CAN THIS HOUSE BE SAVED: 1231 Main Street, Altoona, Kansas
Today, while on a road trip, I drove into a very small town in Kansas. Glancing over to my left, my eyes bugged out, I let out an OMG, and slammed on the brakes.
For, on the corner, on an overgrown lot and obscured by trees, was unmistakably a house by architect Charles Squires. Who designed my Cross House, and thousands of other structures across Kansas and surrounding states.
Pulling off the road, I stood before the home, my skin tingling all over, and a smile stretched across my face.
Squires. Without a doubt.
And the house? Remarkable.
And its condition? Shocking. Tragic.
My first thought was that the attic had been fire damaged but it became obvious that this was not the case. Rather, it appeared that at some point not too long ago somebody decided to reroof the house and gave up, leaving the structure exposed to the rain. Note though the unique first-floor porch. I have seen this before…
…in Emporia, at 818 Exchange. The fabulous Kelly of Old House Dreams posted the house.
.
THIS BLOWS MY MIND. The huge arch of the entry is matched by a huge arched wall! AMAZING!
Looking up to a lost balcony rail. Oh, how I ached to know what it looked like!
Squee! A 2014 Google image soothed my ache! A bunch of baby arches! This main facade faces east.
Again. Look up to top of the gable. See the highly eccentric center detail? (The two vents are not original.)
Very similar to 818! And with another balcony under!
The south side. Note the obvious staircase window, and the same eccentric gable flourish.
The north side. Same gable flourish.
On the entry porch. Just so friggin’ cool. Now, get ready to freak out!
SQUEE!!!!!!!! Inside, facing east. The living room. I’M FREAKING OUT, MAN! And none of the curved glass is broken! While standing in the room, the huge U-shaped porch reduces the amount of daylight, yet the room is FLOODED with light from the…
…south-facing 2-story stairwell. The white brick mantle is not original.
The window is huge, and the ceiling above the entire stair a full 2-stories high! None of my images conveys the spatial thrill of this, but it is obvious in person. The living room is modest in scale yet the staircase…fully open to the living room…is monumental. The juxtaposition of the two contrasting scales is magical.
At a glance, the stair seems simple. It is not. The hight of the spindles is exaggerated. Each is about twice the height of the Cross House spindles. The newels posts are also long and thin and TALL. Obviously, the architected wanted a person to experience HEIGHT. Standing here, the ceiling is WAY above one’s head.
Standing on the first landing (there are two), and looking left, one is stunned by SPACE SPACE SPACE. Rather than the stair opening to a narrow hall, it opens to a large room.
Again, none of my images convey the spatial THRILL so obvious in person. This upper hall is the size of a bedroom. There are four bedrooms off it. No bath.
The upper hall, flooded with light.
I had not expected to be able to walk through the house, assuming decaying floors and rotted floor joists. I found little of this. All to my great surprise considering the fact that there is, in effect, no roof. What seems to happening is that the plaster ceiling is…currently…acting as a roof, and absorbing much of the water (hence all the mold). This situation will not last much longer. And when the ceiling fails the house will soon be doomed.
The main bedroom, facing east, and with a TO-DIE-FOR window in great shape.
The first floor originally had a dining room and kitchen west of the living room. These rooms were combined in the 1970s, I guess. There was nothing of interest to photograph. Just west of this is a full bath, the only one in the house.
As I was getting ready to depart, a neighbor approached. He, too, ached for the house. “It’s a wonderful house. I wish somebody would save it.” He explained that a man from Wichita purchased it a while back at a tax auction for $3,500. “He stared working on the roof…and then just never came back.”
The house, to me, is certainly a candidate for restoration rather than demolition. I have seen houses in vastly worse condition which were saved.
The #1 priority would be to get the house reroofed. I do not know the condition of the roof joists. If they are intact the job would be a great deal easier. The interior may have to be gutted to the studs, something I never advocate for. However, the mold…
The city of Altoona is small, just 379 people, down from 485 in 2000.
This is one of the most extraordinary houses I have ever been in. It is clear that the architect delighted in its playfulness, spatial creativity, juxtapositions of scale, and creativity. He must have just sat at his drafting table…beaming.
My joy is great at discovering this treasure.
My sadness, too, is great. For, something wondrous has been left to rot.
I have stated before that America always has trillions to spend annually on the military, yet we let our architectural heritage beg for pennies, and bulldoze countless historical buildings with nary a thought.
