News Release 470

News Release No. 470

HISTORIC PRESERVATION COUNCIL TO CONSIDER
NOMINATIONS FOR NATIONAL REGISTER NOV. 18

Volume 33-470	Contact: Sue Holst
(For immediate release)	573-751-6510

JEFFERSON CITY, MO, NOV. 14, 2005 -- The Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation will consider nominations to the National Register of Historic Places for a variety of historic and cultural resources during its quarterly meeting Nov. 18 in Jefferson City.

The meeting, which is open to the public, will begin at 9 a.m. in the LaCharrette conference room of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Lewis and Clark State Office Building, 1101 Riverside Drive.

Twenty nominations are scheduled to be considered for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Properties on the agenda include historic residences, commercial buildings and historic districts. Approximately 612 historic resources are represented in the nominations. The historic resources under consideration are described below:

Having achieved success in his real estate business John Sublett Jr. and Caroline Ashton Logan built a home that reflected their position in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, society in the first part of the 20th century. The John Sublett Jr. and Caroline Ashton Logan House, constructed in 1908 and added to in 1925, is a good local example of an eclectic style home with Prairie School influence and Arts and Crafts detailing. Though not as grand as some of the city's mansions, the home reflects a trend of the early 20th century to design comfortable and convenient spaces for simple and casual living. Caroline Logan designed the home with assistance from local architect E. Gray Powell.

Constructed in 1902, Charles Isaac and Lizzie Hunter Moore Anderson House is a free classic Queen Anne style house that served as the home of a prominent local family of entrepreneurs as well as a center of local society in Commerce, Scott County. The house is notable for its association with the work of Lizzie Anderson, who opened her home as a default clubhouse for local women's organizations such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), Methodist Sunday School and Children's Theater Group. These organizations and the Anderson home became an important outlet for the women of Commerce to voice their concerns about society and effect change in the community.

Council Plaza is an early example of a publicly assisted housing project constructed for the elderly in St. Louis. The federal government participated in public and affordable housing projects throughout the 1930s and '40s, but did not specifically address affordable, independent living housing for the elderly until the passage of the Housing Act of 1959. Harold Gibbons and the Local 688 affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters used Section 202 of the act, which provided low interest federal loans to non-profits for the construction of affordable senior housing, to develop the complex. Built in 1964-1968, the complex created a community that included more than 600 units, restaurants, retail shopping, and complete health and dental services to persons over age 62 living on moderate incomes.

Completed in 1921, the seven-story Chouteau Building dominates the skyline in the commercial district west of downtown St. Louis and is located at the convergence of three major streets, Manchester, Chouteau and Vandeventer. The Chouteau Trust Co. and Chouteau Mortgage Co. commissioned the building as an investment and as the headquarters of their businesses. Though well outside the city's central business district, the location on three important streetcar lines connected the building to the heart of the city as well as to the outlying suburbs. In addition to the trust and mortgage company, the Second Renaissance Revival style building also housed other financial institutions as well as the offices of federal agencies, building tradesmen and suppliers, and labor unions.

The Central Carondelet Historic District, located near the Mississippi River in southern St. Louis, is a neighborhood of nearly 600 historic residential and commercial buildings dating from c. 1850 to c. 1950. Early district residents represent a wide range of backgrounds but religious and social institutions that drew first- and second-generation Germans to the district lend a strong German ethnic presence in the neighborhood. Those of German heritage contributed significantly to Carondelet's business and social climate as well as to the physical characteristics of its buildings. The streets in the district are composed of representative examples of vernacular frame and brick houses and commercial buildings as well as an assortment of high-style architecture that could rival many contemporary houses built in the city's prestigious neighborhoods.

The Herman Dreer House in the Ville neighborhood of St. Louis is nominated for its association with educator, novelist and activist Herman Dreer. Dreer came to St. Louis in 1914 to teach at Sumner High School, and while there organized the Carter Woodson School of Negro History Saturday School for residents of the Ville. After being denied admission to Washington and St. Louis universities, he recruited teachers and organized the Douglass College for African Americans seeking higher education in St. Louis. After the school closed due to lack of financing, Dreer taught in the newly organized Stowe Teacher's College. Throughout his life, Dreer wrote plays for his students and is credited with writing two novels, The Immediate Jewel of the Soul and The Tie that Binds. Dreer lived in several places in the Ville before purchasing a lot and building the house in 1930. He lived in the home until 1955 and the family continued to own it until 2000.

