Roswell has approved rezoning of a historic farmhouse property dating back to the early 1800s, allowing for more extensive restoration by the new owners.
Brandy and Jared Kirschner purchased the Hembree Farmhouse last fall for $125,000 through the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. The home was built circa 1835 and owned by Amariah Hembree, who came to Roswell that year with his extended family and settled on what is now Hembree Road.
Roswell City Council approved rezoning of the property at 775 Hembree Road during a Monday meeting. The property was rezoned from civic and institutional to single-family-estate.
“We found the perfect people to take over this house,” Judy Meer, president of the Roswell Historical Society told City Council. “(They) will not do anything to destroy the integrity of the house where so many things in Roswell started, including Lebanon Baptist Church.”
The rezoning will allow the Kirshners to upgrade the home with new plumbing, a kitchen and bathroom.
“We’ve basically done gentle removal of 1970s paneling, anything we could do to get the house ready before the (other renovations),” Brandy Kirshner said on Thursday.
The Hembree family donated the 1,400 square foot home and land to the Roswell Historical Society in 2006. Considered an endangered historic property, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation managed the sale last summer with conditions that the future owner would preserve the home and limit remodeling.
Amariah Hembree’s son, James, built the house, according to the Roswell Historical Society. Descendants lived on the land for eight generations.
The remaining 1.5-acre property is the last of 600 acres the Hembree family came to own.
Amariah’ son, Elihu, is buried on the property.
About the Author
