Historic Homes of Lawrence Kansas Driving Tour

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Built in 1936 for Helen and Bert Chewing as one of 1,000 Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and General Electric (GE) "New American Home" properties during the Great Depression, the home enjoyed a new (at that time) all-electric design. Additionally, the project existed under the umbrella of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program that put people to work by building the unique homes; builders, architects, financiers, and suppliers all benefited. Lastly, the home stood as one of the first modern homes built in Lawrence, marking the start of a rejuvenation for Lawrence that had last witnessed a boom in the years following the Civil War before the Panic of 1873.

2. Ferdnand-Strong House

The Ferdnand-Strong House has unique ties to local history and sports history. James Naismith, the inventor of the game of basketball, owned the house and lived here until his death in 1939. Prior to Naismith, Kansas University Chancellor Frank Strong lived here from 1919 to 1934. The main block of the wood-frame Italianate mansion with its stone-lined cellar was constructed in or around 1872. A large addition to the house was made around 1905. The home is listed on the National Register for its association with Chancellor Strong and the development of Lawrence.

3. George Malcolm Beal House (A.K.A. Beal-Charlton House)

George Malcolm Beal designed and resided in the historic home while shaping the transition of the architecture program at the University of Kansas (KU) from classical to modern. Designed in 1950, Beal expanded upon Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian design principles by engineering his house to take full advantage of solar gain, using calculations derived from the original heliodon astronomical instrument he designed and built. After Beal retired, Betty Jo Charlton, KU's first female engineering student and Lawrence's first woman legislature, purchased the home; she lived there from 1971 to 2014.

4. Handel T. Martin House

Handel Tong Martin (1862-1931) worked at the University of Kansas and gained fame as an early fossil collector and contributor to the developing field of vertebrate paleontology. As his career progressed, he moved his family from a house in an older residential neighborhood west of downtown Lawrence to a new American Foursquare home built in 1916 in the developing subdivision of University Place, located just south of the University of Kansas campus. In the early 1960s, Charles Bradford Black, Jr (1921-1992), an outstanding KU and professional basketball player and a World War II (Army Air Corps) hero, owned the house.

5. Ludington House (A.K.A. Ludington-Thacher House)

The historic home is known for two principal figures: Reuben W. Ludington, one of the town's first entrepreneurs and town mayor, and Solon O. Thacher, a lawyer, judge, politician, newspaper editor, and representative at the 1869 Wyandotte Constitutional Convention (Kansas Constitution) in 1859. Thacher also visited Mexico and South America as part of President Chester Arthur's selected trade commission. The home stood among many lavish homes that arose on Tennessee Street during the 1860s and 1870s, ostensibly serving as status symbols for the economic and political elites of the period.

6. Priestly House

One year after Quantill's Raid devastated Lawrence in 1863, John Bowles built this home on Kentucky Street, selecting a location near the University of Kansas that opened two years later in 1866. William Priestly, a captain during the U.S. Civil War, moved his family to Lawrence in 1871 and subsequently purchased the home where he and his wife raised numerous children who would later attend and graduate from the University of Kansas. The Priestly family owned the home for more than a century, finally selling it in 1986. The home survives as a reminder of the town's rebirth after the 1863 Civil War raid and the genesis of the university.

7. The Castle - John N. Roberts House

The building known by many as "The Castle" was built as a home for John N. Roberts in 1894, a successful merchant, on Massachusetts Street. The Romanesque style building does resemble a castle, with its stone turret and massive presence. The John R. Roberts House was added to the National Register in 1974 for its significance in architecture. By that date, it housed a restaurant and a single dwelling. The location of the Castle Tea Room since the 1930s, the restaurant has reopened after extensive renovations as a special events venue with a new patio and an exterior kitchen. Offices on the second floor of the building were recently leased to the local United Way. A tenant for first-floor offices is being sought. The building is owned by a non-profit foundation established by the late longtime owner and restauranteur of the Tea Room around 2004. A plaque in front of the building details its history.

8. Roberts-Luther-Mitchell House

The Roberts/Luther/Mitchell House was constructed in 1870, a period of regrowth and expansion in the wake of the Civil War which included the devastating Quantrill's Raid of 1863. The home underwent several expansions and modifications in 1874, 1897-1905, 1921, 1927, and 1960. Civil War officer John Roberts and his wife owned both the home and the "castle home" next door. During the World War period, from the 1910s to the 1940s, U.G. Mitchell, a longtime professor and department chair at the University of Kansas, owned the home, which speaks to the town's evolution from its post-Quantrill's Raid era to its presence as a "Quiet University Town."

