Nearly 200-year-old downtown Mobile home undergoing emergency restoration

MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — The historic home that sits off South Franklin Street near Dauphin Street in Mobile is now undergoing emergency repairs.

The Chighizola home is roughly 175 years old. It is known to be the oldest home in Mobile to have nearly perfect preservation from the original construction.

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But now, the exterior walls are starting to give out.

That’s why Mike Rogers with Rogers & Willards Inc. stepped up to save the house.

“To be able to kind of put something back like that, it will allow people to take a walk back through time and see what it was like,” Rogers said.

Rogers and his wife, Cay, are taking on the project together.

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“She’s used to me coming home and saying, ‘Guess what we just bought,'” Rogers said.

Rogers closed on the house at the beginning of June and immediately got to work. Inside, they found the original wallpaper, flooring, door structures and hardware: the key ingredients to restore the original home.

“I believe we have enough pieces to put it exactly how it was,” Rogers said.

Rogers said the only modern-day improvements to the home will include indoor plumbing, electricity and air conditioning.

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The property was sold to Rogers by the Downtown Mobile Alliance.

“It’s so important to get rid of that blight,” Interim CEO and President of the Downtown Mobile Alliance Fred Rendfrey said.

The long-term vision for the property is still up in the air, but Rogers said it could be an office building or an Airbnb.

Within the next three months, the stabilization should be finished. The building is expected to be fully restored by Thanksgiving 2025.

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