By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
WOODLEAF ó Dean Hamilton and his wife, Myra Tannehill, think they’re getting a bargain on their 19th-century farmhouse.
Just as important, in the process, they’re preserving a piece of Woodleaf’s past.
“We’re big on saving history,” Hamilton said. “We did it for the community and they’re very supportive of us.”
Hamilton and Tannehill recently purchased the former John Haywood Rice house, located in the heart of Woodleaf. The house dates to the 1840s and for five years in the 1870s served as Woodleaf’s post office.
It was long one of Woodleaf’s proudest residences.
The house had been empty for a few years and was purchased by Martin Marietta Aggregates, which owns the quarry in Woodleaf.
Martin Marietta was looking to expand its buffer around the quarry and had planned to have the house burned. Burning permits had been issued and plans were in place to rid the property of the house.
Hamilton said the house would have been destroyed were it not for the efforts of two local women ó Jane Watson and Trish Burgess.
“They petitioned to have it saved,” Hamilton said. “They thought it was a shame it was going to be destroyed.”
Hamilton and Tannehill agreed and eventually bought the house from Martin Marietta for $1. The only drawback was that the house had to be moved.
Last week and earlier this week, the house was taken on the road ó quite literally. It was moved a little more than a mile to a 36-acre tract owned by Hamilton and Tannehill off N.C. 801.
The couple, both in their early 40s, plan to spend about a year restoring the house.
The move was quite a task, requiring that the house’s earliest section ó the part that dates to the 1840s ó be separated from its other part ó constructed in the 1870s.
The oldest part of the house was moved last week and the newer part ó the larger section ó was moved this week.
Hamilton, an electrician who has done his share of building, cut the house in two with the help of his wife, who has a degree in residential construction and who has done a fair amount of building herself.
The cost to move the house was $45,000. The work was done by Crouch Brothers of Mooresville. Chad and Peter Vriesma of Central Piedmont Builders are helping Hamilton and Tannehill with some of the early restoration work, including pouring cement for a basement.
Hamilton said that by the time the work is completed, the house will measure about 3,500 square feet. He and his wife plan to have about $105,000 invested in the project, about half the eventual value of the house.
Hamilton and Tannehill saved much from the house and plan to return it largely to its original appearance.
For example, the original structure was supported by cornerstones, which Hamilton saved. Though the house won’t need those stones for support when the restoration is done, they’ll still be placed under each corner for the sake of appearance.
The same will be done with granite rocks on which the original chimneys were constructed.
At the moment, the house is in a hole that was dug for its basement. Within weeks, the house will be raised and concrete for the basement poured.
Despite the fact that the house is presently in a hole, it’s still several feet above the ground, still on the trailers on which it was moved.
Hamilton had to reach up to open a door that revealed what appears to be a parlor, with French doors leading to the front porch.
The doors, Hamilton said, were those that patrons used to access the post office way back in the 1870s.
“This place has an interesting history,” Hamilton said.
His wife, who teaches English at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College and Catawba College, agreed.
She noted that the floors and walls were made of tongue-in-groove boards. Restoring the house, Tannehill said, should prove fascinating.
“It’s basically in pristine shape,” she said. “A few of the boards had some termite damage, but it was nothing major. It’s going to take a lot of cleaning and redoing, but it’s going to be fun.”