Kathrine Alderman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The Pasco House is a beautiful white house located on West Washington Street Currently owned by Terri and Doug Merritt, it was originally built as a simple farmhouse, around 1850, by a doctor from Monticello. Eventually, the house was bought by Samuel Pasco. He added a second story to the house in the 1880s and is the house's namesake.
Though it was initially built by the Monticello doctor, the house was named after its more well-known resident. Samuel Pasco was originally from London, England, but immigrated to Massachusetts in the 1840s with his family. He eventually graduated from Harvard and moved to Monticello in the late 1850s.
Pasco was the headmaster for Waukeenah Academy, an all-boys school that was in the area. When the Civil War broke out, he joined the confederacy and fought in the army. In one battle, a young boy from Monticello, who had been one of his students, was injured. Pasco ran out to save the young man and pulled him to safety. Unfortunately, the boy died a few days later. However, by a twist of fate, the young man was the son of the doctor who originally built the house.
Another interesting thing about Pasco is that he married Jessie Denham, the niece of the man who built the John Denham House, in 1847. They had six children. Pasco went on to become a U.S. Representative from the State of Florida. He later was also elected as a U.S. Senator from Florida in 1887. Due to his renown, Pasco County, Fla. was named after him.
During his time in the war, Pasco kept a diary. The diary has been copied and transcribed, and there are only two copies—one stays with the family of Pasco and the other stays with the house. So Terry and Doug Merritt currently have the diary on display in their house.
How did Terri and Doug come to live in the Pasco house, though? Well, it starts, simply, with their love of old houses. The Pasco House is the sixth house they've owned and restored. The two met when they worked in crime together down in Miami, Terri as a forensic scientist and Doug as a homicide detective. They restored a home over there, in Dade County in the Redland district, built in 1930, which they received a historic preservation award for from the State of Florida. They were very proud of that accomplishment, but they eventually moved out of Miami in 1998 to go to North Carolina, where some of their friends lived.
In North Carolina, they again found an old house to restore and call their own. They lived there for about six years and got the house about halfway restored. Sadly, their friends passed, and they no longer had a good reason to stay in North Carolina. They were tired of the cold weather, so they packed up again, trying to find another old home they could restore and give purpose to.
When Doug and Terri had gotten married, they had gone out on the Mississippi Queen Riverboat, which traveled from New Orleans to Vicksburg, Miss. They fell in love with the area there, and there are more Antebellum homes in Natchez than anywhere in the United States, so they decided to look for a house there when they left North Carolina. The home they bought there was built in 1906, and they were there for a year and a half before Terri found a house she fell in love with in Port Gibson, Miss. Terri says it was like it was meant to be. Not only did she feel like she was supposed to be there when she walked into it, but everything fell into place when they tried to buy it.
They stayed at that house for 10 years, Terri running a bed and breakfast out of it for three years, and restored it beautifully. Terri loved the house dearly, but Doug was ready to retire and was worried about something happening to him and leaving Terri in such a big house by herself. So, to be a bit closer to Doug's children in Miami, they decided to move back to Florida. They didn't want to move back to Miami, however. Hence, they started looking around this area, as Doug has a brother who lives in Tallahassee. It took them three years to sell their house in Mississippi. Still, they eventually did and found the Pasco House here in Monticello.
When they started looking in this area, they immediately eliminated Tallahassee, as there weren't any old houses there. Still, they looked all around the area, Quincy, Havana, Thomasville, but they just kept coming back to Monticello. "We just felt it was very charming," Terri Merritt recalled, "and the people here were just so friendly." So, when the Pasco house was available, they saw a lot of potential in it and bought it. Now, in June, they'll have been here for six years.
They've done a lot to the house but haven't changed its originality much. "Old houses have good bones," Terri said. "There's nothing like an old home. They have character; they have soul. You can't replicate these things. I don't care who you are." With that in mind, and the fact that the kind lady they bought the Pasco House from took rather good care of it, led them to only change a few things. They remodeled the kitchen and two bathrooms, added another bathroom and added and remodeled the porches. They will probably work on the upstairs some too, but right now, the majority of the upstairs serves as Terri's workspace for all her artistic activities, such as doll-making, crocheting and knitting. A lot of her focus, recently, has been towards reopening her tea parlor, though.
They've saved a lot of money during their time as remodelers, as Doug is rather handy and can do a lot of the work himself. But even if they couldn't have saved any money, they still would buy and work on old houses. They both love antiques and history and wouldn't want to live in any other home than an old home. As Terri said, old buildings have character and soul that you can't find in any other place, so why wouldn't you want to live there?
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