Jackson native Walter Neill, 62, is a jack-of-all-trades who combined his interest in carpentry, construction, photography and art to co-create Oxford Treehouse Gallery, one of Lafayette County’s hidden treasures nestled in a forest off County Road 418.
The gallery (formerly Neill Studios), owned by Walter and Vivian Neill, was built in 2005 and is aptly named because it is partially supported by two trees. It doubled as the couple’s home and studio until construction was finished on their nearby house in 2013. The opening party and art show was held in April.
Walter Neill, a graduate of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School and Murrah High School, both in the Jackson area, attended Ole Miss for three years after college, but the liberal arts major wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life. He eventually became a plumber.
“Getting into the plumbing aspect of it was not something I ever thought I would do,” he said. “Some guy wanted me to help him, and the next thing I know, that’s what I’m doing.”
Walter opened Neill Plumbing in 1981 and sold the business 10 years later. He also ran a photography business off and on in the 1970s and 1980s with his brother.
“I really loved photojournalism,” he said, “but I got to the point where I was depressed being in the darkroom. I did not want to be in a darkroom for four or five hours on a sunny day.”
He later became interested in metalwork and today owns a metalwork shop near the gallery where he creates artistic bottle openers, steak turners, kitchen knives, fireplace tools and letter openers. He said bottle openers have been selling well lately because of the rising popularity of the craft beer movement in Mississippi. Many examples of his work are displayed in the gallery.
“I think the gallery was the first time I ever did a house from the ground up,” he said. “I did everything, pretty much, except the sheetrock, floors and framing . . . Everything is really interrelated. Construction is related to art, and art is related to construction. They are all similar in many ways.”
Vivian Neill, also a Jackson native, attended Louisiana State University briefly after high school and later became one of the founders of Hal and Mal’s restaurant, a popular Jackson business where her mother and daughter still work, carrying on the family tradition. She took a 25-year break from college, but after moving to Oxford 16 years ago with her husband, she decided to begin working on an art degree at the University of Mississippi and completed it in 2003.
“I took a break with the art, and I would make an effort to get back into doing my artwork, but the restaurant would override those areas,” she said. “So after we moved here, I went back to school.”
Since then, she’s been focused on painting and running the gallery that was originally envisioned as an office and studio space.
“Walter got carried away and turned it into a great gallery,” she said.
The building houses the gallery, office space, a kitchen and lounge area and a screened porch on the second story.
“In the summertime, it’s like you are in green clouds,” Vivian said. “We’re up in the trees, and there are some trees that are actually part of the support system.”
There is a 575-square-foot apartment downstairs that the couple rents out on Airbnb.com, a site where individuals provide accommodations to renters as an alternative to hotels. They also host wedding receptions and corporate parties at the gallery. In the future, they plan to hold more art shows. Right now, the gallery features artwork by Mississippians.
“We started with some artists we appreciate and have collected over the years,” Vivian said. “Our process, right now, is that we both have to love it to hang it, so it’s more of an intuitive process for us.”
STORY LaReeca Rucker
PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis