Northeast Kansas City Homes Tour brings the Smart family to life

By Diane Euston

  Travel to the northeast neighborhoods of Kansas City and you’ll be taken back in time. Unlike so many other early subdivisions of our city – especially those that once were the outskirts of the town – a great deal of the older structures still survive on the northeast side.

  Not only do they survive, they thrive in the hands of a close-knit community that prides itself on historic architecture, charm and preservation of subdivisions such as Lykins, Pendleton Heights, Independence Plaza, Sheffield, Indian Mound and Scarritt Renaissance. The leading organization at the helm of awareness of this unique gem of Kansas City is the Northeast Kansas City Historical Society (NEKCHS), a non-profit aimed at combining historic preservation with educational outreach activities. 

  One of their biggest programs is their Fall Homes Tour. In its 12th year, the Fall Homes Tour on Saturday, Oct. 11 from 10am to 3pm will focus on the Independence Plaza neighborhood where six historic homes and the Independence Boulevard Christian Church will open their doors to visitors.

  At the heart of the history of several of these historic buildings is the legacy of the Smart family – a family full of perseverance and careful planning on how best to capitalize on their early land holdings. While exploring a few of these homes, their full story comes alive a few generations back at the arrival of Thomas Austin Smart in 1836.

Thomas A. Smart and Family

  Born in Virginia in 1806 and the youngest of 11 children, Thomas Austin Smart moved to Kentucky as a young child with his parents Elisha and Anne. There, he married Harriett Louise Thompson (1809-1849) in 1827. In 1829, they welcomed their first child, a little girl they named Amanda Caroline. She went by Carrie. She was the oldest of 11 children.

  Shortly after Carrie Smart’s birth, her parents, grandparents and extended family relocated to Callaway County, Mo. The location, as fate would have it, was temporary.

  After Thomas Smart lost both of his parents in Callaway County, he and his family followed his older brother, James, to Jackson County in 1836. He lived in Independence for a short time, but Thomas looked a bit further west for his permanent homestead.

  Arriving by boat with his wife, Harriett and two young girls, Carrie and Eliza, Thomas A. Smart’s family traveled by horseback to the edge of civilization near where a small group of French-speaking Catholics involved in the fur trade had settled earlier. 

  In 1837, Thomas paid $400 for 80 acres of land at what would become bounded on the north by 9th Street, to the south by 12th Street, east to about Holmes Street (first called Ottawa) and west to Main Street (first called Chouteau). 

  Carrie grew up at first at a rudimentary log cabin at about 11th and Grand Avenue -but there was no Kansas City yet. It wasn’t until 1838 that the Town Company had even formed, and the town of Kansas City wouldn’t truly erupt with settlement for another ten years.

  But that didn’t stop Thomas Smart from capitalizing on what he could see as the future of Kansas City. When a flat rock landing spot at the foot of current-day Grand Avenue was used to drop off supplies and emigrants headed west, Thomas Smart jumped into the role as entrepreneur. It was called Westport Landing, and in 1839, he opened a store on the levee between Walnut and Main Streets. 

  Carrie later told the Kansas City Star, “Father bought buffalo hides from the Indians and shipped them down the river. His store was a one-story building and his stock was miscellaneous groceries and notions which the Indians liked to buy.”

  Thomas Smart’s enslaved cut a road from this store to their house on 11th Street, and Carrie later recalled that this cut into the wilderness eventually became Main Street. “Our horse lot and stables were on the site of the Emery, Bird, Thayer Dry Goods store,” Carrie later recalled.

  The house was an early mansion in the day. She explained in 1911 that the home was “a beautiful place with great shade trees, occupying the square between 11th and 12th and Main Street and Grand Avenue. The house stood near the center of the square, about where Walnut Street now is, and faced north. It was two stories in height, with a wide hall in the center and a long ell to the rear. People from everywhere visited us, and every summer a barbecue was held in our yard.”

  Carrie met and married Wilson Madison Walrond (b. 1812), a contractor and prominent early builder of Kansas City, in 1847. He had arrived two years earlier and was eventually one of the early trustees of the Town of Kansas. He built a home with enslaved labor at 2nd and Walnut that was part of the fashionable Pearl Street Hill neighborhood. She welcomed her first daughter, Alice in 1848. 