My anger is great as well.
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If you check out Realtor.com, you can see better photos of the exterior and interior, likely from the 2015 auction. It sold for $2,400. It is in worse shape now but you can see how easily it could be brought back. Zillow estimates it at $3,800.
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1231-Main-St_Altoona_KS_66710_M88097-67888#photo14
I could so see tracking down the owner and offering them $5,000 and negotiating for less than $10,000 depending on the state of the roof and chimney, considering all of the work it needs now that it’s been allowed to deteriorate even further. The comps for the area are all $25,000 or less but those are livable houses. This place is unsuitable for habitation without putting in a lot of work and even more money. It will cost way more than $25,000 to repair it.
It was sold in 2015 for $2,400 and listed for sale December 2019 for $15,000 and then withdrawn in June of 2019. Considering the present state the owner would be lucky to get $10,000. In fact, they may be anxious for someone to take it off their hands.
I could do it by cashing out one of my TSAs. I could have the roof and chimney done with part of another and use my Roth to slowly have it replastered or simply put up drywall, as I am not quite the stickler you are for period restoration. If it ended up being taken to the studs that would be an opportunity for insulation. That fireplace would have to go. Some missing period details like moldings and such would have to be put back. Ugh, that fireplace monstrosity. I wonder if there is anything behind it. I could use a lot of the same fixtures I bought for my house as they are a bit earlier than 1922.
Trulia lists it as a three bedroom two bath so I suspect that may have been an intention at one time that has gone unrealized. It is what I would do. Make one bedroom, likely the smallest, into a full bath with a laundry hook up and if large enough, a walk in closet if it shares a wall with the master bedroom. It certainly faces the right way as I like my bed to face east. I have no idea why but every place I’ve lived since moving out of my parent’s house has the bed facing east. For some reason, even if I’m traveling I sleep better if the bed is facing east. It is also 700 square feet larger than my house, but two stories which means stairs. It does have a basement of some kind. No heat or A/C.
The only downside is that it is in Kansas and I am way too far away to supervise any work or restoration. The other, while the lot is larger than mine there is no fence or landscaping, so even if I had the place restored and decided to relocate to Kansas, all that would have to be addressed for the dogs. I also like my outdoor space, fruit trees, flowers and a garden. After finished the hardscape and finalizing the plantings in my own yard, I would be starting from scratch all over.
I don’t see a garage so one would have to be built. A blessing and a curse. It would be a detached garage so there is the weather factor as well as the distance when going to and from the house. Several trips when coming back with groceries. Not ideal.
Funny, but that paint scheme was the exact same one my house had before it was repainted (badly) and put up for sale. The original owners painted it white with green trim the entire time they lived in it. My 78 year old neighbor, Bob, told me when I moved in.
My teeth itch to buy that house and restore it.
I love the star mullions. I’ve never seen anything like that.
Lack of stained glass? Not a problem. I’ve built stained glass windows before. I can reglaze and paint. I can also tile and mud and tape. While I can sweat a copper pipe I am not that great at wood, even when measuring three times. The upside to the gutting is that running new electrical, HVAC and plumbing wouldn’t be a problem.
Maybe I’ll buy a lottery ticket tomorrow.
(BTW, it’s sometimes easy to find the owner, even online. Property tax records. With an address you can get the parcel number and often the contact information for the owner. Then you can use google to find an address or phone number to contact them. In a pinch you can go to the city hall or county and look them up that way. I’ve done that too. )
Oh, cool, mlaiuppa! Thanks for the old listing images!
While the exterior/roof will take a lot of $$$$, the house may qualify for a $90K Heritage Trust grant. My house received two such grants.
The house though would first have to qualify. The easiest way is to try and get it on the Kansas Register of Historic Places. That will take some time though. So, if one could acquire the house, it would be best to install a temporary roof to protect the structure. I’ve done this many times.
With a temp roof in place, one could begin restoring the interior. At some point the house could be made camp-able, then habitable.
Then, if the house does get on the Register, and later qualifies for a grant, one could fully and carefully restore the exterior and get fully reimbursed! (Heritage Grants are normally for exterior work.)
