A publication of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association Volume 39, Issue 9

The Hyde Parker September 2012

Hyde Park market beginning to warm up

Workmen replace a roof and soffits at 3918 Charlotte in early August, mak-ing the South Hyde Park home the first of our “dirty dozen” July list of endan-­gered properties to be rehabbed. U.S. Bank is the foreclosure trustee.

Compared to the anemic real estate market of prior years, 2012 has been an active one for neighbor-hood home sales and remodeling.

Contracts signed since the spring have included many park-facing properties, such as Mayor Sly James’ large stone home on Man-­heim Road, a 1920s brick tutor at the corner of Holmes & Manheim, a large brick home at Locust & Gill-ham and a large stucco Gillham Road colonial fronting Hyde Park. Continued on pg. 7

Inside

80 Janssen Place 35 years after our first homes tour

Jackson Sheriff’s sale results for Hyde Park

Cherry St. jubilee: Academie Lafayette opens

An ambitious $78 million plan would repurpose Westport schools

Architect Bob Berkebile, 75, a founding member of the generation of homeowners that revitalized Hyde Park in the 1970s, is spear-heading a plan to breath a new, greener multi-purpose life into the closed Westport Middle and High Schools.

The $78 million proposal by KC Sustainable Development Part-ners involves purchasing both schools and retooling them into a pilot school, an urban agriculture education initiative led by Cultivate KC, other non-profit group space, a rooftop restaurant and a new graduate school with student housing.

Two other competing proposals would include Continued on pg. 4

Looking back since 1977 The Hyde Park Homes Tour: A consistent passion for excellence

Style diversity, quality and a desire to create a welcome environment have been the consistent hallmarks of Hyde Park home tours. This year, our 30th event revisits two properties that were gems of prior tours – 80 Janssen Place and 3335 Harrison St. -- while celebrating the accomplishments of a new generation of urban homeowners.

Of the more than 200 properties showcased since the Hyde Park Festival’s debut in May 1977, less than 10% have been on the homes tour more than once, and only a few homes have been shown three times, 3335 Harrison being one of them.

Every style and size of single-family home has been represented. Every street has also participated, including Troost Ave., Armour Blvd. and Linwood Blvd. Churches of four different faiths have been on the tour, as have both private and public schools.

Through the years, a pattern of owner-occupant homeowner stew-ardship has emerged. Several dozen families still reside in our neighborhood 10 and 20 years after their home appeared on a tour, Hyde Park Neighborhood Association records show.

Susan and Doug Borge put their first home at 3331 Harrison St, a gabled Prairie style three-story, on the 1982 tour. Their current home at 3659 Charlotte St. was on the 1994 and 2008 tours.

“It’s been a wonderful journey” said Susan Borge, who moved to Hyde Park in 1980 from the Dayton, Ohio area. Continued on pg. 5

Page 2 THE HYDE PARKER Volume 39, Issue 9

HPNA Member Honor Roll

We periodically recognize Hyde Park Neighborhood Association members. For membership questions or changes, contact Clara Keller, Treasurer at 816.960.4669.

Volunteer at the 2012 Hyde Park Homes Tour!!

Show support for our community Enjoy a great time in beautiful settings Network with neighbors Earn a cool T-shirt and party afterwards

Saturday October 6, 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Tour volunteers can serve as House Guides (guide tour-goers through our tour homes), Bus Guides, Ticket Takers and more!

Contact co-chairs Nancy Lowdon & Jan Peterson for more information on how you can help.

Go to www.hydeparkkctour.com

Watch for more on our HPNA website and Facebook.

Got History?

Kansas City’s Historic Hyde Park by Patrick Alley and Dona Boley is now available at.hydeparkkc.org. at $21.99 a copy.

Nearly $10 of every purchase goes to support the activities of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association.

SAVE THE DATES! SAT. OCT. 6, 2012 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

30th Historic Hyde Park Homes Tour Seven Amazing Properties Friday, Oct. 6, 2012 6 p.m.

Hyde Park Candlelight Tour Three Exclusive Homes!

Great Food!

All are welcome! Tickets $11-$30

Go to www.hydeparkkctour.com

It takes 100 years to make a neighborhood look this great!

Volume 39, Issue 9 THE HYDE PARKER Page 3

A 2012 Homes Tour highlight 80 Janssen Place: A schoolboy’s dream realized If any house in Hyde Park symbolizes all that Kansas City has had to offer over the past cen-tury, and currently, it is 80 Janssen Place, which marks its 100th birthday this year.

