RAZING: House with History With history, when one chapter closes, it turns the page to another.
Last Thursday, what began as a two-room log cabin prior to the Civil War and developed into one of the most beautiful landmarks in Marion came crashing down. After 130 years as a 15-room family home on West Bellville Street, the so-called Flanary House was razed to make room for a new family dwelling.
Though history will record the home as a unique, steamboat-style example of architecture with six porches on two levels, the last few years had not been so kind to the structure. The last of the Flanary family that was first associated with the home in 1905 vacated the manor in 1986. The last 21 years have been an exercise in gradual deterioration as Mother Nature and Father Time had their way with the structure, rendering renovation a long-gone possibility.
Turn the page, and you will find Linda and Virgil Cook starting a new chapter on the historic lot. The Cooks, a well-known family active in the community, will be ending a chapter of their own to construct their new, modern home miles away from their homestead.
The family farm in northern Crittenden County that the Cooks will be leaving has been in the bloodlines since 1802, according to Virgil. But the upkeep and maintenance of so many acres has become a little much for the couple, said Virgil, now in his mid-70s. His wife, Linda, is a retired school teacher.
A crowd of onlookers gathered to watch a trackhoe's scoop bring down the historic home. Virgil, in a pair of blue coveralls with Four Ridge Farms and his named stitched on the chest, watched the equipment make way for his new house. Alongside him were friends who had gathered under a neighbor's shade tree.
He's looking forward to a new garage, possibly with a shop to keep him busy outside after years of working a farm.
"I still need room to play with my toys," he said.
Virgil has several antique tractors he cares for, according to cousin and neighbor Percy Cook.