One might not think of a former community processing plant and meat locker as a tentative dream home, but Jennifer Durrence saw the potential of what the commercial property could be. Nestled on four acres in Nevils, GA the property had a farmhouse as well as the processing plant.
“We actually went to look at the land because I wanted the farmhouse that’s on the land, but it was in such bad condition, that was a no,” Durrence explains. “But it came with the processing plant that’s sitting next door to it, and I went home and my wheels got to spinning.”
Durrence told her fiance, Shawn Coulter, that she had ideas to turn the old processing facility into an industrial home for the two of them. The couple went back with the realtor to look at the plant, and they purchased what would become their most daunting and rewarding project to date. The edifice, then 2,980 square feet at the time of purchase, became nearly 6,000 square feet after adding access to a second floor.
The couple added three rooms and a bathroom to the upstairs as well as built the kitchen and a bathroom downstairs. “We’ve done probably 90% of it ourselves,” Durrence says.
All that’s left to be done is the flooring downstairs, and the home will be complete. Durrence and Coulter have been able to live in the house and will spend Christmas in it.
Durrence has been researching the structure’s history and believes it was built in the mid-1930s. “I have some hair clients that their parents remember going there, but in the original days it was the community meat locker. If your family had a cow, you could take the cow and they would butcher it, and you had a box like the post office and you would go by after work with your key and open your box and get your meat and take it home and cook it,” Durrence explains.
According to the November 24, 1949 issue of The Bulloch Herald, Arthur Clifton announced that he would be leasing freezer locker from Mr. J.M. Creasey, advertising the sale of beef and pork “by the quarters, halves and in any amount you wish.”
Durrence posted her renovation journey on Facebook and was contacted by Jimmy Williams, whose parents bought the Nevils Community Freezer Locker in 1960 as a “lease-to-own” from Mr. Clifton, which originally had 250 rental lockers. Mr. Williams visited Durrence and Coulter and explained all of the rooms to them, including a syrup boiler room out front.
Durrence and Coulter have their wedding on December 30th, and Durrence is expecting her first grandchild in March, so their new abode will be completed just in time to celebrate these upcoming momentous occasions in the new bride and groom’s lives.
