Photograph of Fairchild Beach Cottage - Waveland, Mississippi

"Victorian Cottage, Waveland" circa 1936

During the past few weeks, I wrote a series of posts about Carlotta Nelson Fairchild and her family that included her only child, Christine Nelson Fairchild.  Recently, I located a photo in the online digital collection of the Library of Congress, identifed as "Victorian Cottage, Waveland (MS)" that is believed to be the Fairchild beach cottage once known as "The Myrtles."  The image was taken by Walker Evans, a well-known photographer who worked in the 1930's for an agency of the Farm Security Administration.  According to newspaper archives and his biographies, Walker Evans knew Christine Fairchild and later married Christine's friend, Jane Smith Ninas, formerly married to New Orleans artist, Paul Ninas. It was likely that Evans took the photograph of the Fairchild beach cottage when he accompanied Christine and Jane and Paul Ninas on a visit to Waveland, Mississippi.     


Source:  Photo Collection: Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. Reproduction Number LC-DIG-fsa-8c52054.  Photographed by Walker Evans, 1903-1975.

Christine Nelson Fairchild - The Men in Her Life

Seventh and final in a series of posts about Carlotta Nelson Fairchild and her family.  Today's post is about Christine Fairchild, daughter of Carlotta and Louis Fairchild.

As the youngest daughter of Louis Howes Fairchild, Christine Nelson Fairchild in 1912 was born into a life of privilege.  But it is doubtful that she knew just how privileged her life was until she was much older.  As the only child born to her mother, and as the youngest child of an aging father, Christine was likely indulged by both parents. But then her father died in 1918, Christine's life changed in a number of ways.  According to the U. S. Census of 1920, it appears that Christine's mother, a New Orleans society matron, was working and had two boarders residing in her rented home. But once the succession of the estate of Louis Fairchild was complete, the Fairchild family, including Christine, once again became part of the New Orleans social scene.  Without a doubt, Christine's early education at the Newcomb School and later at Sophie Newcomb College, brought her in contact with other young women and their families who would influence Christine's life.  

One of these young women was Jane Smith, a classmate of Christine's at Sophie Newcomb College.  Jane's interest in art and photography meshed with Christine's interest in architecture, and both young women became involved in the New Orleans arts scene. At some point, Jane became an art student at the new and trendy Arts and Crafts School, where a well-known artist and newcomer to New Orleans, Paul Ninas, was an instructor.  Jane's association with Paul Ninas would begin a relationship that eventually led to their marriage in 1933. During this same period, Christine was accepted by the architecture school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.).  

  

Although Jane was now married with a husband and Christine was attending school in Boston, Christine's visits home during holidays and the summer allowed her to maintain her friendship with Jane Smith, which now included Jane's husband, Paul Ninas. A fourth individual soon would be added to this friendship when New York photographer, Walker Evans, arrived in New Orleans.

In the early 1930's, as the nation suffered the effects of the Great Depression, the U. S. Government saw a need to record, in paintings and photographs, the economic and social conditions of individuals living throughout the United States and in particular, poverty-stricken residents of the rural South. And it was Walker Evans who was hired to complete the photography portion of the project. When Evans was sent to New Orleans to photograph conditions in that area, he was told to contact Paul Ninas.  At his first meeting with Walker Evans at a local restaurant, Paul Ninas brought along his wife, Jane.

Soon after his arrival in New Orleans, Jane and Paul Ninas, Christine Fairchild, and Walker Evans became close friends.  According to at least one biographer, Walker Evans was immediately attracted to Jane Ninas and soon invited her to accompany him to photograph rural areas within a day's drive of New Orleans.  Paul Ninas did not seem to mind, partly because he was busy with his art school and his own art work, but largely, it was alleged, because he may have had a mistress, his wife's friend, Christine Fairchild. Although Christine may have been involved with Paul Ninas, she continued to see other men, including at least one named Freedie von Helms.

