University House; New Letters Literary Magazine

This frame house was built in 1924 and was the residence of Kenneth Dickey until 1936, when Kansas City philanthropist William Volker purchased the home and donated it to Kansas City University (UMKC today). This frame house served as the home of university presidents until 1956 and is now home to UMKC's literary magazine, New Letters. During its two decades of service as the university president's home, this house welcomed many of the nation's leading intellectuals as guests of university president Clarence Decker and his wife, Mary. Decker was the longest-serving president in the university's history, and he took an active role in making the university more inclusive. Towards the end of World War II, KCU was one of several universities that welcomed Japanese American students who had previously been placed in internment camps. The Deckers welcomed one of the seven Japanese American students who attended KCU during this time into their home. After the university ended its policy of racial segregation, the Deckers also invited several of the first African American students to live with them in this home.

The former residence of Kenneth Dickey, this home served as the university president's home from 1936 to 1956. The location of this home was influenced by the decision of Kenneth's father, Walter Dickey, to construct a vast mansion two blocks west of this site in 1912. Walter was the owner of the Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company, and the proximity of the two homes was pragmatic as Kenneth was the company's business manager. Walter Dickey lost his fortune before the start of the Great Depression, and the family sold both properties to William Volker. The mansion became the university's first building in 1931 and is now known as Scofield Hall.

This home was used by the university's first president, Duncan Spaeth, who occupied the home from the fall of 1937 through December 1938. Spaeth was a Shakespearian scholar from Princeton, and the trustees had high hopes for him. However, when the university failed to earn accreditation in the fall of 1937, he resigned. The trustees then appointed the head of the Department of English, Clarence Decker, as the university's second president. He and his wife Mary moved into the house in January 1938. They would call it home for the next 15 years. The Deckers strived to make the University of Kansas City a center of arts and culture. In 1934, Clarence Decker founded the University of Kansas City Review literary magazine, which would publish many of the foremost writers, artists, and thinkers of the mid-20th century.

Renowned authors such as May Sarton and J.D. Salinger published their first pieces in this magazine. A passionate fan of classical music, Decker also formed the Kansas City Chamber Society, which brought many of the century's most famous chamber orchestras to the university. Over the years, he brought important writers, artists, and intellectuals to the university to speak or as guest professors. Frequently, these people would stay with the Deckers during their time at the university. The Decker's home on Rockhill became a destination for Kansas City's literati and intellectuals, who frequented their Saturday night "salons." On any given Saturday, one might find people like Thomas Hart Benton, Frank Lloyd Wright, or Orson Welles at the Decker home. Students were always welcome at these parties.

During the Second World War, after Japanese Americans were moved to internment camps, Decker welcomed seven Japanese American students to the university. One of them, Sadayuki Mouri, lived with the Deckers and worked at the university to pay his way. After the university desegregated in 1948, the Deckers invited some of the university's first African American students to stay in their home. Every year at Thanksgiving, the Deckers welcomed the university's international students to Thanksgiving Dinner. A quote from a famous Kansas City artist and frequent guest of the Deckers sums up what the house meant to the university community.

"During the fifteen years that the 'house on the hill,' the President's house, across from the campus of the University of Kansas City, was occupied by Clarence and Mary Decker, it was a gay and happy meeting place for all kinds of people from all over the world. It was unlike the traditional university president's house as it could possibly be, even though a university was planned and built there almost from scratch. Its risk-taking, outspoken ways were perhaps too good to last. But those of us who knew those ways will always remember them."

After Clarence Decker resigned in 1953, it became home to the university's third president, Earl Mcgrath. He and his wife Dorothy would only live in the home for three years because a larger home at 51st and Rockhill was donated to the university in 1956. The old president's house, now renamed University House, would go on to serve the university in a variety of functions. It was the home of the Department of Sociology for a long time. More recently, it has been home to UMKC's literary magazine, New Letters, which Clarence Decker founded in 1934 as the University of Kansas City Review.

Decker, Mary Bell. Decker, Clarence Raymond. A Place of Light: The Story of a University Presidency. New York, New York. Hermitage Press, 1954.

"Home as a Gift to K.C.U.." The Kansas City Star (Kansas City) May 29th, 1936.