T. Owens recently traveled to Purdy and stopped by the Hurst House to take a few pictures. She took one that I found particularly interesting.
Note the figure in the window over the porch.
Here, she has zoomed in to show the figure and has compared a picture of Hurst to the face in the window.
Please note that she took these pictures from the outside and did not enter the home. You are welcome to take pictures of the front from the outside but do not trespass and break in to the home. This IS NOT abandoned property and you WILL be prosecuted.
Thank you for sharing this photograph, Ms. Owens!
Thanks for the recent photo of the Hurst home. It’s a shame the home is continuing to deteriorate. Here’s hoping the new owner can restore it some day to its former glory!
You’re welcome. It was a fun trip. I never expected to capture this image but as soon as we started to drive on down the road I noticed it in the view finder. We actually found another interesting image in one of my friend’s photos. It looks like the back of a hand tapping on the same window. However, the face is not visible. I’ll submit it. I wish that people would have respect for other peoples property and historic places. I wish the best for the owner.
I hope the new owner can restore it. I wished the people who’ve vandalized this home could be caught. So that it could stay where it is. Sadly the home looks so hopeless, kinda like some folks in my own family. I wish the new owner the best though.
i have just recently visited this house in tennessee. me and my father was walking around the house looking in all the windows. we had turned around and walked over to the old shed behind the house by the wale when i saw a figure standing as if he was watching us. this man in the picture really resembles the man i saw. he looked to be alomost or about 6 foot tall it really freaked me out! please reply to this message. thank you.
The vandalism continues at this house and things just keep getting worse. Almost every window in the house has been replaced (some of them twice) and the owner has started to board them up rather than replace them. Very recently, someone pried the front door open. This was a set of bars that was padlocked. Please, please, please stay away from this house people. If the vandalism continues, the owner is going to do nothing more than let it sit and time will destroy it. The roof is leaking in several spots and it won’t take long, but he is by no means rich and he cannot afford to keep fixing what is torn up by vandals. The money spent to replace windows was intended to fix the roof to keep the water damage from getting any worse. A historical landmark will be lost if this continues. If you must take a peek, ask the older gentleman who lives across from the house to accompany you. Otherwise, you may end up caught in a trap.
I should also mention that all funds raised during the Halloween tour were spent to repair damage done by vandals and not one cent has gone to actual restoration. C’mon people. Leave the house alone. There is a lot of history there and it will all be lost because of people (you know who you are) that intentionally break windows to get in and then break other windows from the inside just for kicks.
Shailyn, the building you are referring to is the old slave kitchen. This is where the slaves cooked meals for the Hurst family. I have thought for sometime that several of the slaves still roam the grounds because of the pictures I have taken around the slave house across the road and other experiences I have had on the grounds. The activity on this property is on the grounds rather than in the house. Although many pictures show what appears to be Hurst’s face in the window, I have never seen or heard anything strange in the house and I have visited it many, many times helping the owner clean up the property and I have taken (literally) thousands of pictures inside the house all hours of the day and night. The only pictures showing anything were taken outside the house. I have seen strange things on the grounds around the slave quarters and behind the slave kitchen. If I had to guess, what you encountered was one of the slaves. They seem to be very active at times.
where exactly is the house? i walked all around purdy cemetery looking for that house and i couldn’t find it to save my life. i want to take pictures of it to see if any figures show up in the windows. i realllyy want to test this. haha.
A Vandiver/Hurst cousin and myself are making a trip to McNairy County and northwest Alabama in late October.
I am flying from FL to Denver where she lives and then we are flying together to Huntsville AL airport.
We would love to visit our ancestors’ homesite. Could you please email how to get permission to be on grounds, and directions to Mansion and to Gilead Cemetery? If you are not able to give out the owner’s contact info, would you please give him my email address and ask them to contact me? Please?
You might be in luck, but it won’t be what you are hoping for. I believe the owner is going to open up the house again for Halloween. He charges a nominal fee to tour the house, but it is part of a group and it is a “ghost tour” type thing. Other than that, he probably won’t allow access unless you just happen to find him there during the day.
I honestly couldn’t tell you street names. Here we give directions by landmarks. lol I can tell you that Mt Gilead cemetery is very near the Hardeman/ Mcnairy county line off Highway 64. There is a small, old sign on the highway but there isn’t much else to lead you there. There are miles and miles between Mt. Gilead and Hurst Mansion.