“One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.”
― Antonio Porchia
The Four O'Clock Hill House |
Although the “plan” was lacking in details and I hadn’t
quite figured out how I was going to, you know, pay my bills, I knew that my decision was long overdue and overly ambitious.
“I’m going to grad school to be a teacher.”
Gulp.
And the rest is history. What can I say? Sometimes you just… know.
Steve Hodgden knew when
he stumbled upon a unique opportunity that he, too, was exactly where he was
supposed to be. In 1983, while looking for a place for his expanding family to
set roots in South Kansas City, a quirky and unconventional chance crossed in
front of his path.
Steve
and Wendy crept through the stone gates of the charming farmhouse at 512
Santa Fe Trail. The communities of Red
Bridge, Verona Hills and even Avila University were built around the
foundations of this diamond in the rough. The country house oozed of a
simplicity long since retired in modern architecture.
This house may have been made for this guy.
Steve is never one for the conventional. Unbiased,
matter-of-fact, and animated in his delivery, Mr. Hodgden is as passionate as I
am about the preservation of the past. His wife, Wendy knew she was in trouble
when Steve began to rattle off a laundry list of reasons why this risky yet tempting
purchase was perfect for their family.
Wendy was reluctant- but Steve is a salesman.
In 1983, they became the proud, ambitious new owners of the
farmhouse known in Washington Township as “The Four O’Clock Hill House.”
Steve, owner of Midwest Home, a home inspection company in
operation since 1977, started gingerly taking apart the 150 year-old history of
the home, its land and even its very foundation. Due to his background in home
inspections, oftentimes combing over some of the oldest residences in Kansas
City, Steve knew how to correctly renovate and accurately search for the hidden
history of their home.
With a crooked smile and a twinkle in his eye, he affectionately refers to this special home as “old girl.”
Previous owners had left some accounts behind of their time
within the farmhouse. But Steve wanted to pick it apart and dig (pun intended)
deeper within the stories – and within his own house.
Current view of the Four O'Clock Hill House |
As wagons barreled through what is now Minor Park, south down
Holmes Road and then across west in front of where St. Thomas More Catholic Church
is today, one of the only signs of white settlement was the Four O’Clock Hill
House standing solo on the hillside. Wagons then turned south once again, around the corner and then west up
the hill to the town of New Santa Fe.
This location became a physical marker on the route, the goal
being to see the farmhouse on the horizon when a pioneer's pocket watch hit 4:00. Men, women and children would stop
in front of this home to water the oxen and horses from the large cistern and
50 foot hand dug rock well.
After watering up, the wagon trains would wind down the hill
and then climb up to the camping grounds near the town of New Santa Fe.
But before New Santa Fe was incorporated, a guy named
William Gray (1801-cir. 1885) had already settled the area. And he built himself that sturdy little
home on top of a hill.
Around 1833, William and his wife, Elizabeth (Thrash) Gray packed up their belongings and four children under the age of nine and moved from Montgomery County, Virginia to the American frontier.
In 1844, William purchased 180 acres of surveyed land in
Washington Township. This marked the simplistic beginning of the Four O’Clock
Hill House.
William Gray (1801-cir. 1885) |
William dug a foundation, built a home, carved out a well
and built a root cellar on this property. His journey west had ceased on the
hills of Washington Township. But the well and cistern on his property provided
services for thousands of pioneers that chose to expand their land search west on the
Santa Fe Trail.
Like many pioneer farmers, William and his wife did their "duty" and helped populate Washington Township. He was the father of the following children: Joseph, James,
Rachel, Valentine, Amanda, William, Virginia, Hugh, Thomas and Floyd.
A myriad amount of stories of sacrifice and pioneer tensions
can be found within the lives of his children and help tell us of the hardships we today have a difficult time grasping.
His oldest son, Joseph (1826-1865), lived with New Santa Fe founder Dabney Lipscomb when he was a young man, most likely working on his farm to pave his own way. Joseph married Lucinda “Lou” Munday in Jackson County in 1854. By 1865, he and his
wife are living in Johnson County, Ks. with their three children. It appears from he sparse records that do exist that Joseph died in 1865 and then his wife died shortly thereafter- leaving three children to fend on their
own.
Two of them ended up in Falls County, Texas and
are listed as “orphans.”