This 6,500 sq. ft. buff-colored brick mansion was among the first to be fully restored in 1973 when a wave of young baby boomers rejected suburbia in favor of our neighborhood's unique character and Old World craftsmanship.

In fact, Westport High School alumnus George Tucker and his wife Mary fulfilled a childhood dream by buying the property nearly 40 years ago. As a youth walking down 39th Street to class, George said he vowed to one day be a Janssen Place homeowner.

The three-story, 23-room, four fireplace home features neo-classical and Colonial revival de-sign elements as well as a wrought iron entrance canopy and balconies. Architecturally, it seems to pay homage to designs more often found in Hyde Park, Chicago or Hyde Park, New York. It cost $70,000 to build, an amount equivalent to $1.6 million today.

All first floor rooms have hardwood floors and quarter-sawn oak woodwork. The living room fireplace mantel is carved of white marble, and dark green marble surrounds the library fire-place. A large stained glass window lights the second floor landing. A glass-enclosed porch with red tile floor and fireplace is located at the south end of the house. The third floor features a large ballroom.

The original homeowner, Mrs. A. H. Glasner, was heir to a whiskey manufacturer founded in Kan-sas City in 1873, the Glasner & Barzen Distilling and Importing Co. The company officially went out of business in 1918, but the Glasner family remained in the home until the late 1930s, a few years after Prohibition was repealed. During her tenure, Mrs. Glasner was a very avid collector of fine art that included works of Renior, Bellows, LeSidaner and Whistler displayed in the home.

In 1940, lawyer Wendell Cloud and his wife, Nan-nie, owned and resided in the home, census re-cords show. Cloud reported its value at the time as being only $12,000.

Willie Taylor, listed as a servant, also lived there. Taylor reported his pay as being $156 a year for a 50-hour work week.

After raising their children at 80 Janssen and adding a swimming pool, the Tuckers sold the home to Todd and Teresa Hallquist in 1993, who added a new kitchen, rebuilt the carriage house apartment and made extensive landscaping im-provements. Today the property is the home of Chuck Gilbert and Lori Dean, who purchased it in September 2007. Chuck owns a tax and in-surance consulting firm while Lori is a strategic business advisor.

When I talk with clients about Hyde Park

I say it is a small town in the middle of a great city, with friendly neighbors and beautiful historic homes.

Sold in July! 3719 Gillham Road $285,000 3517 Holmes St. $339,000

3703 Jarboe St. $460,000

PAM ANDERSON GARD “Knows  how  to  SELL  Hyde  Park”

Hyde Park Resident pamgard@prukc.com

Cell 816.729.1241 Office 816.410.5481

©2012 An indepedendently owned and operated member of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. Prudential is a registered service mark of The Prudential Insurance Co.of America. Information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. All rights reserved.

This unique 1912 home was shown at the 1977 Hyde Park Festival and the 1997 Janssen Place Centen-nial Tour. There is also a large carriage house on the property that served as staff housing.

Page 4 THE HYDE PARKER Volume 39 Issue 9

Mixed-use Westport plans garner enthusiasm Continued from pg. 1

1) a $20 million, two-school strategy creating 150 units of market rate apartment housing and commercial office and retail space by Foutch Brothers, North Kansas City

2) a $19.5 million, 118-unit low-income senior housing pro-ject from Garrison Communities, Kansas City, initially involving only Westport High School.

Many attendees at a Aug. 25 public hearing were skeptical of the Garrison plan given the Midtown’s area high concen-­tration of subsidized housing and the plan’s narrow scope.

The Foutch plan’s market-based housing approach met with a more favorable reception, and was much less complex than the Berkebile plan. However, the Foutch effort lacked a pub-lic school component and had fewer “green” amenities.

Foutch’s experience includes repurposing former public schools and office space into apartments and condos in Des Moines, IA, and smaller cities in Missouri and Kansas. One nearby project is the conversion of Lowell Elementary in KCK into low-income senior apartments. A list of the firm’s developments is at foutchbrothers.com.

One potential source for financing for Berkebile’s plan may be the equity markets. One of KC Sustainable Develop-ment’s leaders is David Brain, CEO of Entertainment Prop-­erties Trust, a REIT that has also built a $280 million port-folio of 39 public charter schools over the past four years.

