QR Code added to Duncan House Signage

Something new has been added to the construction sign in front of the historic Duncan House – the QR code for the URL of this rehabilitation blog. [A QR code (abbreviated from “Quick Response Code”) is a machine-readable optical label containing information about the item to which it is attached.]

When tourists scan this particular matrix barcode with their smartphones, a QR reader takes them to the http://historicduncanhouse.com/ website. This High Tech feature thus provides visitors on-site, accurate, in-depth, and up-to-date information on our restoration project. What a handy addition for the interpretation of one of only four surviving Civil War structures in Corinth!

Thanks to John Orman for making the QR Code stickers for us!

HOUSTON, WE HAVE TOUCHDOWN!

Indeed we do! The Duncan House is now OFF the steel beams and resting on the piers and foundation that should hold it for another 160 years! So, the height off the ground you see as you drive by is the height it will remain. I think bringing the historic old home back up to its original height greatly improves its looks.

Soon, we will finish the block/brick work and will move on to yet another phase of restoration. It's an adventure, for sure!

Hopefully, we will soon be preparing a pad for the 'outbuilding' to rest on. I have hopes of placing it on its permanent site within the next couple of weeks.

Pier One

It was a big day on Polk Street as we finished the first 'pier' under the Duncan House, complete with antique brick and the proper color/mix of mortar. There are probably 16-18 visible piers and should all look similar. In between the piers will be period latticework covering a dark background. I think it's going to look great! We hope to finish bricking the piers tomorrow.

By the way, you may have seen some of these bricks as you rode by the old Corinth Machinery Company. Aren't they beautiful? I understand Corinth Machinery Company was built around 1869, so they are close to matching the pre-war period…

Let the New Phase of this project begin!

Many months of planning, praying, moving dirt, waiting on permissions, waiting on the rain to stop, cussin', moving the house, etc., etc., is now behind us, and we think a new phase is beginning.

As you can see, the blocks, special mortar mix(es) and sand are all in place. Antique brick arrive tomorrow morning early and the piers should be built exactly according to plan. We hope to give Mr. Elder's steel (upon which the house continues to rest) back to him soon - we have had it tied up WAY too long.

Perhaps next time you drive past you can see some piers rising from the ground. Keep your fingers crossed. Lots of work to do, but let the fun....continue!

Sign of the Times

Currently standing on the Duncan House lot, this “project sign” shows a historical architect’s drawing of the house.

After all practical modifications are completed, our goal is to match the building’s exterior as closely as possible to the 1862 appearance as depicted here. The front windows will be very large. The rehabilitated house certainly won’t look exactly like the architectural drawing, but many of the features will be restored. For sure, the house will be high off the ground, as it was in the past. The steps leading to the portico will be interesting, as we will have several feet to rise from the sidewalk. Stay tuned!

1880s View

This picture of the Duncan House shows the home in the early 1880s, and is taken from its earliest known photo. This image first appeared in "The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine" and later in "Battles and Leaders," along with photos of other Civil War homes in Corinth at that time. Unfortunately, the giant bushes seen here are hiding the home’s iconic front windows.

Now that the moving phase is complete, we can begin the difficult task of recreating the Duncan House’s original appearance.

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED!!!

The historic Duncan House is now sitting above its new foundation, awaiting the piers to be installed. It's sitting HIGH and proud, just as the Historical Restoration plan calls for!

This picture also show the "old bird" who got me into this deal more than a year ago: Woody Harrell, the now retired former superintendent of Shiloh National Military Park. This year marks a quarter century of Woody’s involvement in preserving and promoting Corinth’s rich Civil War heritage. His encouragement resulted in me being caught up in this slow moving, but always interesting project!

How Firm a Foundation?

The footings were dug today per the required specs, and that new foundation should hold up a bank vault. [An apt analogy, as that's what I'll need to rob when we go to filling those massive trenches with concrete!]

It's FUN to move a historic property while complying with all the pertinent preservation rules and guidelines! The Duncan House is one of 16 contributing properties for the "Siege and Battle of Corinth National Historic Landmark." An NHL is the highest level of significance by which the government designates historic sites.

342 inches = 28.5 feet = 8.6868 meters

Yeah....but why move the old house 28.5 feet?

Well, a picture is said to be worth a thousand words. So, here is a picture from earlier this year:

Although the Duncan House was here first (moved from the southeast corner of the same block), when it was placed on this lot within a foot of the property line, no zoning laws were in effect. So, when our neighbor built his studio over his small garage, things tightened up quite a bit space-wise.

In order to be able to showcase the Duncan House as close as possible to its Civil War appearance, the old home needed to be moved to the center of the lot and away from its neighbor. That move will enable us to restore the house’s exterior to its 1862 look. (This restoration includes raising the home higher off the ground.) It took a 28.5 foot move to get the Duncan House close to the center of the lot. So, that's the preservation plan we presented to the National Park Service, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and the city. Now you know why 28.5 feet.

The Duncan House on TV!

The restoration of the Duncan House made the news today on Tupelo’s WTVA. Here is a link to a short clip entitled Historical Corinth Home to be Restored.