With such a big family spread out on the frontier, why were
they orphans hundreds of miles away from the homestead? And why did the Gray
family not step in?
We will most likely never know, but it really helps open our eyes to the perseverance required to make it during this time.
Hugh H. Gray's resting place at South Heights Cemetery, Creek County, Oklahoma Courtesy of findagrave.com |
The reason I find this fact especially intriguing is that William Gray,
Hugh’s father, never owned slaves. He may have pledged to have been pro-slavery
(and most likely did since his neighbors were extremely active in the
pro-slavery community and would have been less-than-nice to him had he been otherwise), but he didn’t have his own "human chattel."
Valentine Gray (1833-1923), the first of his kids to be
born in Missouri, is the most interesting of his offspring. Val would have
grown up watching those wagon trains file past his home. Maybe he imagined
the Wild West and developed a fascination for the newly opened American Frontier and what it had to offer.
Valentine paired up with pioneer of Jackson County, Lindsey
Lewis (1787-1872) and set his sights on the western frontier. In May of 1852,
he journeyed in an ox wagon across the plains to Santa Clara County,
California with a group of unsettled, ambitious pioneers, many from Washington Township.
The journey took five months.
Dang.
The journey took five months.
Dang.
This rough and tumble guy was only 19 years old when he left
his family, showing the conviction of a young man with serious guts. Val seemed to have liked one custom he discovered when he reached California. There, many of the miners wore long beards. He adopted this “custom” and never shaved again in his entire life. In an article in the Muskogee Times-Democrat, published a year before his death, Val stated he did it because he "just liked the beard."
That's over 70 years of not shaving.
That's over 70 years of not shaving.
Just be glad you weren’t married to this guy. That’d be
pretty itchy… and unsanitary.
And probably smelly.
He stayed out west, working in teaming and hauling lumber. By
1869, he had moved to Mayes County, Oklahoma Territory and married a Cherokee
woman named Mary Ann Rogers.
A partial clip from the Muskogee Times-Democrat featuring Valentine Gray, published May 6, 1922 |
William Gray is speculated to have died around 1885 and was buried in an
unknown location. His son continued to own the land his father sowed until
1902, probably renting it to people in the area.
After a sixty-year time span of the Gray’s owning the Four O’Clock
Hill House, their legacy stands today. As Steve continued to be the private
investigator of his home, he found remnants of William Gray’s stamp on the land.
The old cistern used by thousands of wagon trains that Gray built with his own hands has since been filled in. The location of it still sinks in spots. The root cellar and oldest parts of the
foundations of the home were also built by William Gray and remain today.
Steve even repaired the original fifty foot well and left his own imprint on it, allowing his children to put their initials on the patched-up top.
Steve even repaired the original fifty foot well and left his own imprint on it, allowing his children to put their initials on the patched-up top.
Steve reports that there appears to be evidence of a
fire amidst the oldest parts of the foundation in a crawl space under the family
room of the Four O’Clock House.
“Something catastrophic could have happened,” Steve stated
matter-of-factly.
Now that is
interesting… and I could see his excitement and wonder while I sat comfortably
in Steve and Wendy’s home. Steve had points that I couldn’t argue- I
could tell from his tone and his demeanor that he had been searching for years
to find those missing pieces about his home. And just like me, he's never going to give up looking for the answers.
The well on the property |
The Border Wars destroyed much of the community in the late
1850s and early 60s. Many rural homes hovering so close to the State Line in Jackson and Cass Counties were torched by
Jayhawkers, and the Civil War leveled most of the rest. Even New Santa Fe was burned (more later on this...!)
Did William Gray’s original home suffer from the strife?
As hard as it was to hear, I knew Steve was right. The
chances were high that the original house was destroyed during this time, and
the only clues left are lingering in the remains of the original foundation.
The rubble stone foundation, serving the southeast and southwest portions of the house, predates the more conventional stone construction by many, many years. The majority of this rubble foundation stone is 'dry laid'
without mortar. A small creepy cellar that is connected to the old section still exists today.
Several families owned the home from the early 1900s to the
1920s. But the next big chapter of this home happened in 1924, when a
well-to-do family decided country living superseded the Kansas City life.
George Fred Mosher and his wife, Katharine Kupper Mosher
(1892-1985) took the opportunity to move to an old farmhouse. A 1907 Cornell
alum, Fred Mosher was at the time of his new purchase the president of his own
real estate company. Katharine was the daughter of successful parents that opened a hotel in Kansas City. In 1924, the Mosher family of two traded
city life for the countryside, buying the Four O’Clock Hill House.
