Officials discuss
preservation of landmark
Published Tuesday, May 6
By Jebb Johnston
Staff Writer

State officials visited Corinth Monday to see the serious deterioration problems at the Verandah-Curlee House Museum and to discuss a possible path to preservation for the National Historic Landmark.

Local officials and representatives of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History viewed the foundation and roof problems before gathering to discuss a course of action. A public meeting is likely to be held later in the month for community input.

One consensus is that it's time to get to the root of the problems rather than continuing to make patchwork repairs every five or 10 years. Now closed to general visitation, the structure is considered to be at a tipping point where it could be lost if action isn't taken.

Eupora architect Belinda Stewart got her first look at the house since her involvement in the last round of renovations in the mid-1990s.

"There were some things repaired that have carried forth, but there were some things that just had to be done to keep it from deteriorating further, and those things need to be done again," said Stewart. "That's what's going to continue to happen unless these things can be repaired in a better way. The foundation was something we really couldn't do very much about at the time because it was such a big can of worms."

Far less funding was available at the time. The city currently has about $350,000 in grant funds available for repairs. The Verandah-Curlee House Foundation recently obtained nonprofit status and will soon be in a position to aggressively pursue corporate donations and other funding sources, said Mia Nickels, president of the foundation.

Jesse Ables, chairman of the Verandah-Curlee House Board of Trustees, said the board wants to have a master plan that would cover a carefully considered course of action for the next 10 years with the blessing of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

"We've got to find out what we can do to (the house), and then we've got to find out how much it costs," he said. "We need to get that plan in place now."

The Verandah board is eying repairs to the foundation and drainage around the house as phase one and roof repairs as phase two.

"Your two most important things when you're looking at a house is the roof and foundation," said Mingo Tingle, preservation specialist with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. "If you've got problems with both, you hopefully have money to solve both at the same time." He said adding any new elements to the house, such as a basement, would bring risks. Some of the past changes that have been made, such as different roof styles and the rear addition, were done with good intentions but brought new problems.

"They had introduced an element to that building that it had never had before, and now we're dealing with problems that the new element created," said Tingle. "We need to keep it in that scope of how the building was built originally and not introduce something that it's never had before. We don't know what happens when you put a basement under a house that's never had a basement. I know the basement under the additions in the back is having problems."

Shiloh National Military Park Superintendent Woody Harrell encouraged the group to pursue both a master plan and some general agreement on the home's role.

"I'm not sure there's a community consensus of this vision of what the house will look like 20 or 30 years from now," said Harrell. "I think that's a discussion that we need to have. We need to go back and say: What is important about the Verandah House, why do we want to save it, what use do we want to make of it?"

Harrell said he can see two distinct visions for the property -- one of the home as "a living, breathing house" that encompasses Civil War, Curlee family history and Corinth history, and one focusing specifically on the Civil War. For the latter, the grounds could recreate what soldiers would have seen based on photographs from that era, and that vision could entail getting rid of post-Civil War additions.

Russell Archer of Archives and History noted that the technical review process will take into account the age of the additions to the home, and those that are more than 50 years old may have taken on a historical significance of their own.

Floors are sagging 4 to 6 inches in the circa 1857 home, a Greek Revival structure that was one of Corinth's earliest residences. Two cracks in one of the large mirrors in the home are believed to have been caused by settling. If the home is moved off its foundation during repairs, there are questions as to how to handle the home's contents.

The attic area still contains fire-damaged wood and, outside, the roof has a major problem with pooling of water. The foundation has areas where the brick mortar has turned to sand, and bricks can be easily removed.

The house was used by both Confederate and Union generals during the Civil War.

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