Dennis and Alissa Maness put their house on the market earlier this year.
Now that some of their children have moved out of their home, they’re looking to downsize.
“All of our friends, when they find out we’re looking to sell our home, they’re like, ‘How could you sell this place?’” Alissa Maness said. “And really, sometimes I ask myself that question, but I bought this place eight years ago, and we feel it’s time to move to another place we can call ours.”
The home is inside Jackson city limits, but that’s not obvious when you’re on the property.
“We have 13 acres right here in North Jackson, and we’re close to everything on the northern end of town, but we’ve still got some privacy here,” Maness said. “That’s what attracted me to the place eight years ago.”
The place Maness is referring to is part of the old Vernon Smith farm off Ashport Road between Old Humboldt Road and the Highway 45 Bypass.
The house itself sets well off both roads with the gated driveway being on Ashport. The old barn from the farm, which was first established in 1915, is part of the property.
“We actually have horses that live in the barn, so it’s a good one,” Maness said.
Along with the barn, there’s about eight acres of farmable land on the property. This time of year, a drive down the driveway is a drive with corn stalks growing on both sides. She said corn, cotton and soy beans are the typical crops grown on the land, farmed by Griggs Farms.
“They’ve been farming it since before we bought it and have done a great job with it every year,” Maness said. “And that’s an opportunity to make a little money from the property.”
The house, which is listed for $1.595 million, has seven bedrooms, five full bathrooms and two halves. One of the half-bathrooms is in the pool house. The swimming pool is next to the in-ground trampoline.
The trampoline is near the small orchard of pear trees near the pasture where the horses live.
All of that surrounds the two-story house with a three-car garage.
Inside the house is a mother-in-law suite upstairs that includes a full kitchen.
And in addition to the living spaces, there’s an office space upstairs and an additional one downstairs.
“We’ve had plenty of kids grow up in this house and we’ve got a couple of younger ones coming up, and our house is one that we’ve had fun in,” Maness said. “It’s not unusual for us to have mattresses sliding down staircases with kids riding on them.
“We play hard, but we also teach the kids to clean when you’re done playing.”
There are three fireplaces in the home as well, all with access to gas lines to get started.
And in case there’s a large power outage due to weather, the home has a large generator that’s able to keep the home’s systems running until crews can restore power to the home.
The 13 acres gets most of the property between Old Humboldt and the Bypass, with a member of the Smith family still owning the land from Moize Creek to the Bypass. Another person owns about seven acres at the corner of Old Humboldt and Ashport across the street from The Star Center.
Maness said the horse barn is one distinct difference the property has from most others in Jackson.
“When the City annexed this area, Mr. Smith’s farm was already here,” Maness said. “So the city leadership at the time decided to grandfather the farm in as it was at the time, and because of that, this is one of three properties in all of Jackson where you’re allowed to house horses.
“So it’s definitely a unique place to call home, and I know the next family that lives here will love it.”
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
