Grace Media Group – NEWS/TALK 101.5 FM & WNWS.COM – visited with Hal Crocker, Healthy Community LLC – for a question and answer session about the newly renovated ‘Pink House,’ 161 West Orleans Street.
Question: Is there history behind the color of the home, and was there a thought of changing colors?
Answer: Janice Redfern and her husband Martin, the previous owners, would only sell the home to HCB under the condition that it be maintained as a historic property. That was always our intent as well.
Question: Have you, or did you have a number of inquiries from people looking to purchase the home?
Answer: We have had numerous inquiries, but it is our intent to keep the home and preserve it as a historic landmark in our neighborhood.
Question: A number of homes had earlier been renovated or built around the area of the Pink House. When did you decide it was time to renovate this particular home?
Answer: The past decade has been a very remarkable time for the downtown area of Jackson – especially streets such as Orleans, Morgan, Wells, Union and Deaderick.
Question: Has the development of the area surpassed even what you thought it would do?
Answer: Healthy Community provided a 10-year plan to the JACKSON COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY and the Jackson City Council in 2012. It is surprising to me how close those predictions were to what has been achieved.
And yes, we have exceeded expectations in several areas.
Question: Do you have information on the number of homes that have been renovated – or built – in District 1 in the past decade, and could you give us an idea of what’s next for the area?
Answer: In the Jackson Walk area approximately 60 new homes have been completed. I believe there are an additional 17 homes under construction at this time.
We have a goal of completing another 60 homes in the next 2 years on Deaderick, McCowat and Campbell, as well as looking for ways to improve and expand housing opportunities in the neighborhoods around the University of Memphis Lambuth and Madison Academic High School.
‘Pink House’ history
Built in 1847, the Captain H. P. Farrar House, or the “Pink House,” has been on the National Registry of Historic Places since 1986.
It features a unique blend of Greek Revival and Victorian architectural influences on a working-class home. The exterior of the house boasts Doric posts, twin floor-to-ceiling windows, and a herringbone brick walkway; while its interior includes hand-grained fireplace mantles, hand-hewn sills and rafters, and hand-planed floor joists. As one of the oldest houses in Jackson, it has been carefully restored to keep its original character while adding to its Victorian effect.
The house has been owned by several prominent members of the community. It was built and originally owned by Duncan C. Bledsoe, who owned a cabinet shop that sold wagon wheels, spinning wheels, coffins, and other wares to locals and settlers heading West. When Bledsoe’s business slowed in the early 1850s, he moved to Texas and helped found the city of Seguin.
In 1867, D.H. King, three-time mayor of Jackson, bought the house. He also owned the King’s Palace Saloon, where it is said that the “political history of the state was written not from the Maxwell House in Nashville, but from the King’s Palace in Jackson.”
In 1873, Hartwell Prentice Farrar, a civil engineer, purchased the house. Having served in the Civil War as a captain for the Union, Farrar had occupied the area a decade earlier, earning a nearby street its name, Union Street.
He is recognized as the leading engineer for Jackson’s railroad line expansion to Cairo, Illinois. In his local community, Captain Farrar was a charter member of Jackson’s Elks Lodge and a vestryman at St. Luke’s Church.
After his death, the house was left to his daughter, Mrs. George Mamer, who sold the house in 1981 to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Johnsey, Sr. Mrs. Johnsey, who would later serve on the city’s historical commission, diligently restored the house and had the exterior painted its noteworthy rose pink.
(PHOTO: Hal Crocker stands in front of the ‘Pink House,’ 161 West Orleans Street)
