This fabulously detailed brick gingerbread house, made by Pat Ashley Howard, was entitled, “Mercer Williams House Replica.” It was awarded 1st Place Winner at the 2012 Savannah Georgia Harbor Foundation Gingerbread House Competition, an event organized by the Westin Savannah Hotel & the Savannah Harbor Foundation.

The competition theme that season was A Southern Christmas. Pat Ashley Howard‘s idea to build an edible model of this real life building was inspired by shots of Historic Savannah featured in the movie, Midnight in the Garden of Good of Evil.

Brick Walkway

The bricks on the sidewalk were painstakingly laid, one-by-one. The brick walls on the house were formed with an impression mat.

If you look closely through the gelatin sheet windows, you can glimpse finely detailed lace curtains made of gumpaste.

Edible Wrought Iron Details

The wrought iron fence posts and railings were made of dried pasta died black.

Pat Ashley Howard’s Story

Chapter 6 – Savannah Charm

In the Artist's Words

Eyeing a New Prize

I took a few years off from competing but in 2012 I decided to take a shot at the Savannah Georgia Harbor Foundation Gingerbread House Competition. It’s a much smaller contest but the prize money was decent and any excuse to go to Savannah is a good one. In the past this competition has always had a theme and that year it was “A Southern Christmas.”

Selecting a House to Replicate

I decided to replicate a home in Savannah’s historic section. I chose the Mercer House, sometimes known as the Mercer Williams house, the former home of composer Johnny Mercer.

This house was featured in the mostly true story of Jim Williams in the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil starring Kevin Spacey and John Cusack.

It’s a large brick two-story mansion with a lot of windows. This time I used an impression mat to make the bricks instead of cutting and stacking them by hand. The house has lots of ornate window trims, which I re-created in sugar gumpaste using molds.

The Mystery Roof

As an interesting note, I had to wing it for the roof because you could not see it from the ground, there are no photos of it and nobody could tell me what it actually looked like.