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The Only Mansion I Ever Slept in With My Mule: The Grisso Henderson Mansion

Published September 9, 2004

I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.

The Grisso Henderson Mansion in Seminole, Oklahoma, on the National Register of Historic Places — The Grisso Henderson Mansion, Seminole, Oklahoma.

I was riding into Seminole, Oklahoma on a Tuesday evening with Woody and Maggie with the usual question on my mind: where were we going to sleep?

Then I spotted the mansion. It sat on a low rise next to the road, like something a cowboy might dream up after too long in the saddle: tiled roof, bronze statues, fountains catching the afternoon light and not a splintered piece of barn wood in sight.

I rode up to the mansion and introduced myself to a cheery-looking guy poking around the garden with one of those things that you pick up golf balls with. I figured he was the gardener, so I asked him if I thought the owner would let me spend the night there.

He said, “That’d probably be okay,” and introduced himself. He was Kenneth Henderson, and he and his wife Rose owned the mansion.

Oofff.

Kenneth and Rose were incredibly generous hosts. Woody, Maggie and I needed some time off the road and they said we were welcome to stay as long as we needed. Four days later, Woody and Maggie had eaten all his pears and I’d slept in a bed so wide my feet didn’t hang over.

Here’s what Kenneth shared with me about the Grisso Henderson Mansion, one of Oklahoma’s hidden gems and a stop on the National Register of Historic Places.

W.E. Grisso built the mansion as a dream home for his wife Maggie. Construction started in 1926 and wrapped up in 1928, just in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

Grisso was a man who believed in Oklahoma’s future. He was a physician, a pharmacist, a rancher, an oilman and a land conservationist. He was also the driving force behind building State Highway 48, now State Highway 99 and US 377, and he campaigned hard across the state for better roads and highways.

Grisso family members lived in the mansion from 1928 right up until 1976, when Maggie Grisso’s health failed and the house was sold. Several families owned it after that, each making improvements and keeping it up. Then Kenneth Henderson took over and began a serious restoration. The house sits on four acres of terraced landscape, the original site of the Grisso farm.

Kenneth added a matching six-car garage with heat, air conditioning and a three-quarter bath. One stall was built large enough to accommodate a motor home. Other outbuildings handle storage and keep the sprinkler system running. A two-story garage and servants quarters sits at the back of the property.

The mansion cost $750,000 to build and has 26 rooms. The walnut doors are hand-carved, nine feet tall and over two inches thick. The ironwork was handmade. Floors are covered with imported tile or wood parquet. Rugs were hand-crafted in England. Each room carries a slightly different theme and the sconces match the fixtures throughout.

Door sills are brass. Guttering outside is solid copper. Interior doors are extra thick and the walls, built of hollow tile, brick and plaster, run fifteen inches deep and are reinforced with steel bracing in places.

The Moorish woodwork is black walnut with roses carved into door frames and ceiling tiles. Most window sills are imported marble. Brightly colored ceramic tile covers the kitchen and baths. The house has eight fireplaces, though all run on gas. Mrs. Grisso, family members say, carried wood for heating and cooking all her life and she never wanted to see another stick of firewood.

The home is built around a central courtyard with a greenhouse, fish pond and storm cellar. Living room windows rise two stories high and are draped in pale green. Your eyes go straight to the enormous brass chandelier hanging in the two-story cathedral ceiling. The entry door faces a working fountain set into the wall and framed by Italian tile.

A curving stairway leads up to a long hallway lined with minstrel balconies overlooking the downstairs. The main floor includes a music room with crystal chandelier, a sunny yellow kitchen, butler’s pantry, sunroom, dining room large enough for a serious dinner party, half bath and breakfast room.

Upstairs, the guest bedroom has its own full bath with heated towel racks, a dressing room and cedar-lined closets. The master bedroom has a walk-in cedar closet with pull-outs for hangers and drawers, a sitting room with views of the grounds and a study with access to a second-story patio.

The full basement holds a large laundry and drying room, a room-size cedar closet for off-season storage, a kitchen, a game room with a full-size pool table and a guest bedroom with two queen beds and a bath. The main feature of the basement, though, is the ballroom with a hardwood dance floor and a raised wood parquet stage for a small orchestra.

Woody and Maggie never made it inside. But they did get the pears.

For the full story of how I ended up spending four nights at the Grisso Henderson Mansion, read I Mistook the Owner for the Gardener.

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