“We’ve still got nine days left to get ready,” said Kathy Novotny, addressing the bolstering remark Tuesday to two important lieutenants in the corps of volunteers so essential to homeowners about to invite thousands of visitors to cross their thresholds. The women walked in sunlight, following a red brick path from the gardens of Temple Heights, past scaffolding and wisteria, and on to the front entrance of the stately Columbus home. This antebellum landmark, circa 1837, is one of 17 homes, gardens and churches featured in the 77th Columbus Spring Pilgrimage March 30 through April 8. And in all of them, there is the heightened buzz of preparation.

While Temple Heights itself is a Pilgrimage mainstay, Kathy and Mark Novotny are the newest homeowners on the annual tour that welcomes guests from numerous states and countries. This will be the family’s second Pilgrimage, although one could say they are still “moving in.”

Their first Pilgrimage experience came only seven whirlwind weeks after acquiring the home in February 2016, accepting the role of keeper of its 180-year-old heritage from previous owner Dixie Butler. Butler and her late husband, Carl, purchased the long-empty house in 1967 and lovingly restored it.

In those seven short weeks last spring, crews worked six and seven days a week painting and doing some updating, just in time for opening day. Even after Pilgrimage, however, the new homeowners had no time to rest. A daughter was married at the house in April, and soon after, the Novotnys moved out of their brand new home — to Prague in the Czech Republic, where Mark had been awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Chair professorship.

“We’ve lived longer in Prague than we have in this house!” Kathy said. “I’ve been gone all year, and I have a lot of tasks ahead of me.”

In service

Kim Castleberry is part of Novotny’s Pilgrimage support team. The two are collaborating to add a slightly different take to Temple Heights tours. The focus will be on service as hosts (or guides) share glimpses into history as former homeowners’ family members.

“We’re going to give narratives this year, talking in first person about the lives of the people who lived here,” Novotny explained.

Castleberry is writing the narratives, channeling personalities from the past, former stewards of this home listed on the National Register of Historic Places. She draws from extensive research, starting with histories compiled by the Butlers, plus information accessed through online resources.

“I’m very tenacious online,” Castleberry said. “I used a lot of genealogy and family research.”

Visitors at Temple Heights will encounter the initial lady of the house, Mary Hoskins Brownrigg, and her mother, Elizabeth Blount Hoskins. Richard T. Brownrigg built the house for Mary in 1837, a replica of her home back in North Carolina. These women will offer some insight into the people, lifestyles and service that helped shape a developing city, state and beyond.

“We’re the sixth owners, and every owner of this house has worked to preserve this house and its history and to serve the community and the nation in some capacity,” said Novotny. “We’re calling this ‘Preserve and Serve.'”

Like other families who have lived at Temple Heights, the Novotnys are service-minded, too. Mark is an internationally-recognized physicist, head of Mississippi State’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. He lectures around the globe. Kathy, who grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, worked in government and was awarded the key to the city of Natchez for community service in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Castleberry said.

Takes a team

Getting ready for Pilgrimage is no small feat, as the homeowners would attest. It involves time, work and expense.

“There is so much involved,” remarked Margaret Bateman, Novotny’s friend and a retired professor of interior design at MSU. She will assist during Pilgrimage. “I’ve truly realized the number of people involved in this industry — not only the people who are coming to Pilgrimage, but all the people it takes in the process of getting ready. It puts a lot of money into the economy.”

At Temple Heights, work in progress was evident nine days before Pilgrimage. Towering Doric columns were being stripped and painted; landscaping tasks were underway. Inside, florist Loretta Shelton of The Flower Girl was conferring with Novotny on arrangements for several rooms.

“We want everything to be as authentic as possible,” Shelton said, noting the plan to use florals and fruits true to the period and to the lives of the early homeowners — the first of which owned a plantation in Jamaica and sent ships trading all over the world.

Pilgrimage brings the diverse team together — homeowners, woodworkers, horticulturists, artisans, paint experts, visitors and dozens of hosts in period dress, many of them volunteers from Columbus Air Force Base. The people of Columbus should be excited about it, Bateman said.

Being on the tour is, in itself, a form of community service.

“I think it’s done, from a homeowners’ standpoint, out of love for the city,” Novotny said.

Editor’s note: For more information about Pilgrimage tours and events, contact Visit Columbus at 117 Third St. S., call 800-920-3533 or 662-329-1191, or go to the website visitcolumbusms.org.

Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.