Thanks to a Masonic pin, a Union lieutenant decided to spare the pretty house at 626 Selma Ave. during the last days of the Civil War, but the story of the Yankees’ visit doesn’t stop there.

Pilgrimage visitors to the Platt-Gayle-Linden House will hear how the story ends when another military man coincidentally visited the house 100 years later.

Built in 1849, the gracious Italianate home has been beautifully furnished by owner Shannon Linden and restored by its previous owners, Cecil Gayle and the late Ken Parker.   Carved eaves and cornice brackets are original to the house, and a charming, Victorian octagonal addition was built around 1900.

Mrs. Linden, known by many as “The Silver Lady from Atlanta,” is a relative newcomer to Selma although she grew up in nearby Greenville. She “fell in love” with the house during a recent Pilgrimage when she participated in the antique show.

Using family heirlooms along with a few oriental decoratives, Mrs. Linden has created a colorful, inviting interior. In the living room, a small, leaded glass window from her grandmother’s historic home in Mobile, hangs to catch sunlight. Although her grandmother’s home was torn down, she saved some of the carved wainscoting, which can be found throughout the house as wall hangings. She also framed a portion of her intricately embossed, cathedral wedding veil.

Upstairs, art collections include a wall filled with rare Japanese Imari porcelain fish plates and another that features views of her childhood home.  A bronze sign that was original to the Stabler Infirmary in Greenville is Mrs. Linden’s favorite piece. Both her father and grandfather were physicians, and the L.V. Stabler Memorial Hospital in Greenville is named for her grandfather.

In the guest bedroom are a cherry wood, four-poster bed with Victorian mahogany bed steps, a four-poster doll bed that Mrs. Linden had as a child, an unusual rocking rooster baby rocker, a rope baby bed and her parents’ invitation from President Franklin Roosevelt to a White House reception in 1939.