When Lynn Thompson first laid eyes on the Sesame Lodge, the three-story house was a mess.
"If you saw pictures of it, it would scare you," she said.
She described the front yard as a jungle. The front walkway was made up of cracked cement, and there was no grass or shrubbery.
The 65,000-square-foot house was divided into four apartments sometime in the 1950s, she said.
She said for six months after she moved into the house in 1980, she cooked in a crockpot and on an electric skillet and washed dishes in the claw-foot tub.
Sesame Lodge was similar to one she lived in when she was young and dreamed of owning one like it as a child.
"It was a double-sided colonial," she said. "Plus, I like the idea of keeping rooms, and we've got two of them."
"Keeping rooms" are not a typical southern feature, she explained. They are similar to dens with spaces for cooking, and they have a low ceiling to keep in the heat.
The house was built and designed as a bed and breakfast in 1902 by Martha Wall Adams
Her father, former mayor Budd Clay Wall, and a friend of city founder James U. Jackson, ran it as the Sesame Lodge. It got its name from the sesame seeds that adorned the lodge's dinner rolls.
The Wall family lived next door until their house burned in 1926. Family members lived at Sesame Lodge until the Thompsons bought it.
The second floor was equipped with a trunk room, which Thompson now uses as her office.
The third floor housed the servants quarters. It now has two bedrooms and a laundry room. Thompson uses the rooms for her many craft projects, which includes making period clothing for events at the Living History Park.
Thompson did much of the restoration herself. She refinished the flooring on the second story and painted and hung copies of 18th century wallpaper in some rooms. She also made the drapes and canopies for the bedrooms.
In addition, she landscaped the yard, keeping some crepe myrtle and japanese maple trees that were original to the house.
Thompson said she doesn't have any more big projects planned, except maybe some painting. But there are always things that need to be done.
"You never finish an old house," she said.
This is a series that features historic homes and buildings of North Augusta.
Reach Lisa Kaylor at lisa.kaylor@northaugustatoday.com.
