State Del. Marcus Simon appeared before the Falls Church City Council Monday to present a proclamation approved by both houses of the Virginia General Assembly commending the historic Henderson House on S. Maple in Falls Church, constructed 100 years ago last fall, as “a beacon for the rich cultural heritage of Falls Church.”
The framed proclamation was presented by Del. Simon to Ed and Nikki Henderson, current residents of the house, Ed being the grandson of its builder, Dr. E.B. Henderson and his wife, Mary Ellen Henderson. The house was granted an historic designation by the City of Falls Church in 1993, and was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places last year. The Henderson family, as documented in the proclamation, owned land in the neighborhood since 1864, and the home built in 1913 was a model number 225 Sears Kit Home from the 1911 Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog. From there, in response to the passage of segregationist legislation, Dr. Henderson and Joseph Tinner founded the Colored Citizens Protective League, which was authorized to act as a standing committee of the NAACP in 1915 and in 1918 became the first rural chapter of the NAACP in the nation. The ordinance was nullified after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1917.
The proclamation included detailed histories of both Dr. and Mrs. Henderson, the local middle school in Falls Church being named for Mrs. Henderson in 2005.
