ROC clients working to get Rock Hill’s Fennell House ready for Christmas tour

An old Rock Hill home is getting some help for the holidays from a homeless shelter.

Graduates of ROC Works, a jobs training program for clients at Renew Our Community in downtown Rock Hill, are working to restore the historic W.W. Fennell House on North Confederate Avenue, just in time for a Christmas-themed weekend open house Saturday and Sunday.

A half-dozen men have been using a covered work space behind the ROC’s East White Street headquarters to sand and paint wooden boards and columns that are destined to form the restored, wraparound porch to replace one that stood outside the Fennell House when it was originally built in 1910.

Coming into the program without steady work, the men get paid each week they work on the project, whether or not they have any experience doing home improvement work.

“It’s not as hard as it seems,” said Reno Walton, who has been working on wood pieces at the ROC for a little more than a week. “You just follow instructions and use some common sense. Then you have something to add to your resume.”

The Fennell House – which at different points in time has served as a family home for the doctor attending the nearby infirmary, a convent for a group of nuns and a communal boarding house – has faced years of disrepair since its last incarnation as a residence hall targeted at college students in the 1980s.

At times the building has been on the verge of demolition, and current owner Russ Frase still faces hurdles to get the old building up to the standards needed to keep the house standing. He hopes to use this weekend’s open house as a fundraiser to help finish the porch.

“We’re going to create a bit of a time capsule,” Frase said, offering donors the chance to sign their names to portions of the new porch as it goes up.

“I’ve got a stack of balusters, and I’m going to turn around and ask for a $5 donation to defray the costs,” he said. “You can sign the balusters or the rafters... and then your name will be brought down by a tradesman when they repair the roof 100 years from now.”

Inside the house, visitors will get a look at how the home would have looked during the holidays in its prime, with decorations specially selected for the “Santa Room” and “Snowman Room,” and the dining room will be laid out for a holiday feast, thanks to Kimberly Neill Designs.

This week, workmen from the ROC dropped off furniture for the weekend’s tour, along with their other duties at the home.

Back at the ROC, Walton said the crew has finished work on “countless” planks for the porch, which they hope to have completed early in the new year.

“I’m not a painter, but it’s not rocket science,” he said. “You just have to learn to do it his way and follow instructions, and you’ll learn new ways to do things.”

That attitude is a big part of what ROC Works intends to impart, said ROC executive director Bruce McKagan.

“We want to give them a positive attitude and reliability, ‘soft skill’ stuff,” McKagan said. “We can teach you how to paint, but we also want to put a smile on your face and teach you how to be productive.”

About 14 people take part in the program, depending on the week, doing jobs as varied as street-cleaning to catering after taking some cooking classes.

Frase hadn’t considered how ROC Works could work for him, until a chance encounter with McKagan.

“Bruce just stopped by (the Fennell House) one day to see how things were going,” Frase said. “And a light went off. They’ve got the canopy back there, they’ve got the guys in this program, they’ve got a little truck.”

“Russ thinks he’s giving us a challenge,” McKagan said. “But this is a chance for them to get their lives back on track ... and he loves these guys.”

Frase hopes this weekend’s exhibit will play its part in moving the repair work along. The house still faces several deadlines for completing exterior work, and the Fennell House faces a historic design review from the city early next year on replacing the home’s window shutters.

But “the political stuff,” as he calls it, can wait until after the holidays.

This story was originally published December 4, 2015 at 4:07 PM with the headline "ROC clients working to get Rock Hill’s Fennell House ready for Christmas tour."