This concrete block home, owned by Joe and Jenny Livingston, was built in 1906 by Mart Harrell.  According to the Bainbridge Democrat of October 19, 1906:  “Mr. Mart Harrell is having his residence on Shotwell Street constructed of the new cement building blocks.  He is the first in the city to use this material for building a house.”
A month later the paper reported:  “Mr. Mart Harrell’s house on Shotwell Street is assuming proportions.”  Some of the concrete blocks were made by Mr. E.J. Reynolds, express agent, in the backyard of his house on the corner of Water and Crawford Streets; however, most of the concrete blocks were made in the backyard of this house and the remnants of these blocks can still be found if some diligent digging is done.
Since purchasing the home in 1994, the Livingstons have made many improvements, such as adding central heat and air, rewiring the entire house and replacing half of the windows that had suffered termite damage. The Livingstons updated the kitchen and turned the back porch into a den. Note the mantle in the den around the fireplace. This mantle came from the Bon Air Hotel. The majority of the originally plastered walls and ceilings have been sheet rocked and repainted, returning period charm to the interior.
As you walk downstairs, please note the original movie poster over the piano from the movie Paper Moon. Jenny’s grandfather, Joe David Brown, wrote the book Addie Pray, which was turned into the movie Paper Moon by Peter Bogdanovich. Tatum O’Neal won an Academy Award for Best Actress and Alvin Sargent won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.  Jenny has a collection of all of her grandfather’s books on the table by the fireplace in the living room.