HISTORY: Miss Hessie continued – The unique house she built at 313 Church Street
MADISON – Last week’s article looked at the beloved Madison schoolteacher Nancy Hesseltine Gillespie Farley ‘Miss Hessie’s’ life. This week continues that exploration by highlighting the unique house she built in Madison.
As mentioned in last week’s article, Miss Hessie moved to Tuscumbia, Alabama after her husband’s death. However, she returned to Madison to care for her sister, Miss Nora, after her father died in 1910. When she returned, she built a house a 313 Church Street, which is now one of the most identifiable and unique houses in the historic district.
“She had a unique house constructed for herself, her daughter, and her sister at 313 Church Street, while the family farm was rented to a nephew, Clark Patton Gillespie,” writes Madison historian John Rankin in an April 13, 2007 Vintage Vignette.
Known as the Farley House, 313 Church Street was built in the Queen Anne Victorian style. It is a two-story house with an “L”-shaped floorplan and a wood frame. It has several characteristics that make it stand out.
The house features bay windows on the façade on both the first and second floors that give part of the house a half octagonal shape, a balustrade on the roof of the porch, and a multi-gabled, metal roof.
“An especially interesting detail is the arched bracket with saw toothed edges that make the transition between the projecting roof and the chamfered corners of the house,” reads a Madison walking tour booklet from the 1976 Madison Street Festival by the City of Madison and Huntsville Museum of Art.
Several changes have been made to the house over the years. The original Tuscan columns on the porch were replaced with Doric columns. The original wood floor of the porch was replaced with brick. The balustrade on the porch roof has been replaced, and a brick sidewalk was added.
The house was passed down to Miss Hessie’s daughter and her husband, Lorinda F. and Herbert L. Thornton, and then to Miss Hessie’s granddaughter and her husband, Nancy T. and J.B. Womack.
