Newton historic home opens to the public

This morning community members in Newton, Mississippi gathered in celebration for the ribbon cutting of the McElroy Hoye House that has history traced back to 1861.

City officials in Newton saw the need to preserve this home and say that the preservation of the historic home was one piece in a larger plan.

“Our plans will be to develop an art and cultural center, when we first started talking about the house it was going to be a museum period, but later, we decided that our schools were giving up the arts and that would be an important part of Newton, if we could have an art center for our citizens.”

Leigh Whittle who serves as a community volunteer; and is experienced in tourism says the house means a lot to residents that live in the community

"This home is so important to our community; and that it just speaks the history and the culture of this community. We have so much deep history, all the way back from our historic depot, to the Hoye House, now that’s open to the public, we tried to preserve all of this for past generations to bring joy to them, but future generations to educate them on this community.”

Support from the community is what helped play a vital role in getting the home moved and restored.

“We would not be able to accomplish what we have without the support of our community, as I said, at the very beginning we had a goal, we had to raise before we could even apply for a grant and grants are great, but you do have stipulations for that."