The house was built in 1886 at 308 E. 4th Street, and was moved to its current Brush Square location in March 1934. It was the home of William Sydney Porter (O. Henry) from 1893 to 1895, and has been a museum since its 1934 move. It is a small wood frame cottage in a simplified Eastlake style, featuring scroll-saw balustrades, turned posts and scroll-saw brackets and spandrels. Interior details include pedimented lintels with applied wooden rosettes and period wall papers.
Specific to modernizing the museum itself, the scope included new exhibit lighting, a new, innovative small-duct high-velocity mechanical system and, in deference to the fragility of the paper-intensive museum collection, a water mist fire protection system. There were also substantial issues of wood rot and general deferred maintenance. Window and door restoration, exterior painting, new interior wood finishes and wall paper restorations were all addressed.
Project goals included a modernized approach to museum operations and a redesign of the rear grounds to coordinate with a concurrent redesign of it’s larger Brush Square setting.
O.Henry is considered one of America’s greatest short story writers. Museum exhibits explore his life in a social, family and creative context. The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
