free of charge.
“They were so astounded when they opened it up for a Sunday afternoon and nearly 5,000 people came down,” said McGehee.
“Around this time, the Lindbergh baby had just been kidnapped, America was at the start of the Depression, and there were worries about revolution,” said McGehee. “Most wealthy people were putting up fences or hiring security guards, but the Bellingraths were doing the opposite.”
While Walter and Bessie had intended to have the gardens open just for the spring, similar to what they had seen while traveling through Charleston, South Carolina, visitors continued to come – year-round. In 1934, the gardens were officially opened for year-round visits.
The house, which now serves as the museum, was completed in 1936, and was also designed by George Rogers.
“The façade is almost a repeat of a house he built in Chunchula in 1913 or 1914,” McGehee said. “But for this house, he tried to blend it into the landscape … using Mobile brick and old ironwork, with inspiration from design along the Gulf Coast.”
With the gardens open and their new home complete, Bessie began a new hobby that was all the rage among America’s wealthy – collecting antiques. Her collection, which is on display in the museum today, contains 19th century U.S. and English furniture, rare European porcelain, sets of fine china and an array of crystal and silver, some of which date back to 1743.
“She would purchase things from individuals, as well as from fine antique shops,” McGehee said. Similar to her plant purchases, she would often overpay, knowing that her purchase might be the shop’s only sale that week, or that it would provide help to someone in her community.
“For example, there was a grand woman whose husband had passed away and she had lost everything,” McGehee said. “On a visit to her home, Bessie admired a chair in the parlor and offered her $600 for the piece. The woman didn’t want to sell it because she hoped one day to pass it down to her niece, but ultimately accepted the offer.”
Weeks, months and then over a year went by without Bessie sending someone to pick up the purchased chair. “The woman contacted Bessie and apologized, saying that she’d spent the money and couldn’t return it and the chair was still there,” McGehee said.
“Bessie said it was she who should apologize, as she found one that she liked better,” McGehee continued. “She then asked the woman to give the chair to the niece as a gift, from Bessie, when she got married.”
Unfortunately, Bessie was only able to briefly enjoy the home and gardens she had worked so diligently to build. She suffered from cancer and died suddenly from a heart attack while on vacation with Walter in 1943.
“After she died, Walter stepped away from business and focused on the gardens,” McGehee said.
“As frugal as Walter had been, when Bessie died, he could have looked at the way things were with the gardens – he had written a personal check 11 years in a row to cover the deficit of keeping the gardens open for the public,” McGehee said. “As a businessman, he could have said, ‘This makes no sense,’ but instead, he set up a foundation with a provision to maintain the house and gardens as a memorial to his wife.”
The Bellingrath Morse Foundation was established in 1949 and has continued to provide support for the gardens and museum, as well as money for college scholarships at Huntington, Rhodes and Stillman colleges.
Though Bessie was an integral part of her family and community, like many women of her time, very little was ever documented about her life.
Painting of Bessie Morse Bellingrath. (Image provided by Tom McGehee, Bellingrath Gardens and Home)
It is through McGehee’s work, as museum director since 1994, that remembrances of Bessie have come to light and are now documented. He has interviewed family members, staff from the house and gardens, and former visitors to learn more about her, her love for family and community, and her desire to share beauty and culture through her work.
McGehee notes that over the past two decades, the things that visitors hope to see and learn about when they visit the museum has changed. They no longer want to tour an inventory of antiques, they instead want to learn about the people who lived and worked there, and what their purpose was.
“These stories explain why we’re here,” McGehee continued. “In a lot of ways, you hear them and think nothing has changed – I know someone just like that. … It’s like they were here yesterday.”
“Bessie knew what she was doing,” McGehee said. “It’s magical in the spring. … Everything gets that first blush of bright green and the leaves and flowers start coming in, it’s just beautiful.”
Bessie’s love of art created a masterpiece that not only elevated Southern horticulture, but also helped to support and bring joy to her community. Both Bessie and Walter have had species of camellias named in their honor, celebrating the impact of their work and dedication to developing the gardens.
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Bellingrath Gardens and Home is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
To see what’s currently in bloom, learn about special events and tours or for more information, visit: https://bellingrath.org/
Throughout March, Alabama NewsCenter is recognizing Alabama women of distinction, past and present, in celebration of Women’s History Month.
