Education Restoration Preservation

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Recent posts:

Healy Block Residential Historic District – 3137 Second Ave So: Healy-Forbes House Healy Block Residential Historic District – Architecture Healy Block Residential Historic District – an Introduction Anders Christensen Receives Preservation Alliance of Minnesota Executive Director’s Award Anders Christensen’s Remarks on Receiving Preservation Alliance of Minnesota Award Healy Project Fundraiser at the Lowbrow, May 7th Winter Party Fundraiser December 2017 Talk: Preservation Advocacy, August 17th Open House at 1300 Mount Curve Avenue East Lake of the Isles Walking Tour May 21st New Research on the “Lost” Healy Block: Tour May 7th A Presentation on Master Builders Ingham and Parsons, Saturday, March 18th. Healy Project Winter Party Henry Ingham’s Yorkshire Healy Project Fundraiser at the Lowbrow, May 9th Healy Block Historic District Tour: April 17th Healy Project Holiday Old House Reception CANCELED–Healy Block Historic District Walking Tour–November 8 More Hauntings: Houses Built by Henry Ingham Healy House Hauntings Tour Intro to the History of the North Wedge North Wedge Architectural Walking Tour, October 3rd Healy Phoenix #2 Healy Phoenix #1 Report on the Event: A Great Dinner for a Good Cause A Child’s View of T.P. Healy’s Family Big Win for Healy Block Residents: Revised I-35W Expansion Plan T.P. Healy: Farmer, Commission Merchant & Wholesale Grocer in Nova Scotia Open April 25th: Restored 1885 House in Wedge Learn from the Past, Learn from the Present Grandstanding and Stonewalling at City Hall: Trashing the Public Trust Orth House Demolition An Open Letter to Minneapolis City Council Regarding the Orth House Demolition The Truth Will Out II: More Lies That Brought Down 2320 Colfax Avenue South The Truth Will Out: Lies that Brought Down 2320 Colfax Avenue South Judge Denies Injunction against Wrecking 2320 Colfax Avenue South Poisoning the Well: Testimony about 2320 Colfax Avenue South “City Ghosts” Visit Victorian House Historic North Wedge Walking Tour: Sunday, September 7th Combining New and Old: A New Vision for the Orth House A Place That Matters Healy Project Files Suit to Stop Demolition of the Orth House Happy Earth Day, Zero-Credibility City of Minneapolis Stop Demolition: Allow a designation study for the Orth House Perverting New Urbanism II: Greenwashing Demolition Perverting New Urbanism for Fun and Profit Size Matters: Development at Franklin-Lyndale DEN$ITY: Building Utopia in Gopher City Hypocrisy at City Hall: Planning Department Scorns Sustainable Development Déjà Vu All Over Again: Threats to Healy Houses Renewed Healy Project Special Kickoff Tour Saving Private Houses In Landmark Decision, City Council Stops Demolition of 2320 Colfax Avenue South What’s the Greenest Building? Who Lives in Lowry Hill East? Revoltin’ Developments VI: What You Can Do Revoltin’ Developments V: Sappy Citizens and Maudlin Attachments Revoltin’ Developments IV: Density and City Planning Revoltin’ Developments III: Density and Livability Revoltin’ Developments II: Healy Houses in the Wedge Revoltin’ Developments, Part I Healy Descendant Acquires the Bennett-McBride House On Memorial Day Lost Healys on the Healy Block More Lost Healys The Broom House: 3111 Second Avenue South More on Round Hill Happy Birthday, T.P. The Edmund G. Babbidge House: 3120 Third Avenue South Brightening the Corner: 3101 Second Avenue South 2936 Portland Avenue The Andrew H. Adams House: 3107 Second Avenue South Clones: 2932 Park and 1425 Dupont North The J.B. Hudson House: 3127 Second Avenue South Second Healy Family Home: 3131 Second Avenue South Schlocked: ‎2639-41 Bryant Avenue South 1976 Sheridan Avenue South: Preserved Exterior The William L. Summer House, 3145 Second Avenue South Two More in the Wedge Weapon of Mass Healy Destruction: I-35W Construction The Third: Healy Builds in the Wedge The Second: 3139 Second Avenue South Healy’s First House: 3137 Second Avenue South Anders Christensen, T.P.Healy, and the Healy Project

