Architecture

Architect Biographies - T-U-V-W

Samuel B. Tarbet — Architect of 4022 Harrison St. (1909) Neoclassical house and 900 E. Linwood Blvd. - Kansas City Athenaeum (1913)

Tarbet is listed in the 1910 city directory as an architect. By 1920, he collaborated with Robert Gornall to form the firm of Tarbet & Gornall.

R. N. Tibbets — Architect of 3517 Locust St. (1909)

Henry S. Thayer — Architect of 4123 Charlotte St

Frank E. Trask (1882-1968) — Architect of 419 E. 36th St

Native of Axtell, Kansas, Frank Edgar Trask came to Kansas City about 1908. In 1914, he formed a partnership with McKecknie that lasted until McKecknie’s death in 1934. Among the buildings designed by the firm are the Board of Trade, Stats hotel, Ridernour-Baker Grocery company, the Ninth and Main garage, the Insurance Exchange building and the University Club.

Albert Turney — Architect of 3402, 4340, & 4346 Harrison St — 3414 Harrison St now parking lot

Albert Turney was an active architect in Kansas City from approximately 1895 until 1936. The Bishop Beed residence at 3402 Harrison is the earliest known extant residential design by Turney. He designed two houses in the south Hyde Park historic district—one built in 1908 at 4340 Harrison and his own home at 4346 Harrison built in 1905. He is listed in the 1905 and 1910 city directories as an architect. Turney was responsible for many fashionable residences and apartments in Kansas City. He designed three Kansas City fire stations in 1905, located at 3033 Holmes (Fire Station #17), 1504 E. 6th Street (Fire Station #14) and the Fire Headquarters at 1020 Central. Turney placed a classified advertisement in The Kansas City Star on June 16, 1907 that read, “ Art Homes for the busy man who can’t afford the expense, worry and time. Albert Turney Architect. Prices $8,000 to $30,000; they are right in every way; different from those you have seen…Office Dwight Bldg.”

Harold W. Underhill — Architect of 3526 Cherry St.

L. H. Vade — Architect of 420 E. Armour Blvd

Adriance Van Brunt and Adriance & Bros Van Brunt — Architect of Westport Park District Operating Plant (1904) at 39th & Gillham Rd and #73 Janssen Place (1908)

Adriance Van Brunt was born in Englewood, N. J. in 1836. He came to Kansas City in 1878 and formed an architecture firm with his brother, John. Soon after moving here, Van Brunt became interested in various civic campaigns and on March 5, 1892, was appointed by Mayor Ben Holmes to the first active board of park commissioners. Van Brunt was reappointed through four city administrations. He resigned 1902 under the Reed administration. In recognition of his contribution to the parks and boulevard system, East Boulevard was renamed Van Brunt Boulevard.

Biography of Adriance Van Brunt (1836-1913), Architect by Susan Jezak Ford

V. A. Weaver — Architect of 3647 Harrison Blvd (1911)

Thomas Wight (1874-1949) — Edward T. Wilder — William D. Wight (1882-1947) — Architect of 3863 Holmes St (1908), 3622 Holmes St (1906), #55 Janssen Place (1911)

Wilder & Wight (1904-1910/12) — Wight & Wight (1916)

Thomas was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia to Scottish parents. His brother, William was born in 1882. Thomas came to the United States at age 17, seeking work in Boston. He found employment with McKim, Meade & White, the prestigious New York architectural firm. Charles McKim, impressed with Wight’s talent and eagerness to learn, soon offered him a draftsman position at the firm’s headquarters in New York. Over the course of the next decade he had numerous mentors. By 1904, Thomas went into business for himself, and he chose friend Edward T. Wilder as his partner. They decided to move to Kansas City, a young but rapidly growing city with many needed buildings yet to built. Wilder was from Topeka and had attended Cornell University and began his impressive career with Jenny and Mundie architects of Chicago. Wilder retired in 1912. William served his own lengthy apprenticeship in travels through Europe and at McKim, Mead & White and came to Kansas City in 1911 and in 1916 the firm became Wight & Wight. At one time Thomas’s residence was at 3363 Holmes St. In 1908 he designed and built 3863 Holmes St. as the family home. The Thomas Wight family lived there until 1949 when Thomas died of a heart attack.

Wight and Wight architectural Records, (K0825) are with State Historical Society of Missouri.

Wight & Wight “The Wight Stuff”

Thomas and William D. Wight by Daniel Coleman

Harry E. Williams — Architect of 4418 Harrison St.

J. C. Wright — Architect of 3537 Campbell St. (1910)

Albert C. Wiser (1882-1937) — Architect of 3717 Holmes St. (1908)

Little has been written about Albert C. Wiser (1882-1937), in spite of the fact that he was a partner with Shepard, Farrar and Wiser- of one of Kansas City's most prestigious architectural firms that traces the beginning of its practice to 1887. A native of Rochester New York, Wiser came to Kansas City at the age of nine. His father, Edward B. Wiser, was widely recognized as a jewelry manufacturer. Wiser began his formal education at the University of Pennsylvania but became bored with the stringent curriculum requirements; consequently he returned to New York where he enrolled at Columbia University.

Wiser launched his career in architecture as an apprentice and draftsman for Shepard and Farrar in 1902. Nine years later, Wiser became a partner and from 1911-1918 the firm was known as Shepard, Farrar and Wiser. Although Ernest H. Farrar had left the firm in 1910, when he moved to Maine to spend his retirement years, his name was retained until 1919 when the firm officially became known as Shepard and Wiser.

Projects by Wiser while partners with Charles E. Shepard include the design for the Sophian Plaza Apartments, constructed in 1922-1923. Located at 4618 Warwick Boulevard, Kansas City, the elegant and stately apartment building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in July 1983. Wiser, who considered the Sophian Plaza to be one of his most successful projects, designed a near duplicate luxury apartment building for a private concern in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Another of Wiser' s designs while partnering was the Mission Hills Country Club, Mission Hills, Kansas, where he spent several years as a member. Wiser also assisted in the development of Research Hospital in Kansas City.

Wiser used his dynamic personality to promote the firm outside of the Kansas City market. He was responsible for opening offices in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Wichita, Kansas and Amarillo, Texas. While with Shepard, Wiser spearheaded several hotel commissions throughout the southwest. Hotel projects in the area include the Hotel President, Kansas City (listed in the Historic Downtown Hotel National Register District as a contributing building) and the Kansan Hotel, Topeka, Kansas.

After apprenticing and then partnering with Shepard for over twenty-five years, Wiser left the firm in 1927 to develop his own projects, including the promotion and financing of real estate construction. It was during his solo years that he designed the Gothicized Waltower Building, the only known building designed by Wiser in Kansas City when he was practicing on his own.

Wiser spent the last two years of his life pursuing business activities in St. Louis but remained in Kansas City at his residence located at 3612 Walnut Street. Wiser, the last survivor of Shepard, Farrar and Wiser, died on May 17, 1937, at the age of 55. Frederick C. Pickett, who had been associated with the firm as a draftsman and then Shepard's partner after Wiser withdrew from the practice, asserted that:

[Wiser] was one of the most original men I ever knew. He detested red tape and stereotyped ways of doing things. What counted with him was accomplishment, and he would try new approaches to old problems, often with amazing success.

The Waltower Building National Register of Historic Places.

See Charles Shepard, Farrar & Wiser and Shepard & Wiser bios.