Henry Schafer, a rancher, built this ornate home in 1928. The home is a combination of English Regency and Georgian styles. The rounded entryway is Regency, with a large balconied portico. Georgian elements of design include the quoins on the corners, large side lights, a distinctive belt course, and a pedimented gable framing the entry.

Henry was born February 12, 1869, in Germany. His family came to America in 1875 and settled in Kansas. He came to Oklahoma City in 1889 and settled on a farm near El Reno. He steadily accumulated farmland and invested in a succession of business ventures such as the Canadian Mill and Elevator Company, the El Reno Inner Urban Railway Company, the Southern Hotel in El Reno, the El Reno Brick and Tile Company, the Oklahoma and Western Railway Company, and several banks in western Oklahoma and Texas.

His best investment, however, was 13,000 acres of ranch land in the Texas Panhandle, which he bought in 1917. Ten years later, oil was discovered on the land and soon he had 238 producing oil wells. With this good fortune, Henry left the ranch and built this home on 15th Street. Henry died December 17, 1951, at age 82.

In 1951 the home was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Mills. A native of Texas, Mills was a noted attorney who moved to the Indian Territory in 1902 and to Oklahoma City in 1904. During his career he wrote two authoritative books, Law of Oil and Gas and Oklahoma Indian Law. After moving into the home on 15th, Mrs. Mills remodeled the interior and built a walled garden.

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