“There’s nothing like it anywhere” Berkebile said of his group’s initiative, which includes BNIM as architects and Dalmark Development as builders. Both firms are involved with a multi-million effort to convert the former Bancroft School in Manheim Park to housing and a plan to turn the former Swinney Elementary School into medical offices.

All three Westport developers suggested that their projects might not be completed and occupied until 2014.

Westport High: Eye on the tiger, eye of the storm

When Theodore Roosevelt stopped by for a speech in 1910 about hunting big game in Africa, Westport High School was the gem of the Kansas City public school sys-tem. Its classic stone and vitrified brick was the design of architect Charles A. Smith, and its doors opened in fall 1908. That was a time when many of Hyde Park’s largest homes were built.

The school cost $440,000 to construct, which would be about $11 million today adjusting for inflation. Its 60 classrooms, 1,400 seat auditorium, gym, showers, cafete-ria, laboratories, and stairways were state of the art when Kansas City was one of America's 20 largest cities.

The school’s mascot was the tiger, and its colors were blue and gold. Alumni include Ewing Kauffman; Wesley Stout, editor of The Saturday Evening Post; Sumner Blossom, editor of the American Magazine, and Brandon Rush, University of Kansas and NBA basketball star. -Jessica Hogencamp

Window of Opportunity:

Bob Berkebile says time is his biggest concern in moving forward with a complex plan to redevelop two schools that have been closed for more than two years.

KCPS Repurposer Shannon Jaax fields questions about Westport schools’ ongoing maintenance at a public hearing Aug. 25 at Redeemer Fellowship.

Page 5 THE HYDE PARKER Volume 39 Issue 9

Generations of commitment helped sustain a unique tour Continued from pg. 1

In the early years of the tour, Harrison and Charlotte were the most featured streets on the tour after Janssen Place, an honor that has shifted somewhat to Holmes St. and Campbell during the past decade and broad-ened to include Armour Blvd rentals as MAC Properties and others have reinvigorated the area’s apartment market.

Borge recalls that Jim and Lisa Merrill, a couple from Texas and the owners of 3328 Harrison in the late 1970s, were among a group of North and Central Hyde Park homeowners who developed one of Kansas City’s first homes tours, setting a model for other neighborhoods.

“It has been thrilling to be part of something that has had such an impact, and great to see that it has been successful for so long,’’ she says. “In 1982, we attracted an enor-­mous number of people to a very festive two-day celebration.”

“Organizers have made smart adjustments throughout the years as the neighborhood matured and homes tours in other parts of the city increased,” Borge added.

The tour began as a grassroots effort to pro-mote the intrinsic value of historic homes at a time when Kansas City’s realtors would not, according to Kansas City’s Historic Hyde Park, the new book by Pat Alley and Dona Boley (a tour chair in 1989 and 1990).

While no precise figures are available, the homes tour had a significant positive effect on area property values in the 1970s and 1980s. According to the Alley/Boley book, there was a four-fold rise in Hyde Park home prices between 1975 and 1985 as the tour reignited interest in urban living among baby boomers. In fact, in the 20th anniver-sary tour booklet in 1996, one homeowner bragged about renovating and selling seven properties in Hyde Park over a 13-year span.

Today’s generation of homeowners knows that post-2008 financial realities don’t allow for casual property flipping, and puts a lid on real estate greed. Greater tenure at a property may be a good thing for both household stability and for building on the unique sense of community that many be-lieve characterizes Hyde Park.

In 1980, the tour expanded to South Hyde Park, and many properties that showcase homeowner creativity can be found south of 39th Street.

For example, this year’s Holmes entry is 3918 Holmes, a striking contemporary renova-tion of a stone three-story farmhouse that is the second home on the tour for the Heybrock family, whose bungalow at 3931 Holmes was on the 2008 tour.

Kenwood Avenue homes have been fairly rare for the tour. This year’s entry at 4137 Kenwood is the first since 2000 and only the fourth in the history of the tour.

Only one property have has ever become va-cant for an extended period after being on the Hyde Park Homes Tour -- Westport Middle School, which has been closed since June 2010. It was on the tour 20 years ago after the public school district spent millions to reno-vate it and make curriculum changes.

Only one non-residential property has ever had its interior substantially altered from its origi-nal use after being on the tour – the former Troost Midtown Community Center. A few years ago the 1939 gym and former St. James Parish Hall at 3940 Troost was converted into the Bishop Sullivan Center.

