Verda Gingerbread House

Gingerbread House of Seven Gables
Source: Colfax Chronicle Feb 16, 1984
Submitted By: Kay Thompson - Brown

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"Gingerbread House of Seven Gables" built in 1903 near Verda School
By P.A. "Pap" Deas "Miss Goldie" Maxwell Lemoine remembers much and so do sons' James, principal of Verda School and ElRay, Grant Parish Clerk of Court, but when Verda historical facts need to be "pulled together", one usually calls in Mrs. Mabel Fletcher Harrison. Such was the case with this "Gingerbread House of Seven Gables", built in 1903 or 1904, near the Verda School, by Mr. Bill Bradford, sold to the "Buddy Barrons, then to a Futrell and finally to the family who always admired it, the Murrell Lemoines. Mrs. Goldie, widow of Murrell, presently owns and keeps the gingerbread intact.

As Mabel says, Bill Bradford built the house, hauling virgin timber from the Bradford and Kees sawmills at Lofton about 2 1/2 miles north of Verda. Bill's wife Docia wanted the bannisters that ran all around the porch, this giving the label "gingerbread." The gables lacked one being seven, but somehow the "House of Seven Gables" stuck and reminded one of Hawthorne's literary structure. Mrs. Neal Teddlie Strickland of Wheeling recalls admiring the place when her family moved from Atlanta, Louisiana to the Mars Hill Community in 1910 to attend school at Verda.
There has always been a closeness between Verda folks and their school history. Mabel and Goldie, along with James, recall the great love the Verda people had for their old institution which they called "the best school around." Mrs. Strickland tells of teacher, Lula Collins who taught for 50 years, living to be 102; and Mrs. Emma Collins Dewitt who couldn't stop her third, fourth and fifth graders from running to the windows as the "Model Road" was being constructed outside, but she did have them write, 500 times, "Grant Parish has 39 miles of Model Road." So punishment and education went hand - in - hand. Too, Mr. Bob Fletcher's "School Wagon" was the forerunner to the later busses, ti having a covering and two benches on the sides. The first brick building was built in 1914, although one religious sect predicted it would not be needed since the world would come to its end that year. All knew the gingerbread house and who lived there during these days.

The Buddy Barrons took over the house and raised two pretty little girls named Edna and Clara, favorites around the school. When the Futrells bought, along came triplets creating some excitement in Verda. They were "Iley, Wiley and Triley." Triley died young and the house couldn't be sold until Iley and Wiley had grown to legal age. Mr. "Dad" Lemoine (father of Murrell) always wanted the place but had to contented as a renter until the heirs were of age. The Futrells rebuilt the porch but somehow didn't get around to replacing the bannisters. "Dad" wasn't a Catholic but his wife was, so he agreed that the house could be used for various services.

It was 1937 when Murrell and Goldie bought from Eva Futrell, first through a receipt for down payment of $10 to hold for "legal age" of the heirs. There were 34 acres plus a gingerbread house, all for $430!

The Maxwell family had moved from Jonesboro in 1925, and Goldie met Murrell, marrying him in 1929. He farmed and constructed for the Highway Department. James was born down the street, ElRay came along in the Gingerbread house. Goldie recalls that because ElRay's room had it's entrance off the porch, she'd bundle him up in cold weather and they'd take him to bed via the porch. Murrell was a "superstitions Frenchman", she says, so he wouldn't put in a door from the house. She did so, after his death in 1972. She worked with Centrala's "Meals on Wheels." James attended Tech in Ruston, ElRay, Old Normal. The house is practically the same - a bath added, a door made into ElRay's room, and minus the bannisters. The eleven - foot ceilings, old fashioned dolls around, old family furniture, with cherished pictures, make it homey.

As James says, "thus the gingerbread house holds within it's treasured walls many secrets of what constitutes a good, solid community."