The Hyde Park Homes tour coming up on October 6 features tours of six historic homes. It is the 30th anniversary of the event, which also includes a candlelight tour on October 5. Our friends at the Hyde Parker newsletter have provided us with this preview of one of the homes of the tour.
This unique 1912 home was shown at the 1977 Hyde Park Festival and the 1997 Janssen Place Centennial Tour. There is also a large carriage house on the property that served as staff housing
If any house in Hyde Park symbolizes all that Kansas City has had to offer over the past century, 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 design 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 fireplace. 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 Kansas 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business in 1918, but the Glasner family remained in the home until the late 1930s, a few years after Prohibition was repealed.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, Nannie, owned and resided in the home, census records 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 improvements. Today the property is the home of Chuck Gilbert and Lori Dean, who purchased it in September 2007. Chuck owns a tax and insurance consulting firm while Lori is a strategic business advisor.
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