A Special Thanks to 2012 Hyde Park Homes Tour Sponsors As of August 31, 2012

MANSE LEVEL MAC Property Management

SHIRTWAIST LEVEL The Gabriel condominiums; Pamela Gard, Prudential KC Realty Lathrop and Gage LLP Jan Peterson, Reese & Nichols

BUNGALOW LEVEL Chicago Title Insurance Co.; Haus; Hyde Park Service Inc.; R-Mech; Notre Dame de Sion; The Pilgrim Chapel; Mark E. Perrson, DDS; Reeves Weideman

IN KIND Trapp & Co.; Crissy Dastrup Photography & Design; Paul Helmer: Touch of Distinction; S&Co. Design, Inc., MD&A Services; Trinity United Methodist Church

Volume 39, Issue 9 THE HYDE PARKER Page 6

The French open… Bonjour a Academie Lafayette

A mom walks her children to Hyde Park’s new charter school

By Crissy Dastrup

The 21st of August was the first day of school for 350 students attending the Academie Lafayette Cherry St. Campus. What an exciting day to be a parent in Hyde Park! As a proud mother of two emerging Francophones (that's French speakers), I was busting with anticipation at my newfound opportunity to walk my kids only three blocks to school.

Last year we took the bus to school, but this year we did not qualify due to our close proximity. How cool is that! As we walked out of our house all dressed and ready, Tuli, our Kindergarten student, picked a purple morning glory blossom to give to her teacher. We were happy to see so many families walking their kids, dressed in red, navy, and French toast plaid, to the newly opened school. We spent most of the summer track-ing the progress of the building upgrades done to the former Longan School. We watched while dozens of fami-lies and businesses donated their time and volunteered to make the school a special place for the Academie Lafayette K-2nd graders.

I could hardly wait to see the inside of the building. Only three weeks prior, I was walking the halls of the school trying to find switch plates to screw over the wall outlets. The gym was floor-to-ceiling boxes and desks. Every surface was covered with dust and debris or fresh paint.

This time, as we walked through the newly landscaped entrance, we were blown away at how amazing the building looked, as if it had been up and running for years. Everything was in its place and the highly anticipated playground is nearly finished!

The first stop was our son Elijah’s 1st grade class with Monsieur Carrerr, an Italian born, Luxembourg-raised teacher who had his first Academie Lafayette experience as an intern. We then walked Tuli, morning glory still in hand, to Madam Nelis, who has 30 years of teaching expertise. The morning was a success and another re-minder of how lucky we are to live in such a flourishing neighbor-hood like Hyde Park, with its grand new addition.

Principal Heather Royce wore a pink hat and teachers wore cherry t-shirts to mark the opening of Academie Lafayette’s Cherry St. campus on Aug. 21. To the left, a mural of a French café graces one of the new North Hyde Park school’s classrooms.

Tuli Dastrup gives a flower to her teacher.

Volume 39, Issue 9 THE HYDE PARKER Page 7

Signs of recovery in sales Continued from pg.1

In addition, multiple single-family homeowners have been making visible improvements this year, especially on Holmes, Charlotte, Campbell and Harrison Sts.

Angela Watson of 3848 Charlotte is upgrading her home’s exterior and last month also sought to purchase 717 Manheim, a long vacant man-sion with an overgrown yard in Central Hyde Park, at the Jackson County Sheriff’s sale. After three days of patiently waiting on the hot courthouse steps for the site auction to come up, she was outbid by $1,000 by a North Carolina private equity fund that paid $51,000, nearly double the taxes owed. The site abuts Watson’s yard and has overgrown gutters and soffits.

“I just want to be able to use my own backyard without having to worry about so many mosqui-toes next door” Watson said.

Winning bidder ADCIP LLC of Cary, NC, an affili-ate of Anka Funds, invests in distressed single and multi-family rentals through private equity funds. Its website (ankafunds.com) boasts that its principals “have a long history working along-­side mayors and other officials on redevelopment projects that incorporate sustainable elements.”

The home could be a candidate for Anka’s Value-Add Real Estate Opportunity Fund, which focuses on “real estate that is located around the perimeter of underutilized land or buildings tar-geted for redevelopment. Perimeter properties often experience early and sustained increases in value as a result of proximity to transforma-tional projects.” (717 Manheim is a short walk from Westport High and Middle Schools. See story on page 1)

Compared to two years ago this summer, home prices are up 10% to 15% in Central and South Hyde Park, according to data compiled by Prudential KC Realty. As of August, average prices in Central Hyde Park appear to have bro-ken through the $300,000 mark for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.

