Old homes deserve to be preserved

When I was asked to come and pay a visit to the Bonnie Blue Inn Bed and Breakfast, I jumped at the opportunity, since I love old houses, especially when they have been saved from the wrecking ball.

This one is especially a gem, since it had fallen into such a state of disrepair. Brett and Rebecca Merritt have not only done a beautiful job on the restoration, but on trying to preserve as much of the home as possible. Keep in mind the home did not have indoor plumbing, and only one light bulb that hung from the ceiling ‘ but it had a strong foundation.

My husband Michael and I also have an older home that we are constantly trying to keep up. Yes, I said constantly! It seems something is always leaking, broken, needs painting or a specific type of repair unique to older homes.

Our home is referred to as the ‘Old Hill Place’ in the Irving College community and we think it is approximately 125 years old. Our latest dilemma is that it needs painting outside, and some woodworking repairs done. Actually it is a large, two-story structure, which means a lot of painting has to be done.

We have discussed, maybe, checking into having vinyl siding put on the house. We have always wanted to ‘keep it original,’ but as it falls into a deeper state of disrepair, original doesn’t sound too good. Convenience and ease sounds better all the time. Well, we’ll see what happens.

There is a certain charm that comes with older homes, and you definitely have to love them to stay dedicated and administer the love and attention they require. It always disheartens me when I see these beautiful older homes torn down because they require so much work; but the same people will build a huge monstrosity of a house with many rooms that they can never possibly use.

In my opinion, we have lost too many wonderful houses in our county. I was very sad when the Smallman home was destroyed, and I still have a hard time shopping at that drug store!

I feel the same way about the old storefronts on Main Street. I know many of them are in trouble, and that it will be expensive to restore them, it sure would be nice if they could be saved and restored to their original beauty.

While the editorial staff was working on the ‘Remember When’ tabloid, we heard over and over from older citizens we were interviewing how wonderful downtown was many years ago. They told about the crowds coming to town to shop, eat out and maybe go to a movie over the weekend. I know we will never go back to that time, because our world has so much more to offer now, but it would be wonderful to preserve the buildings for the future.

I often ask what incentive we can give to Main Street property owners for them to make the improvements. And, I also ask, why are they holding on to the property, letting it slowly decay, if they are not going to do anything about it? Oh well, I will keep hoping!

Back to the Merritts, I’m so proud of them, and truly wish them all the luck with their bed and breakfast endeavor. They are both very personable and seem to have the right idea about what they want to do with the business.

I love their motto, ‘We like for visitors to leave our place with their stomachs full and spirits lifted.’