Union Park Historic District
The Union Park Historic District occupies approximately six acres just south of the central business district. Its shape clearly marks this landscaped park as a unique, attractive showpiece for the city. The district straddles two subdivisions platted in 1857, the Clark and Rees Addition and Day’s Addition, platted only three years after the founding of the original town in 1854. The unusual shape is attributed to a survey correction to properly align 7th Street north to south because the original town plat was surveyed parallel to the Missouri River rather than on a magnetic north grid. The result was a triangle-shaped parcel. In December 1870, local citizens dedicated this parcel “for a Public Park for the use of the Public forever.” Eventually, the park became known as Union Park. Though we are uncertain as to its origin, the park’s name “Union” was commonly applied to public and commercial structures to commemorate the victory of Union forces in the American Civil War. Leavenworth was home to several union veteran organizations, which probably influenced the widespread acceptance of the park’s name.
In the 1880s, a fountain, fence and trees were added to enhance the park. Beginning in the late 1900s, the park began to seriously deteriorate until it became obvious that a major effort was necessary to save and rehabilitate this piece of Leavenworth history. In 1997, interest in the park gained momentum. A significant volunteer effort returned the park to its former beauty and place among Leavenworth’s many attractions. Members from the Leavenworth County Master Gardner program planted and revived the park’s landscape. A replica fountain along with period-style lamps completed the work; this allowed the city to re-dedicate the park in 1999 helped by a grant from the Kansas City 150th anniversary fund.
The Union Park Historic District possesses a high degree of integrity both overall and in its constituent parts. There are 11 featured structures or sites in the district. The majority was built to serve as single-family dwellings, but also include businesses, a firehouse, carriage houses and the park itself. Today, most structures are single family homes. The houses represent a variety of styles including Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Victorian, Romanesque, Craftsman, Classical Revival, and Colonial Revival. These vivid architectural representatives create a sense of time and community for the district and contribute to the rich legacy of early Leavenworth, the “First City of Kansas.”
Hose House No. 2
903 Fifth Avenue
Late 19th Century
This two-story structure was originally Hose House No. 2 and the original vehicles were horse drawn. In 1905 it was labeled Fire Department No. 2 and housed the city's first "hook & ladder truck." The fire department vacated the building in 1973.
Fields Building
901 Fifth Avenue
Circa 1880, 1930
This two-story commercial building was built in 1880. An 1889 map identifies the building as a grocery store, a confectionery shop in 1897, a barbershop in 1905 and a stationery shop in 1913. It once contained the Fields family drugstore. The tile-block addition was made between 1924 and 1949 and was used as a church in 1949. In the 1960s the building housed Clark’s Cleaners, which expanded into the adjoining fire station at 903 Fifth Avenue in 1973 and connected the two buildings with a small cinder block hyphen. The present owners acquired the building and restored it using a photograph as their principal source. The restoration won an award from the Kansas Preservation Alliance in 1999.
Callahan Building
900 Fifth Avenue
1940
This two-story commercial building of smooth brick construction was built by J. H. Callahan, who lived nearby at 802 South Seventh and operated a pharmacy here in the early 20th Century. The building also once contained the Putnam Drug Store.
900 Fourth Avenue
1870
This two-story frame Victorian-style house has weatherboard siding and an asphalt-shingled hip roof with a small shed dormer and a cornice that incorporates dentil moldings and modillion-like elements. The front entry has sidelights and a transom in a paneled embrasure. Other features include a stone foundation, interior brick chimneys, side entries, and tall (to floor) windows on the first-story front. The house appears on the 1876 Hunnius map and in more-or-less its present form on the 1889 Sanborn map, although a rear one-story section was enlarged to two stories between 1889 and 1897.
700 Spruce Street
Late 1900s, mid-late 20th Century
This one-and-two-story commercial building evolved as the result of two or more phases of construction spanning the final quarter of the 19th Century and was architecturally unified by a single façade treatment towards the end of its evolution. The two-story sections along South Seventh Street have stretcher-bond brickwork and metal-sheathed shed roofs behind parapets. The principal elevation along South Seventh, which wraps a short distance along Spruce Street, has a parapet that incorporates brick corbelling and cross-shaped recesses below a fringed wooden cornice with a canted frieze with an incised scrolling design. The two-story sections of the building appear in their present form on the 1889 Sanborn map. A grocery occupied the south end and a meat market the north end. Porches or awnings formerly extended into Spruce and Fifth streets. The one-story additions were made to the west side between 1889 and 1897; the north addition contained a grocery warehouse. A retail store occupied the building in 1924 and 1949. Currently, the building is used as apartments.
Callahan House
802 South 7th Street
1922
This two-story frame Colonial-Revival house was built by Drugstore owner J. H. Callahan in 1922. His architect was Myron K. Feth of the Leavenworth firm Feth & Feth and his builder was Henry Grote. Callahan's pharmacy was located nearby at 900 Fifth Avenue. The house is built on fill over a sunken area that is said to have once had tennis courts. In 1889 several small buildings including a meat market and a feed store stood on the lot.
