Architect Nelle Peters Left her Mark on Midtown

The Ambassador Hotel was designed by Nelle Peters. Photo courtesy Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri.

This week in history is an excellent time to look back at the architecture of Nelle Peters, a prolific Kansas City architect who did much to shape the way Midtown looks today. Peters designed almost 1000 local buildings in the 1920s.

The Kansas City Public LIbrary had a story about Peters on its website in 2014.

Peters birthdate was Dec. 11, 1884.

The library article says that Peters struggled in her early career because few developers wanted to hire a female architect. But in 1913, developer Charles Phillips of the Phillips Building Company hired Peters. She specialized in apartment buildings and hotels but also designed corporate offices and single-family homes.

“Peters developed a reputation not just for the fact that female architects were extremely unusual, but for her talent. Her signature designs placed apartment complexes around a central courtyard. Her careful attention to detail brought her some national recognition within the architectural profession. She was capable of minimizing the total area taken up by her designs while still giving them an open feeling and functional spaces inside, especially with her usable kitchenette designs,” the article says.

Peters’ architectural career came to a stop in the Depression and World War II.

“She remained in the business, but had to work as a seamstress to augment her income. She finally retired in 1967, although by that year it appears that she had not had a contract in nearly 11 years. Little else is known of Nelle Peters, who was at once one of the most prolific architects and a very obscure figure in Kansas City history. When she died on October 7, 1974, at the age of 90, virtually no one acknowledged the significance of her accomplishments. While Nelle Peters herself remains largely invisible, many of the buildings she designed still contribute to the beauty of the city’s landscape.”

Notable Nelle Peters buildings in Midtown:

• Ambassador Hotel, 3560 Broadway
• Luzier Cosmetics Building, 3216 Gillham Plaza
• Valentine Hotel, 3724 Broadway
•  Belleclair Apartments, 401 E. Armour St
• Del Monte Apartments, 200 W. Armour
• Melbourne Apartments, 303 Brush Creek
• Robert Lewis Stevenson Apartments,, 4804 Jefferson Street
• Mark Twain, Robert Browning, and Oliver Wendell Holmes apartments on the Plaza
• Charles Phillips’s personal home, 5825 Overhill Road