The Captain Thomas C. Harris House constructed in 1875 is located in Adair County in Kirksville, Missouri. It's also known as Parrish Place. The Victorian home has two stories and the design is Italianate-style. The photo above was taken in October 2009.
Captain Thomas C. Harris was a Union officer in the Amerian Civil War. On October 15, 1973, the home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Capt. Harris was born in New York on August 11, 1824, and soon after the war, he came to Kirksville. He was involved with woolen mills both in Kirksville and the surrounding area from which he made his wealth.
Once he built the brick home, it's unclear if Capt. Harris lived in it or if he did, for how long. He died in Missouri on December 26, 1888, at the age of 64 and is buried in Adair County at the Forest-Llewellyn Cemetery. He was married and had one daughter and three sons. His daughter who died in 1957 lived to be 102.
In 1879, the home was sold to Dr. John Burton, another Civil War veteran. Dr. Burton opened a medical practice in Kirksville in 1867 and also served as president of the United States pension Board.
Thomas Harris' daughter Fannie Harris married Dr. John Burton, and it is believed that Burton Street, upon which the Harris home in Kirksville is now numbered, was named after him. (Source.)
In 1895, when the home was purchased by Dr. A. Washington Parrish, it became known as Parrish Place. After Dr. Parrish died in 1928, his son, Dr. Bert Parrish, took over the house. After he died in 1951, a housekeeper he had for a long time, Everrella Murdock, took over the home. She had been living in the home on the first floor since 1939.
A portion of the home that included the summer kitchen, coal storage room, and the woodshed was destroyed by a fire in 1958. There was no great damage to the main part of the house. A new addition to the home was added.
When Ms. Murdock died, the home was left to her daughter, Mary Childers Sloan, who lived there until she moved to Nebraska in the 1980s. From then until Ms. Sloan's death in April 2003, the home was vacant. She deeded the property and home to the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a Gift of Heritage. In 2007, Daryl Shafer bought the home from the Trust.
While under the ownership of both the National Historic Trust and Shafer's, extensive renovations were made to restore the home. An important change was removing the paint off the structure so it would be returned to the original red brick.
STRATA Architecture Inc. was brought to the project as the architect of record in order to produce interior schematic design layouts, construction documents, and construction administration for the exterior restoration project. (Source.)
Today, this 4-bedroom home is on the market. Click here to see the photos of the amazing interior which includes some of the original woodwork.
Thank you for reading. Another historical home over 100 years old is preserved.
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