Clothes from the 1920s are at the new exhibit at the McClendon House. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

The McClendon House is still revealing its stories.

Built in 1878, the two-story home at 806 W. Houston St. holds furnishings and items dating back to the early 1800s that belonged to the influential and politically active family who lived there.

Sarah McClendon (1910-2003), one of the first female news reporters to cover the White House, was raised there. McClendon’s career in Washington spanned from presidents Roosevelt to Clinton.

The McClendon House is located on land owned by Judge M.H. Bonner, a Texas State Supreme Court associate justice from 1878 to 1882. Bonner’s son-in-law and daughter, Harrison and Mattie Whitaker, built the house known for its fine furnishings and as the site of social gatherings.

The Whitakers sold the house to Mattie’s sister, Annie, and her husband, Sydney McClendon, who raised nine children there. Their youngest child was Sarah McClendon.

In 1981, two elderly family members donated the house to the Society for the Restoration and Historic Preservation of the Bonner-Whitaker-McClendon House, a nonprofit organization.

The house, a well-preserved example of Victorian-inspired architecture, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

McClendon House Society members later learned some of the family’s personal belongings were stored in several large boxes off-site, Daye Collins, a longtime board member, said.

Some of the items that had been stored are now on display in a new exhibit in the Archives Room on the second floor.

“These items have never been seen (by the public) before,” Collins said.

The exhibit covers the period after World War I, when Sydney and Annie McClendon lived in the house, and includes clothing worn by the women and cases filled with photographs, letters and documents.

It is a follow-up to a previous exhibit on the family during the war.

“This picks the story up where the other one left off,” Collins said. “It was a changing world.”

The exhibit draws attention to the work of Sydney as Democratic Party chairman in Smith County and Annie as an enthusiastic suffragette who took part in “Votes for Women” rallies, Collins said.

Photos show some of the McClendon daughters wearing the more revealing flapper-style dressers. Letters and papers chronicle the sons advancing post-war professional interests.

“This was what was going all over the United States,” Collins said.

Collins said items recovered from storage shed new light on experiences of the family and their contributions to society.

“We are still uncovering things (from the boxes),” Collins said.

There is enough new material to keep putting together exhibits chronicling the family’s lives through future decades, she said.

The McClendon House is open for tours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each Friday and Saturday. Group tours are arranged by calling 903-592-3533. Money from the tours is used to preserve the home.

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