Fire claims historic 166-year-old home in Valley Head, Alabama

Dec. 3--A fire Sunday night destroyed the historic 166-year-old McKown House in Valley Head, Alabama, where a bed and breakfast was planned.

On Tuesday, Valley Head Fire Department Chief Dustin Burt said the blaze that was reported at 8:20 p.m. CDT Sunday was the hottest he and other firefighters battling the flames have ever seen.

"When we got there it was over 50% gone," Burt said, remarking that fire was roaring from the upstairs windows.

Built in 1853 by the McKown family, who were among the early settlers of the area, the house was probably built from what Burt thinks was locally-timbered wood that was very dry and dense. The house most recently was operated as a bed and breakfast, he said.

No other structures were damaged by the heat and fire, Burt said.

"We parked our trucks on the road and we still had paint bubbled up on one of our trucks," Burt said of the fire's heat. About 30 firefighters from departments in Valley Head, Hammondville, Mentone and Henagar fought the fire.

Rhonda Weathers, who had contracted to purchase the home from local resident Tony Goolsby, said she and her daughter were operating the house as the Weathers Place Bed & Breakfast until the family took off for the last year or so to deal with some medical issues. Weathers said they closed temporarily to keep from turning away boarders.

"At the time of the fire, we were getting the place ready to open back up for a B&B," Weathers said Tuesday.

Weathers had no insurance on the home, she said.

Weathers agreed about the searing heat of the blaze. She said that when she got to her burning B&B Sunday night, she had to park two driveways away because of the heat.

Burt said as he and fellow firefighters probed the rubble, there was little left, but he noted finding numerous old hand-made square nails and another oddity.

"The oddest thing to me was in the back corner of the house there was a well," he said. "It was inside the house."

DeKalb County lost another landmark in 2014 when the 1884-era Mentone Springs Hotel burned to the ground less than 3 miles east of Valley Head at the top of Lookout Mountain. The McKown House predated the structure in Mentone by more than 30 years.

Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.

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