The Balfour House, one of Vicksburg’s most historical homes, has new owners. Texas natives Chris Smith and John Schaumburg have purchased the grande dame of homes and are in the process of making needed repairs to the structure, which has been on the market for four years.
The new owners, who live in Galveston, have been leasing the house for a year, but last week they officially bought the property.
Smith said he and Schaumburg had first seen the house for sale online, and last year after taking care of some family business in Tyler, Texas, they made their way to Vicksburg.
Smith said that after finishing their business in Tyler, Schaumburg asked what else needed to be done on their trip.
“And I said, ‘there’s a house for sale in Vicksburg, Mississippi.’ We had seen the listing, and we were captivated by the amazing staircase. That’s what had really kind of piqued our interest. But then, when you learn about the history of the house, it’s really the history of a house that is so wonderful. So, we drove over to Vicksburg, asked the realtor to meet us there and we walked in the front door and our jaws just dropped.”
The staircase did not disappoint.
Smith and Schaumburg said they were also impressed with how the last owners of the home — the Balfour Home has had four previous owners — had done a good job of restoring it.
“Most houses of that age — the Balfour house was built in 1835 — are in really rough shape,” Smith said. “But that house had been restored in 1984.”
“The owners did a really outstanding restoration in the 80s,” Schaumburg said, but added that since that was 40 years ago, there were some things that would need to be replaced and repaired, most notably the home’s roof and balustrade.
Work of this nature may intimidate some, but Smith and Schaumburg are not new to restoration.
They currently live in a house built in 1896 and designed by Nicholas Clayton, who was a prominent architect in Galveston in the 19th century, Schaumburg said.
Another aspect of the Balfour House that appealed to Smith and Schaumburg was its location.
The Balfour home, located at the corner of Cherry and Crawford streets, is within walking distance of downtown.
“It’s also private,” Smith said. “In Galveston, our house is three feet from our neighbors. Galveston is flat and the houses are all very close together. (But the Balfour house) seems private because of the hills and it is set back from the street and it being above the street as far as it is, it really is private even in the front yard.”
While leasing the home, Smith and Schaumburg began making improvements to the yard.
“We’ve been working hard getting all of the landscaping back in shape,” Smith said, which has included shaping up hedges.
They also plan to decorate the house with period pieces.
“We have a lot of furniture from the time period of the house,” Schaumburg said. “It’s almost like this was the type of house we have always intended to have because of the furniture we have collected.”
For the time being, Smith and Schaumburg said the Balfour house will be a private residence, not a tour home, but that could change.
“You can’t deny the magnificence of the house and its amazing history. You really want to share it, so that might be something in the future we will be open to considering,” Schaumburg said.
The Balfour House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was originally the home of Dr. William and Emma Balfour. Emma Balfour is most known for the diary she kept during the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863. In 1862, during a Christmas Eve ball at the Balfour home, the guests — mostly Confederate officers and their wives — were interrupted during the party when a Confederate courier entered the home. The courier, wearing a cape that was dripping water through the house from the rainy night, made his way through the crowd to deliver a message to Gen. M. L. Smith. Upon reading the note, the general turned to the party-goers and announced, “This ball is at an end. The enemy is coming down the river. All non-combatants must leave the city.”
During the siege, the house did suffer damage when a shell hit above a second story window.
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