One happy story for this week’s Christmas reading.
photo by Joe Ellis, Clarion-Ledger
Clarion-Ledger writer Sherry Lucas reported this weekend that the Merrill-Maley House, built around 1910, on Jackson’s N. State Street finally has a new owner after years of standing vacant. Left in the middle of a renovation that took off some additions that had been made to the front of the house, the building with its Corinthian portico has been an eyesore to passersby, but it was just waiting for the right person to come along and see its potential. According to the C-L, Holt Beasley, a contractor, and his mother Carole, a realtor were the right people:
Dusty rooms with ripped wallpaper and torn-out trim are haunting. Beasley passed a room with a corner hole in the wall and joked about “central air.” Then he marveled at all that was left intact and envisioned what had been there before.
“That’s going to be a beautiful mantle,” he said of one, chipping at its paint flecks with the toe of his boot and gazing at fine details in its molding and mirror.
Carole Beasley said they’d love to see any pictures of the house’s interior or exterior, particularly of its grand central staircase, long removed.
Their plan is to start on the house sometime in January. “I’m hoping it’ll take us eight months, but that means it’ll probably be closer to 10,” he said. They hope to have it ready to lease for office space by early 2016.
Merry Christmas, MissPresers, wherever you are!
Categories: Jackson, News Roundups, Renovation Projects
Preservation in Mississippi 
I love that the building will be restored, although I confess to a little let down at “lease for office space.” I looked up the site on the map, though, and I suppose I can see why it might not be a place folks would want to live–surrounded by offices and buildings, that is.
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