Parker Estate to be Auctioned

The first Saturday of summer this year will be a poignant one in Mexico Beach. A piece of town history will change hands, leaving memories while creating an opening to the future.

On June 6 the Parker estate - the gracious southern-style colonial sitting almost on its own island on U.S. 98, will be auctioned off to new owners.

"It's a positive thing. It's not a sad thing," said Cathey Parker Hobbs in describing her thoughts on the family home. "It's something my two sisters and I chose to do. We don't have to sell it, but it's Mom and Dad's property and we feel like it's time to move on. So it's a positive thing."

Hobbs, a well-known realtor in the area, has lived all her life in Mexico Beach. Her father, Charles M. Parker, along with her mother, Francis "Inky" Parker, founded Mexico Beach over 50 years ago and eventually built the house, raising their family there.

Hobbs laughed as she fielded the primary question she said she has been receiving: is she leaving Mexico Beach.

"Absolutely no," she said. "I will never not live in Mexico Beach. I'm planted here. But I've never lived anywhere else. It's been wonderful, but now there are more and more people on the beach. We (referring to her husband Ralph Hobbs) want to slow down and do some traveling. But we absolutely have no plans to leave Mexico Beach."

Hobbs said she had worked with Roebuck Auctions before and really like the company, which she called "very professional."

The company also has dealt with the type of clientele that likes unique properties like her parent's estate, she added.

The Parker estate is one of seven properties to be auctioned off on June 6. The auction company, out of Destin, handled the sale of Toucan's Restaurant and the Harmon property next door to the restaurant in March.

Along with the Parker estate, the auction will include the Parker family beach cottage, Hobb's personal beach front house next door to the Parker cottage, a piece of commercial property on U.S. 98 owned by Paul Francis, a home with carriage house on Twentieth Street, a vacant lot on Forty-First Street, and another lot on Twenty-First Street.

The lot on Twenty-First Street will be sold absolute, meaning sold to the highest bidder regardless of price, according to Derrick Ballard, of Roebuck Auctions. All the other parcels will have undisclosed reserves, meaning a minimum price must be reached in order to sell.

According to Ballard, there will be an open house for the four homes and the commercial property on May 31 from 1-4 p.m. CT.

The auction itself will be held at 11:07 a.m. CT on Saturday, June 6 at the Parker estate at 2500 U.S. 98. For more information on all the properties, visit www.roebuckauctions.com.