Roof and Rebirth: Prentiss Club construction continues

Published 12:04 am Thursday, February 14, 2019

By Nicole Hester

 

NATCHEZ — Originally built between 1904 and 1905 and named after Seargent S. Prentiss the Historic Prentiss Club building has undergone many changes through the years.

The building first served as a Masonic Lodge and has been the location of a restaurant and at one point a personal residence.

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The last change, the most severe, occurred Sept. 2 when fire damaged 40 to 50 percent of the building just as it was about to reopen after a renovation to transform it in to a venue location for galleries and weddings.

Never fear, however, the building is rising from the ashes of the fire that charred window frames and singed chandeliers and claimed the structure’s roof.

Work is progressing and the newly built rafters for the roof are now visible to passersby.

The owners the Prenitss Club building at the time of the fire, Fred and Melinda Kent, recently decided to deed the building over to the Historic Natchez Foundation, which is overseeing the restoration of the building’s roof.

Chase Klugh, director of preservations for HNF, said the organization’s goal at this point is just to make the building weatherproof.

“That entails putting a new roof on is what we have going on now,” Klugh said. “We will have more work done to the windows as well just to make sure they are secure and … before we put the trusses in, we had to complete some masonry work at the top where the brick was destroyed at the very top.”

Klugh said he estimates it will be several weeks before the roof is completed.

Klugh said the roof would be a shingle roof that looks similar to the original clay tile roof that was destroyed in the fire.

If someone wanted to put a clay tile roof back on the building at some point in the future, however, Klugh said the decking and tresses being put in place would support an actual clay tile roof.

“Basically, (we are) making sure the state of the building is kept like this, and it doesn’t further deteriorate so that eventually someone can come along and redevelop it,” Klugh said.

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