This pink ‘Dr. Seuss’-like house in Columbus could be in trouble. Owner is asking for help
Adam Brown and Kelley Burnham Brown’s 12th Avenue home looks like it belongs a sandy, five-minute walk from a Gulf Coast beach. Instead, the bright structure erected in 1937 sits on the edge of Columbus’ Waverly Terrace neighborhood, roughly ten minutes from downtown.
Dubbed “The Pink House,” the unique five-sided building has very few right angles and its three small porches jut out from the facade. The “front” of the house faces 12th, but you can’t get to the front door from there. The designated driveway leads you to the “back” of the home on Peabody Avenue.
Inside, a miniature door in one bathroom leads to the master bedroom. Eclectic artwork and tchotchkes are displayed or hung on walls, including originals of Margaret Keane’s famous big-eyed paintings.
A door in the middle of a living room wall leads to a small, poured concrete basement that Adam said reminds him of the 1991 American psychological horror film, “Silence of the Lambs.”
“It’s the house that Dr. Seuss built,” Adam said, standing in the backyard after taking a swing from his Piggly Wiggly Christmas coffee mug.
But Adam is worried about the future of, what he says, is among the city’s most unique homes.
Tall oak trees hang over the roof. If a tree or one of its branches fell, the results would be catastrophic. His insurance company won’t insure the home for the amount it would cost to rebuild, he said.
“I’m asking for some help with … protecting it,” he said. “It’s one of the most unique structures that I know of in Columbus. I think it makes people smile when they ride by.”
The history of the pink house
A joist in the basement has the year 1938 scrawled on it, but Muscogee County Tax Assessor records state the house was built in 1937. It’s 1,363 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Adam isn’t familiar with some of the home’s earlier history, but Kelley’s 81-year-old father Ken Burnham was born just down the road. The Burnhams bought the home in the 1980s, and someone from Kelley’s family has lived in the home ever since.
The house wasn’t the Pink House until the 1990s.
The bright colors were added by Ken and his wife, Charlye, when they transformed the then-duplex back into a single-family home. The colors were a nod to the homes they built in the Panama City Beach area.
Figuring out the home’s exact shape takes some examination. Google Earth won’t provide any help, and sketches by the county tax assessor’s office make the Pink House look boxier than it truly is.
“It’s technically five sides,” he said, looking up at the roof. “But the three little porches make it kind of confusing.”
Gardens, art and records
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kelley and Adam found themselves, like many folks, spending more time at home. They took the opportunity to work on a few projects.
New pink paint was applied to the exterior. Window trims, doors, little slivers below a porch roof and a star were painted glistening teal to further enhance the beachy vibe.
A variety of tropical plants and flamingo lawn ornaments look out at the Peabody Avenue side of the Pink House. There’s no white sand or ocean waves, but there is a recently installed above-ground pool. Adam even rigged a small privacy shade.
“Kelley found the only pool Walmart had,” he said as we walked through the backyard. “She stood there for 45 minutes, waiting on someone to help her.”
Perhaps the yard’s most interesting feature is an aquaponic garden on the 12th Avenue side. Two goldfish in an outdoor aquarium tank power the system. A pump feeds fish excrement and water from the tank up and into a pink kiddie pool filled with plants. The plants absorb the nutrients, and clean water is returned to the tank. It’s a natural, organic system.
The two goldfish, named after rapper Lil’ Wayne and pop musician Lizzo, were surrendered by their previous owner. Adam said he saved them with a $20 donation.
The inside of the house is just as interesting as the outside. Jud Richardson, co-owner of Fountain City Coffee and close friend of Adam, affectionately called the home “the kitschiest house in Columbus.”
Kelley lived in the home before she and Adam got together. They were married in 2011 and met while working at the Peachtree Mall. He was a manager at Wolf Camera. Kelley and a good friend of Adam’s worked at Hot Topic.
She now buys and sells arts and “tchotchkes,” Adam said.
Kelley’s head vases, blown molds, chalkware figurines and mid-century art line the home. The couple also has an extensive record collection. Adam ran the iconic Flip Side Records store on Victory Drive in the late 1990s through the mid-2000s.
‘It would be tragic.’
The large trees on the property aren’t Adam’s only concern. There are a few structural issues that need to be fixed. Steel had to be put under one of the home’s bathrooms, and Adam says he needs more steel to support another side of the home.
His latest issue is a crumbling ceiling inside the home near one of the porches.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” he said when explaining the ceiling issue. “I think I’m sinking right here.”
Adam said he’s going to handle the interior issues, but he needs help with the large trees outside.
One of the oaks is incredibly tall — so tall it forces the other oaks to lean and bend towards the sunlight. A fallen tree or branch might spell the end of the Pink House. To take two trees down and trim two other large ones would cost roughly $3,800.
Adam started a GoFundMe to “Save The Pink House” and pay for the work. So far, he’s raised $975.
It is preventative. The cost to rebuild it wouldn’t be covered under its current insured value, Adam said.
“If one of these trees fell on this house … we’d have to move,” he said. “And then it would become a blight. People who drive by on 12th, a lot of people know it. ... It would be tragic.”
He hopes the Pink House will be around to keep bringing Columbus residents joy.
“People always just tell us how much they love our house,” Adam said. “My favorite is the little girls on Halloween, which is one of our favorite times.
“We’ll be out here passing out candy, and the little girls always tell us ‘That’s our house. Every time I ride by, I tell everyone that’s my house.’ I love the reaction it gets.”
This story was originally published July 17, 2021 at 7:00 AM.