Architect Biographies - S

Sanneman & Gould — Architects of 4407 Harrison St.

       Sanneman & Van Trump — Architects of St. James Church at 3901 Harrison St. (1911)

Not much is known about Kansas City architect Raymond H. Sanneman. He was first listed in Kansas City directories in 1909 as part of “Sanneman, Lorey & Company.” Along with partners Frank W. Lorey of Kansas City, Kansas, and Richard W. Van Trump, Sanneman’s architecture and engineering firm had an office in the Commerce Building at 10th and Walnut Streets. A year later, Lorey started his own construction company, leaving Sanneman and Van Trump to maintain the practice. The company became “Sanneman, Gould, and Van Trump” in 1912 when Wilfred M. Gould joined the firm. In 1913, Van Trump left to pursue a career in real estate, and the architecture firm became “Sanneman and Gould Architectural Company”. From 1917 to 1935, city directories list Sanneman as a sole practitioner, maintaining the same office in the Reserve Building. The last listing for Sanneman appeared in 1936 as a draftsman.

A number of Sanneman’s designs are listed in the National Register. These include the Linn County Courthouse (1911) in Linneus, Missouri; and the Joseph Foresman Residence (1910), the Dixon Hotel (1912), the Monroe Hotel (1920), the Crane Company Building (1925), and the Jackson County Democratic Club (1926) in Kansas City, Missouri. Most of these are simple, masonry-clad structures with restrained Classical Revival details. Trenton High School, constructed in 1924, aligns with Sanneman’s known design aesthetic.

Claude P. Schmidt — Architect of 3321 Harrison St

A native of Germany, Schmidt was born in 1860 and came to America in 1882. Initially, he settled in Omaha, Nebraska, and worked as a carpenter. Schmidt moved to Kansas City the next year and worked first as a carpenter before transitioning to a draftsman and then an architect. Schmidt was involved with about 25 projects in Kansas City from 1897 to 1924. One of the projects was the Savoy Hotel. He also designed single-family homes, apartment buildings, commercial properties, and a church. In 1897, Schmidt also became a director of the American Savings & Loan Association and became its president in 1928.

F. C. Schmidt — Architect for 809-11 E. 44th St.

 Charles E. Shepard (1868-1932) — Was a partner, through different years, in five architectural firms.

  Shepard & Farrar — Architects of 633 E. Armour Blvd, 3400 & 3440 Campbell St, 3630 Locust St., 3500 & 3541 Charlotte St., 3525 Harrison Blvd, and #61 Janssen Place

  Shepard, Farrar & Wiser — Architects of 3530 Charlotte St, 3601 Campbell St., 3707 Harrison Blvd., 400 E. Armour Blvd., and #3, #17, #20, #54, #67, #80 & #96 Janssen Place

  Shepard & Wiser — Architects of 3501 Campbell St. (1921) – Central Presbyterian Church — Partnership 1911-1925.

Charles E. Shepard was born in 1868 in Stuart Iowa and educated in the University of Iowa. He moved to Kansas City in 1887, where he established his first firm with Martin Vrydagh. Their partnership dissolved in 1893 when Vrydagh moved to Pittsburgh, but Shepard continued his firm as Shepard and Farrar with Ernest H. Farrar beginning in 1885. Shepard’s partnership with Farrar ended in 1910 when Farrar retired, and firm architect Albert Wiser was promoted to partner. The firm was renamed

Shepard, Farrar & Wiser until 1919 when it was changed to Shepard and Wiser. As Shepard and Wiser, the firm opened additional offices in Tulsa, Wichita, and Amarillo. Wiser left the firm in 1927, and Frederick C. Pickett became Shepard’s new partner. Shepard & Pickett dissolved in 1931 when Shepard’s failing health and the Great Depression forced the firm to close.

The work of Shepard, Farrar & Wiser primarily focused on high-end residential design. In Kansas City, the firm designed the Hotel President (NRHP #64000395; 1982) and more than 600 residences within the Hyde Park, Mission Hills, and Country Club District neighborhoods. Shepard’s practice in Kansas City specialized on properties south of Armour Blvd from Troost Ave. to the west to include Roanoke, also Coe’s Addition and Chouteau Park and Bell-Alto Subdivisions. Throughout Shepard’s distinguished career, he was the principal designer of every building type found not only in Kansas City, but also in Tulsa, Wichita, and Amarillo, Texas.

