Barbara Brennan dreamed about the house at 404 Kenwood since the first time she saw it.

Brennan and her husband, Mike, lived in Enid from 1997 to 2001, and she often passed the house, hoping someone would renovate it and sell it.

When the family moved to Wyoming in 2001, she continued to think about it. In the meantime, her son, John, and his wife, Sarah, moved into 320 W. Elm, down the block from what is known as the Zacharias house. Sarah, a real estate agent, kept the Brennans updated about the house on Kenwood.

Mr. Zacharias was a banker in the Enid area and prospered through most of the Depression era. The house was built about 1910. When the dust storms came in the late 1930s, he lost everything except his house.

The house is one of six that will be featured Saturday during the Kenwood Historic District Holiday Homes Tour. The tour will be 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the tour are $10 and may be purchased at Brown-Cummings Funeral Home, 400 W. Maple; Huffman Floral, 1511 N. Grand; Uptown Florist, 823 W. Broadway; Willow Plaza Floral, 2311 W. Willow; Changes Hair Group, 604. N. Van Buren; and any of the homes open on the tour.

In addition to the homes tour, Tisha Branstetter will host a special Tea for Three at her house, 424 W. Pine. The tea will be 3 to 4 p.m. Saturday, and reservations are required by calling 237-3551 or 237-5432. The event — an old-fashioned Christmas tea — is for girls, their dolls and one of their favorite adults. It will feature treats, tea-time manners and Enid history. Cost is $10. Cost for the homes tour and the tea is $18. Additional adults for the tea are $6.

A few years ago Robby Bangs, a local contractor, bought the Zacharias house, which was only a few months away from being torn down. Bangs and his family worked at the house every day, sometimes 12 hours a day for 10 months to restore it.

There were times Bangs was overwhelmed by the job, times when he had to step back and look at it before starting again. Some times he had to make pieces he needed, because they cannot be purchased any more. In some places upstairs, the floor had been removed and there were only planks.

The historic home had been remodeled and used as apartments in the late 1960s and during the oil boom of the early 1980s.

“When they built the apartments, they destroyed the integrity of the home,” Bangs said. “They didn’t care what they cut or where they cut. I had to do a lot of framing, plus the roof had leaked for years.”

Bangs loves historic homes and has developed a sideline of purchasing, restoring and selling them. He doesn’t take the easy way out, he said. He wants to preserve the integrity of the homes.

“I’m not interested in just putting on some paint and ‘flipping’ the house,” he said. “I want an old house on its last legs and save it from the wrecking ball.”

When the Brennans returned to Enid, they made an offer on the house and bought it.

“We had looked at old houses in three states, and we finally came back to Enid where this one is and because we had family here,” Barbara Brennan said. They still have two daughters in Wyoming.

Bangs said he replaced the roof, windows, heat and air and many of the other necessities of the house. He once had as many as five electricians working in the house at the same time.

“The biggest job is getting trash out. We went through 17 bins full of junk,” he said.

The Brennans say they enjoy their house as much as they thought they would. Barbara’s favorite part is the woodwork, which she persuaded Bangs to stain instead of paint.

“I can stand on the staircase and wonder how many other people walked on it, what they looked like and what they were thinking about,” Bangs said.

Installation of insulation and new windows dropped the utility bills by as much as $250 a month.

The Brennans have been in the house for a month and still are getting used to it.

“I dreamed about this house,” she said.

The home is a two-story house that features a Prairie School style full-width porch. The centered front entrance is surrounded by two sidelights. To the right, the roof of the porch extends over a porte cochere, which leads to a detached garage in back. Uptown Floral will provide decorations.

Kenwood Historic District includes 95 buildings, most of which were built between 1985 and 1935. The district includes 11 blocks just northwest of the downtown area.

Other homes on the tour are:



402 W. Elm

Robby and Melissa Bangs



The two-story, single-family gable-front house, built around 1910, features transitional Victorian touches. The front gabled roof has a brick chimney on the right eave side. The eaves of the roof feature the faux exposed beams of the Victorian style. The full-length porch is of the Prairie School style.

The home was designed by A.A. Crowell, a prominent local architect, for John and Althea Murphy. John Murphy was president of First National Bank, which became Oklahoma State Bank.

Decorations are provided by Huffman Floral.



408 W. Elm

Sue Mason



This two-story, single-family Neoclassical home was designed by Crowell for Edmund and Grace Frantz in 1906. The exterior is red brick with white clapboard on the front gable of the porch. The hipped roof has chimneys on each side, with a front gable over the porch. They symmetrical facade is dominated by four evenly-spaced, fluted Ionic columns running from the foundation to the porch roof.

Decorations are provided by Enid Floral.

518 W. Pine

Marty Tydings



This home is a side-gabled Colonial form that has elements of Tudor design as well. It was built about 1909. A two-story home, the roof is side gabled, with a front gabled dormer.

The first-floor facade is balanced with a trio of windows on the left, consisting of one six-over-one window flanked on each side by a smaller four-over-one window.

The second floor facade has six-over-one windows arranged in a bay window setting. Tudor-style timbering and exposed beam ends can be found on the porch.



424 W. Pine

Taylor and Tisha Branstetter



This two-story brick home fits in the Prairie School style. The roof is hipped with side gables and each side and on each corner of the front. It was built around 1906.

The facade is symmetrical, with a central entrance. Side lights are flanked by two one-over-one hung windows. The second story features matching windows on the sides with two smaller windows over the entrance. The full-length porch has composite supports with stone bottoms and brick tops.

In 2003-04, the interior was completely renovated.



320 W. Elm

John and Sarah Brennan



The two-story American Foursquare style home will feature decorations by Willow Plaza Floral. It was built around 1908. The entrance on the left side of the home is balanced by a trio of large windows, with single windows balancing each side of the second story.

The roof nearly full-length porch has the flattened, pagoda-style edges of the Prairie School style.