Century-old Pinckard home being refurbished

An incident at a cane mill near the historic home in which Sarah Clifton was raised left her fully blind by the time she turned 11.
Still, her memory of the century-old Craftsman house that was built by her father and grandfather, Leon and Oscar “Collie” Gissendanner, has far exceeded the years of her eye sight.
The house, known as one of several “Gissendanner” homes in the small town, is being refurbished from the outside by current owner Vince Mizell.
The original beige color of the two-story house on several acres has since been painted from a shade of white selected from a Mount Vernon historical color chart, according to Different Strokes Painting and Design Owner Scott Casper.
The porch is painted gun metal gray and the house has soft green and black shudders. A red door is shaded by a light blue porch ceiling and is enhanced by a brown and black ceiling fan.
Much of the inside of the four-bedroom, two-bathroom house still stands as Clifton remembers, Mizell’s wife, Charity, said.
Burn marks from the house’s original wood stove remain on the kitchen floor, though the high cabinets and low counters have been modernized.
Clifton said two chimneys in the home spread to four fireplaces in the two-story residence. A window to an attic room upstairs can be seen from the outside, but there is no door to the room from the inside.
The pecan trees that guard a side of the home are the same ones Clifton remembers climbing with her cousins.
A foundation that sits aside the house was of a garage that burned down.
“Of course the house wasn’t air-conditioned or centrally heated. I remember we had a wood stove but I don’t remember when we upgraded to electric. There was an ice box for when the ice man came around ever so often, and there were rooms we rented to Fort Rucker families who had soldiers go off to (World War II),“ said Clifton, who now lives in Virginia.
“I was always very observant. I don’t know of anything that I don’t remember that happened before I lost my sight.“
Clifton said her father Leon left her the home in the 1970s after his death. She rented the home to others for some time before eventually selling it to Mizell, who is the son of Clifton’s close friend.
Mizell said he remembers playing in the home as a child. For that, Clifton said she still feels the home is still in her family.
The Mizell’s neighbor, Helen Gissendanner, also lives in a historic home. Mrs. Gissendanner said Leon Gissendanner was her husband’s uncle.
Mrs. Gissendanner said she believed the houses were all built by lumber found within the area.
“They were big farmers and had sawmills - you wouldn’t believe the wood that’s in this house. These are solid wood houses that have stood a lot,“ she said.
Another Gissendaner home recently burned in the town.
Plans are to refurbish the residence, though Mrs. Gissendanner said it will never be what it was.
“It was grand. All of them were grand, but to lose that house was a sad day,“ she said.