Mill Prong House Tour, Part 2

At left is the mantle in Room One of the first floor by the side entrance and at right is the mantle in Room Two on the first floor, the parlor.

All the rooms of the house are wooden sheathed except on the second floor where plaster was used at the time of the remodeling in the 1830s.

The moldings are of the style that fit into the transitional period between the Georgian and Federal eras. Heavy cornices cover joints between the walls and wooden ceiling.

Doors and window frames are finished with edges reminiscent of the Georgian style.

Before the remodeling in the 1830's, Room One with the side entrance contained the enclosed stairwell to the second floor.

You can see cuts in the ceiling boards where the original enclosed stairwell was located.

The mantle in the parlor is flanked by double nine-pane windows on each side.

You could not access the stairwell through Room One but only through the stairwell from the back porch.

The two massive downstairs mantels were removed from Mill Prong House and installed in the family home in Red Springs around the turn of the 19th century.

They were returned at the time of the restoration.

Each mantle stands more than five feet tall, heavily detailed with reeding, quarter sunburst and center blocks.

They were painted with a blue-grey and creme coat and are examples of the Federal style and colors.

Later, both mantles were painted with varnish, which has protected the undercoats through more than 200 years.

The restored piano in the parlor today, without its top damaged in the Civil War.

Room Two

Instead of the grain running parallel to the length of the boards, it is at right angles as if the artist intended the result to look like veneer.Room Two on the first floor is a large parlor with simulated wood graining in brown and dark ocher.

The upper walls are medium ocher. The paint colors, like the mantles, are the original colors based on paint analysis done at the time of the restoration.

Historic Piano

The piano in the parlor was located here before the Civil War.

Just before Union Gen. William T. Sherman's army passed through the area in 1865, the McEacherns buried the piano in order to save it from marauders.

Sherman's men found the piano and since they could not take it with them, their calling card was to bash in the top.

The top was never repaired even though the piano would still play.

After more than 100 years of barn storage following the Civil War, one of the McEachern descendants, Ann Lamm, returned the piano to its rightful place.

Mill Prong Preservation Inc. had the walnut case refinished.