end and was using it for a church.
Backus tacked a studio onto the western end of the church
addition, complete with skylights.
“Bean spent a year refurbishing that house to the way he
liked it,” Brown said. “He built the studio with the big front
window so people could see his paintings. The only reason
he got the studio built so fast was because the man who built
it wanted a painting of Bean’s for years, so Bean painted him
one, and he built the studio. Bean put the wood shutters on
the house, and painted them that green blue, too.”
During the Backus years, the house was known as a hangout
for a wide collection of people, from the author Zora
Neale Hurston to the early Highwaymen painters. Backus
PRESERVATION
The kitchen side of a two-sided fireplace. Bean Backus replaced some missing bricks with wood fakes, painting them to look like bricks. They have since
been replaced with real brick. The Christian and Missionary Alliance bought the house, above right, in 1954 and added an extension to the west end that
was used for church services.
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ST. LUCIE COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM
This is how the house looked after Dr. Clyde Phillips Platts built it in
1896. You can just make out the wraparound verandah roof.
MAIN STREET FORT PIERCE