He wanted to leave small-town Mississippi. A mysterious old house for sale made him stay.
As a teenager in Poplarville, Jacob Cochran loved to walk past a rambling old farmhouse situated on an acre of land not far from Main Street.
Just before Christmas, he bought it for $10,000.
In some ways, the purchase was a dream come true: Cochran has long wanted to restore and redesign an old house, and this property had intrigued the 29-year-old for more than a decade.
“As I got older, I just developed an appreciation for old houses and what they could be,” he said. “A lot of them were made as a dying art form, back when two-by-fours were actually two-by-fours.”
But it was also a difficult decision. With the money he had saved from a big year of photography gigs on top of his full-time job at Pearl River Community College, he had planned to look for a place in a bigger city like Hattiesburg or even New Orleans. Buying the old house meant committing to at least several more years in his hometown of fewer than 3,000 people.
Young Mississippians like Cochran often decide to leave. The 2020 census showed the state was one of only two to lose population, and millennials — people born between 1981 and 1996 — are leaving particularly quickly.
For LGBTQ people, the decision to stay or go can be especially weighty. Cochran, who is gay, experienced the limits of his community’s tolerance when he ran for a seat on the board of aldermen in 2020. A local pastor urged his congregation to vote against Cochran because of “the sin that he has in his life.”
Cochran ultimately lost in a runoff.
After that, he turned his focus to his work and travels.
“It was the best year that I’ve ever had,” he said. “I more than tripled my income.”
Despite his plans to leave, restoring the mysterious old house was too exciting an opportunity to pass up. And though Cochran is clear that he’s pursuing this project for himself, it has also sparked excitement around in Poplarville at large.
On Facebook, neighbors congratulated him on the purchase and said they were looking forward to seeing what he does with the place.
Preserving a historic home in Poplarville
The farmhouse was built in the 1890s in the Victorian style. Poplarville was only about a decade old. Its economy relied on the railroad and the forestry industry.
The house originally had four rooms, each with a fireplace. Later additions brought it up to eight rooms.
Much of the house’s history is shrouded in mystery. But as he cleans, Cochran has discovered that the old house is a kind of time capsule.
Between the linoleum and the hardwood floors, he has found newspapers from 1945 and 1946. At the time, that was a cheap form of insulation. He’s working with a local historian to preserve and store the papers.
On one wall, he found a small child’s hand print.
As he renovates, he hopes to use as much of the original material as possible. For example, he’ll tear up the hardwood floors in the bathroom and replace it with tile, but use the wood to patch holes in the floors elsewhere. Bricks from the extra fireplaces will be used to construct a chimney for the remaining fireplace in the living room.
Creating a ‘modern English hunting lodge’
So far, Cochran has worked with an architect and an interior designer to create plans for the house. The renovation could take several years.
He has named the home Stag House. The style he wants is “modern English hunting lodge,” with dark green wall paint and a masculine vibe. He plans to start a YouTube channel to document the renovation process. He’s already leaned heavily on the platform to learn new construction skills.
Houston McMahon, the interior designer, met Cochran at Pearl River Community College in 2014. They’ve been friends ever since, and McMahon was excited to help on the project. After graduating from Mississippi State with a degree in interior design in 2020, McMahon took a job in Tucson, Arizona, where he now lives.
McMahon sees the renovation as an opportunity to showcase their creativity.
“It’s gonna be kind of different,” McMahon said. “Something that Mississippi doesn’t really see often. But it’s still gonna have those traditional Mississippi roots in the house.”
This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 9:07 AM.
