Historic Riverside home holds multitude of memories, stories
Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos by Mackenzie Free
Roxanne Bukacek’s Riverside home overlooking the sparkling waters of Logan Martin Lake is a treasure trove of history, paying homage to the family, as well as the town that shaped her.
There are keepsakes and memories from four generations of family members who have shared meals, hopes, dreams, laughter and tears within the home’s walls. But there’s also a number of artifacts from bygone days that tell part of Riverside’s story.
“This house was built in 1872,” she said. “Riverside was a big logging town, and the sawmill needed a doctor for the employees, and the only way they could get one was to build him a house.”
After the sawmill closed, and the doctor moved away, her great-grandparents moved into the house. Except for a 13-year period, it has remained in the family ever since, and when Bukacek had the chance to buy it back in 1986, she jumped at it.
“When it came up for sale, I knew I had to buy it,” she said. “Even though interest rates were 16 or 18 percent, I didn’t care.”
Since then, she’s done her best to honor the historical integrity of the house along with its outbuildings, including a smokehouse, on the 7-acre property. When a huge oak tree crashed onto the guest home next door during the April 2011 tornadoes, Bukacek rebuilt the house to look exactly the same from the outside, minus the chimney.
She and her husband, Tom Douyard, have also shared the house and surrounding property with family and friends. “I’ve lost track of how many weddings we’ve had here,” Bukacek said, adding that another one is scheduled for October. “Several of my students have gotten married here,” said the retired art teacher. “I added a gazebo for my best friend’s son’s wedding.”
Family treasure
Walking into the house, which is on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage, is in many ways like walking into a time capsule. Bukacek has saved, restored and repurposed relics from the past to preserve her family’s history. “My father was born in this house in one of the upstairs bedrooms,” she said. “It’s real special.”
To the left of the foyer are twin parlors, both with fireplaces as centerpieces. The second parlor features a china cabinet and a chess table built by her great-grandfather, Alois Bukacek. “He graduated from the University of Prague in woodworking and came through Ellis Island to Chicago,” she said. “They came from Czechoslovakia, trying to start a new life.”
Once in America, her great-grandfather designed and built the interior of Pullman trains. “They had a boy that was sickly, so to keep the baby alive, they moved south,” she said, adding that they settled in Riverside because they had friends nearby. “That’s how I got here.”
Although Bukacek never lived in the family home as a child – she grew up in a house at the end of the street – she spent a lot of time in it. Most of it, anyway. “I was such a tomboy, I wasn’t allowed in this part of the house,” she said of the parlors. “Once I bought it back, I came in here and just romped and ran around.”
When Bukacek’s great-grandparents passed away, the house went to her three great-uncles: Jerry, Emil and Frank. “Uncle Frank was dropped on his head when he was on the boat, so he wasn’t quite right,” she said. Bukacek named a metal scarecrow that graces the side yard Frank after her great-uncle, and he’s blamed for anything that goes wrong, she said with a laugh. “If there’s a leak in the bathroom, we say, ‘Frank did it.’”
The great-uncles added a den, dining room and kitchen, and they also made the front porch smaller. “It used to go all the way across the front of the house, but they said it was too much to sweep,” she said. “Doesn’t that sound just like a bunch of old bachelors?”
The den wall is home to a large collection of family photos, which surround the original map of Riverside that’s dated 1883. “My granddaddy was the postmaster,” she said. The old post office counter, complete with a Money Order sign hanging over the window and 14 mailboxes, separates the den from the kitchen.
A ball point pen is still attached to the counter with a chain, and a sign reads, “The ball point pens placed on this desk for your convenience are the property of the U.S. Post Office Department. Penalty for theft is $500 fine and/or one year in prison.”
“The pen’s still there,” Bukacek said with a laugh. “I’m not going to prison for a ball point pen.”
Dream kitchen
When Bukaceck renovated the kitchen in 2013, she married the old with the new. She kept the cast iron sink that’s original to the home but painted the cabinet blue to match the La Cornue stove that’s both gas and electric. “I ordered it from France; I’m crazy,” she said. “But it was my dream kitchen. I made everything on my wish list come true except I wanted a built-in coffee pot. I didn’t get that.”
Ceiling tins are framed by old wood she found in the barn, and an old “Riverside” sign that’s original to the train depot hangs over the windows. An antique scale that once hung in the post office now has a place of honor in the room.
The element that makes the room unique, however, comes in the form of 50 hand-painted and glazed tiles that Bukacek created, depicting places and details found on the property. The first tile she painted, the brick steps and entrance to the yard, took seven hours to complete.
“I thought, ‘I can’t spend seven hours on each tile,’ so we came to the word, ‘simplify,’” she said. There are tiles illustrating a weather vane, the boat house, the original guesthouse as well as the new one, and the gazebo.
The two-story boathouse is represented, along with an image of a sign that says, “The ‘Douyard Doc,’ ” a nod to Douyard’s career as a dentist. There’s a tile with two wagon wheels and one representing the old Buggy Barn she wasn’t able to save.
Perhaps one of the most special tiles, though, is a painting of a swing that’s just steps away from the back door and reminds Bukacek of her great-grandmother. “That’s where she’d shell her peas,” Bukacek said. “My great-granddaddy put it in for her.”
