Perkins House (DeKalb, Mississippi) facts for kids
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Perkins House
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 Location in Mississippi
Location in the United States
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| Location | Originally Murphy Hardy Rd, later moved to 2709 Townsend Rd, Dekalb, Mississippi |
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| Built | c. 1870 |
| Artist | "Mr. Mayer" |
| Architectural style | Mid-nineteenth century vernacular |
| NRHP reference No. | 94000643 (original) 16000283 (increase) |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | June 24, 1994 |
| Moved | 2012 |
| Relisted on NRHP | May 17, 2016 |
The Perkins House in Dekalb, Mississippi is a special old house. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. People think it's important because it's a good example of a simple farmhouse from the mid-1800s. It also has beautiful paintings inside.
The house was built around 1870. The cool artwork was added later, in the 1890s. The Perkins House used to be on Murphy Hardy Road. But in 2012, new owners bought it and moved it to its current spot on Townsend Road.
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History of the Perkins House
We don't know the exact year the Perkins House was built. But it was likely around 1870. The house looks like many "I-houses" that were common in eastern Mississippi. However, it is smaller than some of the fancier homes.
This house shows what life was like for a regular farmer in the late 1800s. A family called the Dees owned the house first. Then, around 1900, Burel Wilson and Sarah Elizabeth Perkins bought it. They lived there until they passed away.
Their son, Sheldon Perkins, and his wife, Beatrice, then owned the house. They stayed there until the 1940s. Later, George Cole lived in the house from 1955 to 1991. After that, no one lived there for a while.
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. It was sold and moved in 2012. After the move, the Perkins House was added to the National Register again in 2016.
Why the Perkins House is Special
House Design and Style
The Perkins House is important because it shows a typical farmhouse from the mid-1800s. It was home to a middle-class family in rural Mississippi. The house looks a lot like an "I-house," which was a popular style back then.
However, the Perkins House is a bit different. For example, it doesn't have a second floor where people lived. The first floor has two main rooms. Each room is about 15 feet by 17 feet. A hallway runs down the middle of the house.
There are porches on the front and back of the house. These porches run along the whole length of the building. Each corner of the porches has a small cabinet room. The middle parts of the porches were open spaces. The back porch was later closed in after 1994.
One cabinet room on the front porch can be entered from the porch. But it doesn't have a door into the house itself. Another cabinet room opens into the main northern room. But it doesn't have a door from the porch.
The kitchen is in the southeast cabinet room. The bathroom is in the northeast cabinet room. The bathroom originally only opened into the northern main room. A second door was added to the back porch later. This might have happened when the back porch was closed in.
There is a small attic above the first floor. It was hard to get to at first. But after 2012, a special ladder was put in to reach it.
Each main room has two large windows. These windows have nine panes of glass on top and six on the bottom. They are on either side of a chimney. The chimneys were rebuilt after the house moved in 2012. The small cabinet rooms each have one window like these. You can still see the old parts for shutters on the outside of the windows.
The north and south sides of the house also have two smaller windows in the attic. Before the back porch was closed, the outside doors had glass panels next to them. When the back was closed, the door moved. But the glass panels stayed where they were.
The outside wall of the closed-in porch has four windows. These windows have four panes of glass on top and four on the bottom. They make the outside look a bit different from how it was originally. The front door and most inside doors have four flat panels. The door between the northern room and the bathroom has five panels. The door from the bathroom to the closed back porch is a newer door with six panels.
Amazing Interior Artwork
The floors, walls, and ceilings inside the house are all made of plain pine wood. Each fireplace in the main rooms has a wooden top called a mantel. These mantels have fancy curved designs. They also have decorative columns on the sides.
A very special part of the house is the beautiful paintings. These paintings are on many walls and ceilings in the two main rooms. In the southern room, there's a painted design that looks like a twisted rope. It acts like a fake picture rail. The lower part of the walls has a painted design called a wainscot.
The ceiling in this room has a large painted square. Inside the square is a circle of a different color. A flower-like design called a rosette is painted around the light fixture in the middle. Swirly designs, called tendrils, spread out from the rosette. They go about halfway to the edge of the circle. More swirly designs are in each of the four corners of the square.
The northern room has a similar design. It also has a central rosette and wainscoting.
This artwork is like paintings found in other houses near where the Perkins House used to be. One famous example is the Oliver House in Moscow, Mississippi. It was also added to the National Register in 1985. Other houses in that area, like the Shotts House and the old Cole House, had similar artwork. The artwork from the Cole House is now kept at the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson, Mississippi.
Because these paintings are so close and look so similar, people think one artist did them all. Local stories say a German artist named "Mr. Mayer" created them. He traveled through the area in the 1890s. There isn't any other place in Mississippi with such a large collection of this kind of interior artwork.