See Albert C. Wiser bio.

Clarence Erasmus Shepard (1869-1949)— Architect of eight single-family houses and one apartment building in the South Hyde Park historic district (1907-1910) and three houses in Central Hyde Park historic district — 3637, 4222, 4224, 4226, 4232 & 4241 Charlotte St., 3711 Harrison Blvd., 810 Gleed Terrace, 804 & 808 E. 43rd St., and 3923 & 4237 Holmes St.

  Shepard & Belcher — Architects of 3715 Harrison Blvd — Partnership 1913-1917

Clarence E. Shepard was born (1869) in Cortland, New York and moved to Clay Center, Kansas, in 1880. After graduating from public schools, he went to California in 1895. There he entered the University of California to study architecture. He interspersed his studies with visitations among the Western Indian tribes where he began collecting baskets. He provided baskets to Marshall Fields of Chicago, the Field museum , now the Chicago Natural History museum, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.

He moved to Chicago to work as a draftsman in the studio of Frank Lloyd Wright from 1902-1905. After his daughter was born in 1905, Shepard and his wife Nella, daughter of Kansas City realtor Joseph Kendall, moved to Kansa City where he obtained his practicing architectural license. Between 1905 and 1907 he was associated with Kendall Reality Company. Shepard was especially active in designing residences from 1908 to 1913. Shepard formed a partnership (1913-1917) with Harborne D. Belcher and was associated with the J.C. Nichols Company until 1917 as an architect and realtor.

In addition to being an architect, Shepard was also fond of the arts with painting and Native American basketry his primary focus. It is his paintings that are of interest in the Kansas City library collection. Missouri Remembers Clarence Erasmus Shepard 

  “The Wright Stuff Prairie Style Homes on the Prairie”

Interesting side note: Shepard’s second wife was Arabell Hemingway Shepard, aunt by marriage of Ernest Hemingway. His uncle, Alfred Tyler Hemingway, was a prominent local businessman with connections at the Kansas City Star and helped Ernest get a reporting job. Because of the family connection, Ernest and Pauline came to Kansas City to have their first and second children born at Research Hospital. During those times in Kansas City, he was writing A Farewell to Arms in 1928 and finalizing a Death in the Afternoon in 1931. Ernest Hemingway Kansas City Connections  

  L. Cage Silvey — Architect of 4030 Charlotte St

 C.B. Sloan (1870-1958) — Architect of 3621 Harrison Blvd (1910) and 3743 Harrison Blvd (1912)

Born in Springfield, Illinois in 1870, Clifton B. Sloan’s older brother William was a Realtor in Kansas City, a partner in the firm of Sloan & Truitt and probably responsible for Clifton's arrival in Kansas City in 1889. Although it was obvious from Clifton's letters (collection at the Jackson County Historical Society Library), that his goal was to become an architect, he had a slow start. After various jobs including a brick layer, boss of a rock crushing crew, and clerk for a wall paper firm, Sloan was hired to teach mechanical drawing at the new Manual Training High School where he remained on faculty until 1902. At that time he opened an office as an architect and practiced the remainder of his life.

In 1906, Sloan's office was at Room 22 of the Rlckseeker Building, 9th and Walnut.  Sloan designed a variety of structures including commercial buildings, theaters, and churches. His most interesting work was his residences at 2700 Tracy. He used it to illustrate the need for houses to be architect designed. Two other residences included: Dr. Flavel Tiffany at 100 Garfield in 1908 and Dr. Arthur J. Henderson at 2127 Benton in 1911. Sloan was also the architect of the Rockhurst College Administration Building.

