THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 17, 1995 TAG: 9506200473
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY ELLEN MILES, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
Amazing but true. A three-story antebellum house stands proudly in Virginia Beach, not far from historical Nimmo Church but contrasting sharply with the developed areas on harried General Booth Boulevard.
``The Hickman House'' as the sign in the yard declares, was built in 1832, or possibly 1822. It remains uncertain. The owner, Carlton Hickman, who has been a merchant mariner, railroad loading foreman, service station owner and exterminator, found a penny, dated 1822, embedded in the wall plaster.
A brick in the roof has a date on it, but it's difficult to decipher whether it reads 1822 or 1832. He has also found a nickel embedded in the floor boards, a 2-cent piece in the yard, another coin under the house, a quiver's worth of Indian arrowheads in the yard, some stone tomahawk heads and a pair of handmade crutches.
He and his wife, Ruth, bought the house 40 years ago, after admiring it for several years as the family drove to outings at Sandbridge. It had been vacant for about two years when they acquired it.
The previous, long-time owner had moved into a nursing home, selling it to her brother afterward. The day Hickman saw the big ``47 Acres For Sale'' sign, they jumped right out of the car, opened a house window and looked around.
The Hickmans bought the house despite the lack of electricity and plumbing - there was an outhouse and a well. After six months of getting the property into shape, the family moved in.
Much of the land has since been subdivided, including plots for his children and a farm area. The land around the house is a little more than 2.6 acres. It's important to Hickman to keep a large patch of land around the house, thus setting it apart from other busy nearby areas.
Now a widower, Hickman rents out his adjoining farm for soybeans. He believes the house was originally a tavern, but was converted into a farm house. Around 1860, a kitchen was added behind the house.
The house and yard reflect a bucolic, bygone era as well as hard work and devotion. Pine floors prevail throughout the house, with most of the upstairs flooring original.
But downstairs, just the hallway is original; the rest of the floors were not salvageable. Hickman, a handyman with a reputation for ``not being short on nails,'' cut down the trees and air-dried the wood for the floors.
Hickman has replaced every original building outside the house, putting the new structures on the same spot as the original. The only building he did not build himself is the garage.
Stately trees - oak, holly, pecan and magnolia - have reigned over the property for 150 years, guarding the manicured lawn. One ancient holly protects a small tombstone, a relic easily at home in the shade of the old tree.
Hickman admires Williamsburg designs, as his buildings reflect. He and his daughter, Mary Hunter, researched and designed a Williamsburg kitchen (built about 15 years ago), root cellar and a wash house (for winter washing), which is also a Williamsburg design.
Hog hooks hang on an outside kitchen wall. In the yard, boiling pots await the summer washing.
Hickman has extensively renovated the interior of the main house, tearing down and building walls and rooms including a new kitchen; rebuilding the third floor, which contains Shaker furniture and accessories, after it burned in a fire the night he finished updating the room and oiling the floor.
He has added a fireplace, making five in all. The property also has five wells, a collection of bonsai trees, a wood shed, a fish pond, a pumphouse and, to add a major touch of anachronism, a solar heated pool.
Hickman has also removed every piece of plaster, built new ceilings and made the open second floor, which apparently accommodated several beds when the structure was a tavern, into two rooms. The house also has new bathrooms, closets and central air-conditioning and heating.
The narrow, wood stairs angle up and around, offering at the top a spiraling view from the third floor, vaguely reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock films. Hickman humorously calls that area his ``laundry shoot.''
Scattered throughout the house are paintings and sketching of the house or other buildings, including a drawing they came upon as they perused an art show.
Antique copper pots (some from Europe) and pitchers hang from the rafters in the main kitchen. Other culinary items include a butter churner, coffee grinders, a sausage grinder and stuffer and a cherry pitter.
Hickman does not keep still. He just built a greenhouse and he plans to replace the windows in the main house, paint the external woodwork and update his bathrooms.
Tales of murders in the house have been around for years, but they've never bothered the Hickmans. However, Hickman believes they've been visited by ``Miss Annie,'' the previous owner. ``Miss Annie still comes by,'' he says. When his children were growing up, some of their overnight guests would call their parents to retrieve them when they heard the creaking floor boards and other noises Miss Annie made. ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photos by Christopher Reddick
by CNB