Preserving history in Ellisville | Free News

Descendant of town pioneers turns dilapidated 150-year-old house on Holly Street to original grandeur

•

The Bynum-Anderson House was added to the National Register of Historic Places on Sept. 15, 2022, recognizing it as the second-oldest surviving house in Ellisville. It is the fourth remaining home and the 11th property overall in Jones County to receive such designation.

A historical marker from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History will soon be unveiled at the house to commemorate the honor.

To be honored with such a designation, the property must be found worthy of preservation for either its historical significance or artistic value. But for many years, the structure had deteriorated and was in such a state of disrepair that few could see neither the significance nor the artistic value of the nearly 150-year-old home on Holly Street, a short walk from downtown Ellisville. Sadly, the house was abandoned and had become a favorite of vandals for more than a decade after Hurricane Katrina. 

One person who never lost his love and appreciation for the Bynum-Anderson House is Jack Anderson.

Anderson is a direct descendant of John H. Bynum, who built the home around 1875 near the original “Old Town” of Ellisville. And when the dilapidated house went on the market in 2015, Anderson jumped at the opportunity to fulfill a dream.  Retired after a 40-year career in the airline industry, he moved back to Ellisville with one goal: to restore the Bynum-Anderson House to its original beauty and glory.

“I really was lucky that it became available for sale,” Anderson said. “And I was fortunate to have the skills to (restore) it, and I had the historical background to want to do it.”

When he relocated from San Antonio, Texas, in 2015, he might have wondered if he had taken on a little more than he could handle. The home had been broken into and its claw-foot bathtub was dragged to a window, but was apparently too large to fit through it in order to be stolen.

“Back then, you had to take a bath if you stayed in here for 10 minutes,” Anderson said. “Most people didn’t even want to come in here. They just thought I had lost my mind.”

Anderson is well connected to the history of Ellisville. Also a direct descendant of Amos Deason, who built Jones County’s oldest surviving home, he grew up right across the street from the Deason House, where both his father and grandfather were born. The Deason House, on Anderson Street across from South Jones High School, was the first Jones County building to be added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1984.

“As a boy growing up, I just loved the history of the Deason House, and the history of the area,” Anderson said. “So this (restoring the Bynum-Anderson House) was something that I could not wait to do when it became available.” 

To prepare, Anderson studied as many photographs and records of the family homestead as he could find. And along with a small crew, he spent three years working every day just to make it livable again. After that the restoration work began, it  has progressed ever since under Anderson’s direction.

The house was built in the Italianate style that was commonly incorporated in homes built in the South after the Civil War. Marked by low-pitched roofs, paired windows and round arches, this style of building also made good use of a newly developed tool of that time — the jigsaw, and the Bynum-Anderson house is thus adorned with intricate wooden details on each of the double-tiered porches that surround the house.

“We rebuilt from the ground up in a way to keep it original, and repurposed much of the original lumber that was used,” Anderson said. “Many people that knew the house say the rooms and layouts are exactly like they were (originally).”

Since the long-leaf pine used in the original construction was virgin timber “as old as the Earth itself,” he said, the lumber cut from it was incredibly strong. In fact, the walls of the house still stand today, with 2x4 studs 30 feet long running all the way from the ground to the roof rafters.

“Some of the wood we cut into when we were redoing the place had its sap still in it,” Anderson said.

Walk onto any of the porches leading into the house and one will find the floors and ceilings painted in a shade of blue. In many Old South homes, this was a common feature to ward off “haints” or ghosts. It was believed they were not able to cross water, which the paint resembles. 

Today, the house is secured from intruders by more conventional means, which include the 140-pound Great Pyrenees watchdog named Samson, who patrols the house daily to keep unwanted guests at bay.

As Ellisville did not get electricity until 1913, the Bynum-Anderson house features 25 original double-hung windows. Anderson explained the concept was to lower the top window panel in each room during the summer to let heat escape from the ceilings. Coupled with the original transoms built over each interior door, the house was designed to offer an early version of air conditioning.

When restoring these windows, Anderson wondered where he would find the right window sash ropes to use in the renovations. 

“Since the 2x4’s (on the walls) start at the ground level and go all the way to the roof, we found unused pieces for the windows at the bottom inside the walls,” he added.

“Even now, I don’t run the air conditioning very much at all.” 

Beautiful antique furniture that was original to the house can be found in many of the bedrooms, and much like the house, it reflects the exquisite workmanship of a bygone era. Behind at least one of the pieces is the original sales ticket from an Eastaway Furniture Co. in Chattanooga, Tenn., dated to the time the house was built.

“They sent it (furniture) by train to Meridian back in the 1870s, and it was picked up and delivered to the house on horse-drawn wagons,” Anderson said.

Many other pieces dating to the 1870s were donated by Jack Anderson’s cousin Dr. Tom Anderson. One interesting item is a mirror about eight feet tall. It was quite useful, as it allowed women to adjust their petticoats as needed. 

Anderson also restored the five brick chimneys, which were designed to keep the inhabitants of each room warm during the winter. All of them are operational today.

But Anderson wasn’t the first to leave his mark upon the historic home. Two of builder John Bynum’s children signed their names onto one of the second-floor walls. Fred and Bertie Bynum’s original signatures can still be seen on that wall.

Jack Anderson has traveled all over the world and has experienced many great adventures in his life.  But his greatest adventure was the one that brought him back to his hometown of Ellisville. The restoration of the Bynum-Anderson House will be enjoyed for generations to come.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7rbHAnZyrZZOWua16wqikaKaVrMBwstGenJimlazAcLzRnqqeqqaeu6h5x6Kqraeirnqquoyeo6Who6u2rbjEaJirrJmYuaarwW6dnpmTaX1usZSdcGZpYZqxboWYn5tmaJJmhXWFwJxob2yWY7W1ucs%3D