This old house

Didn't want to hijack Larry's thread; I hate to see these old houses go; this'n is about a half mile from me and sits on an old lane several hundred yards from the county road. It was built in the 1870s by a war of northern agression veteran who moved here (West TN) from VA in 1873. Married the daughter of a family who owned the farm and they built the house; raised 5 boys and 2 girls in it; they were all born in the 19th century. The boys were quite prominent when grown; one was a minister, one a banker, 2 owned a general store; not sure about the other. The step-son of the last of the sons now owns it......about 100 acres. The house was occupied 'til sometime in the 1970s and I rented the farm for a long time before I retired. The house is of post-and-beam construction and the owner would probably give it to me if I'd move/restore it. Might've done it 20 years ago, but I'm too old and tired. Went down there last Summer and took some pictures; water's getting inside and it's just a matter of time..........

<a href="http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/ii44/thurlow8/?action=view&amp;current=DrakeFarm004.jpg" target="_blank"> </a>

If they want to sell the whole place,100 acres and all,let me know.

aging occurs in both people and material things. material things can be extended for a long time, however, as we all know, not so for our bodies. wife's side of the family had acreage with the original log cabin (180?"s) on it. rotted down to nothing because one son would not agree to do anything with it. sad, it could have been easily saved at one time.

Very important that you know the history and hope you can keep the story for those who follow. Looks like it probably not worth redoing but it isn"t much worse than the old house I rebuilt. Too bad, its part of our history.

the value is in the post and beam and the method of construction. from appearance it is still somewhat square, plumb and solid. siding and roof can be replaced.

Randy..........if you're serious, let me know; it actually is for sale........minus the 18 or 20 acres that the owner build his new house on in 1996. He's a quite-well-known artist and moved here from Memphis when he retired from teaching from the Memphis College of Art. He approached me about buying it last year and was gonna offer it to the cattleman who now rents the farm; as far as I know, it hasn't been sold. I haven't actually seen the rest of the farm since I gave it up in 2001; there was a small (10-12 acre) 'bottom'/flat land, which I row-cropped; the rest was in pasture; not sure how well it's been taken care of in the last few years. I can give you his phone number..........my address is jhkoonce44athotmaildotcom

T : If Randy is not interested or can,t get it done e-mail me. I have property in both middle and west Tenn. Currently live on farm here in Stewart County but might be interested. What county in west Tennessee. jm.

My wife and I HEART used to Burn for such old homes like these and the earlier posts ,, We Did 2 that were not liveable when we took hem on ,, Our Philosophy of condition was,, if the roof had protected it , the foundation was strong and STRAIT ,,
Didnt matter about wiring , plaster , windows , plumbing , floors , doors, and rough woodwork , we yanked itit out and tossed anything that hadno significant history and saved things like an old carpenter built cup board ,with wavy glass and some nicwe ornate doors and knobs ,,.

I came along right at the tailend of the animal-powered (mule and human) farming era in my part of the world. I worked for my dad from the time I was about 8 years old 'til several years after high school. He rented lots of small (and larger) farms in our county and most had old houses on them; most were tenant houses and the folks who'd lived in them (most for only one-year-at-a-time) had moved to Chicago, Gary, Deetroit, etc. I counted 'em up one time and iirc, we had torn down 21 of the old houses (most were 3-6 room tenant houses, but 2 were fine old homes.........one resembling Tara and dating to the 1840s and built by slave labor. The landowners said tear 'em down and we tore 'em down; taking down the 2 fine old houses still bothers me). The same fellow owned both of 'em; he was an absentee landowner and headed up the civil engineering department at the University of TN/Knoxville; apparently there wasn't a nostalgic bone in his body.

That would take some doing to restore that house and I do home restoration for a living. I think by the time you would get it done it would be more new wood than old. Then you would have to find someone that could make wooden double hung windows.

thurlow,
Thanks for posting. It is so hauntingly beautiful. I just love to look in abandoned buildings and imagine the life that happened there.

I find these old homesteads endlessly fascinating. The stories that these homes could tell!!