2109 Kane

This house on lot 9 consists of two rectangular Gulf Coast Colonial cottages fused together to form a larger house.  John Sweeney, the superintendent of an oil mill, owned 3 lots on the SW corner of Henderson and Kane, and in 1892 he built a grand 2-story house on the two corner lots (7 & 8).  He had previously lived on those two lots with his wife and mother-in-law.  A reasonable conjecture is that he and his mother-in-law lived in separate small houses, that he moved both of them to his other lot (lot 9) in 1892 to make room for his new house, and that he combined them to form one larger house.  The two small houses were probably built in the late 1870's.

Felix Szydlik and his wife Willie lived at 2109 Kane from about 1950 until his death in 1991.  It was Mrs. Szydlik who called the fire department at 4:15 AM on August 26, 1956.  John Sweeney's grand house was destroyed by fire; it had been divided into apartments, and 6 people died.

In 2011 Taryn Kinney and Michael Morrow received a Good Brick award from Preservation Houston "for the renovation of their historic house (1876) in the Old Sixth Ward".  It was on the Good Brick tour in 2019.

For additional historical details click here.