After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (4 page)

Until the mid-1960s, things were lean for Jim. The profit margins on sales of restorations and antiques were insufficient for Jim’s driving ambition. He would take his earnings and put small down payments on a number of properties, hoping that he would be able to eventually be able to earn enough to buy them outright or get enough in loans to secure them.

At one point, Jim scrounged up an extra $5,000 to buy Cabbage Island, just below Wilmington Island in Wassau Sound on the Georgia coast, where he where he and his friends could drink, fish and party. Little did he know what this dubious piece of vacation real estate would do for his fortunes. Cabbage Island is a large marsh island with very little land mass and is virtually under six feet of water at high tide.

In
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
, John Berendt suggests that Jim’s purchase of the island was an example of his business cunning, because he made a small fortune selling the island to Kerr McGee, who wanted to develop the large phosphate deposits on the island. Kerr McGee bought the island from Jim in 1966 for $660,000. According to Joe Goodman, the island was strictly a party place and he never mentioned anything to his friend about phosphates or any other intrinsic value of the island.

According to Tonya D. Clayton of the National Audubon Society, in 1968, Kerr McGee also purchased nearby Little Tybee Island for the same purpose as Cabbage Island two years earlier. When Kerr McGee petitioned the state for a permit to strip mine phosphates from deposits 40 feet below the marsh surfaces, there was a public outcry and the state passed a law protecting all Georgia tidal marshes from strip mining.

Jim’s sudden treasure was a watershed moment in his career. It was an enormous jumpstart to his ability to invest in important properties, lavish restorations, high-value antiques, and collectable treasures. Now he had the means to go over to Europe several times a year and purchase British and European antiques at excellent prices that he could mark up substantially when he sold them to customers in the U.S. He would attend auctions at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and other auction houses to buy for commercial purposes, as well as for his personal collection of Fabergé.

Jim explained to Joe, who now worked for Jim doing odd jobs, how he was able to get such valuable antiques overseas. As socialism became entrenched in Europe and the U.K., taxes on the wealthy were increased to confiscatory levels, especially inheritance taxes, to pay for the social welfare state. Rather than make it publicly known that they had to sell valuable antiques to pay their taxes, wealthy families concluded transactions with Jim that ensured confidentiality for the sellers. Joe said that he would get an exclusive arrangement on a house that was being sold to pay “death taxes” and then buy all the furniture in the house at a bargain price. He would then ship over only the most valuable antiques to his shop in Savannah and arrange for sale of the less valuable pieces in country. Other bargains could be found as formerly wealthy citizens of Russia and other Eastern European countries were forced to flee and live on whatever treasures they were able to take with them.

In quick succession, Jim was able to secure and restore some of the most important historic houses and buildings in Savannah.

Armstrong House

First was Armstrong House, an opulent palazzo with an exterior in the Italian Renaissance style on Bull Street near Forsyth Park. It was built for George Ferguson Armstrong, his wife, Lucy, and a daughter. Armstrong’s Strachan Shipping Company had made him a substantial fortune. Construction was finally completed after several years in 1919 at the then-astronomical sum of $680,000, or so goes the legend.

Armstrong’s widow eventually donated the exquisite property to house Armstrong Junior College. The house remained a college for the next three decades until it was acquired by the Historic Savannah Foundation in 1966, when the growth of the school required a move to a larger location. Over time, Armstrong Junior College expanded greatly and became Armstrong University, a state university.

Jim bought Armstrong House from Historic Savannah Foundation in 1967, restored it and moved his antique shop there for a couple of years. In 1970, Jim sold it to the law firm of Bouhan, Williams & Levy. One of the law firm’s senior partners was Frank W. “Sonny” Seiler, who bred the famous Uga bulldog mascots for the University of Georgia.

For those who have seen the
Midnight
movie, the early scene between writer John Kelso and the actor who played Williams’ attorney, was filmed inside the magnificent Armstrong House. Jim’s real attorney, Sonny Seiler, appeared in the movie as Judge White.

