The hundred-year-old home that served as the Carl J. Mowell & Son Funeral Home for the past 42 years, has been relocated a couple blocks away.

C. J. Mowell Jr. built a new facility just yards in back of the original which opened several months go.

“I didn’t want to tear our first home down,” he said, “but I could not find a new use for it without it costing more money than could be justified.

“The city of Fayetteville was interested in it, and I made them an offer. I would determine the cost of demolishing it, including carrying the debris away. I would make a donation to the city in that amount of money, which I did. I was pleased that we could work this out and the house could be saved.”

It is believed the house was built about 1902 or 1903, by a Mrs. Mary Josephine Smith Arnold. Her husband, John J. Arnold, was the Southern Railway Company agent here, at a time when trains ran through Fayetteville. He died in 1933. His wife later went to live with her daughter Carol in the Washington, D.C., area and died in March 1969.

When Carol brought her mother back home for burial, she did not realize that their home-house was now a funeral home. Consequently, Mrs. Arnold’s funeral was conducted in the home she had built some 65 years earlier.

The Mowells bought the home in February 1964. The price at that time for the house and three acres was about $25,000. They began rearing two girls and two boys in the upstairs, and conducting funerals on the first floor. They later built a home in the Gingercake Road community.

In the 1960s, the population in Fayette County numbered at just over 8,000 persons. By 2005, it was over 100,000 persons and a big, new funeral facility was very much needed.

When the city took ownership of the 1902 building, it asked Bob Barnard if he would like to have the building and move it to his new office “village” across from Fayetteville City Hall on South Glynn Street. He quickly agreed, as he was creating this office complex with all historic homes.

The next step was moving the house and a Tuesday night moving time was chosen. A number of utility lines had to be moved along the way, including Comcast, GDOT, and Georgia Power. As lines at intersections were taken down just before the house reached that point, the lines behind it were being restored.

The house was finally in place at 4:50 a.m.

Mowell, along with his children and grandchildren, walked with the house the entire way. Said daughter Becky, “This is my heritage.”

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