You can see from those 2015 photos that not only has the interior deteriorated but the exterior as well. The outside would need a lot of work to bring it back. Work I wouldn’t be able to do. I wouldn’t be able to do the interior either beyond demolition (I’m good at that), some painting and finish work. I’d have to hire out most of it and be on site to supervise. That would entail relocating and I can’t do that. My parents are both 92 and not in the best of health. And there are the dogs. One is a husky mix and both would need a very secure yard, meaning the entire property would have to have a secure fence high enough to prevent them jumping over and a perimeter they wouldn’t be able to dig out of.
I think this is a great project for someone that can do a lot of the work themselves. It wouldn’t take that much to get started. I expect the house could be had for around $10,000. Not sure what a new roof would cost but I suspect the original was wood shake. It looks a lot like the original roof my house had. It had to be replaced with plywood sheets and then asphalt shingles as cedar shake is now illegal in my area due to the fire dangers. Alternatives would be cement tiles that look like shake but they are much heavier and many old homes cannot support the weight. I doubt that house could. Mine can’t. I haven’t had a roof put on in about 20 years and mine isn’t as complicated as that one (no valleys) so I’m assuming something around $20-$30,000, providing the structure is sound and the chimney doesn’t need repointing or rebuilding. If it were me, I’d just put the new roof on rather than spending money on a temporary fix and then spending more money on a permanent fix. I’m a one and done sort of person.
With the research you’ve done on the architect I imagine it wouldn’t be hard to apply to the KRHP and once it’s accepted apply for the grants. I can’t seem them not putting this house on the register, it has so many unique architectural details. But in the mean time renovations would be out of pocket and once the roof is on I would move to interiors. Strip the moldy plaster and you’d need to put in all of the mechanicals, then insulation, then drywall. All out of pocket. You can’t live in a house without at least running water, electricity and heat for the winter. I would assume in Kansas AC would also be a necessity for comfort. Once you have a livable space with a functional bathroom and kitchen then you can address the outside at your leisure. So the cost of electrical, plumbing, ductwork, insulation, HVAC system. The drywall could wait.
If I cashed everything out I’d only have about $75,000 and that would have to include the initial purchase price. So maybe $60,000. After the roof, maybe $30,000 for the interior. That doesn’t go far with all it needs. That would have to cover everything until those grants came through and they would only be for the exterior.
This would be a great project for someone with patience, lots of sweat equity tied to skill and knowledge and drive. Someone younger. Patience and the desire to do it right. At my age, I don’t see this as being a successful venture.
40 years ago I would have taken on a project like this. But I’m 67 now and am finding it hard to keep up with the repairs around my own house. I don’t think I could travel half way across the country with two dogs and all my worldly goods to camp out in a condemned building for the years it would take before it reaches the minimum of habitability.
As bad as it is, I’ve seen worse. For the right person, this is an attainable jewel in the rough. If anyone else is interested, I would encourage them tracking down the owner through the property tax records and then making an offer. It couldn’t hurt. Someone may eventually end up with the home of their dreams and a house can be saved. I wouldn’t let the fact that it is not on the market stop them.
Poor baby. I hope someone comes through to save her…
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t count on it. My grandparents lived in the same town. I visited not long ago and many of the older homes in the town are in the same shape. People would rather put up new mobile homes than restore these beauties. I was heartbroken to see what we knew as the “Girard House”, which is pictured and my grandparents’ old home in such disrepair. The amount of money that it would take to repair the houses in this town, well let’s say I think you could have one built from the ground up for less. I tried to buy my grandparents home when I saw the shape it was in the first time I went through but my uncle wouldn’t sell it to me and instead let it slowly deteriorate. Now it’s so bad that there is no hope to salvage it.
Ross, what is the original roof material? I can’t tell from the pictures. I would think wood shakes would be likely. In my neck of the woods, a lot of homes had cedar shake roofs. A lesser number had slate roofs, and some has standing seam, and some had metal shingles. Tile roofs were on significant buildings.
Michael,
I would guess that the original roof was wood shingles. Which would match the second- and third-floor vertical walls.
I would want to recreate that.
In New Jersey, insurers refuse to cover buildings that have cedar shake roofs. When I was a child I remember several homes had such roofs. Now, the only one I am aware of is in nearby Franklinville. The house next to mine had one layer of fiberglass shingles over the original shakes. It caught on fire and burned through the roof. My house was showered with burning embers. My slate roof survived the onslaught. If the fire was worse, l am realistic. The rest of my house is wood. It would easily catch on fire. I remember some time in the past stories of houses with perfectly fine wood shake roofs being ordered to remove them or they would lose their fire insurance, or not even get a mortgage by a lender.
