The home of Keith and Virginia Bettencourt was built in 1901 and moved to its current location in 1907. | Photo by Dorri Partain

Dorri Partain

Managing Editor

A late night storm on July 31, 2024 brought in winds roaring at 70 to 80 mph across Kansas City, uprooting two silver maples, which caused extensive damage at one historic Scarritt Renaissance neighborhood home.

Owners Keith and Virginia Bettencourt had purchased this house in 2015. This cut-stone, two-and-one-half-story house at 3401 Gladstone Blvd., came with a long list of necessary repairs and a unique history.

The home originally occupied the opposite corner when built by Herman and Emma Schmelzer in 1901, with the address 3218 Gladstone Blvd. The Schmelzers sold their residence in 1907 to Robert A. Long — president of the Long-Bell Lumber Company — who wanted a complete property block facing Downtown Kansas City for his mansion, “Corinthian Hall.” It was then the  structure was lifted and moved to the opposite corner to face Long’s future estate. Two additional homes were purchased and also moved to nearby lots.

By 1911, the 15-room dwelling was offered for rent and eventually subdivided into apartments. Over the course of the next 100 years, the home was neglected, pilfered and boarded up.

For the past 10 years, the Bettencourts have poured muscle and money into the restoration of the home Virginia calls “her baby.” In 2023, this home was featured during the Northeast Kansas City Historical Society’s annual homes tour — as hundreds of tour guests entered to view their progress.

Following the storm, Virginia Bettencourt began a five-day process with the City — which had planted these trees in the right-of-way decades ago — to have the trees removed and extensive damage was revealed. One tree landed on the porch, cracking a joist beam and breaking numerous concrete balusters. The other landed on the tower roof, breaking numerous roof tiles and a window. Copper gutters were additionally bent out of shape or knocked loose.

Bettencourt began the arduous process of locating craftsmen and materials for the necessary repairs. Finding roof tiles to match was a process of combining new tiles with old.

“I purchased new tiles for the tower, known as hip rolls, that needed to be glazed to match the original color (a dark green),”  she said in an email.  “The rest of the tile on the tower is salvage material from a tile roof company in Illinois.The finial on the tower is also salvage material from a company in England.  The finial on the dormer is original to the house, but had been stored in the basement for the last 50 years.  If anyone is wondering about the (tower) weather vane, it was not original and was smashed when the trees fell.”

She contacted local clay artist Rebecca Koop — owner of Back Door Pottery (3922 St. John Ave.) — to glaze and fire these tiles. 

Koop traveled to Lawrence, Kan. to pick up the glaze and did a test piece to check a color match. After Bettencourt approved, Koop began the long process of glazing each roof tile, which required three coats of glaze to achieve the dark green color, she said in an interview, Saturday.

To speed up the process — and save space in Koop’s small studio — Bettencourt took over the process brushing on the glaze. Each coat of glaze required a lengthy drying time between coats and Bettencourt had room to lay them out and time to check for dryness before applying the next glaze coat.

Koop could only fit 13 tiles in her kiln for each firing, so the process of glazing and firing was completed in batches of 13, with Bettencourt bringing glazed tiles back to Back Door Pottery and collecting completed tiles. Koop stated she did nine kiln firings to acquire the more than 100 tiles needed.

“We were speaking the same language,” Koop said about working with Bettencourt. When Koop ran out of glaze, Bettencourt scoured the internet and located the same color and brand from an out-of-state supplier and the process continued without missing a beat.

Koop began the glazing process in late April, and completed the final firing on May 20. Workers on scaffolding then began the process of installing the roof tiles and finials.

Bettencourt also replaced the trees with a hardy species known as “Frontier Elm.” These new saplings are approved for right-of-way planting and will only reach a height of 35 feet.