3201 Karnes Boulevard
3205 Karnes Boulevard
3201 Karnes Boulevard |
3205 Karnes Boulevard |
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The houses at 3201 and 3205 Karnes Boulevard are built in the Prairie School style, a style that was developed by a group of Chicago architects that included Frank Lloyd Wright. It is one of the few house styles that is native to the United States. The style was spread throughout the country by pattern books and magazines published in the Midwest. It was most popular between 1900 and 1920, but continued to be used for houses in Kansas City even later. The Prairie style emphasizes horizontal lines through the use of trim, bands of windows and a low-pitched roof with wide, overhanging eaves.
3201 Karnes Boulevard was built in 1916 for Amos C. Erman, a dentist, for $5000. It was built by Robert Swofford, part of the Swofford family that helped develop this neighborhood. It was designed by the architectural firm of Shepard and Belcher. Clarence Shepard was a well-known architect who designed more than 600 homes in Kansas City, Enid, Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Minneapolis. Although this house’s street address on Karnes Boulevard, its main entrance is located on 32nd Street.
3205 Karnes Boulevard is one of the few houses in the neighborhood that was built as a duplex. It was built in 1923 for a Mrs. H.M. Fowler by the McDonnell Realty Company. This house’s design is a later and more modern interpretation of the Prairie School, with its tile trim on the second story and bands of casement windows on both stories.