In Commerce, the Heathmann-Herre House was built by William Turner in 1877 for his son Charles to use as a blacksmith shop, with two-brick-thick walls and iron rods running the width and length of the building to hold the walls together. It later served as a store, private home, and the Keith Bartow Music Studio, and its second floor, known as Turner’s Hall, hosted meetings and performances. A front room was the first meeting place for the local chapter of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.), a popular fraternal organization during the 1800s and early 1900s. Two blocks away, the Barnes House Inn and Tavern began as the first building in the area constructed from milled wood, built by Melzor Turner in 1859, and was later converted by Ezekial Barnes from a private residence into a hotel where travelers could stop for meals or overnight rest in small upstairs rooms furnished with a bed, wash stand, and chamber pot. Traveling performers and musicians stayed there and performed in Turner’s Hall. Both buildings were later rescued by the Friends of Historic Meridian and moved to the Meridian Historical Village, with the Heathmann-Herre House moved in one piece in 1988 for restoration and the Barnes House moved in 1997.