Historic Tyler on Tour, 2008
The Bonner-Whitaker-McClendon House
806 West Houston
Built in 1878 at the cost of about $6,000 for Harrison M. and Martha (Mattie) Bonner Whitaker, this rare Eastlake Bracketed Victorian home is located on the corner of Vine and West Houston Streets. “Like living on New York’s Fifth Avenue,” was the way then Texas Governor R. B. Hubbard referred to the home.
Now listed in the National Register of Historic Places and recorded as a Texas Landmark, the two-story twelve room home is situated on over two acres.
The land once belonged to Judge Bonner’s law partner, J. Pinckney Henderson, the first governor of Texas after Texas became a state in 1846. The Judge’s eldest daughter Mattie and her husband were given the land on which to build their home by her father as a wedding present.
After living in the home for a number of years, sadly, Mattie died of influenza at the age of 37 leaving her husband with four young children. Five years later he remarried and moved to Beaumont. In 1909, the house and much of its furnishings were sold to Mattie’s sister Annie Bonner and her husband Sydney McClendon for $4,500. They moved into the house with 8 children, and in 1910 had their ninth child, Sarah McClendon, the Washington news correspondent.
Two of Sarah’s sisters, Patience and Annie, lived in the home until February 1979 when they moved to a nursing home. After remaining in the family for over one hundred years, the house was deeded by the McClendon family in 1981 to the Bonner-Whitaker-McClendon House Society for historic preservation. Extensive renovation began shortly afterward on the home and surrounding grounds.
The next year, in 1982, while work had begun on the interior, a fire was set by arsonists in an upstairs bedroom. Because of the sound structure of the home, it suffered only minimal damage. Thankfully, the furnishings, some family pieces dating back to the 1860s, had been placed in storage. It was not until 1988 that the McClendon House officially opened its doors to the public.
Many startling discoveries, of not just family history but local history, were found in trunks and among the personal belongings of the sisters who had lived in the home. So much of Tyler’s history is tied to this home and the families that have lived there.
Thank you, McClendon House Society, for allowing the home to celebrate its 20th year of opening its doors to the public by being on the Historic Tyler on Tour 2008.
Enjoy your step back in time with this incredible historic treasure!
