The Jones-McCoy House in Monterey is Opening for a Sneak Peek

The historic Jones-McCoy house in Monterey has been undergoing renovation for several years now.  A Sneak Peek has been scheduled so the public can see the work that’s been done so far.

Marilyn Blagg is the Assistant Director of the Highland Historical Society and is the Director in Charge of the Jones-McCoy House.

“The house was in a sad state of affairs when we took it on,” says Blagg.  “This was three generations of people that never threw anything away.  So, we had all of their correspondence, magazines, letters, just stuff.  The more we dug into the house, the more surprises we got.  And the whole back end of the house that was added on in 1886, I think, they added four rooms on the back and all of that, there were springs underneath it, so all of the joists and everything had just rotted away.  So, they had to jack all of that up and replace the joists and drain the springs.  All the furniture from three families were in there over the 150 years that they owned the house. We have graffiti from the Civil War and we are trying to preserve that and see what we can do with that.”

The house was purchased by Charles Pinckney Jones in 1873 and he completed renovations and additions to it.  The last members of his family to live there were his granddaughters, Mary Hille McCoy and Elizabeth Price McCoy.  Mary Hille passed away in 2018 and the property was left to the C.P. Jones Charitable Trust to save it and to open it to the public.

“Elizabeth and Mary Hille wanted to preserve the house,” says Blagg.  “Their grandfather was one of the first lawyers in Highland County.   He was also a State Representative and a State Senator and then he was the Rector of UVA and then he installed the first President of UVA.  So, he was an important man in his own right and this is their legacy to him.”

The original part of the house was built in 1850.

“The house was built as a log cabin with two log rooms over top of each other and then a post and noggin room on the other side of the hallway,” says Blagg.  “We always thought it was four log rooms, but it wasn’t when we got into it.  Nobody had a clue.  So, the log room downstairs we have made it as it would have been in 1850.  A multi-purpose room that has antiques in it that would have been in use in that time.  So, it predates the Joneses.  But some of the pieces are Jones and some of them are other collections.”

The Jones-McCoy House is on Main Street in Monterey, across from the Courthouse.

“The grounds are open to the public now,” says Blagg.  “So, we have walking paths, we have boardwalks, they are replanting what they know was there.  The spring house and there’s the windmill, and the windmill supplied water to Monterey for a long time.  That was the water source for Monterey.”

The Sneak Peek is Wednesday, August 31, through Saturday, September 3, from 10am to 4pm and on Sunday, September 4, from 1pm to 4pm.

The Sneak Peek continues Thursday, September 8, through Saturday, September 10, from 11am to 4pm.