By Nancy Bell, Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation

This two-story Prairie-style residence at 3208 Drummond St. was built in 1925 for Louis P. and Mary Cashman.

Michael J. Donovan most likely designed it, but the plans for it are not among the Donovan Collection owned by the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation. This year, 1925, is not yet online at Newspapers.com so we are not able to check that source to see if the architect is mentioned. What we do have is the 1925 Sanborn Insurance Map that shows the house on this lot with the note “From Plans” printed under the building’s outline.

The interesting thing about this outline is that a semi-circular two-story bay extends to the front on the left façade. This feature was eliminated at some point during construction because it does not appear on 1935 photos of the house; however, it does still show up on the 1948 Sanborn.

The Prairie style originated in Chicago by architect Frank Lloyd Wright as a reaction against revivals of earlier styles and is one of the few indigenous American styles. The Prairie style was designed to relate to the flat, open landscape of the Midwest, but vernacular examples were spread widely by pattern books and popular magazines and are common throughout the country, including in Vicksburg.

The style is typically found in the form of a two-story stucco or brick building with a hip roof, generally of tile, with widely-overhanging eaves. There are often bands of windows and massive square brick piers that support a porch roof.  The Cashman house well represents this American style.

When the Cashmans moved to Drummond Street, then called Park Avenue, they had two children, Louis and Mary, and a third child, John, having died at one month old in February. Louis was born in Vicksburg and as a high school student worked part-time for his father’s newspaper, The Vicksburg Evening Post, where he continued as a full-time employee following his graduation, working as a newspaper carrier and doing a variety of odd jobs around the pressroom, including the hand-setting of type.

In 1918, he was named business manager and while in this position, he modernized the advertising policy for the paper, including its rate structure, established an independent carrier system, and began buying newsprint in carload lots resulting in considerable savings. When his father, John, died in 1922, Cashman became the publisher of the paper, and in 1939, after the death of his brother, Frank, he became the editor. He continued to serve in these roles until just before he died in 1961.

During Cashman’s tenure from 1922 to 1961, the paper’s staff increased from 12 to 60, the number of pages from 50 to 126, circulation from 4035 to 10,412 and annual advertising increased from $48,000 to $402,000. He was also very involved in community affairs including on the boards of directors of the Mississippi Building and Loan Association, First National Bank, O’Neill-McNamara Hardware Company, Vicksburg Bridge Commission, YMCA, Mercy Hospital, Chamber of Commerce, Vicksburg Country Club and the Vicksburg Rotary Club.

Cashman was preceded in death by his wife, Mary, in 1942.

Following Cashman’s death in 1961, the Drummond Street house was the home of his daughter, Mary, her husband, John Boa, and their children John, Jr. and Irene. By 1967, Leo C. Koestler lived in the house and then in 1979, Pamela and Larry Sanders call the house, home.

In 1986, Andrew and Susan Morang bought the house and have lovingly maintained it. The Cashman House continues to be an important part of Vicksburg’s architectural heritage and is now for sale. The historic photos are from c. 1935 and include a photo of the gardens and pond in the rear yard.