Mississippi Teacher Restores Historic House Built in 1914

By GINNA PARSONS, Northeast Mississippi Each day Journal

SALTILLO, Miss. (AP) — About eight years in the past, Kellie Dillard turned excited by shopping for an outdated dwelling in Saltillo often known as the Barlow Burrow Home, which had been unoccupied for a number of years.

The 2-story Colonial Revival residence was constructed by Saltillo service provider Barlow Burrow in 1914. It sits on the identical website as the house of his father, Capt. John H. Burrow, which was constructed within the 1870s.

Within the fall of 2020, the house’s homeowners, Judd and Donna Hambrick, who bought the home and its contents from the Burrow household in 1983, agreed to promote it to Dillard.

She instantly started work to carry it again to its former glory.

“A variety of what we put into it, you’ll be able to’t see – all new duct work, new plumbing, new electrical, insulation, new central warmth and air models,” mentioned Dillard, who teaches tenth grade English at Saltillo Excessive College.

The very first thing Dillard did was put a brand new roof on the house. She additionally had basis work executed to make the home sit degree once more.

“What’s neat is there was no termite injury – none,” she mentioned.

As a result of nobody had been residing within the dwelling for some time, the landscaping had gotten uncontrolled.

“You couldn’t see the home for the shrubbery and bushes that had been there for 60 or 70 years,” Dillard mentioned. “We needed to have lots of that taken out. Locals would camp out to see all of the work being executed. My favourite factor about residing right here is all of the tales individuals have instructed me about the home.”

All of the partitions and ceilings had been coated in bead board, which Dillard stored on the ceilings and interior partitions. She had Sheetrock placed on the outer rooms of the home for heating and cooling functions.

Dillard had the house’s inside partitions painted a gentle cream coloration, and all of the woodwork was cleaned and stained to its unique dark-brown coloration. She additionally added new lighting fixtures to a number of areas in the home.

“All of the hardwood flooring are unique to the house,” Dillard mentioned. “A lot of the flooring had been coated by carpet or space rugs, in order that they had been in glorious situation. Solely the ground within the kitchen and butler’s pantry needed to be tiled. The hardwood couldn’t be salvaged as a result of a few of it had buckled and different components had been coated in layers of linoleum.”

There are six non-functional coal-burning fireplaces within the dwelling, and the mantels on the 2 fireplaces upstairs are unique to the house that was constructed on the property within the 1870s.

The house’s entrance entrance consists of a single beveled glass door surrounded by sidelights of single panels of beveled glass. The mounted transom options three home windows. Aside from one 18-pane window in the lounge, many of the home windows in the home are giant double-hung sash models.

“This home was untouched,” Dillard mentioned. “Even the wavy glass within the home windows is unique.”

The downstairs encompasses a reception corridor, lounge, eating room, kitchen and butler’s pantry, a half-bath, and a main bedroom with a sitting space and bathtub. Upstairs there are three bedrooms and one bathtub.

There are two staircases resulting in the second flooring: The principle staircase within the reception corridor has two backside steps curving round a newel submit; the again staircase is off the kitchen.

A number of items of vintage furnishings, just like the eating room desk, had been within the dwelling when Dillard bought it, however the remainder she has collected over the previous 30 years.

“Nothing on this home matches,” she mentioned. “There’s Empire, Duncan Phyfe, Federal kinds. The grandfather clock within the eating room was constructed the identical yr as this home – 1914. There’s nothing new on this home besides the lounge furnishings.”

One of the vital hanging facets of the house is the eclectic assortment of paintings on the partitions.

“We love tag gross sales, property gross sales, junk gross sales, antiques retailers,” Dillard mentioned. “There’s an 1852 portray of a gentleman that hangs over the hearth within the eating room that I acquired at a tag sale. I do not know who he’s. We named him Uncle Cyrus.”

Dillard’s mom lived in Ocean Springs for a number of years, and that’s the place Dillard fell in love with the paintings of Walter Anderson.

“I most likely have a dozen or extra of his items,” she mentioned. “I’ve been amassing paintings for 20 years. I simply purchase what I like – this home is a hodgepodge of what I like. I’m not making an attempt to appear like one thing in {a magazine}.”

The skin of the house additionally acquired a metamorphosis. Dillard had French drains put in together with an irrigation system, lighting, brick steps and walkways, and new panorama vegetation.

“There are two Magnolia timber out entrance that we stored, however had trimmed up,” she mentioned. “That’s my favourite half concerning the exterior of the home. I like the truth that they shade the home, but in addition that they’re that outdated.”

Work on the house was accomplished final November, and that’s when Dillard and her daughter, Mary Kirk, had been capable of transfer into the home. Mary Kirk is a pupil at Mississippi State College, majoring in structure. Dillard’s son, Bradley, and his spouse, Laiken, reside in Tupelo.

In 1983, the earlier homeowners and others had the Barlow Burrow Home positioned on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations due to its architectural and historic significance.

That’s one purpose Dillard needed the house – not only for herself, however for her daughter.

“I need to get my certificates in historic preservation,” Mary Kirk mentioned. “That is the form of work I need to do – get into older houses and promote sustainability.”

Dillard mentioned there are lots of cool outdated homes in Saltillo, and he or she hopes extra younger households will purchase them and restore them.

“I hoped in redoing this property that there could be a trickle-down impact,” Dillard mentioned. “I’m glad we had been capable of carry this outdated home again. I really feel like I’m a caretaker of historical past.”

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