Although he didn’t set out to, Mark Carnes has proven that you can go home.
Next year, the brick abode he shares with his wife Debbie on Evansville’s East Side will turn 100 years old. Even more impressive: it has never left the Carnes family. Built by Mark’s grandfather, Robert “Rufus” Carnes, in 1925, ownership changed from his grandmother, Edith, to Mark in 1983 but always had a Carnes under its roof.
“We liked the area, and we loved the home,” says Mark, who grew up nearby on Blackford Avenue as one of five children to Paul and the late Marlys Carnes and graduated from William Henry Harrison High School. “We knew it was sound and sturdy.”
Four generations of the Carnes family have lived at the approximately 1,800-square-foot residence on the southwest corner of South Alvord Boulevard and Bellemeade Avenue. It served as one of the first homes on the block, something certified by the neighborhood’s original plat map passed down from Mark’s grandfather. In fact, that stretch of Bellemeade was considered out of town until it was incorporated into the City of Evansville in 1927.
Rufus, a practical man and metal purchaser by trade, did not want to fuss with extra amenities. Among the things considered a luxury was an automatic garage door opener — the handle to manually raise the door worked just fine. Rufus astutely positioned the home’s front door on Bellemeade rather than Alvord because he was convinced the former — then a streetcar line — would be turned into a major thoroughfare. He eventually was proven right.
Mark’s grandmother responded to these limitations by throwing her energy into decorating. Walls frequently were repainted or covered in new wallpaper to give things a refreshed look. When the couple moved in, the walls were covered in green and birch tree paper sporting a horse-and-buggy print. She also changed up the flooring, going from the original oilcloth floors to linoleum, then tile. Mark recalls his grandmother sponge-painting the floor’s rough spots by hand.
The home is filled with childhood memories for Mark, who recalls the frequent scent of his grandmother baking apples, being a bit scared by the dark attic, and — to his eternal chagrin — not being allowed to leave the breakfast nook until he had cleaned his plate. When Paul and his sister, the late Martha Wiggers, decided to list their mother’s home for sale in 1982, Mark and Debbie remarked that they wished they could buy it. Paul, now 96 and still living in Evansville, retorted, “We didn’t think you’d want it!” The couple jumped at the chance and — diligent archivists that they are — documented spending their first night in their new home with their only child on Feb. 23, 1983.
Mark and Debbie set to work updating their new home, one room at a time. The original kitchen layout forced the refrigerator to jut out. Mark relocated the pantry and removed a few doors to make it fit better. The downstairs “TV room” where the family would watch “The Lawrence Welk Show” on Saturday nights eventually became a comfortable primary bathroom with his and her sinks. Fehrenbacher built a mantel for the new fireplace, as well as cabinets in the primary bathroom. They also refinished the attic into a comfortable one-bed, half-bath suite with a sitting room.
Mark — who studied landscape architecture at Purdue University and is naturally handy with design — has spearheaded or handled many renovations himself. He owns Decorating Supplies & Equipment Inc., a company founded by his father, Paul, in which Mark works alongside his son, Justin — another multi-generation endeavor.
The home, though, is far from devoid of traces of the Carnes family’s legacy. Mark and Debbie saved the original windowpane and shutters from the second-floor dormer — added by Rufus when his daughter Martha moved back in — and hung them on the dining room wall. The furniture inviting guests to enjoy the flower-enveloped patio belonged to Mark’s mother. And the breakfast nook still stands.
“It’s so funny, to everybody who walks in, it’s their favorite thing in the house,” Mark laughs. “And when I talk about enlarging the kitchen and all this, they all go, oh no, you can’t.”
Even a neighborhood fixture for a century has a few surprises up its sleeve. Mark and Debbie removed the shutters and two large maple trees from the front yard, painted the home’s original red brick white, and had Mistletoe & Ivy install yard lighting to literally spotlight the new-look exterior. Passersby often have stopped and gazed upon the house as if seeing it for the first time.
Decorative details, like the scalloped metal awning fashionably protecting the cedar roof, now are more visible. The black, powder-coated metal screens around the patio are no ordinary privacy screens. The six-foot-tall panels sport a floral design sketched by Mark and laser cut by a friend who owns a precision metal-cutting and welding business in Evansville. The daffodil design softens an otherwise edgy element on the wraparound porch, which features a stone retaining wall draped in cascades of flowers and plants.
The enclosed sunroom has become one of Debbie’s favorite spots. A mini-split keeps the space at a comfortable temperature.
“If I’m reading or something, I want to be out there,” says Debbie, a North High School graduate and member of the Wessel family of Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. coaches and teaches.
Mark credits his wife’s talent for making their modern farmhouse-styled home a comfortable, inviting retreat. Debbie decorates for every season, with hand-selected faux and real greenery and tasteful decor spilling out onto the home’s walkways along Alvord and Bellemeade.
“Christmas was my favorite when I was a little kid,” she says. “And my mom and dad loved Christmas. They didn’t decorate crazy. But I could still remember when Colonial Classics first opened, going with my mom and dad, and we would go specifically just to see the Christmas stuff.”
That youthful affection for the sprawling nursery and landscape center changed her life in more ways than one: As a young adult in the 1970s, Debbie was hired by the late Jim McCarty to work at Colonial and subsequently fell for a coworker — Mark. The young couple often visited Mark’s grandparents’ home for family gatherings. Now, they are carrying a Carnes family hallmark into its centennial year.
“We’ve caught ourselves several times saying, ‘We’ve done this to grandma’s house,’” Mark says. “And my brothers and sisters, and Dad especially, have said, ‘It’s not grandmother’s house. It’s your house.’”
