“When we bought it, the house was again a one-family, but most of the stained glass was covered with black paint. The exterior was bland; architectural elements were all painted the same color so that you couldn’t really see the varied and interesting exterior details. At some point,” Matthew adds, “all the quarter-sawn oak interior woodwork had been painted. Fortunately for us, a previous owner stripped it and brought it back to its original appearance.”
“This house, which has an elongated foursquare plan, was a custom build,” Elizabeth says. “There’s no other house like this. Also, in the 1880s, a fire destroyed much of Memphis, so older houses are rare here.”