Charles A. Smith (1866 -1948) — Architect of 3636 Harrison  Blvd (1908)

  Smith & Rea — Architects of #6 Janssen Place (1909)

  Smith, Rea & Lovitt (1910-1920) — Architects of 3633 Harrison Blvd, #66 Janssen Place (1912), and 500 E Armour Blvd (1910)

Following Smith's arrival in Kansas City in 1893, he became a junior partner with William F. Hackney, architect for the School District of Kansas City. Smith acquired the position as School Board Architect, following Hackney's death in 1898. For nearly forty years until his retirement in 1936, Smith designed all of the school buildings in the city, His innovations, particularly in ventilation and sanitation, were adopted by other school systems throughout the country. In approximately 1902, Smith was joined by architect Frank S. Rea (1888-1929) and later, in about 1910, by architect Walter U. Lovitt Jr. (1874-1920) to form Smith & Rea and then Smith, Rea & Lovitt.

During the ten years of the firm's existence, Smith, Rea & Lovitt designed such notable Kansas City buildings as the Rialto Building, the Ridge Arcade, the Ivanhoe Temple, the Isis Theater/Wirthnam Building, the Firestone Building and the Rothenberg & Schloss Company Building. As senior partner of the firm, Smith distinguished himself as an architect of national repute. The firm of Smith, Rea &, Lovitt dissolved in 1920. Afterwards, Smith practiced alone, outliving Rea and Lovitt. Smith had one of the longest and most productive architectural careers in Kansas City.

Lovitt was 45 years old when he died. Nearly his entire life was spent in Kansas City. His father, Walter U. Lovitt Str., and active contractor in Kansas City in the ‘8-s, came here from Brooklyn about 1883. The elder Lovitt was one of the contractors who erected the world’s fair structures in Chicago.

 Arthur L. Sparks — Architect of 3942-46 Troost (1912)

Little is known about Arthur L. Sparks, architect of the Parade Park Maintenance Building at 1722 Woodland Avenue. He appears in the Kansas City city directory only between 1905 and 1913. During the early part of this period, he worked as a draftsman for a number of architecture firms and for one contractor. His employers included Howe, Hoit & Cutler, designers of the original Parade Park bath house, and Shepard and Farrar, both leading architecture firms in Kansas City during this period. In 1908 Sparks was a draftsman for the architectural firm F.E. Parker and Son, and in 1909 he worked for Joseph H. Stone, described in the city directory as "contractor for buildings." The 1910 city directory first lists Sparks as an architect. His name does not appear in the index of architects, suggesting that he may not yet have been self-employed. By 1912, the year he designed the first section of the Parade Park Maintenance Building, Sparks had his own design firm and occupied the same suite of offices in the Kemper Building at 7th Street and Delaware that his former employer Frank Parker had occupied in 1908. It appears that Sparks moved away from Kansas City after 1913. It is unclear if Sparks designed the 1916 building addition as part of the original plan for the Parade Park Maintenance Building or if the Park Board rehired him to design the addition.

 John M. Stansberry — Architect of 3938, 3940, & 3944 Charlotte and 712 East 40th Street (all 1913) – All shirtwaists. — Stansberry is listed in the 1910 city directory as working for Anchor Real Estate & Building Company.

 James C. Steward — Architect of 401 E. 36th St.

Dr. James Stewart (1852-1920) and his daughter Carrie Stewart were a father and daughter architectural team. James was a native of Indiana coming to Kansas City in 1890 as an architect (with residential designs at 401 East 36th Street, 701 Cleveland Avenue, and 3803 East 7th Street), and later becoming a physician. Carrie was an architect trained by her father in the 1890s and designed the George Hope residence at 1333 Linwood Boulevard in 1898, demolished in 1971. Photos and biographical article created by Sherry Piland was published in the Historic Kansas City News (Historic Kansas City Foundation Gazette).

 M. Stretcher — Architect of 701-09 E. 43rd St.

 Frederick R. Stuhl (1900-1929) — Architect of 3745 Locust St. (1924)

Frederick R. Stuhl, 29 years old, an architect for the J.C. Nichols Companies for five years, died March 7, 1929 of appendicitis at St. Mary’s hospital. He leaves his parents, Mr. and Mrs. A.C. Stuhl, 4342 Charlotte Street, and two brothers. Mr. Stuhl had lived all his life in Kansas City. He graduated in 1917 from Westport high school and then studied architecture at the University of Kansas two year.

 Frederick Sutter — Architect of 4000-02 Charlotte St (1913). Walk-up apartment building. He is listed in the 1910 city directory as a draftsman for Henry R. Hoit.