Hall House

It’s with sadness that I report that this house has burned. All that remains is its brick skeleton, constructed in the 1840’s. I’m not surprised that this was its fate since it has set wide-open for years. The owners were aware. I was told there was a covenant on the house that as long there was a family member alive, the house could not be sold to a non-relative. What a stupid thing!!!!!

Ten years ago, there was the loss of a house, Evergreen Place in Nashville, that kind of hardened me. It was an unjust and illegal demolition of one of the oldest structures left in Nashville but that story is for another time. A number of the houses I’ve captured in photographs over the last 20 years are no longer standing which is depressing. It’s time to start digging through my negatives.

The first time I came across the house was 5 years ago when I decided to take a side road since I’d never driven it before. I’ve been driving by checking on it since then, recording the deterioration. In June 2013, a tornado touched down in the area and the tin on the back half of the roof was peeled away, exposing the house to the elements. Even then, the house could have been restored. It had some of the most incredible graining on the doors that I’ve ever seen which is highly unusual for a house in a rural setting. The entrance also had unique millwork,similar to an old side hall Greek Revival only mile or two away. Old houses are great story tellers but so many are deaf to their stories.