Stop One

The five homes from 3120 through 3130 Coleman Road are a few of the 23 houses in the Coleman Highlands neighborhood that were designed by the architectural firm of Boillot and Lauck. By 1915, the firm had dissolved, but both partners, Elmer Boillot and Jesse Lauck, continued designing houses in Kansas City and the Midwest. In 1929 and 1930, the two again collaborated on The Walnuts apartment buildings at 50th and Wornall and on the early Unity Village buildings in Lee’s Summit.

These five homes, although of similar size and materials, show some of the diversity of styles found within the Coleman Highlands neighborhood. The earliest house in this grouping was 3122, built in 1911 for Mr. Laurids Jorgenson, a manager at the downtown Franklin Ice Cream Company. The three homes south of it—3126, 3128 and 3130—were built in 1913 for Swofford Realty, a company that built many houses in the neighborhood on speculation to sell for a profit. These first four homes cost $4000 each. It is likely that the construction of the three homes by Swofford Realty gave Mr. Jorgenson the idea to enter the speculation field, so he spent $2000 in 1914 to build 3120, a small house that he never lived in.

These houses are built on a steep hill. Look at the slope between the houses and the stone foundations used for the basement walls.
3120 contains a pent roof (or false roof) over the three second-story windows and a chamfered front gable.
3122’s front gable is very prominent and asymmetrical.
3130 contains double porch supports, brackets where the porch roof meets the wall and unusual second-story windows that are angled to the corners of the house.

What do you think the owners of these houses saw when they looked out their back windows? Probably the West bottoms.
How have these houses been changed since they were built? Some examples: 3122’s first floor window has been replaced and side porch has been enclosed; 3126 has had siding put on, artificial grass applied to the porch and the porch has been enclosed.