|
History
The
house was originally built as a single story structure by Clarence C.
Dubose, editor of the Shelby Sentinel, in 1889.
The house was then purchased by John S. and Ada Pitts in 1900.
The Pitts family built the additions to the original structure,
making it the fine example of Victorian architecture you see
today. In 1924,
Wingard, purchased the house and divided the upstairs portion of the
house into apartments, which were used by student teachers from the
University of Montevallo.
These student teachers were in Columbiana to do their student teaching
at Columbiana Elementary School which was adjacent to the house,(just
across Thompson street) which is the current site of the Shelby County
Board of Education .
Mr. Wingard sold the house to his daughter in 1934, at her death in
1978, she requested the family give the house to her grand-daughter and
it remained in the family until Andrew and Diane Moore purchased it in
2002, after the house had fallen into serious disrepair over the years
and was offered for sale.
Restoration
The
restoration took 5 years to complete. The first part of the restoration
was to stabilize the house from further deterioration.
This was accomplished by putting a new roof on the house, then
moving on to tackle the porches.
When the house was purchased, the original wrap around double
porches were no longer present and only the front double porches existed
and they would not hold the weight of a person safely.
The Moore’s decided to put the porches that existed when they
purchased the house on in phase one and wait to do the wrap around
porches in phase two of the restoration.
The paint on the exterior of the house was peeling to expose
weathered wood underneath, so the next project was to paint the exterior
of the house. After careful
examination, the original color of the house was discovered and the
paint color was determined for the main body of the house.
There was very little evidence of the trim colors, because of the
deterioration, so research was done to determine what colors would have
been used in the early 1900‘s with the color already determined to be on
the body of the house. After careful consideration, the house colors
were established and painting began in earnest to stabilize the exterior
of the house. In the meanwhile, when the weather was too hot for
painting outdoors, the focus was shifted to the interior of the house,
where attention was focused on restoring the house to it’s original
splendor. This has been a
labor of love, from start to finish (that is, if there actually is a
finish). There is one school
of thought, that you never finish restoring an old house.
There is something about an old house, that keeps you interested
enough to keep you working to make it shine.
During the restoration process, the Moore’s have discovered so many
people that started out their married life together in one of the
apartments upstairs. This house
is full of history and charm that has to be shared, it would be so sad
to keep it to ourselves. We
encourage anyone interested in restoration to visit, before you start
your own project. We have
survived, but some days it was questionable.
|
