Paris and Weaver Apartment Buildings

The twin Paris and Weaver Apartment Buildings was one of the many colonnade apartments constructed in Kansas City in the early 1900s. Constructed in 1912, this apartment offered patio spaces in an era before residential air conditioning. The Paris and Weaver Apartment Buildings, like many similar apartment buildings around the Kansas City area, were built in suburban-like areas located near streetcar lines. As a result, middle-class residents could enjoy easy access to downtown while living near upscale neighborhoods like Hyde Park.

The twin Paris and Weaver Apartment Buildings, built in 1912, serve as excellent examples of combined column colonnade apartments. They feature square brick piers that support fluted and tapered Tuscan columns. Weaver's colonnaded apartments represent a trend in apartment construction in Kansas City that included modestly scaled buildings located in suburban settings near essential thoroughfares or streetcar lines that provided easy access to business centers (workplaces).

Colonnade apartment buildings usually consisted of masonry construction and included one or more prominent multi-story colonnaded porches. They typically had at least two self-sufficient units and stood between two and four stories. In addition to their unique architecture, colonnaded porches were ideal adaptations for the city's hot summers and temperate spring and fall seasons. 

The Paris and Weaver Apartments symbolize the economic, social, and architectural trends transpiring in Kansas City during the early twentieth century. The properties represent a time when, during a housing shortage, speculators invested in developing small- to medium-sized four- to twelve-unit apartment buildings to meet the demand of an expanding middle-class population. Willard B. Weaver aided in driving the trend. After building six single-family homes between 1907 and 1908, Weaver and his company fully transitioned into multi-family development, constructing sixteen apartment buildings between 1908 and 1915, including the Paris and Weaver Apartment Buildings in 1912. 

The Paris and Weaver building arose within a "streetcar suburb" area of Kansas City. The Paris and Weaver buildings are three-story walkups with central hallways serving six units. Each unit consists of a living room, small dining area, one bedroom, kitchen, and bath. Like all of Weaver's properties, the apartments catered to an emerging middle-class demographic. In addition to the proximity to streetcars, the apartments benefitted from an expanding Kansas City boulevard system and green spaces developed by George Kessler, a proponent of the City Beautiful Movement. The parks, well-groomed streets, streetcars, and newer-built apartments all provided a feeling that the residences were a "step up" from apartments and homes found closer to downtown. 

Gardner, Tony. "Nomination Form: Paris and Weaver Apartment Buildings." National Register of Historic Places. mostateparks.com. 2006. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Paris%20and%20Weaver%20Apt.%20Bldgs.pdf.

Schwenk, Sally F. "Multiple Property Documentation Form." National Register of Historic Places. mostateparks.com. 2003. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Historic%20Colonnade%20Apartment%20Buildings%20of%20KC%2C%20MO.pdf..