Perkins House (DeKalb, Mississippi)

Last updated
Perkins House
Perkins House-Porterville MS.jpg
USA Mississippi location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location2651 Townsend Rd, Dekalb, Mississippi
Coordinates 32°46′51″N88°34′46″W / 32.78083°N 88.57944°W / 32.78083; -88.57944 Coordinates: 32°46′51″N88°34′46″W / 32.78083°N 88.57944°W / 32.78083; -88.57944
Builtc. 1870 (1870)
Artist"Mr. Mayer"
Architectural styleMid-nineteenth century vernacular
NRHP reference No. 94000643 [1]  (original)
16000283  (increase)
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJune 24, 1994
Moved2012
Relisted on NRHPMay 17, 2016

The Perkins House in Dekalb, Mississippi is a historic structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 for its architectural significance as a mid-nineteenth century example of a vernacular middle-class farmhouse as well as the artistic significance of the ornamental painting displayed throughout the interior of the house. The Perkins House was originally built around 1870, and the artwork was added in the 1890s. The house was originally located on Murphy Hardy Rd, northwest of its junction with Mississippi Highway 493 but was moved to its current location on Townsend Road in 2012 after being purchased by new owners.

Contents

History

The exact construction date of the Perkins House is unknown, but the house probably dates from around 1870. [2] The house's architecture is similar in style to many of the I-houses common in eastern Mississippi but is smaller than other more extravagant structures. As such, the house is reminiscent of the life of a typical modest-income late-nineteenth-century farmer in this region. [3] The house was owned by a family known as the Dees before being purchased some time around the turn of the century by Burel Wilson (Wilse) and Sarah Elizabeth (Sally) Darnel Perkins. Wilse and Sally Perkins lived in the house until their deaths, upon which their son Sheldon Perkins and his wife Beatrice Perkins Koostra inherited the property, remaining there until the 1940s. The house was inhabited by George Cole from 1955 until 1991, after which time the house was abandoned. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 and was later sold and moved from its original location in 2012 to its current location at 2709 Townsend Road. After the move, the Perkins House was relisted on the National Register in 2016. [2]

Significance

Architecture

The Perkins House is significant as an example of a mid-nineteenth century vernacular farmhouse associated with a middle-class family in the rural area of eastern Mississippi during this period. Though very similar in style to an I-house, a popular style in the region during this era, the floor plan deviates from the I-house standard in several features, most obviously the absence of an inhabitable second floor. [2] The first floor layout consists of two 15 feet (4.6 m) by 17 feet (5.2 m) rooms divided by a central passageway. Shed style porches run the entire length of the front and rear facades and contain cabinet rooms in each corner. The centers of each of the porches are loggias; the rear one was originally open, but was closed in some time after 1994. [2] [3] The southwest cabinet room has an entrance from the front loggia but no entrance into the interior of the house while the northwest cabinet room opens into the northern main room but has no entrance from the loggia. [2] The southeast cabinet room is a kitchen, and the northeast cabinet room is a bathroom which was originally open only to the northern main room but a second door was added into the rear loggia some time after 1994, [3] possibly when the rear loggia was enclosed. [2] Atop the first floor lies a small attic which was originally inaccessible, [3] but a ship's ladder was installed after 2012 to provide access. [2]

Each of the main rooms has two nine over six double-hung sash windows flanking a central chimney stack (each of which were rebuilt using original material after the move in 2012 [2] ), and each of the cabinet rooms has a single double-hung nine over six window. Original hardware for shutters is still present on the exterior of the windows. The northern and southern sides of the building also each feature two fixed six-pane windows in the attic. Before the rear loggia was enclosed, both external doors were flanked by sidelights; [3] when the rear was enclosed, the door was moved to the new rear entrance, but the sidelights were left intact. [2] The exterior wall of the enclosed loggia contains 4 four over four double-hung sash windows which break the original symmetry of the facade. [2] The front door and most of the interior doors contain four recessed panels, the door between the northern main room and the bathroom has five panels, and the door from the bathroom to the enclosed rear loggia is a modern six-panel door. The rear door present at the back of the central passageway when the house was listed on the National Register in 1994 did not include any panels and was likely not original. [3] The current rear door of the enclosed loggia has four panels. [2]