The Pink House

No sooner had Jim restored Armstrong House in 1967 than he moved on to his next project, the Pink House, in 1968. The Georgian home was made of red bricks and then covered with white plaster. However, the color of the bricks kept bleeding through the plaster and white paint, creating a pink house. No matter how many times the house was painted white, it eventually turned pink again. Finally one of the owners gave up and painted the exterior pink.

The pink mansion on Reynolds Square was built by James Habersham Jr., who was from one of Savannah’s founding families. It was saved from demolition by Alida Harper Fowlkes, who bought it and turned it into a tearoom. Later, the Georgian Tea Room closed and the house fell into a serious state of dilapidation—that is, until Jim undertook its restoration. After a contentious time with the city government on granting a liquor license, Jim finally sold the building, which was turned into a popular Savannah restaurant called The Olde Pink House.

All of this was a warm-up for the pinnacle of his restorations, his personal residence, the now-famous Mercer House.

“Savannah, like New York, had its own queer counterculture,” blogger Jack Miller wrote. “The community was much smaller than New York, but in proportion to the population of Savannah, just as essential to the city’s society, if not more so … Savannah was arguably more tolerant of gays than New York…”

Herb Traub Jr. (portrait)

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Jim would go out for drinks at the Pirate’s Cove, a bar next door to the Pirate’s House restaurant that was frequented by gays and was owned by Herb Traub Jr. The bartender at the Pirate’s Cove was Bill Durden, who then started up what became a busy bar called The Lamp Post on East Bay Street. The Lamp Post was popular with gays and cross-dressers as well as prostitutes who came in with their johns. Jim did not try to hide his sexual orientation to his close friends, like Carol Freeman. In fact, she accompanied him at least once on his visits to The Lamp Post as a lark.

Miriam K. Center, a writer friend of Jim’s, described the 1970s as Savannah’s “sexual coming of age.” Jim, she told me, loved “street trash” and frequented the bars looking for wild young things. A number of gay bars sprung up in that era, like Dr. Feelgood’s on Drayton, the Basement on Bull Street, Woody’s on River Street, and Faces on Lincoln, all of which are closed except for Blaine’s Back Door Bar, which still thrives at 13 East Perry Lane.

Blaine’s

In the last half of that decade, a straight couple opened a three-story disco nightclub called Who’s Who (also known as The Pick Up) at Bay and Abercorn. It was a mixed crowd of people 18-40 with gays making up approximately 75% of the clientele. The club had female impersonators and was the largest dance club in the city. Eventually, the owners opened up a bar on the other side called The Fountain, where the famous singer Emma Kelly performed. The bar burned down just before Hurricane Hugo hit the Low Country in 1989.

Jim always came to Who’s Who in the afternoon. Jim was a big backgammon enthusiast, so the owners accommodated him and put in two backgammon tables where Jim could play, sometimes with his lawyer friend, Sonny Seiler.

Once, Danny came into the bar, high on booze or marijuana, and quickly got loud and obnoxious with Jim. After that, Danny was not allowed in the bar.

A friend of Jim’s who frequented Who’s Who told me that when Jim spotted an attractive young man, he’d ask the bartenders to find out if the young man would be receptive to having drinks with Jim. That way, Jim would not have to face rejection if the young man was not interested. Jim had a big problem with rejection—one that this friend personally experienced. He explained that while Jim had always been a gentleman to him, he lost his temper when he turned Jim down sexually. This particular friend had a significant other to whom he was faithful.

“What’s wrong with me?” Jim yelled and grabbed the friend’s arm. “What can a Jew boy do for you that I can’t do for you?” Later, Jim apologized to his friend, but the episode was not easily forgotten.

Another nightclub that Jim frequented was Club One on Jefferson Street, which still showcases female impersonators like the Lady Chablis. Club One was similar to Who’s Who, but larger. Jim became friends with bartender Ali Fennell when he dropped in late evenings for his vodka and tonic with a twist of lime. Occasionally, Jim would show up at the end of the night with Danny, who was a friend of the Lady Chablis. Danny would be high on weed and Jim would be drunk on vodka, Ali recalled.