A Place Called Eden A Place Called

WRITTEN BY LESLIE CRISS | PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOE WORTHEM

When Celia and Frank Wood moved into their newly built home Dec. 15, 2019, they had stories to tell of their construction experience. During the journey, several incidents — including having to pour the foundation twice — slowed progress and sometimes fostered frustration. The end result, however, has made it all worthwhile.

The midcentury modern-style house is in Lafayette County, with an Abbeville mailing address. The Woods are both Mississippi natives: She’s from Greenville; he’s from Jackson. But after owning and operating Camp Windhover, a fine and performing arts camp for kids, from 2002 until 2014 in Copiah County, the couple made a westward move to Los Angeles, where their three grown children had migrated.

They bought a house in the Hollywood Hills in 2013, but when they decided to return to Mississippi in 2019, they rented an apartment in Oxford to call home until the new house became a reality.

If there was an unanswered question in the planning of the soon-to-built house, it was “where?.” Celia wanted to live in Oxford; her husband preferred outside of Oxford.

“Celia said as long as it was no more than 20 minutes from Oxford, she would do it,” Frank said.

When he found 57 acres he loved that included 40 acres in woods, 10 in pastures/ fields and seven acres in a lake, he clocked the drive to the property from the city.

“It was exactly 20 minutes,” he said.

It’s called Eden, this lake- and treeladen green space that provides the earthen foundation for the Woods’ cypress house. (It’s also the name of a musical Frank wrote with his friend David Womack. “Eden” was the winner of the Eudora Welty New Plays Series and was produced at New Stage in 1992.)

One of the first things done was some landscaping on the property.

“We marked the trees we wanted to keep,” Frank said. “We built a floating dock on the lake, and I cut trails through the woods. There’s about a 30-minute walk on the cleared trails.”

The acreage backs up to the Holly Springs National Forest.