Wolcott House, Kansas
Wolcott House is a mundane listed building in Mission Hills , Kansas , USA . It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) under ID number 01000448. It is considered to be architecturally significant and reflects the knowledge that the architect had previously acquired in Europe.
The manorial house, built in the New Tudor style with influences of eclecticism in the mid-1920s, was commissioned by John J. and Wynnogene Wolcott from the architect Shelby Kurfiss and contractor Joseph Hellman. Kurfiss is considered one of the most important architects of Kansas City at the beginning of the 20th century. The couple had only made quick fortunes in the grain trade since 1922 and belonged to the upper class of Kansas. They formed a focal point in the social life of the metropolis. The address is Mission Hills, 5701 Oakwood Road, Johnson County , Kansas.
Building
The two and a half storey , built of irregular colored sandstone blocks building with striking red Walm -Dachziegeln is slightly elevated in the middle of about 8,000 square meters of land. The property is designed like a park with a lot of lawns, solitary trees, mainly oak and elm, and loosely grouped bushes. In the vicinity there is the original garage with space for three vehicles, several stone terraces and a three-level fish pond.
The front line facing the street is dominated by an octagonal tower in front, the ridge of which ends with the irregularly protruding roof edge of the transept. This roof structure with its numerous dormers , gables and wings gives the impression that it was only built on two floors. To the left of this, on the first floor, is a large, three-winged window that almost reaches the floor, with three equally wide windows in the middle below. This part of the façade is bordered by a terrace that looks down to the road further down and part of the Kansas City Country Golf Club . The massive roof rests on imitation roof beams that protrude over the front of the house in a style-defining way.
The combination of the two related architectural styles of Neo-Tudor and French Eclecticism are unique in the architect's work. The street front (west side) of the building is built in a style that is rare in the country. Only a few city districts that were built in the 1920s and 30s have occasionally preserved this type of construction. While the west side can clearly be assigned to eclecticism, which in its form in northern France has adopted much of the medieval architecture in England, the opposite garden side, like the rest of the house, is assigned to the Tudor style. This style of construction caught on in affluent suburbs in the late 1910s and was very popular for 15 to 20 years. In the USA it went smoothly into Art Deco . Larger houses in particular tended to incorporate borrowings from French eclecticism or other styles, because the repeated variation of the Tudor style may have seemed exhausted.
A key feature of the style is the steeply sloping hipped roof, which may include a tower-gable combination, as seen in this house. The comparatively small gable, which is located next to the tower, is more ornamental than the distinctive cross gables that characterize the Tudor revival. The simple front door and overhanging second floor in this pediment are also details in keeping with the French eclectic style, as are the wings on the north and south sides of the main body of the house.
The main entrance, a one-story stone portico, is in the center under a dominating three-story double gable at the rear of the house. No cornice or lintel disturbs the surface of stone blocks up to the eaves . The original, decorative and functional, double-glazed windows with small partitions are still available on the upper floor and in the tower. Inside, dark wood paneling dominates a salon with a large, open fireplace that extends over both floors. The rooms available to guests also include a library and the dining room. Although many objects had to be replaced or renewed over the years since 1928, the atmosphere of the building owner's time is still easy to understand. The use of stone as a building material is of particular importance. It can be assumed that this material, which has never been used so extensively in this architectural style, is due to its origin.
Some of the building materials for the house came from Nelson's Oak Hall , which was demolished that same year to make way for the new Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art . William Rockhill Nelson (1841–1915) was a newspaper magnate and art patron . Oak Hall was the country estate on what is now Oak Road , where William Rockhill Nelson lived with his wife Mary McAfee Atkins, the later donors of the museum, until 1915. Williams' wife, Laura, died in 1926. Her son offered the Museum Foundation in 1927 the 120,000 m² property including Oak Hall for sale, as was stipulated in her will.
Wolcott is considered the main buyer of the old Nelson's Oak Hall at over $ 5,000 . In particular, sandstone, the wood paneling, windows and doors - including the main entrance door -, stairs and copper fittings and grilles were acquired. Selby Kurfiss understood perfectly how to integrate these materials harmoniously into the existing planning. As a throwback , the owners named their new home Oak Hall . They lived there until the death of John Wolcott in 1939.
owner
After his death, the property passed to the couple Louis S. Myers, who also worked in the grain business. Myers was the vice president and treasurer of the Rodney Milling Company. 1951 took over Samuel Sosland, a publisher of the Southwestern Miller Publication . David W. Gibson, an ancestor of John J. Wolcott's partner, William B. Lincoln, and his wife bought the property in 1984, who had already resold it when it was placed under protection in 2001. Owners at the time were Michael and Sharon Coughlin. Over the years the property was privately owned and used as intended by the client. It is all the more astonishing that there has been so little change. All residents have proven to be the keepers of their heritage. There were only minor modernizations in the stairwell and in the kitchen.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wolcott House on the digital registry of NRHP, National Park Service .
- ↑ a b c d John S. Wolcott House (1928) . National Register of Historic Places, 2001
- ↑ a b c d e National Register of Historic Places. Registration Form , United States Department of the Interior
- ^ Social Register, Boston , Social Register Association, 1916, 222
- ↑ Wolcott House (# 01000448), Salon , B / W photography on NRHP Photos (flickr)
- ↑ William H. Young, Nancy K. Young: World War II and the Postwar Years in America , Volume I . University Press of New England 2005, ISBN 978-0313356520 , p. 22
- ↑ Wolcott House (# 01000448) , B / W photography on NRHP Photos (Flickr), main entrance
- ^ B / W photography of Oak Hall , on Kansas City Public Library.
- ^ William Rockhill Nelson's Oak Hall , at Kansas City Public Library.
Coordinates: 39 ° 1 '28.4 " N , 94 ° 36' 43.2" W.