Paint Analysis

In 2007, Dorothy Krotzer of Building Conservation Associates, Inc., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, did an historic paint analysis of the interior and exterior paint finishes at The Oaks. Her work revealed that the white paint on the exterior was a 20th-century decorating plan for the house. She discovered two major paint schemes for the exterior in the 19th century. The original paint color from the 1850s was the blue-gray that you see on the exterior siding today, with cream trim and dark green shutters. Later in the 19th century, when the second generation – Mary Boyd McGill and her husband Richard F. McGill – did extensive renovations, they chose a very different color treatment. The McGills preferred deeper late Victorian colors and painted the house a mustard yellow-tan with brown trim and red accents. The historic paint analysis was made possible by a community heritage grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives & History.