The Ville neighborhood's Homer G. Phillips House is nominated for its association with preeminent St. Louis attorney and civil rights activist Homer Gilliam Phillips. Known locally for his activism and political influence, he also worked at a national level as the third national president of the National Bar Association, an organization of African American attorneys formed as a counterpart to the then-segregated American Bar Association. Phillips is best known for his tireless work to garner city support and financing for a city hospital for the underserved African American population. His 15-year fight resulted in the construction of a state-of-the-art facility that not only served the health needs of the black community, but acted as a training ground for African American doctors and nurses. Though he died tragically before the groundbreaking for the hospital, the city honored Phillips for his work by giving the hospital his name. The Homer G. Phillips hospital was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Charles Henry Turner House in the Ville neighborhood of St. Louis is named for an internationally known entomologist and animal behavior scientist. Charles Henry Turner, who moved his family into the home in 1912, broke the color barrier in education and science by being the first African American to obtain a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Chicago and as the first black to be published in the prestigious journal Science. During his life, he discovered a new species, contributed several early anatomical studies of crayfish and avian brains, and developed new zoological study methodologies, some of which are still in use today. While living in St. Louis, he taught at Sumner High School and conducted an elaborate, self-funded study of bees that proved that they recognize and respond to colors and patterns.

The Union Depot Railroad Co. Building, built c. 1885, is nominated for its association with a streetcar company that played a pivotal role in opening land in South St. Louis for residential development by the working and middle classes. The property is associated with the pioneering horse-drawn streetcar line and, later, the first electric trolley that served the southwestern sector of St. Louis. The company served as a source of employment to residents of South St. Louis as well as a mode of travel to its inhabitants. After the multiple streetcar companies consolidated in the early 1900s, the building was sold and converted into a car dealership.

Constructed in 1928, the Rockwood Court Apartments in Webster Groves, St. Louis County, are locally significant for their Tudor Revival architecture. But regardless of style, apartment buildings are a rare property type in Webster Groves because of the city's historic opposition to them, and that, too, is part of their significance. Rockwood Court was built only after a two-year political battle (1926-28) over amending the city's zoning ordinance to allow multiple-family dwellings. Even today, only one other apartment building is known to exist in Webster Groves. Community planning and development and architecture are cited as areas of significance.

Located on Greenwood Boulevard in Maplewood, St. Louis County, the Greenwood Historic District is a block of commercial buildings built along the Union Pacific (originally Missouri Pacific) railroad tracks. As early as 1853, trains stopped at Sutton's Station (now Maplewood) to drop off freight and passengers, though the first depot wasn't constructed until 1885. Primarily a freight stop and depot, commuters also used the depot until a passenger depot was constructed in 1911. Built between 1905 and 1928, the five historic buildings in the district served the surrounding residential neighborhoods and the passengers and employees of the railroad.

The Louis J. and Harriet Rozier House, in De Soto, Jefferson County, was completed in 1887 according to the designs of Charles Henry Rains Handcock. Rozier was superintendent and secretary for the family-owned Valle Mining Co., nine miles to the south in the settlement of Valles Mines. Though relatively distant from the mines, Rozier chose to build in De Soto to be close to the booming trade spurred by the construction of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad and its associated car works and machine shops. The house is one of just a few spindlework Queen Anne style houses in the community, and remains relatively unaltered from its date of construction. The unusual canted with turned posts and lacelike bracketry set this house apart from other local examples of the style.

The St. Albans Farms Stone Barn in St. Albans, Franklin County, was designed by Theodore C. Link around 1918 and used by the farms from its construction into the 1980s. The barn design was likely a departure for Link, who is best known as the architect for St. Louis's Union Station. He designed the barn for Irene Johnson who ran the 7,000-acre St. Albans farm after the death of her husband Oscar. The large barn, clad in rusticated stone, served as a horse barn and was converted in c. 1932 for use as a dairy barn. It housed the farm's "Golden Guernsey" herd, which was the largest Guernsey herd in Missouri at the time. Though in deteriorated condition, the large barn is a unique example of Link's work and an unusual and architecturally significant barn type in Missouri.

With its front dormers and Colonial Revival styling, the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Building in Columbia, Boone County, resembles a Cape Cod cottage with a very long rear ell. When it was constructed in 1935, that somewhat homey look helped the new bottling plant blend visually into its residential neighborhood on the edge of the central business district. The red brick commercial building remained a Coca-Cola bottling plant for more than 30 years, and it still reflects its historic appearance today. The building is being nominated for commercial significance under the "Historic Resources of Downtown Columbia, Missouri" Multiple Property Documentation Form.

