Monday, the first Rena K. Terrell Award of the year was issued to Dr. Frank and Alice Stallings, owners of Elmwood, the circa-1820 Italianate home on West Main Street in Washington.

The Stallingses now live in Smallwood, but for 50 years, they lived in and took care of a piece of Washington history. For that, the Stallingses were given the “Good Stewardship” award.

The “Good Stewardship” award is the first of four Terrell awards the City of Washington will present this year. Named for one of Washington’s founding historic preservationists, Emily Rebert, community development planner for the City of Washington, and Century 21 realtor Scott Campbell were instrumental in reinstating the awards to property owners who make the extra effort to preserve Washington’s history.

Campbell and Rebert met up with the Stallingses at Elmwood to present an engraved pewter cup to the couple.

“From the City of Washington and myself, I want to thank you for your 50 years of taking care of this property,” Campbell told the Stallingses.

Frank Stalling, in turn, said it was both a privilege and a pleasure to do so. Campbell said when they owned it, the Stallingses didn’t consider Elmwood to be theirs — rather, Elmwood belonged to everyone, because of its historical significance.

In 1820, Col. Joshua Tayloe built the Greek Revival home that befitted his station in life as a representative of Beaufort County to the state’s constitutional congress, a state senator and customs collector at the port of Ocracoke. Later, James Reading Grist, a local lumber magnate, would take an already grand house and, in 1860, make it grander, adding a second story to each wing. To Greek Revival, Grist tacked on the more ornate Italianate style with arches framing the columns of the portico and elaborate brackets beneath the eaves of both stories.

The Stallingses purchased Elmwood in 1965 and raised their family there, but eventually it became too much house for just the two of them. Elmwood was on the market for several years before John Butler and Richard Smoot purchased it in 2015 and transformed it into Elmwood 1820, a bed and breakfast featuring four spacious rooms that had its official opening on April 1. Since the purchase, they have done major updates to the electrical system and HVAC, in addition to many minor fixes, to convert Elmwood from historic home to historic inn. Most recently, two iron fountains in the front yard, long inoperable and used as landscaping planters for decades, were restored. No one knows when the fountains were installed, Butler said, nor the last time they worked — even those in the neighborhood who remember back 50 years ago don’t recall anyone ever refer to them as working — but today, they are flowing once again.

“That’s going to be one of the most important things you do. It was almost an impossible task,” Frank Stallings told Butler on Monday.

The Stallingses’ contribution, however, is just as significant. While many owners would have been tempted to change Elmwood’s layout, add rooms or update in ways that could permanently alter the home, the Stallingses kept true to the original structure.

“The nightmare scenarios are endless if it had ended up in the wrong hands,” Campbell said. “For a property like this, it requires owners who have fortitude, finances and imagination. … It’s 200 years old — it needs some love every day.”