Historic Tyler on Tour, 2006
Thorndike Apartments
Robert Owen, Alice Kay & John English
610 S. Broadway
This imposing and well maintained apartment building is Classical Revival/Craftsman Style, built by Tyler businessman J. R. McBride between 1920 and 1925. It is an example of an expansive two story brick Revival style dwelling. It was originally a boarding house and the residence and office of Mr. J. R. McBride who also owned additional lots in the Charnwood subdivision for many years. Between 1910 and 1920 the Charnwood neighborhood continued developing with a mix of large and modest dwellings mostly built by individuals who had family or business associations with existing residents. As the neighborhood became suburbanized and automobiles began to appear, residents added garages to house their vehicles, while barns and other rural 19th century outbuildings were removed.
The Charnwood Residential Historic District is the core of a larger neighborhood that stretches west and southwest of the district. Containing the largest concentration of the oldest and most stately, as well as the most diverse and best preserved historic resources in the city, the historic district's development patterns moved the neighborhood from its rural beginnings to its present suburban character. Several streets were paved in the district in the 1920's, and twenty new dwellings were erected in popular and revival styles.
Current owner Harry Wilkins has added some interesting information about this great old building. He informs us that this building was the first building in Tyler to central heat, and that originally beneath the building was room for horses. The new name of the building will be The Ore Brick Manor which comes from the fact that the bricks used in the construction of the building came from a turn-of-the-century iron ore stone quarry from Henderson, Texas.
Interesting features in both apartments include original kitchens, porches, and transoms over doors in kitchens and onto porches. All the windows, floors and trims are original as are the tubs, the crystal doorknobs, the solid wood doors and the plaster walls. The apartment homes feature 12 and 14 foot ceilings and a 33 foot long hallway.
The residence of Robert Owen, Facility Manager and Special Events Coordinator for the Tyler Museum of Art, and the apartment of John and Alice English, he a retired C.P.A., and financial consultant and she a retired R.N., are open for this year's tour. Robert Owen, whose interests include playing and collecting guitars, has lived here for five years. He enjoys the layout and the originality of the apartment and feels very much like he is living in a tree house.
John and Alice Kay English have also lived here for five years and enjoy collecting as well. John is an enthusiastic collector of Civil War History by various authors, and Alice Kay is a collector of 18th and 19th century French and oriental objects. They both enjoy living in this unusual building, and Alice says, "I feel like every day I am a heroine from a historical novel or movie."
Thank you Robert and Alice Kay and John for inviting us to drop back in time and visit your lovely residences.
