4: The Lovely Mansion I See, In My Mind

By Kathy Buie Vance.

The Alderman house was just north of the Buie/Pence house, also facing Main Street. It looked like something out of “Gone With the Wind”, with its massive size and white columns. There was a beautiful winding staircase inside. Grandma’s sister and brother-in-law built the house and lived there before I was born. During my childhood, their two daughters, Lillian and Ella and Ella’s two grown children Harriet and Alderman lived there. “Miss Lill” taught sixth grade at Wagram School.

When I was in first grade, Harriet taught second grade and I couldn’t wait for her to be my teacher. She had long blond hair and I thought she looked like a princess. I was so disappointed when she got married that summer and left Wagram. I remember going to her wedding at that gorgeous house and seeing her come down the staircase in her beautiful gown.

Alderman had been a lieutenant commander in the Navy during WW II, but something must have happened to change him drastically. When he came home after the war, he was strange. He opened an antique shop on Main Street but I don’t think he ever sold anything. He was too attached to the stuff which all looked like junk to me.

Miss Lill taught 6th grade through the 50’s and died in the 60’s. When Ella died shortly after, the house was left to Alderman who lived there there several more decades. He rarely took the garbage out and let the house fall down, one column at a time. He would even host big parties, oblivious to how it looked. Wonder if those guests came to the parties out of curiosity? I was too young to go, but my friend Janet Zeigler who was 10 years older, did go. When asked what she wanted to drink, she said a Coke. She waited and waited, and when it came, he said he had to go to Laurinburg to get it. When someone expressed concern over a fallen column, he said it was OK, he had three more.

Years later, when I knew he was at his shop, I went over and looked in the window of one of the bedrooms. There were dog food cans all over the floor, knee-deep. A dog was asleep on top of an antique chest of drawers. Newspapers and garbage everywhere.

The house is barely visible now – what’s left of it – because trees, bushes, and vines hide it from view, but it’s still there, and I still see the lovely mansion in my mind.

The Alderman house a few years ago.

Drill Deeper:

Lil Buie’s Short Story: Falling Columns and Fading Daffodils Represent Demise of the Old South.

One of Wagram’s Community Characters: Alderman McLean.

Introduction to Kathy’s Memoir.

Previous:

Kathy Buie Vance’s Memories of Growing Up in Wagram, in Scotland County, NC Until 1965.

Table of Contents for Kathy’s Memoir.