Horace Chapin Henry (October 6, 1844Snowden, p. 103 – June 28, 1928) was an early

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

businessman and founder of the

Henry Art Gallery The Henry Art Gallery ("The Henry") is a contemporary art museum located on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, Washington. Located on the west edge of the university's campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the University District, it wa ...

and Firland Tuberculosis Hospital.

Biography

He was born at the Henry House in

Bennington, Vermont Bennington is a New England town, town in Bennington County, Vermont, Bennington County, Vermont, United States. It is one of two shire towns (county seats) of the county, the other being Manchester (town), Vermont, Manchester. As of the 2020 ...

in October, 1844. He left Norwich Military School (better known as

Norwich University Norwich University – The Military College of Vermont is a private senior military college in Northfield, Vermont. It is the oldest private and senior military college in the United States and offers bachelor's and master's degrees on-campus ...

) at age 18, serving as a First Sergeant, 14th Vermont Infantry in the Second Vermont Brigade which was in the center of the line repulsing

Pickett's Charge Pickett's Charge (July 3, 1863), also known as the Pickett–Pettigrew–Trimble Charge, was an infantry assault ordered by Confederate General Robert E. Lee against Major General George G. Meade's Union positions on the last day of the B ...

at the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...

in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. After the war he was a partner in Henry & Balch working on railroad construction in the Midwest. He moved to Seattle in 1890 to work on the

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by 38th United States Congress, Congress in 1864 and given ...

's belt line around

Lake Washington Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It borders the cities of Seattle on the west, ...

, and later the Great Northern Railway's route from

Stevens Pass Stevens Pass (elevation ) is a mountain pass through the Cascade Range, Cascade Mountains located at the border of King County, Washington, King County and Chelan County, Washington, Chelan County in Washington (state), Washington, United States. ...

in the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

to Everett on

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

. In 1906 he won a $20 million contract to build 450 miles of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul line from the Montana-Idaho border across

Snoqualmie Pass Snoqualmie Pass is a mountain pass that carries Interstate 90 (I-90) through the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Washington. The pass summit is at an elevation of , on the county line between Kittitas County and King County. Snoqualmie Pass ...

to Seattle, which was completed in 1909. Seventy-one years after its completion, the Pacific Extension was abandoned by the Milwaukee Road due to bankruptcy. Henry's 1901 home in the Harvard-Belmont District on Seattle's Capitol Hill was the first of many Victorian, Neo-classical, Colonial Revival, and Tudor Revival houses built in the early part of the century. It is noteworthy for having been built with a five-car garage at a time when automobiles were a novelty in Seattle. He was president of the Metropolitan Bank and National Bank of Commerce in Seattle, and formed

Pacific Creosoting Company Pacific Creosoting Company was a company founded on Bainbridge Island that treated logs with creosote as a preservative. History It began operations as The Perfection Pile Preserving Company in 1904. It moved in 1905 to Eagle Harbor at Winslow ...

Bainbridge Island Bainbridge Island is a city and island in Kitsap County, Washington. It is located in Puget Sound. The population was 23,025 at the 2010 census and an estimated 25,298 in 2019, making Bainbridge Island the second largest city in Kitsap County. ...

in 1906. A tanker which supplied creosote from Europe to this plant was named the ''H.C. Henry'' and was sunk by a German submarine in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

on September 28, 1915. In 1911, after the death of a son to tuberculosis, he donated land and funds to open Henry Sanatorium in Seattle, later renamed Firland Tuberculosis Hospital. He was an investor in, and vice president of, the Metropolitan Building Company, which developed the Metropolitan Tract in Seattle. The 11-story Henry Building there was named for him. For his personal contributions and efforts to collect funds for the Fatherless Children of France, a charity for wartime

orphan An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...

s, he was awarded the

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

medal in 1920. He donated his art collection, which he formerly kept at his home and opened to the public for display, to the University of Washington in 1926 and donated the funds to build a new gallery to house the collection, which was to be the

. Henry died in his sleep in his Seattle home on June 28, 1928 and is buried at

Lake View Cemetery Lake View Cemetery is a privately owned, nonprofit garden cemetery located in the cities of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, and East Cleveland in the U.S. state of Ohio. Founded in 1869, the cemetery was favored by wealthy families during the Gil ...

in Seattle.

After his life

In 1934, his sons donated land (including his original house) to the city for construction of a library. This was swapped for a smaller parcel closer to the Broadway shopping district, to become the Susan J. Henry branch of the Seattle Public Library, named for his wife. The branch was rebuilt and renamed in 2003 to the Capitol Hill Branch.Capitol Hill Branch (SPL) The Snoqualmie Pass route was converted to a

Rail Trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

after Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul went bankrupt in 1980. See

Iron Horse State Park Iron Horse State Park, part of the Washington State Park System, is a state park located in the Cascade Mountains and Yakima River Valley, between Cedar Falls on the west and the Columbia River on the east. The park is contiguous with a ...

. Eagle Harbor was designated a

superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...

site in 1987 due to pollution from the creosote plant. See

Notes

References

* *
Seattle: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary
US National Park Service *Extracted fro

at naval-history.net * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, Horace Chapin 1844 births 1928 deaths American bankers 19th-century American railroad executives History of Seattle Businesspeople from Seattle People of Vermont in the American Civil War 2nd Vermont Brigade Union Army soldiers Norwich University alumni