Although his apartment building and small homes along Armour Boulevard no longer stand, W.H. Collins is remembered as a pioneer who left his mark on Midtown Kansas City. Collins’ structures once dominated the block from Armour Boulevard to 36th Street, from Central to Wyandotte, although neither his groundbreaking apartment building or workingmen’s cottages remain today.
As part of our Uncovering History Project, the Midtown KC Post is examining each block in Midtown. A set of 1940 tax assessment photos is available for many blocks.
This week, the block from Armour Boulevard to W. 36th Street, from Central to Wyandotte.
An early postcard showed off the Colonnade Apartments, highlighting their vast front lawn and porches.
W.H. Collins Rode the Development Rollercoaster
In 1921, the Kansas City Star called W.H. Collins “a man not daunted by early misadventures in real estate.” He came to Kansas City with an interest in building houses but arrived at the end of the real estate boom in the mid-1880s. After his initial lack of success, he became the bookkeeper for the Kansas City Star until the market improved. Then, in the 1890s, he began building full-time, creating numerous small houses and apartment buildings across the city.
The prolific builder is best remembered for developing a new style of apartment layout, “a floor arrangement that eliminated the long-hall type of suites that were characteristic of the first ‘flats,’” the Star said. “The ‘Collins plan’ became almost standard until another innovation, the kitchenette, came along.”
The Colonnade on Armour
When it was built in 1905, Collins’ Colonnade was one of the largest apartments in Kansas City. It stretched the entire block from Central to Wyandotte, one continuous building. Each apartment had five rooms, high beamed ceilings, two bedrooms, a maid’s room with a rear entrance, and a front porch with a decorative railing. The builder also built four small cottages along the south side to keep other apartment buildings from being built too close.
Collins also gave his name to a similar building, the Collinwood, between Prospect and Wabash on the south side of Linwood.
The Colonnade stood until 1973, when the Commercial Union Assurance Companies tore it down and built an office building, currently occupied by the Red Cross.
A 1909-1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of the block. The Colonnade dominates the landscape. Collins also built four small cottages as a buffer on the south side of the building.
Fight to save the cottages
The cottages Collins built on the south end stood until 1976 when Commercial Union Assurance Companies wanted the space for parking. For a while, their preservation became a cause for the Historic Kansas City Foundation, which tried to spread the word that the 60-year-old homes were historically important. Commercial Union agreed to give them to anyone who could haul them away within two weeks.
Mrs. Suzanne Statland, a foundation board member, told the Star on Nov. 11, 1976, the houses were classic examples of workingmen’s cottages that dotted Kansas City’s residential areas in the first two decades of the century.
“As far as foundation members can determine, nobody famous ever lived, and nothing particularly notable ever happened there. Mostly, Mrs. Statland said, they represent the kind of modest but solid homes that were once a staple of American building. However, the years have not been kind to modest homes such as these. Many have been leveled to make way for apartment complexes and commercial buildings, and those that remain frequently are in poor condition.”
A search of newspapers that year shows no record of the houses being preserved.
The photos below show the rest of the homes on the block as they looked in 1940.
Historic photos courtesy Kansas City Public Library/Missouri Valley Special Collections.
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