Aug. 27-29 Jackson County Sheriff’s Selected Tax Sales Results for Hyde Park Property Address Winning Bidder 717 Manheim Road ADCIP (Anka Funds) 3200 Gillham Road Withdrawn from sale+ 3335 Charlotte St. L. Tim Clemons++ 3219, 3227 & 3229 Holmes St. Matt Schuckenbrock++ Vanderbilt Place condos (42nd St) 5 units, no bids 810 East 41st St. Renna Stallings** 3421 Holmes/ 612 E. 34th St. Withdrawn from sale* +Commercial property to be conveyed to Jackson County Land Trust *Owner Charles Willard paid overdue taxes just prior to the auction. ++Lives in KCMO **Lives in Bethany, Mo.

South Hyde Park single-family closing prices av-eraged $121,225 as of August, according to the Prudential data. That’s up from $106,193 two years earlier.

In North Hyde Park sales volume has been light over the past two years. However, the opening of the Academie Lafayette charter school as well as turnover generated by Jackson County Sheriff’s sales this past month (see chart above) may gen-erate greater vitality in this area.

Overall sales volume is on the rise in Central and South Hyde Park, and the amount of time proper-ties are spending on the market in all three neighborhoods has declined by almost a month since mid-2010 from 94 to 70 days, the Pruden-tial data shows.

Sept. 23 5-8pm 3727 Holmes

A kick-off event at the home of Debbie &  Paul  Stevermer  to  benefit  Vicki’s  Clinic,  a  

women’s  heart  health  initiative.   For information go to kcfree.org or

e-mail info@beatgoeson.org.

THE HYDE PARKER

The Hyde Parker is a monthly newsletter published by the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, Inc.

Monthly Meetings — Central Presbyterian Church, 3501 Campbell HPNA Board: Second Mondays, 6:30 p.m. General Membership Third Tuesdays, 7:00 p.m.

Crime and Safety The Kansas City Police’s Central Patrol offices on Linwood Ave has re-sponsibility for Hyde Park. These officers can be reached at 816.719.8297 daily, Officers meet with neighbors monthly at 7pm on the last Thursday each month from January to October.

The HP Playgroup: Fridays at 10:00 a.m. Con-tact Steffany Kerr at skerr500@gmail.com or Amelia McDaniel, amelia.mcdaniel@gmail.com.

Friends of Gillham Park hold their monthly meetings and park clean-ups on the last Satur-day of each month. Check their website for in-formation: friendsofgillhampark.org.

Your 2012 HPNA Board

President David Kimmis 561.7766 president@hydeparkkc.org

1st Vice President

Chris Harper 547-7308 1stvp@hydeparkkc.org

2nd Vice President

Kerrie Tyndall 561.7339 2ndvp@hydeparkkc.org

Treasurer Clara Keller 960-4669 treasurer@hydeparkkc.org

Historian Wayne Tompkins 531.7777 historian@hydeparkkc.org

Recording Secretary

Nancy Lowdon 753-8664 recordingsecretary@ hydeparkkc.org

Corresponding Secretary

Mark Dillon 960-1492 correspondingsecretary@ hydeparkkc.org

North Area Directors

Joe Denes Abigail FitzGerald

853-8557 785.383. 2566

northrep@hydeparkkc.org

Central Area Directors

Paul Stevermer Ben Nemenoff

806-2232 665-5993

centralrep@hydeparkkc.org

South Area Directors

Rosemary Kocher Jessica Hogencamp

561-6132 585-5628

southrep@hydeparkkc.org

Page 8 Volume 39 Issue 8

The Hyde Parker contact information

Editor/Publisher Mark Dillon mglendillon@aol.com Photographer Crissy Dastrup crissydastrup@gmail.com Writer Jessica Hogencamp jayhawks97@gmail.com

Hyde Park Neighborhood Assoc., Inc. P.O. Box 32551 Kansas City, Mo 64171

Meetings & More

Volunteer Help Wanted Experienced sales people needed to create promo-tional partnerships between Kansas City’s best neighborhood newsletter and Midtown busi-nesses. Send resume to mglendillon@aol.com.