Sarah Matheson would have lost her home to fire if not for the quick response of her neighbors. “It could have been much worse,” she would later write. “My sincere thanks go to the many friends who rushed to help.”
That was in 1985 when Matheson was, for all practical purposes, Gainesville’s reigning matriarch. A woman whose family roots in this city stretched back to pre-Civil War days.
Now, nearly 40 years later, her beloved home is again at risk. And, once more, its fate depends upon a timely community response.
Now it is not so much fire as the erosive forces of water, temperature and mold that threaten the Matheson House. All part in parcel of the inevitable aging process of a structure that has withstood the North Florida elements for 167 years.
Which is to say that the Matheson House is showing its age.
Water stains on the ceiling bespeak a leaking roof. When Hurricane Helene came to visit it left a calling card in the form of a deluge that cascaded into the front of the house.