Widows Harvest turns 'near condemnable' St. Elmo house into a showpiece [photos]

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Home Harvest: Widows Harvest turns 'near condemnable' St. Elmo house into a showpiece

Perhaps the stately house at the corner of 54th Street and St. Elmo Avenue made a grand entrance into the neighborhood when it was built in the early 1900s.

St. Elmo was a vibrant and bustling community at the turn of the last century, and the two-story structure likely would have been - maybe, merely would have been - another notable addition to the clusters of distinguished homes that defined the area.

But the home had charm, character, a sense of purpose. It sheltered untold families over a century. Witnessed births and deaths. Reverberated with the sounds of adults in conversation, children at play, arguments, gossip, music, laughter, tears, the steady hum of life within its walls.

But its second century began without that same sense of purpose. The last family was gone. The sounds within had fallen silent, save for the buffeting of raindrops that leaked through the roof and the scurry of critters that took advantage of its emptiness. The commuters who passed along the thoroughfare paid no mind to the home's earlier charms. There was only neglect to notice now.

There was an owner, of course, but it was a bank, not a person. And corporations don't live in houses. They don't hang family photos, sweep the porch, put out a welcome mat.

The place was "near condemnable," everyone agreed. Even the house, given a say, might have admitted as much. But beyond the overgrown trees in the yard, the drooping Sheetrock, the musty taint of neglect, there was still a little life left in the old house.

And in June 2015, the next phase, potentially the best phase, of its life began.

The gift

It probably helps that Andy Mendonsa already lives in St. Elmo in an old house that he and wife Gloria put years of their own sweat equity into restoring.

Having lived in an old house, he says, he understands about the repairs and updates that are often necessary to bring a historical residence into the modern era. Wiring, plumbing, flooring, roofing, appliances, the list goes on.

So when he saw the house at 5316 St. Elmo Ave., he concentrated on its bones. Its structure. Its essence.

Here, like his own home, he says, "The bones were wonderful.

"When I walked in ... I could see what it could be. It was a mess, but it was still a grand home. I could see beyond the effects of water damage and everything else that was wrong."

The real windfall was that this neglected, near condemnable home was a gift to his faith-based nonprofit from Wells Fargo, which had repossessed the property.

Mendonsa is the founder and executive director of Widows Harvest Ministries, which bases its service on the example of Anna the Prophetess (Luke 2) and the scriptural mandate for widows "to cry out to the Lord night and day through prayer" (I Timothy 5:5).

For the past 30 years, the organization has provided spiritual support and home repair services for thousands of widows, both locally and overseas. In that time, he says, "we've done thousands of projects, helped thousands of widows with tens of thousands of volunteers."

They've done everything from put on roofs to clean out gutters.

"We have to come up with the cost of materials in order to undertake these projects," he says. "Often we have volunteers, but we don't have resources."

Since the gift house wasn't needed for offices or housing for Widows Harvest, Mendonsa and his board of directors decided to use it as a fundraiser.

"Our plan was to restore the house, sell it and put the profit back into the widows home repair programs we've been doing since 1987," Mendonsa says.

No matter how big his regular army of volunteers, Mendonsa was facing major hurdles with this project, soon dubbed Home Harvest.

But Wells Fargo was supplying $25,700 in seed money to get the project started, he says. And soon, led by contractor Stuart Bickley of Raindance Property Solutions, resuscitation efforts were underway.

"The requirement in receiving the house was that we make improvements to it such that it also makes improvements to the community surrounding it," Mendonsa says.

For two years, they have worked diligently, using volunteer labor when they could and gratefully accepting multiple offers of aid from professional tradesmen.

"A unique scenario," Bickley calls it.

"We were trying to coordinate a bunch of volunteers, using those volunteers where we could, and using professionals where necessary, all under the guise of keeping our costs as low as possible with the quality as high as possible, so in the end we could sell the property for a profit," he says. "All of which would go toward serving the widows in Chattanooga."

Mendonsa adds that Bickley also donated his services, "even though we hired him."

"Everybody reduced their prices," Mendonsa says. Electrical, flooring, Sheetrock, countertops, cabinets, everything. "We also had donors who donated financially to help offset some of our costs."

That tremendous generosity eventually presented Widows Harvest with a house that exceeded everyone's expectations.

"It's not a contractor-grade house," Mendonsa marvels. "It's like a custom home."

The work

Despite the enormity of the project, the faithful volunteers of Widows Harvest, more accustomed to roof patches and gutter cleaning, rolled up their sleeves and went to work.

"We probably had 100 volunteers over 11 workdays to completely gut the house and remove all the debris and plaster and lathe," Mendonsa says.

"We had to remove about a third of the house exterior, from the roof all the way down to the foundation. The roof had been leaking for so long."

In the end, he acknowledges that "it's about 75 to 80 percent all new house."

"The pocket doors are here," he says, but few other original architectural features remain.

"I think we have done a good job in being able to convey this is a historic home," he explains. "We have definitely restored it to its former glory. It may not be historically correct in all of its features, obviously, but it certainly has that same aesthetic."

He credits interior designer Laney Carter for her vision in interior and exterior paint colors, the layout of the house and staging "so it is completely tied together."

Inside, the floor boasts hardwood floors, high ceilings, an open floor plan and serene shades of beige, gray and blue. Outside, Tim English, a former landscaper who's now a Widows Harvest staff member, led the revamp of the yard.

For his part, Bickley recalls the last two years as "a great project, a wonderful experience," leaving him to "figure out where I can physically and logistically donate some more time."

His company, Raindance, contributed "more to this project than we ever contemplated in any one given year," he says. "Yet we had our best year ever.

"It just seems this project had been blessed from the beginning."

Mendonsa compares it to the daily ministry of Widows Harvest.

"For me, it's kind of like what we do with widows," he says. "Sometimes they're in pretty desperate need. Their needs can appear overwhelming.

"In a lot of ways this housing project mirrors what we've done over the years. That's really the restoration of widows. Sometimes they've not just lost a husband but their identity. This house is kind of a physical representation of restoring the heart, to see what they can become."

Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.