Built in 1907 for Hyman Friedman and Blossom Mae Joseph Friedman, this residence reflects the union of a New Orleans–born merchant who later prospered in Natchez, Louisiana, and a daughter of the Solomon and Sarah Joseph family of Gonzales. Hyman was born December 30, 1879. Blossom was born May 19, 1889. Married on July 30, 1907, they first planned to honeymoon through several Texas cities before returning to Natchez, but chose instead to settle in Gonzales, where Hyman became a respected local merchant and civic presence.
The house rose the same year on a vacant lot north of the Joseph residence, a parcel owned by Blossom’s family. Hyman marked the new household with a personal landscape gesture, returning to Natchez to collect four native catalpa trees and planting them at the property. Community memory recalls that two of those trees survived into 1999, a living link to the couple’s first year in the home.
Tragedy struck on February 16, 1923, when Hyman died of ptomaine poisoning. His funeral, conducted with full Masonic honors, was among the largest in Gonzales at the time, and he was buried in the Gonzales Jewish Cemetery. Blossom lived until November 12, 1978 and is buried beside him. She bequeathed the house to a close friend, who remained in residence until 1999.