Knapp House
720 South 7th Street
1900
This structure is one of the finest residential properties in Leavenworth. The two-story Queen Anne/Romanesque-style house of smooth brick construction has an asphalt-shingled hip roof with pediment gable dormers and fish scale wood-shingle sheathing, battered sides, and shield-like ornaments and dentil moldings in the pediments. The exterior has several types of decorative brickwork including banded, projecting brick below the level of the first-story windows on the south elevation, a rectangular spandrel with multiple recesses between the first and second-story windows. At the northeast front comer, sits two-story bay window with round comer piers and a large first-story window with decorative upper sash. Other features include a stone foundation, an interior brick chimney with a T-shaped cross section, cut-away front comers and a second-story balcony on the south elevation. Attached to the north side of the house is a 1990s two-story wing (the second story on level with the first story of the house) that harmonizes with the house architecturally.
Chauncey L. Knapp was the founder and owner of C. L. Knapp & Co. The present house was probably built about 1900 and is similar to period designs by Leavenworth architect William P. Feth.
Sybil Harvey House
625 Olive Street
1902
This two-story house, which combines Queen Anne, Romanesque, and Classical Revival stylistic attributes, is constructed of smooth brick. Famed Leavenworth architect William P. Feth designed the house for the Harvey family, who resided across the street. Mr. Harvey initiated construction of this house for his daughter Sybil. Unfortunately he passed away in 1901 before the house was completed.
Sybil Harvey may have lived in the home for a short period, but she eventually lived with her mother at the 624 Olive address. After her mother died, Sybil remained in the home even after her marriage to banker Sylvester Parker in the 1920s. In 1927 the house was sold to Henry Kaufmann, who operated a grocery in the neighborhood.
624 Olive Street
Frederick H. Harvey House
1869
This two-story stone house is a premiere example of the Second Empire Style in Leavenworth and is nationally notable for its association with restaurant pioneer Frederick H. Harvey, the first "chain" restaurateur in the western half of the United States. The impressive architectural detail and cream-colored Junction City limestone walls rise above a foundation of lighter colored stone. The building boasts flamboyant masonry detail at the corners, roof and windows.
Bands of buff-colored brickwork mark or fill the points of attachment for porches that formerly extended across the front elevation and the west side. The grounds preserve many historic and later features. Low stone retaining walls topped by iron fences extend along Seventh and Olive streets and the two-story carriage
house is now home to the National Carousel Association. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and serves as the paramount structure in the district.
Several sources point to 1869 as the date of construction for this house, which was built for banker and real estate broker Alexander A. Higginbotham. The property's second owner was Harvey D. Rush, who controlled local flourmills and coal mines and is said to have operated one of the largest grain elevators in the West. Rush sold the house to Frederick H. Harvey in 1883 who made it the family home until the 1940s.
Harvey (1835-1901), a native of England, was appointed as western freight agent for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in 1863 and came to Leavenworth in 1865. Harvey grew dissatisfied with the poor quality of railroad dining facilities and in the 1870s he began to purchase and operate restaurants. This was the origin of the Harvey House chain of restaurants which were located along the line of the Santa Fe Railroad and which established a national reputation for quality fare and service. The chain eventually operated 50 Fred Harvey Houses and 20 dining cars. The restaurants were staffed over the years by thousands of demure and immaculately dressed Harvey Girls who themselves became fixtures in Western lore and motion pictures.
Fred Harvey's widow and daughter Sybil lived in the house after his death. In 1944, the house was given to Cushing Memorial Hospital for use as a nurse’s home and in 1949 it was transferred to the Leavenworth Board of Education for use as administrative offices. The Leavenworth Historical Museum Association now owns the Harvey House and are in the process of renovating the building and then converting it to a museum.
Davis House
610 Olive Street
Late 19th Century
This late 19th Century two-story frame Victorian-style house has vinyl siding and an asphalt-shingled front-gable roof. A west side wing has a one-story bay window with decorative metal cresting and, on the roof above, a steep decorative gable with Gothic Revival-style influence. On the east side is a two-story bay window with tall windows on the first story. Other features include a stone foundation, interior and exterior brick chimneys, and a one-story rear wing. A two-story carriage house is a contributing structure to the district. It abuts the Harvey Carriage House.
For many years, this was the home of the Davis family. Mr. Homer Davis was a prominent lawyer who was very active in local organizations and politics. His son, Judge Bob Davis, was a member of the Kansas Supreme Court.
Farrell House
608 Olive Street
This two-story Victorian home is identified as the William H. Farrell House in an 1869 illustration of Leavenworth. Farrell first appears as a resident of Olive Street in an 1872 directory and soon after is listed as the occupant of 608 Olive.
Leavenworth Public Library (Carnegie Arts Center)
Angel House