Edward B. Delk Courtesy of Oklahoma Wesleyan University |
Gasp!
Steve embraces this history of his home, as it does explain
why the overall condition of the main structure is as sound as it is. Not to
mention the fact that Steve and Wendy have taken really good care of the “old
girl.”
Rebuilt atop the 1840s foundation, this "old girl" got a
modern makeover. And the supposed architect in charge of this was none other
than Edward B. Delk (1885-1956).
You may not recognize the name, but you certainly recognize his
exemplary, timeless work.
Some of the earliest Plaza buildings? Check.
Starlight Theater? Check.
Delk was one of Kansas City’s – and the Midwest’s- finest architects of the 20th Century. Brought to Kansas City as a consulting architect when plans for the Plaza were being made by J.C. Nichols, he traveled to South America and Spain to get inspiration for his work.
Early on in his Kansas City career, he allegedly traveled
to Washington Township to give Mrs. Mosher her dream (rebuilt) farmhouse.
Steve comes alive when he talks of her contributions to his
home and the possibility of Delk's involvement. There are hand-painted stencils bordering bedrooms upstairs, in his
opinion a part of this massive overhaul of the Four O’Clock Hill House.
The old stencils are still preserved within the upstairs of the home |
As far as Steve has discovered, the interior wall and
ceiling finishes are lathe and plaster, consistent with early 1900's built
houses.
The original window frames on the main level were all
designed to be double French doors (a feature now removed) and there was originally a porch that
wrapped around the entire structure.
Steve’s ultimate goal has been to add the charming porch
back onto the house.
The Mosher’s stayed until Katharine, after the death of her
husband, sold the property in 1946 to George W. Cartlich.
Cartlich was a character in and of himself. He was the
advertising manager for Woolf Brothers. In Fourth Estate: A Newspaper for the Makers of Newspapers, they claimed in 1922 that Cartlich was "known throughout the country for copy which literally glitters with human interest."
A talented artist, Cartlich took pride in his Four O’Clock Hill home. Oftentimes he hand drew the home for his Christmas cards, delicately sketching wreaths on the windows and fluffy snow on the ground.
A talented artist, Cartlich took pride in his Four O’Clock Hill home. Oftentimes he hand drew the home for his Christmas cards, delicately sketching wreaths on the windows and fluffy snow on the ground.
1946 Cartlich Christmas card of the Four O'Clock House, showing the old buildings and water tower Courtesy of Steve Hodgden |
Steve and Wendy are thrilled to have some of his artwork
displayed in their home. One piece has stayed as a permanent resident. Above
the main fireplace in the family room is a lovely hand-painted mural of the
outside of the home done by none other than Cartlich himself.
By 1953, Carlich said goodbye to his Four O’Clock Hill Home
and passed on the torch to new owners.
Thirty years later, Wendy’s mother, a real estate agent, took a risk by showing
the Hodgden’s the home. And the rest is history.
A current view of the family room, featuring the mural above the fireplace painted by G.W. Cartlich |
It is special.
Steve and Wendy continue to take pride in their piece of history. Steve will keep saving documents, maps, articles, photos and notes to his mounds of organized computer files. The research is never complete. The stories continue to surface
and paint a bigger picture than the one above the fireplace at 512 Santa Fe Trail.
As the sunlight faded and my visit to the Four O’Clock Hill
Home came to an end, the room turned animated again when we all recalled a
time in the 1980s when a live reenactment of pioneer wagon trains on their journey west came through the area.
I remember hearing the distant sound of hooves clacking up
Santa Fe Trail by my home and running up the street with my mom to get a front
row seat. There was something nostalgic and stunningly beautiful about watching it pass by... even those with little imagination or care for history were able to take a step back in time.
Wendy and Steve vividly recollect that day, too. “Can you
imagine it? Five hundred wagon trains traveled down the road and up this very
hill to this house. I got goosebumps. It’s fascinating,” Wendy proclaimed with
awe in her voice, followed by a heartfelt sigh.
A view in the late 1970s of the Four O'Clock Hill House Courtesy of Steve Hodgden |
A close-up of the hand-painted mural above the fireplace |
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