Resurrecting Henderson House
Museum and interpretive centre to be unveiled
By Janet May
Ann Nelson is a sleuth. She prowls around the old building and pores over photographs, piecing together a floor plan. She tracks down sources of moulding and panel doors. She and her team are determined to be as true to the original Henderson House as possible, one hundred years after it was built.
Ann is a member of the Townsite Heritage Society of Powell River. This group is planning to celebrate our community's centenary in grand style: a sports day, a picnic, a parade, a fashion show, a dance. But the highlight of the weekend will be the unveiling of Henderson House, site of the new Dr. Andrew J. Henderson Interpretive Centre and Living Museum.
Henderson House was the first house built in Powell River. The Powell River Company promised it to entice Edith and Dr. Andrew Henderson to settle here. Building started in 1910. The house was designed with bell-cast roof, exposed rafters and pillar details on its large front veranda. It is a fine example of American Craftsman architecture, a movement that honours local materials and workmanship. The Powell River Company continued to build rows of houses for their employees in this style, graded according to trade. Henderson House represents an upper-middle class home of the early twentieth century, and that theme will be followed in the Living Museum.
With the centenary festivities set for the August holiday weekend, renovating Henderson House is going apace. This includes re-roofing with locally sawn, hand-dipped cedar shingles, and replacement of metal-framed windows with double-hung sash windows in the original configuration. Anticipating future landscaping, the team has been studying what Edith Henderson had blooming in her "lushly planted garden." Permeable paving will be used throughout and a cistern will collect rainwater for irrigation.
The House is becoming a "green building" using the technologies of the past, like storm windows in the winter and deep overhanging eaves for shade in the summer; as well as those of the present, like photo voltaic solar cells, a heat-exchange compressor, and modern insulation.
No blueprints exist and there are no interior photographs, so mapping the original floor-plan is detective work. The planners referred to photos of the outside showing the original fenestration, and on recorded memories from people who visited the house in its early years, before laying out restored lath and plaster walls.
The new museum will inhabit two-thirds of the building, including dining and living rooms, a re-located kitchen with pantry, and a replica staircase and landing. A heritage-style suite will occupy the other third of the house, contributing both revenue and security for the museum. Period furniture has been donated by Barbara Lambert and Dr. Henderson's descendents, the McMillan family. The Hendersons' sleigh bed will occupy their bedroom upstairs, and a desk that belonged to Dr. Dwight Brooks will be displayed in Henderson's office.
Tucked behind what was St. Luke's hospital and shrouded in blue tarp, Henderson House was neglected for decades. It was due to be demolished in 2001, when the Townsite Heritage Society stepped in and eventually purchased it from Catalyst Paper Ltd. The tenacious society continues to dream up new ways to illuminate Powell River's history, and Henderson House offers fertile ground for their imaginations.
The Dr. Andrew J. Henderson Interpretive Centre and Living Museum will be a symbol of our efforts past and of our future at the Powell River Townsite Centennial Celebration. Centennial events will be held all over Townsite, July 30 through August 1. For more details visit www.powellrivertownsite.com, call Ann Nelson at 604 483-9345, or the Townsite office at 604 485-3901.
