The pink paint is peeling; the railings slope gently. The neglected face of the two-story house on Main Street isn’t a pretty one.

Only the two-by-fours propping up a newly replaced balcony give any clue as to the transformation going on behind its doors.

From the inside out

Not much had been done to the 1869 building since it was renovated in the 1930s, and it badly needed attention.

So, local Realtor Brooks Harrington decided to take on the project and restore the building from the inside out.

Originally built as a duplex, the owners in the 1930s divided it up into four apartments. Harrington decided to keep that layout and combine modern amenities with an updated 1930s style.

“I’ve taken each apartment separately,” Harrington said. “This is the third apartment I’m working on.”

Harrington has learned more with each apartment he’s renovated. The first apartment still has its original plaster, but it has finished floors and clean, fresh paint. The next apartment has new plaster but fewer state-of-the-art appliances.

The third apartment is nearly finished. The kitchen has 1930s-style tiles, and the fireplaces have the traditional dark finish.

“I’m trying to keep the feeling somewhat like it was in the 1930s,” he said.

History revealed

In exchange for a new face, the house has told a little of its own story. As they renovated it, Harrington and his workers have made some surprising discoveries.

While removing the floor in the back part of the house, they found a cistern that had been capped with bricks. They haven’t opened it yet, but Harrington is anxious to see what’s inside.

“You never know what’s in those things,” he said. “It could be empty, it could have water in it, or something else.”

While renovating the floor in another apartment, he found a soldier’s medallion from the Mexican-American War, which ended just two decades before the house was built.

“It was the right shape and size” to fit the era, he said. “There may be other things in the building, too. You never know what could have taken place on this land.”

Another surprise came when they removed a fireplace’s mantelpiece in one of the downstairs apartments.

Along with the dust came pictures, old medicine vials, and advertisements that had slipped behind the fixture.

“We found one letter that had fallen behind it and had never been opened,” Harrington said. “When we opened it, we saw that a man in New York had written to a lady who lived here, asking her to send an autograph of her father Gen. John Quitman.”

Harrington had found a link with Natchez history. Quitman, a former Mississippi governor and soldier in the Mexican-American War, lived in Natchez from 1821 until his death.

His daughter apparently lived in the house and received the letter from a collector many states away.

“But she never got the letter, she never read it,” Harrington said. “So, I guess the man in New York was disappointed.”

A love for the work

Not all the renovation work has gone smoothly. All mantelpieces had to be torn out and refinished, and the downstairs floors had to be stabilized.

“We pulled the floors completely out,” Harrington said. “There were rotting timbers that needed to be replaced, and we installed new beams and put permanent floor jacks in. It could hold a tank now.”

And as the building takes on a new personality, people have taken notice. The two finished apartments already have tenants, and Harrington constantly has people ask when the others will be completed.

He always tells them it will be awhile.

One of the last things to change will be the building’s face.

“I’ve kind of done it in reverse of what most people do,” Harrington said. “I wanted to get the inside done so people could move in.”

Change hasn’t come easily. Harrington contracts out some of the work, but he has done a good deal of the physical labor.

“I’ve had a hand in every little project,” Harrington said. “It’s been a huge amount of work.”

He works on the building before and after his day job in real estate. It’s been nearly two years, and one apartment still has yet to be finished, showing a raw brick floor and bare beams.

“You have to enjoy it,” Harrington said. “It’s not that anybody can get an old building and renovate it. It takes determination. You have to care to do it.”

In spite of the work, or maybe because of it, the building’s transformation is very satisfying to watch, Harrington said.

“You get to see it change from something in a dilapidated state,” he said.

“It’s kind of like a resurrection. You have to enjoy watching the transformation and being part of the transformation.”