Glancy-Pennell House

The Glancy-Pennell House is significant for its architecture and for its association with two men important to the local economy: Harvey M. Glancy, a dry goods merchant, and George Pennell, a lumber dealer. Glancy had the house built in 1872 for $8,000. Glancy was an Ohio native who moved to Atchison in 1869. Besides the dry goods business, in the Exchange Building on 4th and Commercial streets, Glancy was involved in the Atchison Gas Company. In 1894, Glancy was listed in the city directory as retired; he sold the home to George Pennell.

George Pennell was a New York native who worked as a bookkeeper for a successful business, Hixon Lumber, in Hannibal, Missouri. The firm cut lumber in Wisconsin, floated it down the Mississippi River to Missouri, and sawed the logs into lumber in Hannibal. The firm opened another operation in Atchison and Pennell later became the manager. In 1875, Pennell bought the lumber yard but kept the Hixon name. In 1886, Pennell became a partner in the Carlisle-Pennell Wholesale Lumber Company, with William Carlisle. Pennell lived in the home until his death in 1920. After Pennell's widow passed away in 1932, four sisters in the North family purchased the house. Rebecca, Flora, Laura and Anna North were daughters on another local lumberman, A.J. North, who also was a partner in the Diamond Four Flour Mills. The North sisters lived in the home until their deaths; Anna was the last to die, in 1951.

The interior woodwork from the 1872 portions of the house tends to be simple and walnut. The fancier woodwork added when the 1890s remodeling are usually oak. One striking feature is an elaborate oak archway in the front hall that separates the entrance hall from the stair hall, with paneled double leaf sliding doors into the south room. The dining room has a coffered oak ceilings and cornices. With a seemingly endless supply of wood at his disposal, it is no wonder that Pennell nearly doubled the size of the Glancy House after his 1894 purchase and added so many decorative and functional wooden elements inside and out. Leaded glass folding doors to the original parlors may date from the 1917 conversion of the rooms to an office by Pennell. Three ornate mantelpieces are found on the first floor with two more on the second story.

The brick carriage house - now a garage - was probably added during Pennell's ownership; the two-story square building has a hipped roof and two dormer windows. Brick arches top doors and windows on the ground floor.

Chaturvedi, Sherri. 005-0260-00509 Glancy/Pennell House, 519 N 5th St, Kansas Historic Resources Inventory. Accessed July 16th 2020. https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=005-0260-00509.

Koch, Augustus. Bird's Eye View of Atchison, Kansas. Kansas City, MO. Ramsey, Millett & Hudson, 1880.

Small, Nora Pat. NRHP Nomination of Glancy-Pennell House. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1983.