Interior artwork

The flooring and interior walls and ceilings are all constructed out of plain pine wood. Each of the fireplaces in the main rooms is topped by a wooden mantel adorned with ogee curves and flanked by wooden pilasters. A defining feature of the interior is the decorative paintings on many walls and ceilings of the two main rooms of the house. The southern room includes a twisted rope pattern as an artificial picture rail and a wainscot along the lower portion of the walls. The ceiling features a large square with a central circle of a different color. A rosette design surrounds a central lighting fixture, and tendrils emanate from the rosette about halfway to the edge of the circle. Tendrils also appear at each of the four corners of the square. A similar design is found in the northern room, with a central rosette and wainscoting. [2] [3]

The interior artwork is similar to that found in several other houses in the original location of the Perkins House, most notably the Oliver House in Moscow, Mississippi, also listed on the National Register in 1985. [1] Other houses in that area which feature artwork similar to the Perkins House are the Shotts House and the now non-extant Cole House, the artwork of which is preserved in the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson, Mississippi. The close proximity and similar design of all of these pieces suggests they were the work of a single artist, and local wisdom attributes them all to a "Mr. Mayer", a German artist that passed through the area in the 1890s. No evidence is present of a larger collection of interior artwork anywhere in the state of Mississippi. [3]

Related Research Articles

Lanier Mansion United States historic place

The Lanier Mansion is a historic house located at 601 West First Street in the Madison Historic District of Madison, Indiana. Built by wealthy banker James F. D. Lanier in 1844, the house was declared a State Memorial in 1926, and remains an important landmark in Madison to the present day. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994 as one of the nation's finest examples of Greek Revival architecture.

Arthur Heurtley House United States historic place

The Arthur B. Heurtley House is located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The house was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and constructed in 1902. The Heurtley House is considered one of the earliest examples of a Frank Lloyd Wright house in full Prairie style. The house was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places when it was designated a National Historic Landmark on February 16, 2000.

Kenworthy Hall United States historic place

Kenworthy Hall, also known as the Carlisle-Martin House, Carlisle Hall and Edward Kenworthy Carlisle House, is a plantation house located on the north side of Alabama Highway 14, two miles west of the Marion courthouse square. It was built from 1858 to 1860 and is one of the best preserved examples of Richard Upjohn's distinctive asymmetrical Italian villa style. It is the only surviving residential example of Upjohn's Italian villa style that was especially designed to suit the Southern climate and the plantation lifestyle. It has a massive four-story tower, windows of variable size and shape with brownstone trim, and a distinctly Southern division of family and public spaces. The building was designed and constructed for Edward Kenworthy Carlisle as his primary family residence and the centerpiece of his 440-acre (1.8 km2) estate. It, along with some of its surrounding ancillary structures, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2004. The house and a purported ghost are featured as a short story in Kathryn Tucker Windham's 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey.

Bachelors Hope (Centreville, Maryland) United States historic place

Bachelor's Hope is a historic house in Centreville, Maryland. Built between 1798 and 1815, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Le Roy House and Union Free School United States historic place

The Le Roy House and Union Free School are located on East Main Street in Le Roy, New York, United States. The house is a stucco-faced stone building in the Greek Revival architectural style. It was originally a land office, expanded in two stages during the 19th century by its builder, Jacob Le Roy, an early settler for whom the village is named. In the rear of the property is the village's first schoolhouse, a stone building from the end of the 19th century.

J. Warren Smith House United States historic place

The J. Warren Smith House is a house at 21 North Palmetto Street at the corner of North Palmetto and Edgemont Streets in Liberty, South Carolina in Pickens County. It has also been called "Maggie Manor" and the Myrtle Inn, which were names during its use as a boarding house. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places on January 26, 2005. It is considered an excellent example of a Colonial Revival house and for its connection with J. Warren Smith, who was a local business executive.

