A downtown building’s journey from rundown to revived earned one Washington property owner the last of this year’s Terrell Awards.

Tomp Litchfield, a REALTOR with The Rich Company, was given a Terrell Award in the historic commercial district category for the renovation of his building at 131 E. Main St. Named for one of Washington’s founding historic preservationists, Rena K. Terrell, in 2015, City of Washington community development planner Emily Rebert and local REALTOR Scott Campbell reinstated the annual awards to property owners who make the extra effort to preserve Washington’s history.

Other Terrell Awards were given to Vann and Colleen Knight, in the residential category, for work done on their East Main Street home, and Alan Mobley in the stewardship category for 30 years of work restoring his and Jeffery Phipps’ East Second Street home.

The commercial historic district award is particularly important, because building owners who preserve the historic look and feel add to the business district’s overall sense of place, according to Rebert.

“It’s part of our economic development — that’s the biggest thing,” Rebert said. “People don’t just come here for the river. They come here for the small-town, historic value.”

“One of the most important things about commercial rehab is that we have one of the largest stocks of early 20^th-century buildings. Because each one literally abuts right into each other, they support each other,” Campbell said.

Rebert said each of this year’s Terrell Award winners were so invested in historic preservation, and committed to doing renovations according to preservation standards, that none of them had to get their work approved by Historic Preservation Commission — they were doing the job right to begin with.

This includes Litchfield’s building on East Main Street, which now houses the antique retail store A Beautiful Mess. Litchfield said the project started much smaller, but grew as it became apparent it was needed.

“We completely gutted it, all the way from the ceiling to the ground,” Litchfield said.

The problems started with the roof, which Litchfield had had replaced five times in the 25-30 years he’s owned the building. Finally, he was told by a contractor that an engineered, or custom-built roof was needed if the issue was going to be resolved. Thus, the project began, he said.

“Everything was such a mess in there. We starting tearing things out and just kept going, and going, and going,” Litchfield said. “It truly went through a metamorphosis.”

Along the way, they found one particularly nice surprise: old brick walls that had been hidden behind sheetrock.

“The sheetrock came down — I loved the old brick,” Litchfield said.

Exposed brick wall, now sealed, and oak hardwood floors, have turned the once unattractive into a warm, welcoming space.

While the rehab did not happen as intended, Litchfield said he’s happy with the outcome: not only because it’s added to the downtown commercial district’s appeal, but because it’s in keeping with Terrell’s devotion to historic preservation: Litchfield knew Rena Terrell and referred to her as a very special friend — in a way, she motivated the building’s renovation.

“If I want my name on the building, I want it to be nice. What I had before was embarrassing. What I had before was not a welcoming card to Washington,” Litchfield said.

With the help of contractor Seldon Taylor, and with design choices made by A Beautiful Mess co-owner Wanda Morrow, the flower-bedecked building once again fits in with the historic commercial district.

“The more intact the continuity we can maintain in the commercial historic district, the more appealing and interested folks will be in coming to the area,” Rebert said.