The Chester Garden Club is offering a tour of an 1840s-era house from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1.
The holiday home tour of the Yellow House, formerly known as the Winfree House, is a fundraiser for the club’s community beautification efforts.
The L-shaped home has six rooms. Each is 18 feet x 18 feet.
Sara Burgess Gibson is the home’s current owner, and enjoys sharing it with the community.
Gibson was born in and grew up in the home, which is located at 3001 W. Hundred Road between Chester YMCA and Sunset Memorial Park cemetery.
She has tales about times that she and her four siblings — three sisters and a brother — spent there.
One tale involves a strong wind that tore off the home’s aluminum roof in 1954 during a thunderstorm. The children thought it was great fun playing in puddles inside the house.
Gibson’s parents, John “Jack” Burgess and Margaret Gay Burgess, sold an adjacent lake and property to the YMCA. Jack died in 1994 after falling while trimming a tree outside. Margaret, who died in 2007, hosted historical society and other community events at the home.
Gibson, a retired math teacher, inherited the home upon her mother’s death and has continued her traditions.
A placard in the kitchen carries a family theme: “An old home is never owned by anyone. It is loaned to those who love and care for it and should be shared.”
Throughout the years, the home – whose signature is a curved staircase with no visible means of support – has been a girls boarding school, was located close to a Civil War battle that broke some of its windows, and was nearly torn down to make room for an expanded cemetery.
At some point, the yellow house was painted white, but the name stuck.
Home tour tickets are $10 and can be purchased from any Chester Garden Club member, by calling (804) 399-3841 or emailing [email protected]
