Historic Tyler on Tour, 2003
MENEFEE HOUSE, 218 W. First Street
About 1934 George W. Allen, a widower with two grown sons, met Miss Bunch Wilson of Omen. They married and in 1937 built this colonial revival house on the corner of First and College. The house was constructed on the site of a previous frame residence and diagonally across the street from what had been Tyler General Hospital. Next door lived Mr. Allen’s older sister, Pearl Gentry, and her husband, Elbert. The three-bedroom house had two baths upstairs and a powder room on the lower level. The house originally had dark stained Gum woodwork and white stucco walls. It had a sleeping porch on the west side of the house and a screened-in porch on the back of the house.
Mr. Allen was a salesman for Sabine Royalty Company and later for K. Woolen Dept. Store. Mrs. Allen was very active in The United Daughters of the Confederacy. Mr. Allen loved to fish and would fry his catch on the screened in back porch. He also raised a garden behind the garage apartment and planted bluebonnets in the parkway between the house and College Street. Mrs. Allen, called “ Mama Bunch”, was an excellent cook and was said to make the best chicken fried steak in the county. She also canned the produce from Mr. Allen’s garden.
Both Mr. & Mrs. Allen enjoyed playing Bridge, but Mr. Allen’s niece remembers him as a domino sharp. He would entice his nieces and nephews to play and then beat them. After the Allen’s reached an age where they had trouble with the stairs, they moved their bedroom down stairs and rented out one of the bedrooms upstairs. In 1971, after Mrs. Allen’s death, the property was sold.
In 1973 Grace Gunn purchased the home, converting the sleeping porch to a master bath and using the dining room as her bedroom. She rented the upstairs bedrooms. Ms. Gunn resided in the house until 1995.
When Gary and Jenny Price, purchased the property they made several changes to update the home. They removed the downstairs bath and returned it to a sun porch. They also removed an exterior staircase that was used by the upstairs tenants, turning it once again into a single family home. They enclosed the breezeway and back yard.
In 1999, the present owners, Len and Jane Menefee, purchased the house, adding their own decorative style. We would like to thank them for sharing their beautiful home with us.
