Preserving the core of school’s campus

From left, Brian Beck, Mary McWilliams, and Gene Cleveland look over historic photographs inside the Winston home in Tuscumbia.

By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus

Nearly 45 years ago, Brian Beck approached Mary McWilliams with questions about restoring the historic Winston Home in Tuscumbia.

At that time, the imposing antebellum structure located on the Deshler High campus, was used as storage space for some classes like home economics, but Beck had heard that the 1830s home was once a central part of school life.

“I took dual enrollment upstairs. At one time, they had an electronics class here,” Beck said, showing off the home this August.

“Allen’s Air Conditioning — David got his start upstairs in the bride’s room,” McWilliams chimed in. “The Bride’s room was heating and air conditioning, and David tells people that’s where he got his start.”

Beck said the house served as an administrative office for the school in the 1960s. After restoration efforts were well underway, the Winston Home was bustling again with student activity before it opened to the public for private events like showers, bridal teas and even weddings.

Sometime in between all that, however, the home became a victim of neglect.

In 1981, Beck — then a senior — had just been named president of the Key Club, and he needed a community project. As a friend and fellow classmate of McWilliams’ daughter, Lisa, Beck knew McWilliams had an interest in seeing the home preserved.

“I like old houses,” McWilliams said. “I grew up going from farm to farm during the summer with aunts and uncles, and they had old houses on farms. I just loved it. There is just something that draws me, and I saw and watched this house.”

McWilliams also felt a personal connection to the home as she had graduated from Deshler, and all four of her children eventually became Deshler High alumni.

“So, I kept trying to find someone else interested in saving it. I mean, they were fixing to bulldoze it down,” McWilliams said. “I kept trying to get my kids involved, and they’d say, ‘No, kids will laugh at us.’”

When Beck expressed an interest, McWilliams said she was ecstatic. The two immediately enlisted help from other Key Club members and leaders around their community.

Beck remembers exactly who his first call was to.

“I called Harvey Robbins, because he was an alumnus, and he owned NAFCO (National Floor Products Company, Inc.),” Beck said. “I told him what we were doing. He said, ‘O.K., I’ll give you $500.’ He said that without even blinking an eye. So, that was our first seed money.”

McWilliams said the second generous donation came from former Lt. Gov. George McMillan, who she said kicked off his campaign for Alabama governor in 1981 from the front steps of the Winston Home.

“He asked me what I needed, and I said, ‘Well, windows are the next big thing we’ve got to have,’” she recalled.

When he asked her how much they’d need for the project, McWilliams admits she had no idea but spatted off “$5,000.” She laughs as she retells the story, but she said she was shocked when McMillan wrote a check for that amount on the spot.

The late Robert Clemmons, who served as superintendent of Tuscumbia schools, must have been shocked, too.

“Dr. Clemmons said, ‘Why didn’t you ask for $10,000?” McWilliams said, adding that she was grateful for all the donations they received for their efforts, no matter how big.

“Another time, one of our church members met me while she was checking out at the grocery store,” McWilliams added. “She had $2 change left, and she came around to where I was checking out and she said, ‘Here, put this on the Winston Home for me.’

“That’s how it all came together. It’s a community thing, and God just answered everything we needed.”

Two years after donations began rolling in and dedicated volunteers led by McWilliams and Beck got involved, the Winston Home was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Over that time, the home saw major improvements to its roof and gutters, completion of all electrical work, and newly sheetrocked walls and ceilings.

In 1983, Beck said McWilliams and the Key Club held a “Decorated Show House,” that invited guests to come paint and stage the home. More donations in the form of furnishings began to roll in, and local residents volunteered to put the finishing touches on the walls throughout the home.

By 1984, restoration was completed, but the work wasn’t done.

Beck, who attended college at the University of North Alabama, and joined the Key Club parent organization, the Tuscumbia branch of Kiwanis, remained close by to help with maintenance at the home as needed.

When work took McWilliams and her husband away to Cincinnati, Ohio, for a brief period, she said the effort was left to Beck and a late Winston Home board member, Ann Christopher, who had been dedicated to the effort for years.

Eventually, Gene Cleveland, whose son, Joe, was a Key Club member alongside Beck, joined the crew and continues to help maintain the house and grounds.

Beck said work keeps him away most days now, and most of the maintenance falls to McWilliams and Cleveland, but he tries to make himself available anytime the home holds an event, or if major work needs to be done.

