Major renovations at a local funeral home are part of the owner’s effort to take the building back to its Victorian roots.

Larry Russell, owner of Russell-Marks Funeral Home and Cremation Service, said he plans to un-do some of the changes the funeral home went through during the 60s and early 90s.

“As best we have been able to establish by talking with people and documentation found at the funeral home, the house was built in the Victorian style of architecture, complete with elaborate porches and a ‘widow’s walk,’ and was one of the more prominent homes in town at the time.”

According to Russell, the historic house was built in 1892 as the home of political figure Walter Leak Parsons. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

“It stayed a private residence owned by the Parsons family until approximately 1943, when it was purchased by H.H. Leavitt of Wadesboro and opened as Rockingham Funeral Home, managed by a gentleman named Charles Warner.”

Russell claims it was Leavitt who added the chapel in 1949, shortly before his daughter Miriam and her husband W. Raymond Marks, assumed ownership of the business in the late 1950s, changing the name to Marks Funeral Home - and changing to structure’s original look.

“The trend in the 1960s and 70s in funeral service was to ‘modernize’ funeral homes that were former private residences. Thusly, many of those homes lost a good many of their details and historical appearance,” said Russell.

“For example, at our facility, some time in the mid-1960s the porches were torn off of the front of the house and replaced with the massive columns in place today. It was the trend at the time but did little to preserve historical accuracy.”

Other “modern” adjustments included the removing of almost all original molding and picture rails, painting over lace work on indoor ventilation windows, covering the hardwood floors with carpet, filling the fireplaces with cabinets, and obstructing access to both the widow’s walk and the “stairway to nowhere” - a servant access to main hallways and stairwells that allowed them to remain unseen.

Russell wants to rewind most of those changes, and has already restored many of the visual details like the picture rails and lace glass.

While he said most of the architectural changes were made by Marks, The Loewen Group of Canada bought and redecorated the facility in the early 90s and “spent very little in upkeep over the next 15 years.”

“When I bought the funeral home in the Fall of 2007, it was in a sad state of disrepair, and immediately required an exterior painting and extensive roof work just to make it properly operable again.”

He said that he is weighing the options of replacing the columns or restoring the original porches after some rot became apparent at the base of one of the large columns in front of the house.

When he purchased the funeral home he had already budgeted for renovation; but business picked up to the point that there was never a convenient time to do it, until now. The first floor renovations are already complete.

The second floor is being revitalized as a residential and office setting, and there is not a set completion date - but Russell said he doesn’t expect any of the renovations to interfere with his providing service. His hope for the upstairs is to create an attractive apartment-like area that will add historical tour-like aspect to the visitor experience at his facility.

“We have chosen period-correct colors and trim, and I’ve been scouring antique stores pretty closely looking for furnishings to add to the antiques already in the building.

“People remember this as being a funeral home over the years, but they forget that it was a private residence. I want to bring back some of that flavor.”

Russell invites people to stop by and see the changes at the funeral home. He plans to host an open house when all renovations are complete.