History of The 1908 Pruett
House
100 Years in the Making!
Construction of the original structure was started in 1908 and completed in 1913. At that time, the town
of Eureka was known as Deweyville. The house started as the dream of Charles A. Weil, vice president and manager of
the Eureka Lumber Company, whose plan was to use native larch and Douglas fir extensively throughout the house and use the
house to showcase those materials for sale in the South. He planned to use the railroad, which had been completed through
Dewey in 1904, and planned to use one of several sawmills in the area to process the raw materials. Before his business
dreams were realized, both the lumber company and the home were sold to Mr. Weil's assistant, P. L. Howe.
The house had many owners over the next 70 years before it was purchased
by Vernon and Libby Pruett, who remained in it until each had passed away by 2001. The house briefly changed hands,
but was brought back into the Pruett family in 2005, when it was purchased by Libby Joan Pruett, one of the six Pruett daughters.
Under the skillful and talented guidance of another Pruett daughter, Sarita, and her husband, Troy Welch (owners of Shake-It
Enterprises), the house underwent its most extensive renovation to date, and can now be considered as having been completed
one hundred years after its inception.
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The house abounds with interesting, antique features, from the huge wood-burning furnace in the basement (around which
the house had to be built), to two sets of eight-foot-wide pocket doors leading to the dining room and living room, to a bead
board attic spanning the width of the house. Though the house has passed through the hands of several owners throughout
its 100-year history, it has retained much of its original details. Most of the original glass window panes remain,
as do the striking pocket doors, built-in cabinets in the dining room, alabaster light fixtures, wall sconces, and skirted
tub (now refinished). The wood-burning furnace remains in place, but has been bypassed in favor of two four-ton central
HVAC units. The house was the first in Eureka to have electric wiring, but that wiring has now been bypassed for reasons
of safety. The six-panel doors and wainscoating remain, but have been carefully sanded, restained, and refinished.
The smallest of the four bedrooms on the second floor has been turned into a bathroom, so that each bedroom has a private
bath. One has a new cast-iron slipper tub; one has the original skirted tub plus a separate shower; and the master has
a whirlpool tub with a separate, granite-walled shower. The ground floor has new Brazilian Ebony hardwood flooring throughout.
The kitchen has been completely gutted and rebuilt to accommodate the wishes of a “wannabe gourmet chef.”
Those wishes include a six-burner Viking range (at opposite ends of the kitchen from an 1800-era wood-burning stove), a commercial
refrigerator-freezer, granite countertops, period cabinets, stamped steel ceiling, and chrome shelves to house an extensive
cookbook collection.
At one time, there were servants’
quarters located just off the kitchen, but sometime along the way those quarters were replaced by a carport. The current
owner closed in a small porch on the southwest side, turning it into a sunny breakfast room, but retaining the same look outside,
so that it appears to have been part of the original structure. Otherwise, the outside of the house retains its original
appearance.
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