Loomis District: Emily Loomis House

The Loomis District consists of four structures, three homes, and one shed, each built at different times from the late nineteenth century through the early twentieth century. Emily Loomis purchased this land in 1882 and had the grand farmhouse built four years later. Unusual for the time, the property and home were listed in her name rather than her husband's name. Her oldest son moved to another part of Kansas to develop a farm while his youngest, Charles Loomis, became a doctor. Charles added to the property and built a home for his family. But, by the 1920s, the Loomis family began to sell portions of the land until finally selling the remaining property before World War II. Each structure enjoys a unique architectural style that reflects the era for which they were built. Moreover, the collection of houses amidst the suburban landscape speaks to Meriam's gradual change from a rural, farm location to that of a Kansas City suburb.

The Loomis Historic District represents the evolution of the property from farm acreage to a Kansas City suburb. Emily Loomis purchased the property in 1882 and built a large farmhouse in 1886. Years later, her son added to the property and had a second home built on the land, where he lived with his wife. Over time, the family started selling portions of the land, including to the Griffith family, who built the third home on the site and used a shed moved there from an old, mid-nineteenth-century Quaker Mission. Each of the four buildings within the district represents a distinct architectural style that corresponds to a historic era of development in Johnson County, Kansas.

In 1882, Emily Louise Field Loomis purchased land in the southwest portion of the now-historic district. Although Emily had been married to Edgar Calvin Loomis since 1860, the property's warranty deed was in her name alone. Emily, born in 1844, and Edgar, born in 1826, came to Kansas from rural New York via Michigan, where their two sons, Calvin and Charles, were born. The Loomis family likely lived in another house while their grand farmhouse (8325 Johnson Drive) was under construction. An 1886 inscription in the house's limestone foundation dates the home to four years after they purchased the property. The size of the land and the grand nature of the Italiante-style farmhouse speak to Emily Loomis' affluence and the farm's success. 

Emily's oldest son, Calvin Willard Loomis, was born in 1866 and eventually purchased farmland in Leavenworth County, Kansas, where he operated a dairy farm and bred Holstein cattle until he died unexpectedly in 1913. Meanwhile, Charles Henry Loomis, born in 1873, lived in Merriam his entire adult life. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kansas in 1898 and a medical degree from the University of Chicago in 1901. Also, in 1901, he married Viola Eleanor Starns, and the two lived with Emily Loomis in the large farmhouse. Emily and Edgar Loomis had divorced in 1887; she subsequently sold several parcels of her acreage, including a sizable portion to her ex-husband. Emily then married and was quickly divorced in November 1891 before marrying a third time in 1898. In 1912, Emily deeded the remaining portion of her land to Charles, who had acquired more acreage south of his mother's property; Charles and Viola moved into a separate home at 5900 Hadley Ave, designed in the Craftsman (Bungalow) style, a style with roots in the English Arts and Crafts movement

After Emily died in August 1916, the Loomis family began selling off several parcels of the property by the early 1920s. In 1944, the Loomis family had sold property south of the Emily Loomis house to Ellen Griffith and her husband, Lloyd A, a World War II veteran. Lloyd Griffith died in 1978, but the land stayed in the Griffith family until Ellen passed away in 1995. The home they had constructed serves as an example of the mid-20th century Minimal Traditional style, the most common house style from the end of World War II until the early 1950s.

The "Griffith Shed," erected in 1840, came from the 320-acre Quaker (or Friends) Mission, one of three missions established in northeast Johnson County. The Mission closed in 1870, leaving a small collection of buildings, which they rented some to tenant farmers. Charles eventually purchased the structures, including the shed, which he moved to the site the Griffiths purchased from the Loomis family.

Charles and Viola Loomis likely moved from their 5900 Hadley house as early as 1928; records show the deed passed back and forth from the Loomises to two separate buyers between 1928 and 1944. Charles Loomis partially retired from his medical practice in 1920. He also served as the Shawnee State Bank vice president for 45 years. In October 1937, Charles and Viola Loomis sold the Emily Loomis house and property. By 1949, four years before Charles died, the Loomis family sold the rest of the property they had owned since Emily purchased it in 1882.

The three homes and the shed set amidst a suburban landscape survive as an illustration of the area's evolution from farmland to a Kansas City suburb. Each structure, built in a different architectural style, also offers evidence of the changing home-design trends from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. The original farmhouse home, designed in the Italianate style, denotes the Loomis family and the farm's success. However, Emily's divorces and her kids' decisions to lead different (non-farm) career paths led the family to sell parts of the land from time to time until finally selling the grand farmhouse in 1937 and the remaining property in 1949. 

Ford, Susan Jezak. "Registration Form: Loomis Historic District." National Register of Historic Places. nps.gov. 2006. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/1833730c-93b5-48b6-a13f-f72ec1664535

"Loomis Historic District (c. 1840, 1886, 1912, and 1944)." Johnson County Museum. jcprd.com. 2007. https://www.jcprd.com/DocumentCenter/View/2312/Loomis-Historic-District?bidId=.