A Union officer's 33-room mansion in Grant Park is a treasure trove of history that after more than 60 years is being returned to its original glory.

The home, owned by Jamie Walters, Glenn Storie and Winston Killingsworth, has been undergoing slow and steady restoration since the late 1970s. The current owners bought the 33-room former boarding house in 1998 and have been pouring money and sweat into it ever since. And now, with it nearly finished, the 1868 home is one of nine homes showcased on the Grant Park Candlelight Tour of Homes Dec. 8 and 9.

RENEE' HANNANS HENRY/Staff (ENLARGE)

Jamie Walters (from left), Winston Killingsworth and Glenn Storie own the 33-room mansion on Grant Street.

RENEE' HANNANS HENRY/Staff (ENLARGE)

The home was built by a captain in the Union army in 1868.

Union Captain James A. Burns began building the large Queen Anne-style home following the Battle of Atlanta. He built it from his own designs and plans, according to information from the Grant Park Tour. He and his family lived in the home until 1933.

During the depression it was rumored to be a high-class brothel, then a boarding house complete with 12 apartments and a trailer in the yard. By the 1960s it had deteriorated significantly, with awnings, enclosed porches, boarded up windows and fractured beams.

In 1977, Frank O'Brien and Shelly Johnson began restoration. Owner James Pond continued the project and is credited for the elaborate Bradbury & Bradbury wall coverings featured throughout.

Killingsworth, a local real estate agent, coveted the home from afar before he bought it. He checked it out during candlelight tours and admired it from the front porch of his first home in Grant Park.

"I told my Mom we were going to own this house one day," Killingsworth said.

The formal parlor is the first room guests see when entering the mansion. And it has been restored to all its glory, replete with the Bradbury & Bradbury period wallpaper.

The pocket doors are missing — stolen during the home's days as a boarding house.

Walters, who works at the Gift Mart, has set up a life-size Fontanini nativity in the parlor. For the tour, he plans to set up seven Christmas trees with a variety of designs.

The home has five bedrooms, three full and one half bath, 10 fireplaces (two functional), seven porches and 63 windows, seven of which are pocket windows stretching from floor to ceiling. Tunnels run below the house where servants used to dump the fireplace ashes. The tunnels are about five-feet high with dirt floors carved through the bedrock foundation of the home.

The home has a formal and informal dining room. A man's portrait hangs in the formal dining room that dates to 1856. The substantial buffet came from Lakewood Antiques Market.

Storie, a real estate agent with Killingsworth, has his office on the first floor. A china cabinet displays the crystal collection of his uncle, whose claim to fame was his work as Dolly Parton's hairdresser.

In the formal dining room that flows into the renovated kitchen, the men added substantial wainscoting and painted the walls a vibrant red. An alabaster chandelier hangs above the dining table, which is made of 300-year-old wood.

A fun feature of the kitchen is the preserved well, sealed with a glass top. The 55-foot-deep well used to sit on the well porch, but has now become part of the expanded kitchen. (It's a great conversation piece.)

The kitchen features a tile backsplash, granite counters and stainless steel appliances. The floor is tiled in a Greek Key design. The butler's pantry, under the servants' stairway, includes Venetian marble and a built-in hutch designed by the homeowners. The servants quarters were on the third floor.

Much of the renovation, such as termite damage repair, happened underneath the beautiful decor. The homeowners have worked on a room and/or section of the home each year.

"It's a money pit, but it's fun, too," said Killingsworth, who has lived in Grant Park for 25 years.

Killingsworth said they have considered converting the mansion to an inn someday "because the house is so expensive to run."

He says all three men are handy.

"Glenn and I can run trim all day long," Killingsworth said. Walters, with help from Storie, chose most of the paint colors and decor for the home.

On the outside, the owners recently replaced the eye-catching turret and rebuilt the eyebrows, adding cedar shake shingles. They've replaced doors, stair railings and trim; repaired dormers, and added a skylight.

"That's what you do when you renovate, you take layers off," Killingsworth said.

HOUSE HIGHLIGHTS

• The home is one of nine homes on the Grant Park Candlelight Tour of Homes. The event, which takes place Dec. 8 and 9, also includes an artists' market and the kids' Winter Wonderland workshop. Proceeds benefit the Parent Network, the Grant Park Cooperative Preschool and St Paul's United Methodist Church. Tickets are $12 in advance or $15 at the event. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling (404) 688-7501 or ordering online: grantpark.org/net/content/news.aspx?s=0.0.35.20.

• Since 1999, the house has undergone substantial foundation repair and support system enhancement to accommodate three new bathrooms with plenty of limestone, marble and onyx.

• Other improvements include restoration of the wrap-around front porch; addition of granite steps to match the original foundation; a complete exterior restoration with new traditional color palette, an upgrade from what the owners describe as "Sweet N Low pink with blue trim."

• Walters' bedroom is where Burns is thought to have resided. He and his wife died in the home, and Walters' swears to ghost sightings. The grave of James A. Burns and the graves of two fellow Union officers are in the front yard bordering Grant Street.