The oldest portion of the Beaumont Telephone Exchange complex in St. Louis was erected in 1902 and the last part was built in 1946. This period reflects the years during which the facility was greatly expanded in response to advances in the communications industry and the growth of its customer base. The original building of the Beaumont Exchange was constructed by the Bell Telephone Co. of Missouri during its period of competition with the Kinloch Telephone Co., its chief local rival early in the 20th century. The original brick and terra cotta building -- the most ornate part of the complex -- was designed by St. Louis architects Eames and Young. Communications is cited as the area of significance.

The Lucas Avenue Industrial Historic District (Boundary Increase) consists of eight buildings that are representative of St. Louis's diversified manufacturing base in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Constructed from 1890 through 1932, the six contributing buildings -- located directly east of the original district to which they are being added -- are of brick and masonry construction with details of stone and terra cotta. The Wrought Iron Range Co., which is already listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is within the area of the boundary increase and one building is noncontributing. Local industries represented by the addition include printing, shoe manufacturing, corset manufacturing, automotive and trucking. As in the original nomination, industry is cited as the area of significance.

Constructed in 1924, the Barclay Building in Kansas City is significant for its distinctive second floor with prominent semi-hexagonal display windows for specialty shops. Unusual for its time, the design of the upstairs windows made them easily visible from passing automobiles as well as by pedestrians on both sides of the street. The Barclay also marked a transition from large urban department stores to smaller suburban retail establishments. Designed by Kansas City architect Robert Gornall in the Beaux-Arts style, the Barclay is enlivened by the use of decorative terra cotta in the primary façade, which includes a very tall parapet. Architecture is cited as the area of significance.

Originally listed in the National Register in 1977, the Old Town Historic District represented the early growth and development of Kansas City. The area is the site of the original Kansas City and became an important early Missouri River landing. The Old Town Historic District (Boundary Increase III), consists of the O.C. Evans Wholesale Produce Co., which was originally constructed in 1910 from the designs of Sanneman and Van Trump. In 1946, the Milgram's grocery chain expanded the building to house its growing business. The building is one of several in the district that were closely associated with wholesale food distribution. The area was attractive to produce and food supply companies due to the proximity of the City Market and multiple rail lines.

The Park Manor Historic District in Kansas City is an excellent illustration of the multi-family apartment building property type constructed for the city's upper-middle classes during the mid-1920s. It also illustrates the adaptation of the Spanish Colonial Revival architectural style to large residential buildings. Park Manor developer Charles Ogan Jones commissioned the firm of Boillot and Lauck to design a cohesive complex of unique buildings that reflected the architectural precedents established earlier in the decade by the nearby Country Club Plaza shopping district. The three buildings in the district were constructed 1925-1927.

The Andrew Drumm Institute in Independence, Jackson County, opened in 1929 as a working farm where indigent boys were cared for, educated and given a sense of self-esteem. Founder Drumm, a prosperous cattleman and philanthropist, died 10 years before the institute opened but left instructions for its operation in his will. Needy boys are still cared for on the farm, which today is a proposed historic district consisting of 11 properties on some 17 acres. An 1881 brick farmhouse (used as a schoolhouse) and stone smokehouse are the oldest extant properties. The other halls and dormitories were constructed decades later (1929 through 1974) but they have shared architectural features and still reflect their historic appearance. Proposed areas of significance are social history, education and agriculture.

In addition to nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, the council will receive status reports on programs provided by the State Historic Preservation Office and discuss business related to its own function and duties.

The Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is a 12-member group of historians, architects, archaeologists and citizens with an interest in historic preservation. The council is appointed by the governor and works with the Department of Natural Resources' State Historic Preservation Office, which administers the National Register program for Missouri. The council meets quarterly to review proposed Missouri property nominations to the National Register, the nation's honor roll of historic properties. Approved nominations are forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register in Washington, D.C., for final approval.

For more information about the Nov. 18 meeting or the council, call the State Historic Preservation Office at 573-751-7858 or the department toll free at 800-334-6946.

For news releases on the Web, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel. For a complete listing of the department's upcoming meetings, hearings and events, visit the department's online calendar at www.dnr.mo.gov/calendar/search.do.

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News Release No. 470

HISTORIC PRESERVATION COUNCIL TO CONSIDER NOMINATIONS FOR NATIONAL REGISTER NOV. 18

HISTORIC PRESERVATION COUNCIL TO CONSIDER
NOMINATIONS FOR NATIONAL REGISTER NOV. 18