Oscar Blomeen House United States historic place

The Oscar Blomeen House is a historic house located in Auburn, Washington. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Stephen Storm House United States historic place

The Stephen Storm House is located on the NY 217 state highway just east of Claverack, New York, United States. It is a Federal style brick house built in the early 19th century.

Ashlawn United States historic place

Ashlawn, also called the Joshua Perkins House, is a two-story, central-hall frame farmhouse dating from the 18th century in Hanover, Connecticut. The house's namesake is its first owner, Joshua Perkins, a farmer and son of the prominent Captain Matthew Perkins, a farmer and founding member of the Hanover Society. Ashlawn's main house has a five-bay front facade with pilasters supporting broken-base pediments. The inside has well-documented woodwork for its moldings and wainscotting. The house has integrated an older structure, likely a central-chimney structure built in the second quarter of the 18th century, as an ell.

H. R. Stevens House United States historic place

The H.R. Stevens House is located on Congers Road in the New City section of the Town of Clarkstown, New York, United States. It is a stone house dating to the late 18th century. In the early 19th century, it was expanded with some wood frame upper stories added later. The interior was also renovated over the course of the century.

Jacob P. Perry House United States historic place

The Jacob P. Perry House is a historic home on Sickletown Road in Pearl River, New York, United States. It was constructed around the end of the 18th century, one of the last houses in Rockland County to have been built in the Dutch Colonial style more common before the Revolution.

Butterfield Cobblestone House United States historic place

The Butterfield Cobblestone House is on Bennett Corners Road in the Town of Clarendon, New York, United States, south of the village of Holley. It is a cobblestone structure from the mid-19th century built in the Greek Revival architectural style by a wealthy local farmer to house his large family. Three generations of his descendants would run the farm over the next 80 years. Later owners would make some renovations to the interior.

Walter Merchant House United States historic place

The Walter Merchant House, on Washington Avenue in Albany, New York, United States, is a brick-and-stone townhouse in the Italianate architectural style, with some Renaissance Revival elements. Built in the mid-19th century, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Isaac Young House United States historic place

The Isaac Young House is an historic wood frame house on Pinesbridge Road in New Castle, New York, United States. It was built about 1872 in the Second Empire style. Its owner, Isaac Young, was a descendant of early settlers in the area. He chose the Second Empire style, more commonly found in cities and villages than on farms, possibly as a way of demonstrating his affluence. The present structure appears to incorporate parts of a vernacular late 18th-century farmhouse, leaving several anomalies in the current house as a result. The house's position atop a low hill would have, in its time, given it a commanding view of the region, including the Hudson River and New York City's skyline.

Jackson Park Town Site Addition Brick Row United States historic place

Jackson Park Town Site Addition Brick Row is a group of three historic houses and two frame garages located on the west side of the 300 block of South Third Street in Lander, Wyoming. Two of the homes were built in 1917, and the third in 1919. The properties were added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 27, 2003.

Cherry Grove Plantation United States historic place

Cherry Grove Plantation is a historic plantation in Natchez, Mississippi.

The Manse (Natchez, Mississippi) United States historic place

The Manse is a historic house, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since March 7, 1979.

Tumut Post Office

Tumut Post Office is a heritage-listed post office at 82-84 Wynyard Street, Tumut, New South Wales, Australia. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 August 2012.

Hamilton Post Office

Hamilton Post Office is a heritage-listed post office at 57 Gray Street, Hamilton, Victoria, Australia. It was designed by C. H. E. Blackman of the colonial Public Works Department under the aegis of William Wardell, built in 1876, and occupied in 1878. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 8 November 2011.

Stawell Post Office

Stawell Post Office is a heritage-listed post office at 87-89 Gold Reef Mall, Stawell, Victoria, Australia. It was designed by Alfred T. Snow of the colonial Department of Public Works and built by Thomas Walker in 1874–75. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Michael Fazio (January 28, 2016). "Perkins House" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-06-04.[ permanent dead link ]
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Michael Fazio (February 17, 1994). "Perkins House". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-06-04.