Here in So Cal you are not allowed to have a shake roof because of the fire danger. I don’t know if it is tied to insurance or what. There are alternatives. My house originally had shake shingles nailed to strips of wood. In the attic you could see the shake singles. There were three layers of asphalt shingles on top of that. When I needed a new roof all of that had to be stripped, then plywood sheets had to be nailed across the entire roof to meet code. While the idea of something that looked like the original shake appealed, unfortunately my house couldn’t support the weight of the cement faux shake shingles so I have asphalt shingles.
What a beauty! Crossing my fingers it’s saved…. 🙂
Oh my, the curves on this lady and the light in the stairway! Wow! So sad to see it in such a state. What a shame the owner has just abandoned it. 😔 A house with such lovely features, though not a huge house, a sizable house, with a good size lot. Would go for an obscene amount in my area, even in its current state. Maybe it can be highlighted on one of the old house social medias to get some attention. Would love this house, soooo much potential, and so much still there that is salvageable. Good luck curvy lady, I hope someone deserving makes you their home.
My car.
He is a 2009 Impala.
114,000 miles.
Engine Light on.
But if I could buy this house and put a tarp roof over to hold it over for one more winter, I would drive straight to this poor place.
It’s screaming for help. I hope this makes it onto one of those save-a-house instagram feed pages. My God.
This is such a small town. That appeals to me hugely. However, isn’t it super-hard to get work done, especially high-quality work on a historic home? I fantasize about selling my SoCal home and throwing all the $$$ at this place, but would there be anyone there to do the work?
Yes, it is hard to find artisans and get them to show up. In my area we had a number of plasterers, and I never could get one to come to my house to do repairs. Also, I find all the lore about the trades fascinating, and would have advanced knowledge of techniques.(Because I am an avid reader) Basically, I wanted work that was repairable, invisible, and sympathetic to the period. Most often, I got hostility for talking to contractors from a position of knowledge. I don’t want to discourage you, I do think it is in your best interest to know what you are paying for. You may be lucky and find an amiable handyman that lives for a challenge like this house.
Yes there are some very good carpenters in this area and I live here as well. I would love to see this house restored and would volunteer time as well to help with that endeavor.
If I could build a house I would try to copy this one!!!!
Oh, I wish SOMEONE????? Could get it for $3500….again and save it. (Cody????🙄🤔🤗)
So quirky. So wonderful even in the state it is in.
My best friends’ grandparents lived in this house in the early 80’s and before of course. When they owned it, the house was beautiful, inside and out. I was saddened to see the shape it is in today. They would be heartbroken to see the condition this house is in today. I know that people were living in it around 2006 or 7 and it didn’t look much better at that time, but I haven’t visited the little town for a while.
The owner is not interested in selling at this time. He is very interested in having the house renovated back to its original state as well for historical value. He grew up in Altoona. Any further info will be placed as attained. If you do go by to look at the house please do not go inside as many floors are unstable and you will fall through. Feel free to take photos from the outside and look through the windows if you wish but please do not go inside this dwelling due to “at risk accidents!” The owner was in the home yesterday and saw there had been further damage caused by squatters that the neighbor gratefully run off we are putting up signs this weekend for privacy but mostly just safety from the inside it is not a sound structure in certain areas but has good bones and he is very interested in having it reinstated to its original beauty! Still feel free to take photos from the outside as even in its current state it is still an amazing sight to be seen!
The city has been saying they are going to tear it down, they did clean the yard up so if this is going to happen I suggest it happen sooner than later
My mum grew up in Altoona in the 1930s. That appears to be the house she said was owned by the drugstore owner, who had a fine store in town. She said they would have social gatherings there, where it was well lit up inside and you could see large groups of the town’s higher society people having good times. Since the late 80as or 90s (estimate) the property began declining but even today as you noted, one can still recognize the majesty it carried. Unfortunately based on comments the owner isn’t willing to sell nor able to fix it up.
My grandparents George Elwood Girard and Dorothy Louise Girard lived in that house until my grandpa passed away in early 80s..
When they owned it they took good care of it and it was very beautiful.
My grandpa kept it freshly painted inside and out.
And grandma kept it immaculately clean and furnished like a French chateau.
The yard was manicured and kept very clean and perfect.
I have many childhood memories of Christmas, Easter, etc… spent with v all my family in that lovely home.