The four friends spend many hours together, both in New Orleans and in Waveland, Mississippi, at the Fairchild beach cottage.  Although Jane Smith and Walker Evans may have already fallen in love, those who were close to them during the time have said the two managed to maintain a platonic relationship. But after Evans completed his project and had returned to New York, the two continued to correspond.  Eventually, Jane left Paul Ninas, moved to New York, where she and Walker Evans were later married.

In 1938, Christine Fairchild graduated M.I.T. with an architecture degree.  Fairly soon, the new architect would be back in the South, living in Mobile and doing architectural work on defense housing. Although Christine was back near family and familiar surroundings, her base of friends had changed during the years she was away in Boston. Jane Smith was now Jane Ninas Evans, having married her long-time paramour in 1941. 

Little information is available about Christine's association with Paul Ninas, if there was one, after she returned to the Gulf Coast area. What is known is that Paul Ninas remarried, on July 1, 1942, to Grace Chavonne, a union that produced one child, a daughter named Paula.  

Later that summer, Christine Nelson Fairchild was married to Paul David Magriel, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Louis Magriel, of Southampton, Massachusetts.  At the time of their marriage, Magriel was serving in the United States Army and working as the art director at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. The ceremony took place on the morning of August 15, 1941 at Christ Episcopal Church in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, with the Rev. Warwick Aiken, Rector, officiating. The bride, who had no attendants, wore a dress of pale pink linen, a large white hat, and carried a bouquet of summer flowers. Her groom's only attendant was Charles van Buren Gresham. An informal buffet luncheon followed at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard K. Nicholson, the bride's half-sister and her husband.  Later that day, the newlyweds left to honeymoon at Weyanoke Plantation, near St. Francisville, Louisiana, owned by the Towles family.

Later, Paul and Christine Magriel moved to the East Coast, where they lived first in Washington, D.C. and eventually New York and in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Paul was a successful author and art collector.  Their marriage produced two sons, Paul Magriel, Jr., a well-known author, backgammon, and poker expert, and Dr. Nicholas Magriel, a sarangi player and teacher.  Paul Magriel, Jr. named one of his sons Louis Fairchild Magriel, in honor of his paternal and maternal grandfathers, who were both named Louis. 


Christine Nelson Fairchild Magriel's life was indeed one of privilege.  The granddaughter of Danish immigrants and the daughter of well-bred parents, Christine lived through many changes to the world in which she was born.  In 1986, she died in Provincetown, Massachusetts, just four years before her husband's death. 


"Privilege is an immoral and unjust thing to have. But if you've got it, you didn't choose to get it, and you might as well use it." - Walker Evans.  


Sources:  
Ancestry.com, U.S. Census of 1920, accessed online January 18, 2011.
Times-Picayune.  Archived newspaper archives, 1900 - 1945.  Accessed online January 17 - 19, 2011
Walker Evans, by James R. Mellow.  GoogleBooks, accessed online on January 18, 2011

Christine Fairchild: Life Without Father

The sixth in a series of posts about Carlotta Nelson Fairchild, a native of Goodman, Mississippi.  Today's  post chronicles the early life of her only child, Christine. 

Although the years immediately after her husband's death in 1918 were most certainly a difficult time of transition for Carlotta, her young daughter, and her adult step-children, life continued on.  One might think that Louis Fairchild's widow and his adult children would have been at odds over the division of his estate, it appears that everyone weathered the unexpected events of his succession and the Fairchild family remained intact. This is evidenced by the eventual sale, fostered by the family and a close personal friend, to sell the Lee Circle property in 1919, for a figure exceeding $100,000, to the developers of the YMCA.  And reports of the many weekends and weeks-long summer vacations that family members spent together, primarily at the Fairchild cottage in Waveland, Mississippi, also show a sense of solidarity that likely was strengthened by the grief they all shared.  