CORINTH, Miss. (WTVA) -- It's one of the oldest houses in Corinth and now, it's about to be saved. Four houses that were built prior to the Civil War remain in Corinth. The Duncan House is among them.

Kenneth Williams says the house was built by William Duncan in 1858. It originally stood just around the corner from its present location. During the Civil War, it was occupied by a Confederate and a Union general - at separate times, of course. The five-room frame house is being moved 26 feet from its present location.

"It probably won't be worth one bit more once it's relocated and fixed up than it was previously, but it's something the community needs and we're excited about doing it,” says Williams.

Williams says the exterior of the home will be restored to its original design.

The Duncan House took a short journey today!

The Duncan House took a short journey today! It's being moved 28.5 feet to distance the historic structure from its twentieth century neighbor, and to help restore the old home to its original Civil War era appearance.

NA and I bought the threatened property a year ago to preserve it. The meticulous process of research, restoration planning, and governmental approval, not to mention weather delays, have caused a year to pass before the actual moving work could begin.

Our plan is to restore the building’s exterior to its authentic 1862 look. The Duncan House is one of only four pre-Civil War structures remaining in Corinth. The antebellum home is a key contributing feature to Corinth’s Civil War National Historic Landmark, and to insure we maintained that designation, the National Park Service had to approve each step along the way. The Duncan House will remain on its temporary wheels for a week or two, then will be set in its new permanent location, less than nine yards from its location for the past century! We are excited, and hope it will be another interesting historic attraction here in Corinth, for our citizens as well as out of town guests.

A Thumbnail History of the Duncan House

Below is a photo of the interpretive sign placed in the yard of the Duncan House in the early 1990s by the joint city-county Siege and Battle of Corinth Commission. Based on the best historic research available at the time, the text for this exhibit panel was reviewed and approved at both the state and federal levels.

Since (contrary to what many of my younger running buddies assume) I was not around in 1862, I will rely on this brief description as a “thumbnail sketch” of the home’s history during the Civil War:

"Built shortly before the Battle of Corinth by W. L. Duncan, this five-room frame house originally stood on Jackson Street, around the corner from here. Several remodelings give the house a newer look than is shown in the 19th century sketch above, but the structure's original form can still be recognized. The house is presently being restored.

Confederate General Pierre G. T. Beauregard headquartered here in 1862 until he moved to the Fish Pond House after the Battle of Shiloh. Union General William Rosecrans is thought to have occupied the dwelling for a time before taking command of the Army of the Cumberland."

1860 M.A. Miller Sketch

Below is the earliest known visual recording of Corinth’s historic Duncan House. This sketch was done in 1860 by M.A. Miller, an engineer working in Memphis. For unknown reasons, Miller sketched more than 100 buildings in Corinth, including the Duncan House. His drawings are contained in a sketch book, which was given to the Corinth Public Library around 1990, by a Miller relative living in Virginia. I don't pretend to be an expert on the Miller sketches, but I can assure you Corinth is mighty blessed to have this unique visual record of our City from the first decade of its existence!

This small sketch of the Duncan House is amazing. Note the written description of the front windows: "21 lights, 7 X 3." That means there were 21 panes of glass total, seven panes high and three panes wide - a huge window! We hope to be able to replicate those windows. Also note the house originally had a portico on the front, rather than a long porch. We hope to replace the portico soon.

Father's Day, 2015, at the Duncan House

Chelius H. Carter is a Consultant for the Restoration, Renovation and Redesign of Old and Historic Buildings. He is from Holly Springs and is helping NA and me with the Duncan House project. On Father's Day, he made a discovery deep under the Duncan House. I’ll let him tell this story in his own words. I think you will like his message:

"Today is Father's Day. It will be my seventh, counting the time Amelia was "in the oven." Regretfully, neither Amelia nor Townes are here; they are at my mom's home, north of Millington, Tennessee, and Jenifer is in Fredericksburg, Virginia. So, I spent my Father's Day crawling under the Duncan House (ca. 1859) in Corinth, Mississippi, trying to determine existing conditions of its structural frame, prior to the house being lifted and relocated. Crawling over broken bricks, pipes, through cobwebs, mud puddles, various specimens of excrement, banging against floor joists, and over the detritus of 100 years of changes (many), since the house was last moved in 1915, has left my body absolutely wrecked.

Not exactly the Hallmark Card sort of Father's Day to cheer up this old fossil! THEN I found this wonderful piece of period chalk graffiti, left by a carpenter, who, like me, was obviously thinking of his family while working on the same structure in the late 1850s. He apparently had a lot of girls - I see four young girls and two older ones. What can be safely assumed to be his wife is crudely sketched in a nice period day dress at lower right. The figure next to her is hard to make out, but I've enlarged it, and conclude it is a piece of parlor furniture. Another image partially lost at left looks like a dog. Dad's not depicted, he is off working! This will do for my Father's Day card, until I get one of Amelia's masterpieces. Love these little hidden discoveries in this odd work that Jenifer and I do!"