Home tours offered during Dogwood-Azalea Festival

CHARLESTON, Mo. — The 56th Annual Dogwood-Azalea Festival is coming up in Charleston, which means it’s time for the annual home tours put on by the Mississippi County Historical Society.

The Moore residence, situated at 403 N. Main St., will be available for tours from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, April 18 through Saturday, April 20. 

The home, which was built in 1899 for around $7,000, is listed on the National Register of Historic Properties. Previously, agriculture was all around it. On the family’s adjacent farm, the wood for the home and servants’ quarters was harvested. 

Sophie Dugan, director of the Mississippi County Historical Society Board, also mentioned that this year marks the 125th anniversary of the Moore home. 

“The Moore family donated this home to the Mississippi County Historical Society in the 1970s,” Dugan said. “So we (historical society) are not 125 years old; it’s just the home that is.”

The Mississippi County Historical Society will also hold a bake sale on the Moore home’s porch. The bake sale will be held on Friday, April 19 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Casey Klinger, a featured artist from the Mississippi County Historical Society, will also be at the Moore home.

Klinger creates kiln-formed glass, and Dugan said she makes beautiful pieces, and the public is welcome to view her blown glass collection.

In addition, two private residences — the Tatum Home and the Forrest Home — will be open for tours from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, April 19 and Saturday, April 20. Admission to these two homes and the Moore home is $15.

Tatum Home’s address is 205 East Marshall St. According to a Mississippi County Historical Society board member, the house is beautiful in the federalist style.

“It is owned and occupied by Charles and Nancy Tatum and was built in 1890 by Dr. Bondurant,” Dugan said. 

After a fire destroyed the home’s third story, Ralph Carr Sr., a local contractor, bought it, renovated it and relocated his family from the country. 

According to Dugan, the family decided they preferred living in the country and moved out in 1947, selling their home to Ellis and Virginia Young. According to Dugan, the Youngs added the family room and kitchen to their home and spent many happy years there.

Following the death of Mrs. Young, the home was purchased by the Tatums. 

“Nancy Tatum said the very first day she laid eyes on the home, she fell in love with it,” Dugan said. “The grounds and porches were just so beautiful and once she went inside she could see all the plans she had for the home in her mind and knew that they would come to life with renovation.”

Dugan also mentioned one of the Tatum home’s unique features is the discovery of a hidden fireplace in one of the rooms, as well as the original southern-themed wallpaper mural.

This year’s home tours also include the Forrest Home, which is located at 203 E Cypress St. 

“The Forrest Home, known as Charleston’s ‘hometown favorite’, is always beautifully decorated for the season,” Dugan said. 

According to Dugan, the owners of the home are Joe and Sallee Forrest. 

“This country Victorian was built in 1898,” Dugan said. “It was one of the first homes in Charleston to have a telephone and a television.”

The home was originally heated with coal via a radiator system and featured two coal-burning fireplaces.

“Some of the unique features of this house include the double doors at the front of the home, and one door is remarkably wider than the other and was considered, ‘The Sunday Door’ because it was used on Sundays when all the ladies of the house wore hoop skirts,” Dugan said. 

According to Dugan, it was also used to help people get into and out of large pieces of furniture and caskets. 

“Back in the day, a lot of the families had viewings in the home when one of their loved ones passed,” Dugan said.

Another unique feature of the home is the petticoat mirror in the front hall, which is used to check to see if one’s petticoat is showing before leaving the house. 

The Forrest family bought the house in 1990 and began a complete renovation. All of the woodwork in the house was removed one piece at a time. Sarah, Forrest’s daughter, used a wood-burning tool to mark each piece of wood with the room, door or window to which it belonged. The staircases were stripped of varnish where they currently stand. The front stairs alone required 50 gallons of stripper. The house has new plumbing, wiring, insulation, sheetrock, an intercom system, a central vacuum system, and fresh paint and wallpaper.

Tickets for the home tours can be purchased at the Mississippi County Historical Society’s Moore home.