My tour of an old school that was built in 1919 - a building that will soon help prostitutes and more escape a life of abuse.
I recently toured the Morgan School for Boys near Fayetville, Tennessee with State Representative Mike Sparks. The school closed down in 1950, but was once well known for their superior college prep. education for young men with parents of wealth. Today, the building sits vacant with only memories of the past.
Representative Sparks and I walked through the rundown structure room by room while following the lead of Robert Doud, step by step. Doud owns the old school building.
The roughly 17,000 square foot building was dark, dusty and somewhat mistreated. The floors would creak from one step to the other as we walked from one classroom to the other stepping over what appeared to be soft spots in the wooden floor.
It was easy to be distracted by Doud’s dreams while in the building as he described what it would be... A future home for abused women and victims of sex trafficking. The building will also help women who are in the sex trade business of prostitution. This will be a safe place for them to escape.
Looking back:
Doud said he decided a number of years back that he would change the direction of his life and focus on helping others during a visit to New York.
Doud described his experience in New York while trying to catch a train with his wife Pamela… “We're heading for a train and I'm going up (stairs) and we encountered a homeless woman lying face down. My wife kinda freaked and I turned around and grabbed her by the hand and said - yes this is real here.”
Doud told me that he stepped over the body of the female in New York. Doud and his wife later questioned how they could do that. In fact, they could not stop thinking about the woman for the remainder of their trip. He said after telling the story so many times he decided to put a name to the female. He called her Mary.
The old Morgan School for Boys will receive the new name of “Mary’s House” after renovations are complete.
The question now… when will it open? Doud is in the process of raising funds to complete renovations room by room.
For additional information email Robert at project42418@yahoo.com or visit “Project42418.com.”