Saturday - April 21 - Sure do like this weather, today was another gorgeous day. This afternoon we went back into Eufaula and drove around a bit looking at all the gorgeous old homes, then parked and walked up and down Randolph Street which has many of these old mansions on it so it was a good way to get a look at them. Eufaula has 62 buildings registered with historic designations and about 55 of these are homes, which I think is quite amazing for a town this size! One of the historic homes is for sale so we picked up a brochure, it is over 3000 square feet and is listed for $350,000 and the taxes are $634.45/year (can you believe that!).

We then went to Fendall Hall which is the only home owned by the state and open year round to the public, all the other buildings, except the Shorter home, are still private homes and only open to the public during Pilgrimage. We got there about 3:00 and the woman who works there said we had lots of time to tour it before she closed at 4 then asked if we wanted a guided tour which we said would be nice. It was very interesting and reminded us a bit of Castle Kilbride with all the murals painted on the walls. There was also a little stove like the one that mom had, only this one was black and about twice as high with a stove pipe coming up, and there were all the little pots and pans sitting on it. She said that she hadn’t had time yet to research the stove but thought perhaps it was a salesman’s demo. We told her about mom’s and that we had seen one just like it at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit and that is exactly what it was, a salesman’s demo.

We had a chance to ask lots of questions so of course we asked about property taxes as we couldn’t believe the taxes on the house we had seen for sale, apparently they are trying to instigate market value assessment but not having much luck - sound familiar? All of a sudden I looked at my watch and it was 4:30, so we apologized profusely for keeping her late but she said she it wasn’t a problem as she is usually there till 5 and there was a dinner there tonight so she would be there till that was over. The informal dining room had been set up for the dinner, apparently it was high school graduation night and some parents had arranged for a dinner for their kids at the home prior to the graduation ceremony. Both the Fendell and Shorter mansions are available to rent for special occasions, she said they mainly do showers, small family dinners etc. at Fendell and most of the weddings are at the Shorter Mansion as they can accommodate larger groups.

All in all another nice day.