I Love This Place: The Denny House

The pair of lion sculptures that guard the stoop of the elegant house at 145 W. High St., Waynesburg let you know that this is a stately bit of the Victorian Age, lovingly preserved by those who have owned it since the last original family member, 99-year-old Josephine Denny, died in 1992.

The Denny House has been here since pre-Civil War days, when muddy main streets were filled with wagons, buggies and animals on their way to market. The original two story brick dwelling, built in 1836, lies hidden within the additions, porches and three-story facade that Eleazer Luse Denny (1866-1910) added to the family home as his wealth grew during the gas and oil boom of the 1890s. Denny opened a hardware store in 1887 at age 21, as Waynesburg was becoming the shopping hub of the county. His inventory of Champion mowers and reapers and Johnson rakes was a hit with farmers – historian G. Wayne Smith reports that 40 satisfied customers once “paraded all his farm machines up High Street”, then stayed for a special dinner at the Downey House. Denny married Waynesburg College grad Louise Ingram in 1890 and by 1896 the couple had three daughters: Mary, Josephine and Helen. The family’s fortune was made the next year when a well that Denny and C.H. Bowlby invested in came in as a “gusher.”  Denny’s reputation as a savvy broker in gas and coal leases was off and running.

By 1902, workmen were busy adding the three story facade with its Flemish design to the Denny house. Its parapets were appointed with terra cotta and opened into a vestibule tiled in hand done mosaics, then on to rooms and rooms of Victorian finery.

No expense was spared – trim, stairways, balusters and wainscoting throughout the house were rare, quarter-sawn tiger oak; parlor walls were covered in hand painted canvas and hand painted motifs decorated the ceilings. There were one-of-a-kind terra cotta fireplaces, and the ornate chandelier was a stunning feature in the front parlor. 

Denny died of pneumonia on a business trip to Pittsburgh on October 2, 1910 at age 44, leaving his wife and daughters to maintain the estate and carry on his legacy of quiet philanthropy to the benefit of the community, especially Waynesburg College and the children of Greene County needing a leg up in life.

The Denny House décor, including a custom stained-glass window in honor of the god of music is a testament to the family’s love of the arts, education, and historic preservation. The girls graduated from Waynesburg College then set off on careers, marriages and European forays to buy world class antiques, art and collectibles to furnish the home where they would all someday return to live out their days.

When the Denny estate was settled in 1992, the collection was valued at $250,000.

When Bob Gross of Morgantown joined the team at Consol’s Bailey Mine in 1997, he and wife Pat fell in love with the house that was again on the market.  They bought it and for the next decade devoted themselves to restoring every nook and cranny to its original Victorian splendor, both as a home and as a bed and breakfast, with Victorian teas on the itinerary. The time was right – America was falling in love with historic sleep overs as the 21st century looked back in appreciation of less complicated times, rich in handcrafted detail and elegant excesses. The lush Victorian gardens and porches shaded by old wisteria vines were an invitation to relax and relish a forgotten moment in time.

It took the recession of 2006 to close the doors of the Denny House and by 2010 the elegantly re-restored house was ready for its next back to the future moment. It came when Mined Mines, a business geared towards retraining coal miners to learn coding and ready themselves for a new job market, bought it.  The company owners moved in and converted the big carriage house beyond the garden into classroom space. The economy was changing and so was the character of Waynesburg. The Marcellus shale boom was bringing in new job opportunities as Emerald Mine stopped production and the west side of town lost the noisy backdrop of its operations. Budding entrepreneurs took advantage of empty storefronts to bring in new eateries and places to shop new trends. The First Baptist Church purchased Belko Foods and started Capital Campaign 2021 to build The Way, a state-of-the-art community center. And the Denny House was on the market once more.  

“As soon as we walked in, my husband and I fell in love with it. We had to have it!”

New owner Pam Marisa is taking me on a tour of the house, grounds and carriage house that she and husband Kent purchased in May and are busy refurbishing. The restorations done by Bob and Pat Gross are period piece perfect; what’s left to do is mostly clean up and install additional niceties like a wine cellar in one of the two basements and redecorate the still almost empty rooms on all three floors with furniture and fabrics to match the mood. The Denny House is on its way to becoming a Victorian venue once more, ready for people to book bridal and baby showers, or special events or a weekend getaway to scenic, historic Greene County. 

“It’s like a museum and we want to keep the history of the Denny family alive. Our interior decorators are in Savannah, Georgia now purchasing fabric and pieces to fit the period,” Pam says.

The Marisas are part of a growing partnership of businesses offering event venues around the county, with lodging available to visitors that will bring more hotel tax revenue to tourism. 

“We can team up. We’re collaborating with Valley View Farms so that guests can come here for the rehearsal dinner and we’ll have a bridal suite and other rooms available,” Pam notes. “I think if we all work together we can do something cool. It’s something I want to be a part of.” 

The carriage house renovation into a place to hold private events, concerts and receptions is in the works and the Marisas plan on holding their grand opening sometime in October.

Stay tuned. The best is yet to come.