“People can call the (Deshler) central office when they want to reserve the home for showers or small events,” McWilliams said. “We do not do weddings and receptions anymore unless they are very small.”

From time to time, McWilliams and Beck will enlist the help of high school students and current Key Club members for some heavy lifting or other projects around the house, but Beck said it’s proven difficult to find someone to pass the baton to after all these years.

“They say, ‘I’m not going to do what you do,’ and that’s true,” McWilliams agreed. “I saw it from the beginning, so I’m going to take care of it and keep it going as long as I can.”

She and Beck both said they’re grateful to have been part of a long chapter for the Winston Home, and they are hopeful others will take interest in seeing it preserved for future use.

“It’s a proud accomplishment,” Beck said. “This is the centerpiece of campus. Everybody knows the Winston Home. It’s become part of the heart of this community.”

History of the Winston Home

The following is an excerpt from an article by Beth Garfrerick, published in the TimesDaily on April 15, 1982:

Built in the mid-1800s, the estate was occupied a number of years by William Winston and his descendants. The home and surrounding land stood vacant many years, however, before being purchased in 1947 and turned over to the control of the school board.

Classes were first held in the building during the 1948-49 school year and continued until 1952 when the school system’s central office moved its headquarters into the home.

In 1970, the last school board meeting was held there and since then the Winston Home has become a part of Deshler High School.

Before the renovation project began, the home was in a state of decay and used primarily for storage.

Ghostly tales of the Winston Home

Since restoration efforts began at the historic home on North Commons Street in Tuscumbia, strange sounds, unexplained occurrences, and even ghostly sightings have been reported around the Winston Home, according to Mary McWilliams and Brian Beck.

They each nod to one of the house’s first occupants, Judith Winston, when retelling the spooky tales.

Judith Winston was the second wife of William Winston, who oversaw the completion of the home in 1833. The facts leading up to the strange tales begin with Mrs. Winston’s death on Nov. 22, 1874.

It’s said that Mrs. Winston was descending the winding staircase that day when a tornado struck and caused a fatal collapse. She lived through the ordeal but succumbed to her injuries a couple of hours later in one of the rooms of the home.

Though she died 150 years ago, many believe Mrs. Winston’s spirit never left the house.

“Mrs. Winston has to make herself known every so often. Odd things do happen,” Beck said.

Students crossing the grounds on their way to class have said they’ve glimpsed a woman staring down from an upstairs window when the home should have been empty.

Visitors inside the home have reported disembodied knocks at the door, and even McWilliams and Beck themselves have experienced some chilling encounters that they can’t easily explain away.

One story Beck vividly recalls took place at an open house they were hosting inside the home one December afternoon.

“The home economics class had put crystal out on the table. They had set it all up,” he retold. “The next morning, I came in, and there was one piece of crystal right in the center that had been crushed down. Just that one by itself.”

McWilliams, who has served as lead caretaker of the home for years since restoration began in 1981, said she has been called to the house in the middle of the night on several occasions because an alarm had been triggered from the inside.

She remembers being called at 2:30 a.m. once because the alarm company had detected “motion in the southwest room,” McWilliams said.

“I asked, ‘Well, has the back door been opened or the front door?’ They said neither one,” she recounted, adding that she was told to meet police officers at the property to unlock the house for them.

“I called Brian, and I said, ‘Get your pants on. I’m coming to pick you up on the way. I’ll be there in five minutes.’ And I did,” McWilliams said. “I whipped in, he hopped in the car, and here we came down here. I unlocked the door, and the police said, ‘Now, you stay back behind the wall here. Don’t you go in.’ They had their guns drawn, so I unlocked the door, and they went in to nothing. There was nothing. To this day, we still do not know what set the alarm off.”

Some of the ghostly happenings set in motion a peculiar ritual at the Winston Home whenever a party or special event is held inside the house.

After reports of “rattling chairs” and other creepy occurrences taking place at such events — especially weddings and receptions — McWilliams began instructing the party planners to leave Mrs. Winston an invitation to the upcoming nuptials.

Oddly enough, those who do leave behind a written invitation addressed to Mrs. Winston are left alone throughout the ceremonies and festivities.

Whether they actually take stock in the tall tales of the ghost of Mrs. Winston, Beck and McWilliams admit plenty of fun is to be had passing down the legends and lore that surround the iconic home at Deshler High.