The university president, Edward Kidder Graham, took great pains to draw leading thinkers and educational revolutionaries to Chapel Hill. In 1914, a young, idealistic Canadian arrived at the university, which began to tout itself as the "intellectual citadel of the South."

George K.G. Henry was one of these ambitious young men who came with new ideas and a skeptical wife, Mary Elizabeth Hoarding, and children. Soon after he arrived, Henry began teaching Latin at the university and eventually was appointed assistant registrar at Wilson Library in 1923.

Born in Tarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1876, Henry immigrated to the United States aboard the vessel Prince Albert in 1890. He arrived in Boston harbor in high spirits, eager to learn, and made his way to New York. There he attended school at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., and joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity.

Henry did not petition for naturalization until 1920, after he was fully settled in Chapel Hill. In his sworn naturalization application, he stated that he arrived in Boston on Sept. 5, 1890. As part of his oath to enter the country, Henry declared that he was "not an anarchist, polygamist, or believer in the act of polygamy," clearly showing he upheld all true American values.

There is an inconsistency in regard to Henry's immigration, though. A 1930 census of Chapel Hill recorded that Henry came to the United States in 1886, not 1890 like Henry swore in his naturalization. Both statements would have been given by Henry himself, so it is unclear why different accounts exist.

The charm of Chapel Hill quickly won over the Henry family. George seemed to like the idea of becoming a Tar Heel and, in 1918, built a home at 213 N. Boundary St. He gave the university steadfast service for the next two decades until his death in 1941. He is buried in good company; in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, alongside many other influential Tar Heels forever linking him to the university he loved.

After Henry's death, the house continued to be called home by professors. Mary Henry owned the home until her death in 1966. The Henrys' daughter, who was also a professor, lived in the house after that.

Many of the original stylistic choices and loving touches that the Henrys chose are still in place. The original hearth-pine floors retain their rustic charm, and the carriage lights on the porch are the same ones that were put in when the house was built. The stone bird bath and benches in the backyard also date back to the time when the Henry family lounged around their new Carolina home.