The Houston Memorial Library and Museum in Athens is now open to the public after more than two years of renovations that included a new roof, chimney replacement, extensive electrical work, insulation, siding the home’s back side, sprinkler pipe rerouting, restoring an original fireplace mantel, restoring windows, returning the front parlors to their original use, and many other repairs.

The library’s new mission is to serve as a library in two rooms downstairs, as meeting place for groups and clubs in the two front parlors and as an overall piece of living history for the public to enjoy.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, though Anita Raby, chairwoman of the Houston Memorial Library and Museum’s Board of Directors, said an poll will be taken to see if the public would like the library to be open one night a week or on Saturday.

History right here

Even today, Raby said people tell her they never knew the federal-style building at the corner of Houston and Market streets in downtown Athens is historic. It was once the home of Gov. George S. Houston, who lived inside the home from 1845 until his death on Dec. 31, 1879. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, and until it was closed for renovation in June 2016, it served as a public library.

The home was converted into a public library in the 1930s and never had a major overhaul despite decades of use.

Walk into the library today and, above all, you will see light.

“Before there were bookshelves in front of every window in the parlors, so even though there were window it was so dark,” Raby said.

No longer will there be a maze of bookshelves in either of the front parlors. That is because the board wants the public to be able to see and enjoy what the original home looked like, including some of the original furniture. Among the many renovations was adding a non-cooking kitchenette off the south parlor so groups, clubs and others could meet there and enjoy refreshments they bring in.

Two of the window in the south parlor had been boarded up and walled over, possible when the fireplace was converted from wood-burning to coal burning, which necessitated a much smaller firebox and mantel than the originals, said board member Mona Aycock. She said the room directly above the south parlor also may have two boarded up windows.

“The house was original a four-square, she said, meaning it had two rooms below and above. When the governor moved in, the family built on to the back and north side of the house.

Over the years, other architectural features were boarded up or removed, including the home’s transom windows. Aycock said these will be restored.

There is more restoration to come as money allows.

“We look at (the renovation) as a work in progress,” Raby said.

Renovations

While the renovation of the lower parlors was planned the current renovation of what is now called the mystery room was not. Raby said the ceiling fell in and had to be replaced, so that room is being renovated. When it is complete, it will house the library’s many mystery books.

“This genre is very popular now, one of our most-read,” Raby said.

The room on the back side of the home now houses the library’s fiction collection.

Some furniture original to the Houston home still remains. The original couch and some chairs in the other parlor were recovered using fabric supplied by Steelcase, local maker of office furniture, Raby said.

Renovations to the home are ongoing. The Mennonites built some replica windows with wavy glass to reflect the originals. On Tuesday, wooden blinds were being added to the windows to replace the sheers that were there, Aycock said. Mark Clouser, a Huntsville firefighter who owns an historic home himself in Huntsville, is doing the work for Alan Blind Co. of Madison.

He was working in the upstairs museum’s genealogy room Tuesday afternoon.

From a door upstairs that faces Houston Street, the governor could look out and see the Limestone County Courthouse and Market Street, Aycock and Raby said. Back then, none of the current homes were there to block the view. In case you didn’t know, the upstairs of the museum used to be a private apartment.

Painting restored

A newly cleaned and repaired painting of the former governor now hangs above an original fireplace mantel in the south parlor that was returned to the library by a generous family.

“The portrait was in terrible shape — it has a tear and a hole in it and was black from exposure to soot over the years,” Raby said.

The restoration committee hired Huntsville-based conservator and restorer Bill Lewis to restore the painting. It took him about a year to do the work, she said.

Could you have Houston treasures?

When the home’s fireplace was converted from a large wood-burning one to a small, narrow coal-burning one, the large wooden mantel was removed. Back then, Aycock said, when someone was renovating, they often told others just to take something if they could use it or wanted it, never anticipating that the building might someday be restored. Over time, a family might not even know where the piece originated or they may have only a vague story about where it came from.

The family that is renovating the former Greenhaw home at 121 N. Jefferson St. into the Warten House bed and breakfast donated the original mantel back to the library. David Gregory and his sister, Janet Gregory Wilson, were happy to have the mantel back in its home, Raby said.

In the past, a family donated some of the original Houston family silverware to the library. It is displayed in a glass case in the south parlor along with other Houston possessions, such as candle holders, son John Paul Horton’s scrapbook of events, and the embosser used to print the governor’s official seal. Another family donated andirons that were not original to the home but were authentic to the time period in which the first family lived.

Members of the library’s board of directors are hoping there may be other Houston family treasures out there that people might be willing to donate back to the library, now that it has been returned to much of its original spender. They will also consider donations of items of the period the family lived there. Raby said such donation would be tax-deductible because the library is a nonprofit 501(c)(3).

As the library work continues, the board continues to apply for grants and community funding to fund the renovations. To that end, the Houston Memorial Library and Museum Foundation was formed. Monetary donations can be mailed to HMLM Foundation, P.O. Box 1650, Athens, AL 35612.