The Texas Historian, Volume 37, Number 2, November 1976 Page: 1
30 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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HUNTSVILLE'S HENRY
OPERA HOUSE
by TRICIA LINKLATER
Huntsville High SchoolTHE HISTORY of Huntsville's Henry Opera
House reflects the changing cultural and eco-
nomic climates in Texas around the turn-of-
the-century. From its construction in 1880,
until it closed in 1913, the Henry Building
served a variety of purposes and the opera
house became Huntsville's most popular enter-
tainment center.
The development of the opera house is
closely related to the personal life of its found-
er, Major John Henry. Born in Canada in
1828, Henry ran away from home at the age
of sixteen to live with an older brother in
Syracuse, New York, where he became an ap-
prentice to a merchant tailor. He was appar-
ently successful in this venture, as by the time
he was twenty-one years old he had acquired
sufficient money and skill, to open his own
store.
Henry chose Jacksonville, Florida, as his
home, preferring the mild tropical climate to
the frigid New York winters. He soon married
Mary Thomas Purviance from South Carolina,
but after seven years of marriage, she died of
tuberculosis. Henry sold everything, and with
his two daughters, emigrated to Texas to enter
ranching. Another bitter disappointment await-
ed Henry in his new homeland. He soon dis-
covered that the land he had purchased alongthe Guadalupe River near Seguin had been
grossly misrepresented by a '"land agent's rosy
propaganda." Henry subsequently taught
school in Indianola for a year, and then set
out alone on horseback to find a community
suitable for re-entering business and raising
his two daughters, Mary and Margaret.
In 1862, Major Henry settled in the small
East Texas town of Huntsville. As a young
man he had been affiliated with the Masons
and he soon discovered that his lodge mem-
bership accorded him a friendly welcome in an
unfamiliar community. Henry soon became
Worshipful Master of the Huntsville Blue
Lodge, and in the late 1870's when the old
lodge building burned, he advanced the
money to erect a new building. Huntsville
historian Marian Rather Powell describes this
1880 structure as follows:
The Masons bought the lot from Mr. Bennett,
the only Jewish merchant in town, who had his
store just south on Main Street, and with true
Masonic accuracy of line and level the solid
thick red brick walls 50 by 80 feet rose two
tall stores high. A division wall on the ground
floor provided two stores for rent while the en-
'tire second floor was the temple for all Masonic
functions. Fearing another fire and having no
faith in the new and doubtful protection of in-
surance, they covered all exposed wood in the
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Texas State Historical Association. The Texas Historian, Volume 37, Number 2, November 1976, periodical, November 1976; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391307/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.