9. Edward House Residence

The Queen Anne style house at 1646 Massachusetts Street is named for Edward House. The wood frame house on a limestone foundation was constructed in 1894. The House home was listed on the National register in 2007 as an example of its Late Victorian architectural style in the Free Classic subtype. The house was located south of the original boundaries of the town of Lawrence, within Babcock's Enlarged Addition. The nominated structures include an associated garage dating to the 1920s, a cistern, and a below-ground root cellar. A number of prominent members of the community have resided in the home, including bankers and a Kansas University football coach.

10. Eugene F. Goodrich House

The Eugene F. Goodrich House is in a neighborhood in the south section of Massachusetts Street, a few blocks east of Kansas University. The Queen Anne-style wood frame house rests on a limestone foundation and has a gable-on-hip roof. The 2-1/2 story structure was built to be a single family residence in 1890 for the new postmaster; the architect is unknown. The building was listed in the National Register in 2001; at that time, it was a commercial structure housing the offices of Psych Solutions. It now contains the offices of Psychological Resources Inc., a firm that specializes in providing psychological testing of applicants for public safety positions.

11. George and Flora Mackie House

Successful entrepreneur George K. Mackie House constructed the historic Neoclassical Revival home in 1917 and lived there until 1928; his family sold the home in 1937. From 1937 to 1975, the Lawrence Women's Club owned the home, temporarily sharing the space with the University of Kansas, which used the space as women's student housing during the late 1940s. The house survives as a reminder of the immense wealth accumulated by George Mackie and his father, who worked in the coal mining industry and banking during the Second Industrial Revolution of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

12. Robert Miller Home

This house on 19th Street, originally built in 1858, is immersed in Civil War history. As a stop on the Underground Railroad that once hosted the Confederate leader William Quantrill, its history is undoubtedly interesting. It is also a prime example of residential architecture from the time. Visiting the house is a great way for anyone in Lawrence to experience a local piece of Civil War history!

13. Kibbee Farmstead

The Kibbee Farmstead is a two-story, cross-gable Dutch colonial house with gambrel gables on the east and west sides. The house is named for Walter and Fannie Kibbee, who built the house after buying the property in 1908. The farm outbuildings in the rear and side yard are contributing elements to the property's listing in the National Register; the latest building is a garage probably added in the 1920s. The farm used to encompass 15 acres and was situated outside of the limits of Lawrence until annexed by the city in 1959. The property was farmed into the 1970s when it was subdivided; the lot is now slightly over 5 acres.

14. Samuel A. and Kate Riggs House

Samuel A. Riggs, a politician and government lawyer, had this historic house built from 1863 to 1864. The home suffered substantial damage during "Quantrill's Raid" of Lawrence on August 21, 1863, but was one of the few structures that survived the raid and continues to serve as a private home. Pro-Confederate raider William Quantrill and his guerilla-style soldiers destroyed much of the town, set fire to a substantial number of businesses, and killed at least 150 people. Riggs only escaped being shot during the raid because of his wife Kate's bravery, and he resumed construction of the home in September 1864. To this day, some burn marks are still visible on the brick walls

15. Henry Waters House

This historic East Lawrence home was built in 1872 and included a cellar which was utilized by its original owner, Henry Waters, to produce and distribute patent medicines. Waters arrived in Lawrence during a significant period in the city's growth after moving from New York to Ohio and Illinois before arriving in Kansas in 1860. Many Lawrence residents were also migrants from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The sizable house at that time demonstrates the popularity of patent medicines as its Italianate design was deemed by a local paper as "the finest residence in southeast Lawrence."

16. John Speer Farmstead and the Murphy-Bromelsick House

Located in Hobbs Memorial Park, this site is historically significant for two reasons. The property was once a farmstead owned by staunch abolitionist John Speer, and the old building, the Murphy-Bromelsick House, is an excellent example of mid 18th century architecture and a serves as a window to the past. John Speer was a key figure in Kansas during the pre and post-Civil War periods. He worked as a newspaper publisher and wasn't afraid to make his views known. During the height of the war in 1863, his homestead and family were attacked by the infamous Quantrill Raid, which occurred on August 21 of that year. A contingent of 450 Confederate irregulars, led by William C. Quantrill, attacked the town, leaving 200 men and boys dead or missing. They targeted abolitionist leaders and their families; John survived by hiding in a cornfield, but his two eldest sons were killed. If it weren't for Speer's efforts, as expressed through his newspaper, Kansas may not have joined the Union as a free state in 1861. The Murphy-Bromelsick House was built between 1866-1869. It was located just 300 yards away from the current location, saving it from demolition, in 2000. Irish and German immigrants built and lived in it through much of the first half of the 20th century.