  Tragedy struck the family in 1849 when Carrie’s mother, Harriett, died during the cholera epidemic. She was buried in the family cemetery that was then at the northwest corner of 12th and Main. 

  Thomas A. Smart remarried and built a large two-story brick home known as the “Judge Smart Mansion” on the southwest corner of 10th and Main. It stood a considerable distance off the street, and when he made the fateful decision to sell 32 acres of his land to Thomas Swope (1827-1909), his house eventually was surrounded by the primary business district erected by Swope.

  But Carrie understood the significance of these decisions, even as she witnessed her childhood home transform into Kansas City. “If no one had sold [Thomas Smart’s] property, there would be no Kansas City,” Carrie said. “In the early days, when residents began to move out of the old town into the country on the hills to the south, we disliked to have our father break up the farm on which we had spent so many happy years in the old pioneer way of living. But he said that taxes and the cost of improvements, if we kept it intact, would amount to more than the farm was worth. Subsequent events proved that his judgement was right.”

  Thomas A. Smart continued to be a leader of the community when in 1858, the First Christian Church was organized with members of the Westport community a part of it. Thomas Smart and his family were some of the earliest members, and a church was erected on the northeast corner of 12th and Main on land donated by him. 

Carrie Smart Walrond McLeod Graves

  Further tragedy struck Carrie when her husband Wilson Madison Walrond, then only 41 years old, died in 1854. 

  She was left a widow with a daughter at the age of 25.

  In 1857, Carrie Smart Walrond married George W. McLeod and welcomed a daughter, Martha, a year later. But her happiness was short-lived.

  In 1868, her second husband, George, was suffering possibly from malaria and had “been taking quinine and other powerful medicines, which seemed to have depressed him in spirits.” 

  While on his way to his father-in-law, Thomas Smart’s home from the levee at Delaware Street on May 25, 1868, George W. McLeod yelled, “Goodbye, boys!” and jumped into the Missouri River. The Kansas City Journal reported, “The body was recovered about 200 feet from the levee and had been in the water perhaps 15 minutes.”

  Even through the tragedy, Carrie and her daughters were able to persevere. In 1866, Carrie’s oldest daughter, Alice Walrond married her first cousin, David Oliver Smart (1843-1906). Carrie gifted her farmland on Independence Avenue east of the city to them.

  Her daughter, Alice McLeod (b. 1858) also found love and married Langston Bacon (1849-1933) in 1880.

  Carrie would also find lifelong happiness after two difficult marriages. In 1871, she married a two-time widower Edward Parker Graves (1824-1918). He was born in Nelson County, Va. and in 1834 moved with his family to Pike County, Mo. By the time he was 14, both his parents were dead.

  This didn’t stop Edward from persevering; he left the family farm in 1847 to attend school in Fayette, Mo. and then taught for a few years before marrying Frances Woods. They had two children named Adam and John. When he lost his wife in 1854, he married her sister, Louise. 

  He worked predominately in tobacco and made quite a fortune exporting his product. During the Civil War, he set himself apart from most of his neighbors as he proclaimed himself a staunch Republican.

  After losing his second wife in 1868, Edward P. Graves took his money and his two sons and settled in Kansas City where he began investing heavily in real estate – something Carrie certainly was familiar with. In 1871, Carrie married Mr. Graves. They settled into his large brick home at 1013 McGee in the Quality Hill neighborhood.

  In September 1878, the Smart family suffered a blow when the patriarch of the family, Thomas Austin Smart, passed away after suffering from several strokes over the years. 

  The Kansas City Times wrote, “Fortunate business ventures, coupled with the steady appreciation of real estate, gave him the leading rank as a banker and capitalist, and he leaves a handsome estate to his children.”

  This was certainly true, as Carrie was given the building where Peck’s Dry Goods was at 11th and Main – valued at $400,000 by 1920.

  When Carrie met Edward Graves and he showed interest in real estate, she surely was comfortable with the game. It was said in a 1909 book titled “Kansas City: Its History and Its People” that when Edward Graves came to the area, he “transferred unsightly vacancies into fine residence districts through the erection of many attractive, modern homes.”

  But he certainly didn’t do it alone. He had the help of his wife, Amanda Caroline “Carrie” Smart.

Building on the East Side: Smart’s Addition and Amanda Place

  At the time of development on the northeast side of Kansas City, the suburbs seemed to favor the move this way. Subdivisions south of the city limits in places such a Brookside were decades away from fruition, and most of the wealthy turned just a few blocks to their east for a comfortable and beautiful suburban setup.

