DID YOU KNOW THE PORCH HOUSE IS A REGISTERED HISTORICAL SITE?
The House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The cottage home was built in 1889 at what now is 705 Auburn Ave. by O.E. Payne, then Lucas County clerk of court, who had married his deputy clerk, Alice (Ryan) Payne, during 1887.
As they were preparing to move into the home with their first son, Harlan, The Chariton Democrat published the following under the headline, “A Modern Chariton Curiosity,” in its edition of July 4, 1889: “Brother O.E. Payne, Clerk of the District Court of his county, has built one of the neatest and prettiest of all the Chariton houses. It is odd, remarkably odd. We like it because it is out of the usual order of things. It is a one story cottage, composed of some nine or ten rooms (six actually) of rather small dimensions, amply provided with beautiful figure heads at its dual front (Dual Gables as listed on the property deed), rich ornamentation on its hurricane decks, and commodious port holes at the rear. This residence is located on East Third Avenue (renamed Auburn some years later), fronts south, and is of this precise shape: ‘Y.’
“It is said that the reason Mr. Payne built here is because he feared it would not be healthy for a public officer to own all his estates in Ringgold County and draw all his official emoluments from Lucas, so he invested in Lucas. Mr. Payne built his residence in a Y shape because he was “Y’s” enough to see the fitness of things in it. The rear represents Lucas County where he holds office, one prong represents Ringgold, where he farms; the other represents Clarke, where his deputy resides.”
The Porch 