The Devil Queen

How my wife and I sold our souls to the Queen Anne Victorian we tried to save.

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Location: Crow Mountain, Arkansas, United States

Synopsis: This is a cautionary tale. A seriously disturbed couple find the charming, old ruin of a Queen Anne Victorian in Russellville, Arkansas, and buy it for $1.00. They tore the roof off, cut it in half, and had it moved to some land they owned sixteen miles away because they didn't know any better. Since then, they have hired and fired contractors, had all of their tools stolen, re-wired, re-plumbed, insulated, and essentially rebuilt the entire house. Their only problem is that after four years it still isn't finished. Now they are tired, broke, and wonder what in the hell it is they've done to themselves. And, it's haunted.
(Last updated on April 3, 2008)

Press: Russellville Courier Article - December 2003, HGTV website article, AP story - October 2006, and Victorian Homes Magazine - February 2008 (link coming soon).
Art: From time to time, I receive requests for my art. If you would like to look at more of my art, go to The Failed Artist. If you would like to buy my art, email me. I am more than happy to answer any questions you might have. Thanks!

Monday, May 09, 2005

I was hoping for some more photos, but we left our digital camera up at the Queen. Spent a couple hours Saturday finishing off the subflooring for the hall bath. Spent the rest of the weekend working on the pantry/laundry room's wood floor. It went well but took a lot longer than we'd anticipated.

All the "new" wood flooring we are using in the master bath and the pantry/laundry room were salvaged from an older home, The Davis House, in Atkins. It is pine, tongue-and-groove flooring. It is about 3 1/2 inches wide and up to 16 feet long.

The Davis House is with us no more. The owners, three brothers, bought it as an investment property. They had it zoned commercial which wasn't hard. The new Bank of Dardanelle is next to it, and you can see the Dollar General, two gas stations, and Sonic from where the house was. They tried selling it as is, but no one was interested. So, in the end, they bull-dozed it and set it on fire. A few months later the lot sold.

On the one hand, my wife and I felt bad for tearing up an old house. How can you be for saving historic buildings while you're tearing one down? On the other hand, it would be demolished with or without us. We decided it would be better to save some of it than to just let it get knocked down and burned.

We hauled off all the pine flooring, about a third of the wood siding, a couple of double hung windows, and all of the bead-board ceilings. We also found a family tree (Davis family) on two typed sheets of paper, 8 solid wood doors with original hardware and jambs, a box of 50 year old mason jars, some old copies of the Atkins Chronicle (the local paper, dating to the 1950's), and a couple of light fixtures. Since we are insane, we actually thought that we could get more out of the house while working on the Devil Queen. I really wanted to strip the Davis House down far enough to haul off the 2 x 4's for an art studio. We didn't make it in time though. I can't even begin to explain how disheartening that was.

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