  Flanked by Independence Avenue, these subdivisions were mostly started by pioneer families who held title to the land for generations. This was also true of the Smart family.

  One of the first Smarts to choose to move to the northeast side was David O. Smart, Carrie’s first cousin and her son-in-law. Her daughter, Alice Walrond married David in 1866.

  David and Alice Smart turned to their land on Independence Avenue and saw its possibilities. In 1888 and 1889, they erected one of the most palatial mansions in all of Kansas City at 2904 Independence Avenue at the corner of the avenue and Gladstone Boulevard.

  When the house was built, a real estate broker recalled, “Gladstone Boulevard was a dirt road and building of homes on Troost Avenue had not started when the Smart home was completed.” 

  That certainly didn’t stop Carrie’s daughter from building what she wanted. This 16-room home was built to be a showstopper, full of ornate woodwork, Victorian spindles and impressive fireplaces. When it was completed, it was ranked in the top two residences in the entire city.

  The first-floor ceilings were 12 feet high. The second-floor ceilings were 11 feet, and the third floor were 10 feet. There, she raised her three children- Carrie’s grandchildren: Emma (b. 1867), Thomas (b. 1870) and David Smart, Jr. (b. 1879).

  The couple also were smart in their real estate dealings and parceled off the remainder of the land into D.O. Smart’s Addition. It is flanked by Smart Avenue to the north, Independence Avenue to the south, Bellefontaine to the east and Benton Boulevard to the west.

  Carrie, too, had land she had inherited over time in the neighborhood. One portion of this was just to the southeast of her daughter’s new home. Carrie Smart Graves and her husband, Edward P. Graves, platted out seven lots flanking Independence Avenue and Sixth Street just east of Gladstone Avenue. They named it Amanda Place after her.

  By 1908, Carrie and her husband, Edward, had built four residences on Sixth Street and had opted to move to the neighborhood.

3000 East Sixth Street

  Built in 1899, this large two-story home with a slate roof was constructed by Edward and Carrie Graves with an L-shaped wrap-around porch extending across its front and down the left side. There were two entrances to the impressive home – one on Sixth Street and the other on Gladstone Ave. To the right of the main entry was a sunroom, and off the family room was a separate entry door.

  This home is one of the six featured on the Fall Homes Tour on Saturday, October 11.

  This was their home for a period of time before moving next door to 3010 East Sixth Street for about three years.

  In November 1906, Carrie’s son-in-law, David O. Smart, realtor, banker and stockbroker, died just down the road at Independence Boulevard Christian Church while attending services. “He had asked for the singing of a favorite hymn and had read the first stanza and the chorus, when he sank to his seat and died in a few moments,” the Independence Examiner reported. He was 63 years old.

  After so much tragedy, Carrie was able to settle into this small subdivision named after her and find peace amongst her husband, children and grandchildren.

  In June 1918, Edward P. Graves died inside of this home at 3000 E. Sixth Street at the age of 94.

  Carrie was keen on taking care of her children and grandchildren, so she had put together a plan to ensure her real estate dealings were buttoned up before it was too late.

  This included gifting the lots in Amanda Place and her various real estate properties before she passed away. Carrie told the Kansas City Star in 1911, “I have given nearly all my downtown lots to my children. The time to help one’s children is when they are starting out. I believe in teaching them to care for property and not to waste it. I do not believe in hoarding up a fortune and leaving it for heirs to fight over.” 

  When Amanda Caroline “Carrie” Smart Walrond McLeod Graves passed away inside her home on Sixth Street on July 19, 1919 at the age of 90, Kansas City lamented the loss of a pioneer.

  “She has been a witness of the growth and development of this part of the state and of the transformation which has been wrought, changing it from a frontier district into one which bears every evidence of a modern and progressive civilization,” the Kansas City Star wrote.

  Her estate at the time of her death was worth over $226,000.

  The house at 3000 E. Sixth Street then passed to her granddaughter, Emma Smart Donaldson and her husband, James.

3010 East Sixth Street

  Another one of the early properties erected in Amanda Place that is featured on the Homes Tour is a Victorian with Craftsman influences at 3010 E. Sixth Street. Built in 1901, the two and a half story red brick home timelessly blends two types of architecture prominent at the turn of the last century. 

