On the waterfront

A Jackson home takes full advantage of its lakeside location, swans and all.

- KELLI BOZEMAN

Michelle Petro Pharr and her husband David hadn’t been in their new lakeside house in Jackson’s Eastover neighborhood for long when they threw a party in the backyard. Guests mingled under the stars as a group of Mississippi Symphony Orchestra musicians seated on the couple’s pier played gentle classical melodies. It was one of those nights when Pharr knew she was exactly where she was meant to be.

“The lighting and the sounds were amazing,” she recalls. “I wanted to keep them there forever!”

This celebration was the crescendo in a concerto of construction that saw Pharr and her family create a dwelling on a lot right next door to her parents’ home. Pharr had been a senior in high school when her father and mother, Dr. Anthony and Mary Ann Petro, built their new home here in 1991, and 24 years later, Pharr found herself coming full circle.

“I have always loved the lake, the views, and the privacy,” Pharr says, “while still being in the city of Jackson and near all we do.”