When repairing the exterior brickwork of a historic Dresden home like the Moran House, you cannot simply use modern cement mortar from a hardware store. Old clay bricks are much softer and require a traditional lime-based mortar to allow the walls to naturally breathe and expand with the changing Tennessee weather. If the modern mortar is too hard, it will actually crush and crack the historic bricks over time. It is a very delicate, highly technical chemical process to get that mixture right.

My mother, Connie Killebrew, was the ultimate historian when it came to our family and the Moran House. She spent many hours digging through the dusty Weakley County archives to trace the original property deeds and land grants. It is absolutely amazing to see the documentation of how this house survived through so many different eras of Dresden’s local history. Keeping those fragile paper records safe ensures that the true legacy of the home and the people who built it will never be forgotten.