A picture of 125 E. Glenwood from the 1920s.  Note the houses that are now long gone as a result of the I-40 construction, and the long johns hanging in the back yard! Run the cursor over the picture to see the house as it appeared most recently.

Doug and Faith McDaniel, the new owners of 125 E. Glenwood across the street from Brownlow School, are old hats at restoring historic homes to their original beauty.  Having honed their skills on the restoration of four previous homes, they immediately began the first task of tracking down the history of the house by researching the city directories at the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection. Through a series of very fortunate events, they were also able to connect with family members of Miss Billie McKinney, who grew up in the house and was able to provide the photograph from the early 1920s shown above. 

Miss McKinney, a retired librarian, is an avid gardener who lives in Fountain City. She spent several hours April 1 revisiting her childhood home (which she had not seen in 70 years) and sharing stories with the McDaniels. She was both shocked and pleasantly surprised at how unaltered her childhood home was from her earliest memories. She remembered where the family had their grand piano, where the gramophone was located, and even remembered the electrical outlet in which she would stick straightened-out bobby pins to watch them fly across the room. 

Later that night, Doug was startled to hear a great pounding noise as Faith began removing the sheetrock in the upper porch. She was determined to find out if the original decorative brackets in the eyebrow porch were still there. Remembering how he was frequently accused of impulsively starting home renovation projects at inopportune times, he was happy to see that the shoe was now on the other foot!

As the week progressed, Doug and Faith continued working together to open up the porch, by removing the rest of the clapboard siding, black aluminum shutters, and windows that blocked the view from this great porch that was turned into a kitchen sometime in the 1950s. They are happy to report that the curvaceous brackets are still there, as you can see in Miss McKinney’s photo. Without the photo, they would have been guessing at how the porch was framed, what the windows consisted of, and other alterations that had taken place over the years. But now they know for sure. 

You can read more about the history of this house, see pictures, and be updated on the McDaniels' progress here.  Or, you can drive by and take a look for yourself!