Architecture
Architect Biographies - A-B-C
Charles Ahyon — Architect of 4315 Harrison St
Fred L. Akens — Architect of 1007-09 E. 42nd St.
Andrew B. Anderson (1866-1951) — Architect of 3706, 3800, and 3826 Locust St.; 4139 Charlotte St.
Born in Sweden, Anderson came to Kansas City in 1900. He participated in the planning of parts of the Rockhill district and the Mt. Washington district. He designed the Gales building in 1909 at Tenth street and Grand avenue. It later became the Dierks building (Grand Boulevard Lofts). Andrews designed the five-story building so that additional floors could be added. It was expanded upward three times to seventeen-stories tall. The Dierks Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The KC Star December 25, 1951 obituary identified Anderson as an architect and building engineer. He is included in the 1912 Kansas City in Caricature book.
J. E. Biles — Architect of 3533 Kenwood Ave.
Carl L. Bliss — Architect of 3620 Charlotte St.
A. P. Boggess — Architect of 4034 Holmes St.
John George Braecklein (1865-1958) — Architect of 3821 Gillham Rd.
Born in New York City, the Braecklein family moved back to Leavenworth in 1866 and moved to Kansas City, Missouri in 1878. Braecklein studied architecture at Harvard and Yale in 1884 and 1885. He began his architectural career as a draftsman in Kansas City in 1885 and set up he own practice in Kansas City, Kansas in 1887. His first independent commission was the design for a large, Queen Anne style house of brick for Mrs. John B. Scroggs at 4th and Ann Streets in Kansas City, Kansas. By 1888 Braecklein had moved back to Kansas City, Missouri, and with only one interruption his home and office were to be located there for the next twenty-eight years. One of the first commissions following this move was also one of the most significant in his long career. The seven-story Heist Building at 724 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri, was the tallest building in the city when completed in 1889, and its height coupled with its composite construction of steel beams and cast iron interior columns made it the city's first skyscraper.
Kansas Historical Society _ Braecklein
Westheight Manor Historic Survey - Braecklein
Online Archives of California Collection - Braecklein
Kansas City Public Library – Collection of Missouri Valley Room
Ernest Brostrom (1888-1969) — Architect of:
· 912-914 and 918-920 East 41st St — colonnaded apartment buildings
· 620 E. Armour Blvd — Trinity Methodist Church (1922) w/ architect George Fuller Green
· 525 E. Armour Blvd — Newbern Apartments — Brostrom & Drotts
Born in Sweden, Brostrom came to the United States with his parents at the age of nine years. He had no formal training in the field of architecture, and he began his career in 1907 as a draftsman with the Eisentraut-Colby-Pottenger Company Architects, in Sioux City, Iowa. He came to Kansas City that same year to help the firm establish another office. At 23 years old, he established his own office in Kansas City. Church plans were his specialty and he designed dozens throughout the Midwest. Brostrom became a great admirer of the Chicago School and the work of Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. His most prominent buildings in Kansas City are the Jensen-Salsbery Laboratories Building (1918) (National Register of Historic Places) at 520 W. 21st Street and the Rushton Baking Company (1920) (National Register of Historic Places) at 814 Southwest Boulevard, Kansas City, Kansas. The Brostrom and Drotts firm were architects for the Peacock apartments and hotel building (later the Newbern Apartments) (1921, 1925) at 525 East Armour Boulevard. The Newbern Apartments were listed on the Kansas City Register of Historic Places in 1978.
KC Times 1964-12-08 Long article on Brostrom
National Register Apartment Buildings North End of The Paseo - Brostrom
Kansas Historical Society _ Brostrom
George Carman — Architect of 3659 Harrison Blvd. — HKCF Gazette 1980-02 — Photos and biographical article about George Carman
John M. Cheatham — Architect of 3804 Harrison Blvd; 4326 Campbell St; 4331 Harrison St.
C. E. Closser — Architect of 3515 Cherry St. (1908)
Louis Curtiss (1865-1924) — Architect of 500 E 36th St (1909); 4517 Gillham Rd (1909) bungalow
Born in Ontario, Canada, Louis Singleton Curtiss studied architecture at the University of Toronto and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris before coming to Kansas City in 1887. He briefly worked as a draftsman for Adriance Van Brunt and then joined Frederick C. Gunn in a partnership in 1889. Ten years later, he established a solo practice building many progressively designed buildings, including the first steel curtain wall building. One of Kansas City’s most creative architects, Curtiss’ buildings include the 1900 Folly Theater at 1020 Central Street, the 1908-1909 Boley Building at 12th and Walnut and the 1903-1905 Mineral Hall at 4340 Oak Street. Many of his buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He was well educated, well travelled, and well read, with an amazingly wide range of interest. He was also a rather flamboyant individualist, with white suits, a flowing tie, one of the fastest cars in town, personally monogrammed Turkish cigarettes which he smoked incessantly, and a habit of paying his bills in gold coin. He designed everything from bungalows to city halls and was unquestionably one of Kansas City's most important architects.
“Architectural Observer”, The Mysterious Louis Curtiss Mar 22, 2018
“Stalking Louis Curtiss” book January 1, 1991, by Wilda Sandy
