Abby Hoover
Managing Editor

The Northeast Kansas City Historical Society’s (NEKCHS) Ninth Annual Fall Homes Tour returned this year after a COVID-19 hiatus to over 550 visitors to six homes, one apartment building, and one church in the the Scarritt Point South National Register Historic District on Saturday, Oct. 15.

“The board of NEKCHS was delighted to be able to host our Tour again this year,” Dicus said. “The Tour is the biggest annual fundraiser for the Historical Society. The homeowners were so dedicated and committed to being a big part of a quality event that welcomed folks from the Kansas City area, as well as from far-reaching parts like Saint Louis and Texas. A chartered tour bus from the Sorosis Club of Sedalia joined in the festivities and were honored guests.”

Attendees came from across the metro and beyond to wander the streets of Gladstone and Benton between Thompson and Anderson.

On display were an array of architectural styles built in the 1890s and early 1900s, in varying stages of restoration. Many of the single family homes on the tour were once carved into apartments, as the city grew up around the once suburban neighborhood. The owners are committed to seeing them restored and preserved, with necessary modern updates.

“Frequently this process can take an excessive amount of planning, finances, time, and most important, determination with a solid vision,” said Kent Dicus, Chairman of NEKCHS.

In 2011, Jason Milbradt and Michael Stringer purchased the St. Francis, a five-story Classical Revival building that sat vacant from 2006 until they decided to save it. With three stories facing Gladstone Blvd. and two more facing the Concourse Park playground on Anderson, the building had badly deteriorated and was slated for demolition.

“It’s been a fun process, very enlightening,” Milbradt said. “The City has been most helpful… We’re very happy to be here. We have a 3,000-square foot penthouse on the top floor for us, and then we’re going to have two high end apartments on the second floor [facing Gladstone].”

Half of the first floor facing Gladstone will have one fully furnished short-term rental for traveling nurses. The other half is home to Art as Mentorship, a nonprofit organization.

“The Grotto and bar downstairs will be our event space,” Milbradt said.
Outside the St. Francis, makers and artists with Art Garden KC set up booths, capturing the attention of visitors. This was Art Garden’s first return to Northeast after leaving Pendleton Heights for River Market earlier this season.

Sophie Schell-Wilson, a high schooler who lives in the Coats House at 444 Gladstone Blvd., enjoys living in a historic home. The renovation of their 1901 Carthage cut-stone home at the corner of Thompson and Gladstone has stretched over nearly half of her childhood since they moved in when she was six.

“It’s cool to kind of just look around and view the history, but it’s also hard to keep up with an old house because it’s very complicated,” Schell-Wilson said. “It’s been even harder trying to keep it original. So projects that would usually take a month and cost how much would take years and cost us eight times as much.”

In getting ready for the tour, they sent their pets to stay elsewhere and cleaned the first floor and landing, which were open to the tour. However, Schell-Wilson said they’ve been preparing for the tour for two or three years.

Her father, Shane Wilson, purchased the home in 2016 knowing that it needed a lot of work, but was liveable. He had electric and plumbing updated, along with a lot of mechanical repairs. Now, they are in the process of renovating a second story bathroom.

“We closed in July, moved in in September,” Wilson said. “I knew that the boiler needed to be replaced, so that was the first thing we did so we didn’t have to deal with that in the winter.”

The eaves were sagging and water was coming through the gutters. He told his wife it would be a three month project, but it ended up taking much longer and multiplying their budget by 10 after they realized years and years of damage had been caused by the leak. They installed copper gutters, replaced all the soffits, and sealed everything.

Wilson, like many historic homeowners, feels more like a steward than a true owner.

“There’s a lot of gratitude,” Wilson said. “I mean, when I first moved in, you don’t really have the feeling that it’s your house.”

One day when he was working in his yard, an older lady told him she’d walked by his house on her way to school. He initially thought she was mistaken, but he eventually realized this house had been meaningful to her, and many others, for decades longer than he had known it.

He plans to keep the house in his family, and each project he completes he sees as doing something that someone else won’t have to do in the future.
“Somewhere before the six year mark, you start feeling comfortable enough to tear things apart, right, you bleed and you sweat and cry, and then at some point, you’re like, ‘Yeah, this is my house,’” Wilson said.

A feature of the tour, with a line out the door most of the day, was the Wakefield Mansion, designed by architect Selby H. Kurfiss in 1904. Built with state-of-the-art electrical features and lavish materials, the two-and-a-half story home was a showcase for Mr. William Henry Harrison Wakefield’s mantel and tile company. It would eventually become the Gladstone Nursing Home, then the Willie Boarding Home. In 2009, current owners Ken and Deborah Richardson purchased the home and began restoring it back to a single-family home.

At 516 Benton, a large all-brick Victorian home built in 1890, is cared for by Deborah England. The home, which changed hands many times over the years and was converted into five apartments, is now without part of its front porch, but is otherwise nearly restored to its original single-family use.

Wick Thomas and Clay Jarratt are renovating their 1897 home at 426 Benton Blvd., in D.O. Smart’s Addition, among the handsomest residential subdivisions in the City, according to NEKCHS.

One of the twin Victorian Heim homes on Benton Boulevard was on the tour. Michael George Heim, who built the house next to his brother, sharing a driveway and carriage house, was vice-president and general manager of the Heim Brewing Company. After passing through various careful stewards, the home was donated to Assumption Catholic Church across the street, where it served as a convent until 1972. Now, owners Laura Brozovich and Lucas Hutmacher, continue to restore the interior.

St. Anthony Catholic Church, formerly Assumption, was built in 1922. The parish celebrated its centennial this year, culminating in a feast on October 15. Sharing the history of the building were four women who once attended the Assumption Catholic school. They graduated in 1955, and although they went off to different high schools and then different states, they made it a point to stay in touch.

“We kept in touch, and we’ve all had a significant birthday this year, so we got together for our birthdays and then to be a part of [the tour] and celebration of 100 years of this wonderful church and parish,” said Mary (White) Whalen, who lived right down the hill.

Remembering what the sanctuary looked like when they attended school there, some of them were nervous to see the updates the parish made for its centennial.

“We like to hold on to the old and the memories and all that, but what they have done is just astounding and beautiful, and of course the windows are pretty much the same,” Whalen said. The Roman Mission-style buff red brick church features stained glass from Munich, Germany. “But the architecture and the painting, and the altar even, have been revived and updated. And it’s just awe inspiring to me and to all of us and how much we enjoy it and how special it is to us.”

Built as one of the first homes along the newly-developed Walrond Avenue – later changed to Benton Boulevard for Senator Thomas Hart Benton, 316 Benton is a solid three-story Queen Anne. For more than 25 years, owner Dennis Nadvornick has kept the home in impeccable shape both inside and out, retaining many of the home’s original features.

“All of the Tour’s attendees’ support greatly-exceeded any hope and expectations we had of pulling off a successful Tour,” Dicus said. “Our docents were all so informative and welcoming to the guests. The guests were overwhelmed with the beauty of the architecture in the Northeast Area, as well as with the knowledgebase of such nice people. With a team of 100 plus folks on our committee, we’re proud to put the Homes Tour in the record books of 2022.”

The long-awaited return of the NEKCHS annual Fall Homes Tour brought together new neighbors, former residents, dedicated investors, and history enthusiasts in the Historic Northeast. In future years, the tour will be planned in various Northeast neighborhoods. More information about NEKCHS, a nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting, researching and preserving Northeast Kansas City community history, while proactively fostering appreciation of its historical significance and focus on its unique history, can be found at nekchs.net.