Pink House

"Pink House"
Building Information
Location	1200 East Blount Street
Client	A. V. Clubbs
Current Owner	McIlwain Presbyterian Church
Completion Date	1890s

The "Pink House" is the name usually given to the historic East Hill home located at 1200 East Blount Street, built in the late 1800s by A. V. Clubbs for his daughter. In 1993, longtime owner Art Mullen was murdered there by his daughter, Michaelanne Hall. The home is currently owned by McIlwain Presbyterian Church.

History

The property on which the Pink House sits was sold by Thomas C. Watson to A. V. Clubbs on February 12, 1891. Clubbs lived in a fine home across 12th Avenue from the property, and reportedly built the second house for his daughter Lily as a wedding present when she married Elmore Dixie Beggs. (However, it may have been built as early as the 1870s.) It was sold to Dr. John A. Brosnaham on July 18, 1901, and on a single day three years later — July 9, 1904 — was deeded from the Brosnahams to Beggs (as a trustee) and back again to Sallie Moseley Brosnaham (with Walker Ingraham as a trustee). This was likely a legal maneuver related to the will of Dr. Brosnaham, who died six months later.

On September 21, 1923, the house was awarded to John A. Brosnaham, Jr. in a lawsuit against the trustee, Ingraham. It was sold two months later (November 21) to electrical contractor Joseph Baroco and his wife Mattie. When Joseph was diagnosed with a heart condition in 1944, he was advised to move to a house without stairs, so they rented the home to the Hoffman family. Baroco died in 1946, and his widow sold the house to Art and Nancy Mullen in 1948, conveying the deed on August 3, 1950.

Art Mullen was an interior designer, and he and his wife made extensive renovations to the home, including the distinctive pink color, several chandeliers and mirrored walls, a reconfigured foyer and upstairs bath, and a garage with loft for entertaining guests. They also added a fence after having trouble with vandals, though it proved an ineffectual deterrent; in the early 1980s two men accosted Mrs. Mullen at gunpoint and stole several items.

In 1992, ownership of the house passed to the Mullens' son Kevin. The same year, their daughter Michaelanne returned home with her two sons. On February 3, 1993, Michaelanne shot and killed her father Art in the house. She was charged with second-degree murder, later reduced to manslaughter. She pleaded no contest, but her defense depicted Art Mullen as an abusive bully who flaunted his homosexual lovers in front of his family, and she received only probation and psychiatric treatment.

Kevin Mullen is the very same "Michael Kevin Mullen, 58, an Aiken, South Carolina resident and a subject wanted in Tuscaloosa and Walker Counties, has been returned to Alabama from Austria to stand trial for three counts of securities fraud. Mullen was arrested by Austrian authorities in July 2008 and has resisted extradition to the United States since that time. Austrian authorities released Mullen to the custody of U.S. Marshals who transported him back to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for incarceration. Mullen is currently being held in the Tuscaloosa County jail under a $1 million cash bond. Mullen was also indicted in Walker County on similar charges."

In 1996 the house was sold to Ronnie and Linda Day. It was acquired by adjacent McIlwain Presbyterian Church in 2003 and was known as Mac's Coffeehouse for a time.

References

• Booklet prepared for "Pretty in Pink: An Evening of Chocolate & Chamber Music" fundraiser, October 4, 2003