More on Round Hill

Bev Wigney, a native of eastern Ontario, is doing some checking into Healy’s life and work there. She is the owner of a house that had been built by T.P.’s brother, John H. Healy.  She reports: 
     “Now that I am back in Round Hill, I went through some of my papers and found this survey page on a house that lists Theron Healy as owner from 1867 to 1870. Interesting is that the previous property owner was John H. Healy, who was the owner-builder of my old place here at Round Hill. I will post a link to the reverse side of this page which lists the history of ownership. Unfortunately, this house has been radically altered and I would not have recognized it but for my neighbour next door knowing the house as soon as he saw the photo and I asked him about the last owner.”

theron-healy-house-1867-1
The document with image of Healy’s first family home, dated 1996. The original house was undoubtedly a simple Greek Revival design.
theron-healy-house-1867-2
The reverse side of the document above. It shows that Healy’s brother John (“Carpenter” of the family business, Round Hill Woodworks) built the house in 1863.  Theron (“Trader/Farmer”) acquired it the year after he was married, 1867.

     Theron and Mary Anne were married in 1866. He was 22; she 19. Their first two children, Lena (1867) and Alice Edna (architect John Cuningham’s grandmother, 1868) were born in Round Hill. By 1870 they apparently had moved to Annapolis, NS, where their first son, Charles, was born.
      John Cuningham on a recent trip to Nova Scotia discovered that T. P. Healy owned ships moving hardware up and down the New England/Maritime Canadian Coast. Did his hardware business grow out of the Round Hill Woodworks?

3325 Second Avenue South. Healy built this house in 1898 for Robert M McGivern for the modest price of $2,500. I have always been curious about this house; Healy never built anything else like it that I am aware of. Is this a copy of the house from Round Hill built by his brother John (shown above) that he lived in when he was first married?– A.C.
— A.C.

 

Theron Potter Healy was born in Round Hill, Nova Scotia, Canada, on May 14th, 1844.  In 1866 he married Mary Anne Jefferson, also of Round Hill.  From what we can piece together, Healy started his career as a shipbuilder.  He moved to Halifax, where he continued in the shipbuilding trade. However, disaster struck in 1883, when one of the vessels he owned was lost in a storm. Because of this loss, and probably also because wooden ships were at the end of their commercial use, Healy picked up his growing family and moved to Minneapolis. Three years later his first house went up at 3137 Second Avenue South.

healy family
Theron and Mary Ann with their children. l-r back row: Alice, Charles, Dora, Lena; middle row: Reginald, T.P.,Mary Anne, Erena; front row: Birdie, Chester, Bessie.

(Thanks to the Halifax (NS) Public Library, info on the shipwreck that spurred T.P.’s move to the US–Vessel: Mary E. Banks, Type: Schooner (wood, 2 masts, 1 deck), Tonnage: 50.2, Length: 62.4′, Breadth: 17.6, Draft: 8′, Built at Barrington, NS, 1863, Date lost: August 30, 1883, Cause: Stranded during gale on shoals off L’Ardoise, Cape Breton, Value: vessel $1,500+ cargo $2,000, Owner: Theron Healy.)


Much research remains to be done on Healy’s work in Canada.  Round Hill is a small community on the Annapolis River, off the Bay of Fundy on Nova Scotia’s west coast.  Here are images from Round Hill currently on the Web:

gothic rh
This vernacular Gothic Revival house in rural Round Hill is listed for sale at $198,.000.  No building date is given, but its style suggests it was built mid-19th century.  Shown at right is its barn with the gambrel roof Healy used so frequently in his later designs.
TopOfSpurrRoad
The Annapolis Valley from Round Hill in autumn.

–T.B.