’The Lord may be glorified.’ Father Jesus is turning his Gulfport home into a castle.
A man who legally changed his name to Father Jesus has built a castle facade, complete with two-story battlements, on the front of his house in a neighborhood just west of downtown Gulfport.
Father Jesus, previously named Harold Ray Laster Jr., wanted to build a church that looked like a castle on a residential lot in North Gulfport, but city planners rejected the request in March 2018.
Instead, he bought a house on 11th Street on the north side of Island View Casino Resort’s parking lot and built the castle facade of plywood.
The city has received complaints about the addition and researched its regulations. Father Jesus has followed all the rules. His castle addition is legal, said Urban Development Director Greg Pietrangelo.
“If you want your house to look like a castle and live in the city of Gulfport, you have a right to do it,” Pietrangelo said. “ . . . We’re not the pretty police.”
Residents are entitled to their property rights. Historic districts include restrictions, but if a homeowner outside a historic district wants to paint their house a purple, they can. A Gulfport LSU fan did paint his house purple, Pietrangelo said, and was within his rights to do so even though some neighbors disliked it.
Father Jesus secured a permit for the main part of the castle attached to the front of his house. The battlements on the west side are not attached to the house — that part of the structure is considered a playground. Father Jesus said he built the battlements so that he could climb up and look out over the Mississippi Sound.
The structure is built of plywood painted white. The city has inspected the castle facade several times. It meets code.
Father Jesus told the Sun Herald some people have complained the castle looks like it’s built of cardboard. But he is undeterred.
The Lord “gave me a road map to success, a Biblical road map to success that I have to accomplish,” he said. “This is the reason why I have done this work, that the Lord may be glorified.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
