An Arizona woman spent 3 years turning an old general store into a 1-bedroom home to fulfill her late husband’s wishes. She’s listing it for $1.1 million — take a look inside.

• An old general store that was built in 1895 in Pearce, Arizona, is on the market for $1.1 million.

• Patricia Burris, the homeowner, restored the building in 2019.

• The property comes with antiques, period furniture, a working blacksmith shop, and a cat.

Tucked away in the ghost town of Pearce, Arizona, is a 127-year-old general store. Patricia Burris bought the building with her late husband Michael in 1996. Now, more than two decades later, she’s listing it for $1.1 million.

Also known as the Old Pearce Mercantile or the Arizona Ghost Town Museum, the property sits on a 0.64-acre lot, per the listing. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1978, per its registration document.

“The mercantile has been standing there at the same spot since 1895. It was your one-stop-shop, like today’s department store,” listing agent Patsy Nyberg from Realty One Group Integrity told Insider. “There was even a Wells Fargo bank inside.”

The couple bought the old general store in 1996, per a property insurance document that Nyberg sent to Insider. Burris declined to share the purchase price.

The 19th-century mining town of Pearce flourished until the 1930s, per the Arizona Department of Transportation. It’s now part of the Arizona Ghost Town Trail — a popular road trip route that links three former mining towns together.

Today, there are fewer than 2,000 people living in Pearce.

As a historian, it had been Michael’s dream to restore the Old Pearce Mercantile to its former glory. After he died, Patricia spent three years fulfilling his wishes.

“He passed away several years ago so his wife completed the job. It took about three years and was finished around 2019,” Nyberg said.

All of the store’s old shelves, ladders, and railings still exist to this day, she added. Even the facade has been carefully restuccoed and painted.

Burris decorated the place with antiques and period furniture, turning it into a one-bedroom home with a museum dedicated to the former mining town’s history.

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“Patty filled this place with antiques that she sought out over the years, many of which will convey with the sale of the property,” Nyberg said.

Some of these items include historical documents, vintage food packaging, signs, and appliances like weighing scales and oil lamps.

These vintage items help to tell the history of the town, Nyberg said: “Most of the items in the house were donated by old families who have been living in the area for generations, while others were amassed from yard sales.”

Even Nyberg has personal ties to the restoration process — her husband, a carpenter, worked with Burris to create the one-bedroom apartment in the back of the building, she added.

One of the most unique artifacts in the Old Pearce Mercantile is its wooden doorway, Nyberg said. It used to be the entrance to a post office from the nearby town of Tombstone.

“It looks like a box, but it’s actually the old post office front that was brought over the hill from the nearby town of Tombstone,” Nyberg said.

There’s also a restored Studebaker wagon that sits on top of the wooden entranceway.

The one-bedroom apartment is in the back of the building.

Although the Old Pearce Mercantile is currently uninhabited, Burris lived there for a short period of time while her own home — the former Pearce post office building — was under renovation, Nyberg said.

Burris still goes over daily to check on things, Nyberg said. “There’s a resident cat that hangs out there that will also convey with the property,” she added.

Burris ensured that the antique appliances, including the vintage stove and refrigerator, are in working condition, Nyberg said.

The property has been on and off the market since Burris completed the restoration in 2019, listing records show. She first put the Old Pearce Mercantile up for sale in May 2020 for $944,000. Over the next two years, its price was incrementally increased to the current $1.1 million.

Houses in Pearce, Arizona, have a median listing home price of $215,000, per data from real-estate platform Realtor.com.

There are currently 20 single family homes for sale in the area, with prices that range from $56,000 to $1.1 million. The Old Pearce Mercantile, with its $1.1 million price tag, is the most expensive listing in the neighborhood.

While the apartment only has one bedroom, future owners can add more rooms and turn the place into a vacation rental.

“Patty has had plans drawn up to add guest cottages with bathrooms behind, to connect the blacksmith shop and all those storage areas,” Nyberg said.

Although the Old Pearce Mercantile is currently registered as a residential property, future owners can get it switched back to commercial status easily, Nyberg added.

“It’s very easily changed because it was a commercial property to begin with,” Nyberg said. “It has a new commercial septic tank put in along with a new well, so the place ready for anything that the new buyers might want to use it for.”

One of her favorite memories from the renovation process was when the building inspector came around, Burris told Insider via Nyberg.

As the inspector was scrutinizing the structure and issuing strict demands, he spotted a rattlesnake slithering into the courtyard from under the building, Burris said.

“The inspection was cut short and the guys went back to work chuckling,” she added.

Out back, there’s a working blacksmith shop. Over Thanksgiving weekend, it usually hosts live demonstrations by blacksmiths, Nyberg said.

“Although there’s been some additions and repairs, that side of the mercantile would have been almost the way it was,” Nyberg said. “Blacksmith shops are pretty rough.”

There’s also a garage on the compound that currently houses antique horse carts.

The surrounding area is known for wine production, and Burris is willing to negotiate the sale of 10 nearby acres for grape-growing, per the listing.

Now that she’s completed her late husband’s dream, Burris is looking to hand off the Old Pearce Mercantile to a new caretaker.

Burris has hosted weddings and other events on the property. Thanksgiving, in particular, is a big community event: In the past, she has opened up the place for street fairs with vendors, Nyberg said.

“We’ve used it over the years in the town, and the townspeople are really hoping someone will purchase it,” Nyberg added.

Burris is selling the property because it’s too much work for her to maintain alone, Nyberg said.

“An ideal buyer would be somebody that appreciates history and is going to keep it the way it is. Hopefully, they’ll open it up to the community again,” Nyberg said.

“It’s a museum that people should be able to see,” she added.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared in September 2022.

Read the original article on Insider