  Two sets of steps lead to the front porch with three large square pillars made of brick supporting the roof. Large picture windows and a beautiful stained glass window hover above the right window. 

  This home was also built by Edward P. Graves and his wife, Carrie. After they lived next door for a few years, the couple moved here from 1902 to 1904.

  In 1904, the house passed to her granddaughter, Amanda Caroline Bacon Waldron and her husband, Charles. They were married the prior year, and he began the successful Waldron Grain Company in about 1907.

  Like so many prominent Kansas Citians at the time, the Waldron’s decided to leave the northeast neighborhood and settle in Brookside in 1917. They sold this home to Hans Christian Feil and his wife, Margaret.

  Hans was an organist at the Independence Boulevard Christian Church. He gave organ lessons out of this home while his wife taught voice lessons.  Mrs. Feil died of kidney disease in the home in 1963, and in August 1972, Mr. Hans Feil died at the home. He’d served for over 50 years as a devoted member and organist at the church. 

Another Gem of the Neighborhood: 3023 East Sixth Street

  Just across the street from Amanda Place is an older Victorian home with loads of charm that will be open on the Fall Homes Tour. Built in 1889, this large two-story wood frame Victorian residence features a showstopping third floor square tower that rises well above the surrounding properties.

  This home was built by druggist Homer S. McDonald and his wife, Harriett. Homer owned a drug store at 3029 Independence Blvd. They  raised their two children, Elizabeth and John at the home.

  Homer passed away in 1926, and Harriett passed away in 1941. The house became the property of their bachelor son, John. He modified the outside to have a full-width stone front porch that curves to the left of the house. Originally, the home had two front doors, but this was also changed to add a single double-door entry. When John died in 1951 with no direct heirs, his sister inherited the property. Her family kept a hold of it until 1974.

  Unfortunately, this beautiful home fell into disrepair and was ordered to be demolished in 1986. Luckily, enough repairs were made to take it off the demo list, but the home was caught up in various tax liens and other legal issues. The house was sold on the courthouse steps.

  In 2022, the house was sold to Aaron Vanderpool who is passionate about maintaining this stunning Victorian beauty that has, despite the odds, survived the bulldozers and has been a part of Kansas City’s collective history for 136 years.

Those Who Don’t Learn from the Past

  Six historic homes and the Independence Boulevard Christian Church will be open to visitors so they can take a trip back in time. The church whose cornerstone was laid in June 1905 is connected in more ways than one to the history of the neighborhood and even features Tiffany stained glass windows.

  We must recognize that the houses that do stand from long ago are a testament to generations of people who viewed them as important assets to our community. So many structures in Kansas City have been lost to demolition disguised as progress.

  A perfect example of this is the Smart mansion built at 2904 Independence Blvd. – constructed by David O. Smart and his wife, Alice. When it was finished in 1889, it was labeled one of the top homes in all of Kansas City. David and Alice’s son, Thomas (1870-1947), took over ownership and raised his five sons and a daughter there. 

  But it was just too large as his children grew to adulthood, and despite the family passing down homes and real estate for generations, a decision was made that would seal her fate forever. None of his children needed a home of that size, and they’d moved to the Brookside neighborhood where so many of the city flocked as J.C. Nichols fashioned stately subdivisions to the south.

  The newspapers reported that Thomas Smart couldn’t find a buyer for the home. Efforts to turn it into a funeral home failed.

  So in August 1938, the wrecking balls arrived at the Smart mansion. Piece by piece, the home was disassembled and the structure wiped to the ground. The hill where it stood was leveled to the street, and in true Kansas City fashion, it was transformed into a surface parking lot.

 

  The lessons we can learn from these faulty decisions over time are endless. If we don’t care for the structures of significance that do stand in our city, we are in danger of losing the character that once oozed in these early neighborhoods.

  That’s why the stories behind these stately homes in the northeast neighborhood are so significant to our collective history. It is often said in preservation, “At its best, preservation engages the past in a conversation with the present over a mutual concern for the future.” 

  A conversation and a trip through the homes of the historic northeast offer us the chance to remember what once was and what needs to continue to be done in order to preserve these pieces of the past for generations to come.

  Tickets to the October 11 Homes Tour can be purchased for $25 at https://www.nekchs.org or by visiting EventBrite directly.