Eleven Missouri Properties Earn Spots on National Register of Historic Places
Sept. 5, 2006

Story from Missouri Department of Natural Resources

JEFFERSON CITY, MO, SEPT. 5, 2006 -- Eleven Missouri properties have been added to the National Register of Historic Places, according to the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' State Historic Preservation Office.

The National Register is the federal list of historic buildings, structures, sites, districts and objects that are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering and culture. Since 1966, approximately 1,700 Missouri properties, representing more than 30,000 historic buildings and resources, have been listed in the Register. The following 11 properties were added to the National Register in the month of July.

The Thomas Hickman House is located on the grounds of the University of Missouri Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center in New Franklin, Howard County. Constructed circa 1821, it is one of the oldest houses in the county and an intact example of a "Georgian Cottage" house type. This house type was particularly popular in Virginia and Kentucky in the 18th century and was brought to Missouri in the early 19th century by settlers from these states. The house was constructed for Thomas Hickman, an early merchant of Franklin who moved his family to the area from Kentucky around 1818. The house is nominated for its architecture, which was noted by one architectural historian as "the most remarkable home in the county and indeed in Central Missouri."

The three buildings in the nominated Fifth and Main Historic District in Joplin, Jasper County, were constructed between 1903 and 1920. The largest and most prominent building in the district is the Christman's Department Store. Designed by August and Alfred Michaelis, the Christman's Department Store operated in the building from 1917 through the last decades of the 20th Century. In addition to its commercial significance, the building is a good example of the Chicago style of curtain wall architecture. Also included in the district is the Christman's Annex building, constructed c. 1903 and expanded c. 1920, and the Paramount Building, constructed c. 1912.

The Springfield Furniture Co. in Springfield, Greene County, was the city's dominant furniture manufacturing firm for nearly 50 years until it went out of business during World War II. A warehouse has been torn down but the two-building complex, the oldest portion of which dates from 1895, still looks much as it did when furniture was being manufactured there for dining rooms and kitchens. The spacious brick buildings are highly intact examples of the warehouse/industrial property type described in the "Historic and Architectural Resources of Springfield, Missouri" multiple property cover document.

Incorporated in 1851, the 20-acre Mount Mora Cemetery in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, was redesigned by W. Angelo Powell in 1872. Powell's design created a picturesque landscape typical of rural garden cemeteries and that was later enhanced by a planting plan developed by John Noyes in 1934. In addition to the landscaping, the cemetery is significant for the 30 historic mausoleums, many of which were influenced by Egyptian and Classical Revival architecture. "Mausoleum Row" has a grouping of 21 of these mausoleums, creating what has been called an Egyptianlike "city of the dead." The cemetery was the preferred burial place for the city's elite who could afford to hire architects and local artisans to design their grave markers, providing the cemetery with a significant collection of mortuary art.

The Bailey Family Farm Historic District in Lee's Summit, Jackson County, is a 15-acre tract consisting of a farmhouse, three barns, a workshop, a pumphouse and a water tank, plus a noncontributing guesthouse. Traditional patterns of land use and agricultural practices over an extended period of time are reflected in the agricultural landscape. The historic buildings and structures date from the 1880s through the 1940s. The district meets the registration requirements for an agricultural complex as described in the "Historic Resources of Lee's Summit, Missouri" multiple property cover document.

The Paris and Weaver Apartment Buildings of Kansas City, Jackson County, were constructed in 1912 for Willard B. Weaver. The two buildings are representative examples of the combined column colonnade apartment type in Kansas City. Characteristic of the apartment type, the two buildings feature prominent three-story porches supported by fluted and tapered Tuscan columns on square brick piers. Weaver's colonnaded apartments represent a trend in apartment construction in Kansas City that included modestly scaled buildings located on or near important thoroughfares or streetcar lines. Built primarily for the growing middle-class, these apartments were convenient to work places while providing more suburban residential settings.

Constructed in 1928 for local businessman Jacob Steinzeig, the Alana Apartment Hotel is an excellent example of a mixed-use corner neighborhood store. This type of property was constructed in Kansas City's growing neighborhoods during the early 20th century to provide residential opportunities and commercial services to local residents. Designed in the Tudor Revival style by architect Charles M. Williams, the Alana Apartment Hotel illustrates the adaptation of popular residential designs to commercial structures in an effort to blend with surrounding neighborhood development.

Constructed in 1922, the Studna Garage Building in Kansas City, Jackson County, is associated with the emergence of the automobile as a dominant mode of transportation in the early 20th century. The two-story brick commercial parking garage building consists of a main section constructed in 1922 and a 1926 addition. The building strongly reflects its historic appearance from the years when it provided space for the storage and service of automobiles. It is a good local example of the transportation resources property type described in the "Railroad Related Historic Commercial and Industrial Resources in Kansas City, Missouri" multiple property cover document.

An architect-designed creamery building constructed in 1903 and a brick stable dating from 1906 constitute the Pevely Dairy Co. Buildings in St. Louis (Independent City). Architect Ernest J. Hess designed the ornate main building for Martin Kerckhoff, whose Pevely Dairy Co. became a market leader in the city after its first large contract supplying milk for the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. Constructed during a time of increased health regulation and advances in sanitation, the building features intricate brickwork emerging from a pink granite base, with exaggerated glazed white terra cotta embellishments. The interior features several walls of glazed white brick. A third story was added to the original two-story building in 1912. Pevely vacated the building in 1917 when success necessitated the construction of a new and much larger facility.

The Colchester Apartments is one of the first luxury apartment buildings constructed in St. Louis (Independent City). The Colchester, featuring four units with single enclosed entrances and individual names, was designed in a Classical Revival style by Boston architect William H. Andrews. Prior to apartments like the Colchester, multifamily housing in St. Louis generally was in the form of tenements or rooming hotels, the latter primarily occupied by working-class bachelors. By contrast, the Colchester appealed to entrepreneurial families, prominent members of the upper middle class who were actively involved in the growth industries of the 20th century, and the nouveau riche. Each of the six-story brick building's sections is centered around a limestone entryway defined by fluted columns supporting an architrave inscribed with its name--Aberdeen, Bellevue, Colchester and Devonshire--on fleur-de-lis capitals. The Polar Wave Ice and Fuel Company, Plant No. 6, was part of a network of buildings that formed the leading ice manufacturing, storage and retail company in St. Louis. The building was completed in 1906, after the consolidation of the Muckerman family ice dynasty, the largest ice supplier and manufacturer in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Before the development of home refrigeration systems, ice plants and ice delivery was an important industry, especially in large cities. Completed just after the St. Louis World's Fair, the plant took advantage of the city's new clean water supply to make ice. Designed by noted St. Louis architect Harry G. Clymer, the building is the oldest extant ice manufacturing facility connected with the Polar Wave company.

The Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is a 12-member group of historians, architects, archaeologists and citizens with an interest in historic preservation. The council is appointed by the governor and works with the Department of Natural Resources' State Historic Preservation Office, which administers the National Register program for Missouri. The council meets quarterly to review proposed Missouri property nominations to the National Register, the nation's honor roll of historic properties. Approved nominations are forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register in Washington, D.C., for final approval.

For more information about the National Register of Historic Places, call the State Historic Preservation Office at (573) 751-7858 or the department toll free at 1-800-361-4827.

For news releases on the Web, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel. For a complete listing of the department's upcoming meetings, hearings and events, visit the department's online calendar at www.dnr.mo.gov/calendar/search.do.