Henry M Homuth (1840 - 1906) was a German immigrant at a young age. He lived in Indiana and served in an Indiana regiment during the Civil War. He located in Bloomington after the Civil War and entered into the saloon and restaurant business. He first lived on Chestnut Street, near the C & A station above his restaurant/saloon/ice cream parlor. In January of 1881 a little girl from Mason County rode into Bloomington on a freight train on the Jacksonville line. She was taken in charge by Mr. Andrus of the C & A station and he entrusted her to Mr. Homuth, where she was fed and taken care of until her Uncle John Davidson of McLean County could be found. The girl said her mother, a woman in Bath, IL had sent her to her uncle via the freight train. It would have been a very cold ride in the deepest part of an Illinois winter!
In February 1888 Henry Homuth opened what would be one of the most beautiful saloons in Bloomington at 112 E Front Street. He called it the Sevilla Saloon. It had all marble floors, steam heating and electric light. Elegant glass pictures graced the entrance to the saloon. After opening this saloon, the family lived over the saloon on Front Street.
In 1904 Henry and his wife lived at 108 W. Wood Street in the lovely Queen Anne house pictured above. This photo was taken only a short time before Henry's death in July of 1906. Henry and his wife, Josephine, had only a short time to enjoy life in their grand new home together. They had two sons, Arthur, who died in Bloomington at the age of 25 and William, who moved to California and died in 1939. The house was one of those destroyed so that a filling station could be erected on Wood Street.