TYLER, Texas — If you've driven through the neighborhoods of Tyler, you know there are some properties that are just hidden gems, but there are also a few surprises.
If walls could talk, oh, the stories these historic homes would tell.
"I just always kept feeling him and his wife Maymerle in my head, like I think they'd really like it," said Jen Pencis, homeowner.
There's so much history inside the Brown-Pencis home, which is now on the 2021 Historic Tyler on Tour.
The mid-century modern home is being preserved and shared for others to enjoy.
"I feel like that was always a guiding principle for me — leave well enough alone, honor the perfectness that's already here and just modify," Pencis said. "I like that flat, sprawling, bring the outdoors inside, just the vaulted ceilings, just all the nuances of the interior built-ins. I love the way it was probably avant garde, maybe that's what I'm attracted to something that's sort of unusual in its era."
Jen and Nick Pencis bought the home from the original owners, the Brown family. The late Bob Brown was also the architect.
"This is his family home, like he had this property, before McDonald Road was named. We have all the drawings and blueprints from it. So, we really got to unearth, sort of, the beautiful mad genius of what he wanted and had the evolution of the home where it was. It was very small to start off with and they kind of added on. They grew the home as they grew as a family. They added on the pool in the '80s. That was the funnest part of it was sort of unraveling the thought process," Pencis explained.
Jen says they only added about 60 square feet to the footprint of the home, but renovations took about 18 months to retrofit it for today. She even honored the home's history with pops of blue and orange...
When you get back to the game room, you'll see there's that leathered formica that's burnt orange and so fun! I love there's doorknobs all over the place that have little inlays that are enameled in orange. It was just little subtle pops of color not to be intrusive. I had picked these orange stools. Their daughter, Sharon, came in and she's like, it's so funny, you picked orange, because we used to have these orange cushions right there in front of the fireplace," Pencis recalled.
Now, you can explore this 1964 home and all of its charm and character.
"Honored really, truly honored for Bob Brown and his family, obviously, and just the home itself. It's really such a lovely thing to be able to see what Historic Tyler is doing. Their efforts to just preserve and have people be interested in the continuity and the preservation of these older homes is super valuable," Pencis said.
Other cherished homes on the tour go back to the early 1900s with the Alex Woldert - Clark House, circa 1910.
Several 1930s homes — the Upshur - Clark - Daniels House, the Hersey House, the Odom House and a downtown property from the early 1900s.
"It housed the Wadel-Connally Hardware Company, which this building was an industrial building that houses all of their supplies that would be sent out to various East Texas locations and it was an operation until 1977," said Ashley Washmon, Executive Director, Historic Tyler, Inc.
You will find the Wadel-Connally Building on East Line Street. Inside — some history of the hardware business remains — a safe door, original scale, even grooves on the floor from forklifts moving supplies.
"Whenever they restored the building, just a little side note, they sanded the floor down in order to preserve the floors. They filled in the gaps between the floorboards with sawdust and they epoxied over them. So, they took great care in preserving all the details of this specific building," said Washmon.
It's now home to a host of Tyler businesses, but the renovation of this property is significant to downtown Tyler.
"Whenever Dobbs Real Estate bought it in '99 and preserved it, it was part of a greater preservation movement downtown. At the same time, the Blackstone building was being restored and so was the Cotton Belt Train Depot.
Ashley Washmon is the Executive Director for Historic Tyler.
"The organization realized that historic properties were being torn down or altered beyond recognition and once they're gone, they're gone. You can't replace them, you can duplicate them, but you can't replicate them."
She says taking the "Historic Tyler on Tour is a great way to experience a piece of history and see how historic properties can adapt and apply to modern-day life.
"It satisfies that curiosity of how the historic properties look on the interior, and then also how they've been adapted for modern day use.
May also happens to be National Historic Preservation Month. There are a couple of ways to celebrate.
First, is the Historic Tyler on Tour that starts Friday with a candlelight party and tour followed by the daytime tours Saturday and Sunday.
Candlelight Party and Tour:
Friday, May 21
House Tour, 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Garden Party, 7:00 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Daytime Tour:
Saturday, May 22nd, 10 a.m. -5 p.m.
Sunday, May 23rd, 1 p.m. -5 p.m.
For ticket information, call (903) 595-1960 or click here for Historic Tyler's website.
Historic Tyler is also hosting its 27th photo contest. This year's theme is Chimneys with Charm.
The contest runs until June 15th. Click here to participate.