When Bukacek bought the house back, she discovered the poles and the swing were still there, although they were hidden by decades of overgrowth. “It took me years to finally get the guts to start whacking away at it, but I’m so glad I did.”
That’s the kind of history Bukacek worried was gone forever when the house sold after her great-uncles died. “I was in college, my sister was in high school, and nobody else wanted it,” she said. “I wanted it all my life.”
The new owner operated a tea room for a while, and the home was also used as a recording studio, Bukacek said. “She also put in central air and heat, and I was glad about that. I wouldn’t have been able to afford it.”
Not just a house
Maintaining the home and restoring the property is a full-time job, especially when you consider all the structures and outbuildings. There’s a blacksmith shop and a washhouse where the clothes and vegetables were cleaned. “There’s a two-seater outhouse and a wine cellar is under the greenhouse,” she said.
Her great-uncles made wine, and the arbors still stand in the backyard. She and Douyard also built the “BBQ Shed,” a gazebo that houses all of the grills and smokers. “It was supposed to be a little lean-to, and then she got involved,” Douyard said and laughed. “I just love all the projects we do all the time.”
One project was building a little walkway to a fish pond where Douyard loves to sit. “All the bricks came from the old seawall when it collapsed,” she said. Another pathway leading to the guest cottage was made from bricks she salvaged from the chimney after the house was destroyed during the storm.
Bukacek now operates the guest house, where her Aunt Mary once lived, as an Airbnb, but she taught art lessons there for a while. Bukacek’s career as an art teacher included a stint in a Jefferson County school , 17 and a half years at St. Clair County High School in Odenville and nine and a half years at Pell City High School before she retired.
The cottage, as well as the main house, is filled with her artwork. “This is 18 years work of charcoals,” she said of a series of framed still lifes. “Every year I would teach charcoal and pen and ink, and I made one each time.”
The framed images hang over a console table she made that features tile and a mosaic pattern created from “20 years of broken dishes.” A silkscreen print that was once displayed at the Birmingham Museum of Art, is on the wall by the front door.
She’s also repurposed things she’s found in the outbuildings or salvaged from the original guest house. Two old doors became a headboard in one of the cottage’s bedrooms while old shutters hang behind the bed in another. A piece taken from an antique armoire hangs over a cast iron bathtub in the guest bath. “As an art teacher, I decorate with everything,” she said. “Sometimes, I wish I could stop thinking.”
Some of Douyard’s favorite art pieces of Bukacek’s are the ones hanging in the downstairs bathroom of the main house. “Every year for Valentine’s Day, she makes me a heart,” he said. On one, she cross-stitched the names of the many places they’ve visited together. There are hearts made from feathers, painted bottle caps, buttons and dried flowers. There’s a heart made from antique keys, one made from Easter Egg shells, and one that features dried clovers.
Another heart is filled with lipstick kisses, and the surrounding mat board is made from the foil wrappers from Hershey Kisses. “I really made the sacrifice for that one,” she joked.
Landscape art
Although visitors to Bukacek and Douyard’s home could spend hours looking at all of the architectural details, furniture, photos and artwork inside the house, the view from the front porch is a work of art, as well.
The 700 feet of waterfront, right near the historic Riverside Railroad Bridge, offers breathtaking views and a peaceful calm that that can soothe the soul of anyone fortunate enough to visit. There have been many celebrations down by the water, where Bukacek has spent so much of her life, but when she takes in the view, the scenes she sees are from years past.
“That slough over there is where we’d fly kites,” she said, pointing from her front yard. “And I’ve climbed every tree around here.”
It’s those kinds of memories that make her grateful for the opportunity to be the caretaker of her family’s house. “It’s home,” she said. “It’s home.”
See more photos after the recipes!
Soda Cracker Pie
Ingredients:
- 3 egg whites
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 16 soda crackers, crumbled
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 jar pineapple preserves (You may use apricot)
- 2 cartons whipping cream
- 1 package frozen coconut
Directions:
Beat egg whites, adding sugar, cream of tartar, and vanilla. Beat until thick. Fold in crumbled crackers and pecans. Spread into buttered 9×13 pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool. Spread with preserves, top with whipping cream (follow the directions on the carton and use their hints for the whipping cream). Sprinkle coconut on top and chill overnight.
Granny Nelson’s Beans and Peas
Ingredients:
- 1 can English peas, drained (She uses LeSueur Very Young Small Sweet Peas)
- 1 can lima beans, drained
- 1 can French cut green beans, drained
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
- 1 small, grated onion
- 2 hardboiled eggs, slightly chopped
- 1 can French fried onion rings
Directions:
Mix first nine ingredients together and put in a buttered casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes until bubbly.
Five Cup Salad
Ingredients:
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup grated sharp cheese
- 1 cup Pet milk
- 1 cup crushed pineapple, drained well
- 1 3-ounce package lime Jell-O
Directions:
Bring orange juice to a boil, then add Jell-O, stirring until it is dissolved. Add the remaining ingredients. Pour into a slightly greased mold or casserole dish. Put in refrigerator to set.
