County tour to feature three historic homes and church

Editor?s note: This is the first in a series of four articles promoting the Tour of Historic Places in Henry County, June 19, and featuring a different building on the tour each week.

Area residents will be given the opportunity to view a unique country church, two stone homes over a century old and one Queen Anne home of wood-frame construction during the Tour of Historic Places in Henry County.

All four structures were researched by architectural historian Rebecca McCarley of SPARK Consulting of Davenport and submitted to the National Register of Historic Places. The four buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

One of the more unique structures on the tour will be a stone house, located at 3225 Lexington Ave., near the Skunk River. Hugh and Matilda Boyle, the first owners of the home, came to Iowa from Indiana in the 1840s.

The Boyle family home consists of two stories built on a ?walk-out? basement, making it a total of three stories. The basement had two rooms, one originally being a post office and the other a store, operated by the Boyle family who had the house built by 1850. The main floor of the house had four rooms, each with a fireplace. The walls are 18-21 inches thick. The top floor consists of bedrooms.

In 1950 and 1951, the Meyers family added plumbing and electricity throughout, with a small bathroom added between the kitchen and bedroom on the first floor.

Further changes have been made to the interior by the current residents ? the Hightower family ? but the exterior remains the same as it originally was built, which is essential for acceptance into the National Register of Historic Places.

H. Boyle constructed a dam and mill on the Skunk River and acquired a franchise to operate a ferry across the river. The mill was used to grind grain, saw lumber and process fiber into yarn or cloth by carding, fulling and dressing.

When the workers needed to run the mill and ferry, the area became known as Boyles? town or Boyleston. Northwest of the house and up the hill is a small cemetery. H. Boyle died in 1854 at age 44. His widow later moved to Union, Mo., where she lived with her son, James.

Another stone house on the tour was built in the 1860s and is located at 1735 Salem Road. The property, consisting of 80 acres, was purchased by Joseph and Lydia Edwards in 1841. The Edwards family, which also consisted of two children, came from New York to Iowa and added five more children after they settled in Henry County.

The Queen Anne wood-frame house is located at 1878 335th St., and has been in the Garretson family since 1837. This is also the location of East Grove Winery, specializing in elderberry wines.

Completing the tour is the country church, officially named ?Benjamin Chapel.? The church is located south of Wayland at 1936 Franklin Ave. Adjacent to the church is the historic Richwoods Cemetery.

There are two ?commissions for historic preservation? in the area. One is specifically for the City of Mt. Pleasant, and the other is for the remainder of Henry County ? rural areas and smaller towns.

The Tour of Historic Places will be from 1:30-4 p.m. Sunday, June 19. There is no charge for the tour, and visitors may go from one address to another in whatever order they choose. A member of the Henry County Historical Preservation Commission will be at each location, with all the buildings open ? both exterior and interior ? for tour participants to view.