After more than 15 years of work, the McElroy-Hoye House in Newton has finally been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Dorothy Turnage, who has been involved with the project since around 2003, said she was glad to see years of hard work and effort pay off.
The McElroy-Hoye House was built by Marine Watkins, a businessman in Newton, between 1861 and 1870, depending on which documents are examined. Turnage said many of the deeds for the house were destroyed when the Newton County Courthouse burned in 1876.
In 1871, it was purchased by Dr. J.C. McElroy, a Confederate veteran, state legislator and medical practitioner. Bettie Russel Hoye then purchased the house in 1890 and relocated from Decatur to look after her husband’s business dealings.
Hoye died in 1895, but the house stayed in her family, undergoing renovations in 1921, until it was bought by First Baptist Church in 1972. Opposite Church Street from where it is now, the McElroy-Hoye House stood on the church grounds until First Baptist decided to sell the building or tear it down around 2003. That is when Turnage got involved.
“There were about six of us that had gotten together after the initial request, who was Hamp Betty at the time,” she said. “Hamp Betty says, ‘Let’s request First Baptist Church allow us to use the house for a museum for the City of Newton. That’s how it got started.”
A few years went by, and in 2006, Bill Burress, an architect from Jackson, was brought in to help facilitate moving the building and restoring it to its original condition. However, the first hurdle was getting the McElroy-Hoye House added to the Mississippi Landmark Registry.
“We were told by the (Mississippi Department of Archives and History) that since we were going to have to move the house, that it would be the best thing for us to be on the Mississippi Landmark before we moved the house. If we moved the house first, we might not ever have gotten on the Mississippi Register,” Turnage said.
Another three years were spent sifting through the historical records to establish a timeline for the house, applying for grants and planning the move, but Feb. 9, 2009, the roof and porches were removed, the building moved across the street and the long-awaited renovations began.
“They came and moved it for $58,000, a company out of Jackson,” Turnage said.
However, restrictions on choosing a contractor forced the group to make use of the bidding system to find someone to do the work, Turnage said. The low bid, she said, was from Mobile, Alabama.
“He drove daily over here,” she said. “One time, they put a trailer in the front yard so the guys wouldn’t have to go back and forth every day. But, most of them did come back and forth every day.
Over several years, workers stripped off more than 100 years of wallpaper, replaced the roof, restored floors and undid modifications done by prior owners. The idea, Turnage said, was to return the house to the same condition it was in when it was first built.
“When we got to the bare walls, you could tell all the different changes they’d made in the room because they would close a door and cut a hole for another,” she said, laughing. “They didn’t do too bad with the windows. They didn’t change too many of the windows, but they did the doors.”
Utilizing photographs, historical documents and Burress’s knowledge of the period architecture, the group relocated fireplaces, tore down walls, removed two drop ceilings and unblocked several windows.
When the project first got underway, Turnage said, Burress gave her a quote of approximately $800,000 to get the museum up and running. At the time, she said she was shocked.
“I said, ‘Bill, you’re out of your mind,’” she said.
Looking at the records, she said the house crossed the $800,000 mark shortly before the museum opened last fall.
The McElroy-Hoye House was accepted into the National Register of Historic Places on May 14, 2019, more than 15 years after six Newton residents answered the Mayor’s call to start a museum.
Currently, the house is open for the public to come see and is available to rent for special occasions. While there are still a few more odds and ends that could be done, Turnage said she’s in no particular hurry for more construction.
For now, Turnage said she encourages residents and visitors in Newton to visit the McElroy-Hoye House, walk through the rooms and see the assortment of antiques and photographs collected from Newton County and the state. After all, she said, that’s what the whole project was about, preserving history for others to enjoy.
