The old-world elegance of The Denny House owes a lot to the life and times of two of the three “Denny girls” who went abroad to leave their mark on the world and returned home to share what they found as lovers of the arts, especially music.
Father Eleazor Luce, a successful businessman from the oil boom days of the 1890s, could provide his girls all the advantages of education and financial security they would need to succeed in a 20th century world. Middle sister Josephine would travel abroad like her sisters. She would be content to stay single, become a math teacher and return home to Waynesburg to teach “her little lambs” at Waynesburg High School while continuing to do good work in the community she grew up in.
Not so Mary and Helen. For them the world beyond Waynesburg was waiting to be explored and the adventures they had would make Denny House the Edwardian time capsule you see today.
When E.L Denny died suddenly from pneumonia in 1910, Mary was 19 and was perusing degrees in art and music from Waynesburg College. She stayed home through World War I with her mother and younger sisters and served as secretary of the Red Cross. Then off to Europe, per her mother’s wishes, to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the American School of Music in Fontainebleau, France. Mary studied music composition with the best of them and became an accomplished pianist and composer.
Her work can be found not only at The Denny House but several universities, including Waynesburg University where she was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in 1954.
It would take the melodious baby sister Helen, born in 1896, to connect the dots of education and the arts with the fire of love. Helen found teachers to turn her natural talents into a rich soprano, noted for its control, intelligence and understanding. Helen would perform in operas and on Westinghouse Radio, singing faultlessly in three languages and toured with Defeo Grand Opera Company. Family history tells us that operagoer Willis George Howard was so smitten that he divorced his wife to be with Helen.
Helen Denny Howard continued singing and taught music in Chicago for the rest of her career. Sister Mary became part of the Chicago scene when she accepted an invitation from Helen to attend a ball and met the recently widowed Charles Weaver who had made his fortune in the meat packing industry.
Mr. Weaver was happy to marry Mary and adopt the Denny family as his own and share his wealth with them.
Mary and Helen continued traveling abroad, finding art and antique treasures to buy and when widowed brought their collections with them to their family home on 145 W. High Street.
