Stop Three

3220 Karnes Boulevard

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This home was built in 1911 for P. Stephen Harris, co-owner of the Harris-Goar Jewelry Company, located downtown in the Boley Building. The house cost $12,000 to build, the garage was added in 1911 after the house was completed for $950, and the pergolas and their posts on the sides of the porch were added in 1912 for $600. By 1915, Harris had moved south to the more fashionable Roanoke neighborhood and he later moved to the Sunset Hills neighborhood.

This Craftsman house is built of rough limestone, a rock found just a few feet underground in most of Kansas City. Although limestone foundations or veneers are common on first stories of houses, it is unusual for an entire house to be constructed of this material in a random style, with no pattern in the stonework. The Craftsman style emphasized the beauty of materials instead of elaborate design and was popular from 1905 to the early 1920s.

The stone wall at the property line is very low on Karnes Boulevard, but increases in height on 32nd Terrace.
The house’s address is on Karnes Boulevard, but it is oriented to 32nd Terrace.
Look at the three dormers on the third story. The middle dormer contains a Palladian window, a motif made popular during the Italian Renaissance by an architect named Andrea Palladio. All three dormers contain triangular brackets.
The leaded glass in the main entrance door and in the sidelights surrounding it.
The pieced stone arch above the main door and on the porch entry.
The second story roof on the west side has a crenellated parapet. (It looks like a castle wall.)