I.B. Henyan House

202 Madison

Henyan House is a Victorian Eclectic; it is built with a raised front porch typical of the French Colonial style, yet the full-façade front gable brings to mind a Swiss Chalet quality. The house also includes a Victorian Richardsonian Romanesque element in the double front door framed by a limestone arch. Broad chimneys extend from the basement to above the roof.

I. B. Henyan was the first owner. He bought the lot in January of 1899 at a sheriff’s sale of the estate of Michael Eckenroth, whose home was behind it on S. Alamo Street. I. B. and Pauline Henyan wrote a contract with Ed Steves and Sons in September of 1905, agreeing to pay $3,500 for the construction of ‘a new brick residence including all plumbing, wiring, piping and heating’ in accordance with plans drafted by architect Beverly W. Spillman.

By 1922, Mrs. Henyan was a widow and continued to live in this house until December 1927, when she sold it to the City Federation of Women’s Clubs for $12,500. In 1942 it was purchased by Opal Smith, whose residence lasted until her death in 1972. Like many of the houses in this neighborhood, the interior space had been greatly modified when Grace Holley and Cecil Reynolds bought the house in 1973. They began a renovation which continued as the house was sold to Deborah Ann Silva (1981), Robert and Jill Cardellino (1987), John R. and Carol Jinkins (1992), Shannon Gunn (1998), Nicholas and Stephanie Chapman (2000), Edward Collins, III (2003), and Penelope Henderson (2012).

The King William Area, A History and Guide to the Houses, Mary V. Burkholder and Jessie N.M. Simpson; published by the King William Association, 2017