17. Andrew Jackson (A.J.) and Mary Carrol Griffin House

The Griffin House, built around 1901 or 1902, served as the home to Andrew Jackson (A. J.) and Mary C. Griffin until 1916. The home symbolizes the wealth they amassed after establishing several prominent retail and wholesale businesses in Lawrence. The Griffins were also highly influential political, social, and activist leaders. The Griffins hired their friend Alexander Shaw, a longtime Lawrence lumberman, contractor, and politician (Shaw and A.J. Griffin served on the Lawrence city council), to build the exemplary Queen Anne house that fit the mold of a prosperous middle-class couple in a Victorian society.

18. Dix Home

Now home to the downtown library, this was the site of a hotel known as the Johnson House as well as the home of the Ralph and Jetta Dix family in the early 1860s. It was here where Jetta Dix watched Quantrill's men kill her husband, Ralph Dix, and her brother-in-law. Four hours after Jetta was awoken by gunfire and screaming, the raid was over and she and eighty-four other women became widows while her children were among the 250 children in Lawrence who were left fatherless.

19. Witter S. McCurdy House

The McCurdy house, an exemplary I-house (popular in the U.S. from roughly 1850 to 1890) constructed during Lawerenceville's post-Quantrill's Raid building boom around 1869, was home to active real estate speculator Witter S. McCurdy. He moved to Lawrence in 1858 from New York, where he was born and raised. Two years after purchasing the home, Witter sold it to his brother, Jesse; the McCurdy family owned the house until 1917.

20. Emily Hoyt's Boarding House, Quantrill's Raid

One of the oldest buildings in the city, this home was built by Hiram Towne and survived William Quantrill's raid when Emily Hoyt begged the men who destroyed the town and killed over a hundred men to spare the home. While her son hid behind the property to aoid being one of the many male residents of Lawrence who were murdered that day, Hoyt emphasized that she was a widow and operating the home as a boarding house was her only source of income. The raid was inspired by the anti-slavery views of the citizens of Lawrence and previous attacks on both sides of of the Kansas-Missouri border. Using these attacks as an opportunity to steal property and commit violence, Missouri residents followed William Clark Quantrill in a raid on the city on August 21, 1863. Prior to the attack on Oklahoma City in 1995, Quantrill's raid was the most deadly episode of domestic terrorism committed against an American city.

21. Benedict House

The Benedict House is an example of a vernacular, Stick-style cottage composed of two units. The one-and-a-half story house was built in seven stages from about 1869 to 1927. One unit dates from about 1869 to 1890 and is a cross-gabled frame and shingled section that dominates the view from Tennessee Street. A cross-gabled frame, metal clad second section was added around 1989 to the rear of the house. Both units sit on a new concrete foundation. The two outbuildings are not historic. The Benedict House was listed in the National Register in 1991 and is a contributing resource to the Oread Historic District, listed in the National Register in 2007.

22. Charles Duncan House

The Charles Duncan House is an example of an elaborate Italian style mansion, built circa 1869. The one-bay wide tower has an oculus window near the top and a fancy roof in a pyramidal style with flared corners. The two-and-a-half story square portion of the house features a front gable with flared eaves with tall, narrow windows on both stories; all second-story windows on the house front have distinctive trim, with semi-circular arched lintels and decorative peaks. The one-story porch in front of the tower was added in 1986 when a wraparound porch dating to 1915 was removed. The former single-family residence has been divided into apartments.

23. Colonel James Clinton Blood House

Colonel James Blood (1819–1894) was a businessman and attorney and the first mayor of Lawrence. His home is one of the oldest in the city and historically significant due to his involvement in the Free State militias and Bleeding Kansas. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It is a private residence but can easily be viewed from the street.

24. George and Annie Bell House

The George and Annie Bell House is one of the oldest homes in Lawrence. The one-and-a-half-story stone building was made from locally quarried limestone. George Bell bought the empty lot in October 1862 for sixty dollars and had the home built. He and his family were living in the house when the town was attacked on August 21, 1863 by Quantrill's raiders. George Bell was killed during the attack, and the house was occupied by his widow and six children off and on for a number of years. The Allison family bought the home in 1914 and owned it for 48 years. Like the Bells, they lived in the home sporadically and mainly rented it to tenants. The house was renovated in the early 1980s and listed in the National Register. It continues to be a private residence.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

Historic Homes of Lawrence Kansas Driving Tour

Created by Clio Admin on June 7th 2020, 3:20:35 pm.

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Description

This driving tour of historic homes begins at one of the oldest homes in the city and the iconic home of Colonel James Clinton Blood. The tour includes nearly two dozen homes, including the former home of James Naismith and the home of influential Kansas University chancellor Frank Strong, as well as a stately Gilded Era home built by a wealthy merchant that is known locally as "The Castle." The tour includes landmark homes affiliated with Quantrill's Raid, Bleeding Kansas, and the development of Lawrence and the University of Kansas.

Entries on This Tour

Historic Homes of Lawrence Kansas Driving Tour

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