Foundation Repairs due to Expansive Soils: Eudora Welty House, Jackson, Mississippi

Eudora Welty house was built in the Belhaven District in Jackson Mississippi in 1925. The foundation rests on a surficial nonexpansive 1.5 m (5 ft) clay subgrade overlying highly expansive clays, locally known as Yazoo clay. The house has undergone extensive foundation movement and foundation repairs were made in 1979 and in 2002. Foundation repairs for a portion of Miss Welty’s house were first commissioned in 1979 directly by the renowned and widely acclaimed 1973 Pulitzer winning author. Later, after her passing in 2001, the State of Mississippi, to whom the house had been transferred, and the Eudora Welty Foundation commissioned the restoration of the house. The restoration included extensive foundation repairs. Robert Ewing had the distinct honor and pleasure of meeting with Miss Welty in 1979, and upon her request, of designing and implementing foundation repairs for the rear of the house. The underpinning work performed by Ewing in 1979 and that designed by him in 2002 are described. Fifty drilled piers and more than 100 jacks were used in the underpinning and final restoration of the house. The Eudora Welty House was first declared a Mississippi Landmark by the State. In 2005 the Eudora Welty house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Because of Miss Welty’s influence on our national literary heritage and because she did all the writing from her upstairs bedroom, her house was designated to be a National Historic Landmark.