Once Louis Fairchild's estate was settled, his widow and children seemed to resume at least some of their usual involvement in the New Orleans social scene.  Still unmarried, Hazel and Marguerite Fairchild often were mentioned as guests at parties and weddings, and at least once, the two women traveled to a Michigan resort for the summer where they visited with friends there. Edmund Fairchild, Louis Fairchild's only son, now married, continued to live in New Orleans where he operated one of the city's thriving automobile dealerships. He and his wife later became parents to Edmund Fairchild, Jr.

Without a doubt, Carlotta must have been busy raising her young daughter without a father, but she still maintained contact with members of her Nelson family still living in Holmes County, Mississippi.  One such contact came in the form of a visit she and Christine made to Goodman, Mississippi in June 1921, to attend the wedding of Carlotta's niece, Charlotte Nelson to Harold I. Randby of Chicago. As a member of the wedding party, Carlotta served as Charlotte's matron of honor, while 9 year old Christine was flower girl.  Carlotta's young nephew, Morris Fairchild Nelson, accompanied Christine down the aisle as ring bearer.  The wedding took place at the Methodist church in Goodman, Mississippi, and a reception followed at the bride's home.  Among those who greeted guests at the door of the reception was Carlotta's sister, Rena.  Local guests assisting at the reception included Mrs. J. D. Powers of Shelby, Mississippi, Mrs. Hal Donald, and Mrs. E. F. Noel of Lexington.

Back in New Orleans, Christine attended the Newcomb School, where she was an avid student and later played high school volleyball.  As a young woman, Christine often made trips with her mother to the beach cottage in Waveland, Mississippi, and in the latter part of the 1920's, it appears that Carlotta's primary place of residence may have been on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  The social pages of the Times-Picayune confirm that Carlotta continued to maintain the friendships of many she had known in New Orleans, where the names of those individuals were mentioned as house guests of Carlotta at her home on the beach in Waveland. 

In 1930, the U. S. Census recorded for Massachusetts, enumerated 18-year old Christine Fairchild living in Boston in the household of her mother, Lotta N. Fairchild, a 56 year old widow. Their residence at the time was shown to have been a dwelling on Commonwealth Avenue, and Carlotta's occupation was shown as "nurse."  Whether Carlotta was actually working at the time is unknown, but the amount of her assets ($125,000) shown on the census indicate she was a wealthy woman by 1930 standards. Besides Christine, two other  females, Eliza Aldrich, a stenographer, and Hazel Weld, a student, both 18 years old and likely friends of Christine, were present in the household at the time the census was recorded.  

Little is known about why Carlotta and Christine would have been living in Boston or exactly how long she remained there. At least one report in the social pages of the Times-Picayune, however, indicated that Rena Nelson, Carlotta's sister, was a resident of Boston around this time. But Rena's name did not appear as a member of Carlotta's household, and a subsequent search for her on the 1930 census found no record.  

Although Carlotta and Christine apparently lived in Boston for an undetermined period of time in 1930, both women were certainly back in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf coast area during the next few years.  Most accounts of Carlotta's social involvements indicate she may have returned to Waveland, Mississippi, where she lived in the Fairchild beach cottage while Christine was attending Sophie Newcomb College.  Located on the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans, Sophie Newcomb was a school for women. By most accounts, Christine was an excellent student and was a member of Phi Beta Phi.  And it was while Christine was a student at Sophie Newcomb that she met Jane Smith, a young photographer and artist who had grown up in Wisconsin.  Christine's aspiration to become an architect and Jane's artistic aspirations became the common ground for their eventual involvement in the city's fast growing arts community.  And it was in that environment, while Jane was a student at the newly established Arts and Crafts School, that both women would meet Paul Ninas.

Next:  The Men in Christine's Life

Times-Picayune. Archived newspaper articles, 1920 - 1940, accessed online Jan. 17, 2011

Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Year: 1930; Census Place: Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: 946; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 607; Image: 91.0.  [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. 

Accessed on January 18, 2011