CASPER — A 9,500-square-foot home billed as the “biggest and most luxurious private mansion in the state” when completed in 1924 is available for the seventh time in its history.
The W.F. Henning Mansion at 1108 S. Wolcott St. has lion sculptures guarding the front door, oak floors, several French doors, an original dining room table, a built-in basem*nt safe and a lot of 1920s-era wood craftsmanship that is nearly impossible to duplicate.
It also has an original tile roof that has weathered Wyoming wind and storms.
“I walked in here, and I said, ‘I’m in Versailles,’” said current owner Linda Cox, who with husband Bob Wolfgram has owned the mansion since November 2018. The couple has recently put it back on the market in an attempt to downsize, listing it for about $1.8 million.
Real estate agent Jason Lewis of LPT Realty points to the ceiling of the home’s massive entry hall that boasts ceramic detail work and artistic dentil and crown molding all along its edges. Three sets of French doors open to the front reception room with checkered marble floors.
The living room has a huge chandelier, French doors going off to an enclosed side porch, and a massive fireplace.
“It was a true custom-built home specifically built for him — being and elite person in Casper,” he said.
The Man
Welker F. “Bill” Henning arrived in Casper at 25 years old from Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife, Lucille. Together they ran his plumbing and heating firm. He obtained city contracts to install water and sewer lines for much of Casper.
In an archive review, his ads for plumbing services first started showing up in Casper newspaper pages in 1909.
A Dec. 19, 1911, advertisem*nt in the Casper Record encourages residents to “let Henning do the work and feel that you are not putting your family’s health in jeopardy.”
“He has handled nearly all the big heating and plumber contracts in town and each job is a recommendation in itself for his skill and careful workmanship,” the ad says. “If you think installing a hot water or steam heating plant, see Henning at once. It will be a substantial saving.”
His July 30, 1948, obituary says he lost money on his first city contract due to misjudging the character of Casper’s soil and the materials needed to shore up pipe pits. But he completed the job, apparently gained the confidence of officials, and kept getting city contracts that would boost his business and wealth.
Henning also stepped in to save the Midwest Hotel in town, and he went on to build an addition to it, rename it after himself and manage the Henning Hotel in a way that made it the center for oil and cattle industry deals through much of the early part of the past century.
When Henning and his wife built their home, an article in Casper Sunday Tribune quoted Henning as saying that while apprenticing in Louisville, Kentucky, he had often worked in beautiful homes and wondered if he would ever own one.
“Before building this new place, my wife and I went in all parts of the country and saw many places, and we have tried to combine all he best features in our home,” he said.
‘Cool’ Design
Lewis has copies of the architectural blueprints for the home that show those “best features.” The plumbing and heating man understood the need for ventilation in a time when air conditioning was not yet invented. All the second-floor bedrooms have doors that open to a balcony to let in a night breeze and provide cross ventilation.
The office and library in the home still has a nameplate for Henning installed above a door that leads to a side porch. The office has heating vents on the side of the room with a bench above allowing for someone to sit and read in comfort. The office also contains one of several fireplaces in the mansion.
All the fireplaces are fired by gas, except one in the basem*nt that still uses wood. Also in the basem*nt, the plumber made sure he had a fire protection system that includes a fire hose and nozzle with special water line.
The basem*nt reveals the home's sturdy construction with steel posts that Lewis explained were used to create tension and keep the floor level. Also in the basem*nt is evidence of the old knob and tube wiring that has been replaced throughout the home.
The 1924 Casper Sunday Tribune labels the basem*nt area a “ballroom." It is spacious. In one corner sits an original bar and in the other an original poker table with tiny chairs.
The entrance to the boiler room is a heavy steel door and inside there is a slightly bigger than coffin-size rectangular cement hole a couple of feet deep in the floor. The room has two little slot windows, the lower one cut out the cement sometime after construction. It has bars and looks out onto the bottom steps that descend from the back courtyard.
“This place was a speakeasy back in the day,” Wolfgram surmised. “Why would he want to have a serious door down here?”
He believes cement hole in the floor of the room could at one time have been a tunnel entrance that was covered.
The 1924 article mentions that Henning installed two heating systems, one gas and one coal.
In addition to the boiler room, the basem*nt also has what the architectural drawings showed to be a “vegetable” room with slanted floors to a drain where produce was likely prepared. The room connects to the kitchen from a back stairway. The lower level includes a huge laundry room as well as a half bath.
The Second Floor
A winding staircase leads from the entry hall to a second floor with three bedrooms. Another chandelier looms over the large hall and doors to each bedroom. All bedrooms have their own bathrooms. A closet off the hall contains a washer and dryer.
Off the master bedroom is a large bathroom with a walk-in shower and separate spa-like tub.
Throughout the house the door hardware, lighting fixtures and wood floors are original to Henning’s day. There are also some sinks that that are original to the house.
Cox and Wolfgram discovered stationery and old matchbook covers from the Henning Hotel in the drawer of the dining room’s display table. The same table used by the Hennings is available for the next owner.
Modern kitchen appliances sit in the kitchen space where the dinnerware cabinets are all original and well kept. There are also insets in a kitchen wall for a former intercom system that likely once was needed to communicate with house staff.
In the rear of the mansion, a three-car garage sits under an apartment used by the Henning’s support staff. It too, has modern appliances but retains the character and quality of the era, with interesting little side nooks with windows.
Henning died in the house from a heart attack in 1948, according to his obituary. He and Lucille had divorced in 1927. Both of their obituaries stated that they were not ones to have a social life and throw parties in the mansion.
Subsequent owners did use the house for fundraising purposes or parties.
In later years, the house would be mentioned in the local newspaper through various eras as a spot for an initiation ceremony for the Natrona County High School Mustang Club of young ladies in 1955, a Casper Republican Club Tea in 1967 and a Trooper Christmas House Fundraiser in December 1988.
Cox said they also held a fundraiser for a local art group at the house.
A Feb. 21, 1961, the Casper Star-Tribune front-page obituary for Lucille Henning states that the house was built and furnished for about $400,000. In 2024, that figure would be $7 million.
Lewis said the house, currently priced at $1.8 million, could not be replaced for that kind of money.
“It would cost an astronomical amount of money to replace when you start looking at multiple French doors, multiple transit windows and true brick,” he said.
On the front iron gate next to the sidewalk, there is a sign stating that the mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The mansion is available for walk through by appointment for pre-qualified buyers, Lewis said.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
