#Hall Street

[archinform]

Adam N. Schuster Residence, St. Joseph MO

An 1880s residence in the Hall Street Historic District

Built: 1881

Architect: Edmond J. Eckel (Eckel and Mann)

Address: 703 Hall Street, St. Joseph MO 64501

Growing up in St. Joseph, Missouri, in the 1960s and 70s, my main source of fascination was the city's historic architecture. A major gateway to the West during the 1800s, the town once rivaled larger cities in importance, and great fortunes were amassed there in the wholesale, outfitting, and mercantile industries.

The fortunes accumulated by "Old St. Joseph" were notoriously never invested in the city's growth; they were put into bank accounts where they preserved the power and influence of the Men Who Made St. Joseph the City Worth While (the title of a local history), while making the city a hermetically sealed place where nothing changed, and no outside influence or investment could penetrate.

It was a strange atmosphere in which to grow up, in a town where time stood still, and a conservative, repressive, and airless atmosphere prevailed.

On my many bike rides around the city as a teenager, my favorite areas were Museum Hill, just north of the downtown area, and the Hall Street historic district, just to the west. These areas displayed an opulence and a sense of past glory that hinted at St. Joseph's glorious past, yet a past that stood still, transfixed in a time warp from the turn of the 20th century.

Thanks to injections of cash, some of these mansions have been not just preserved but restored to their once-grand glory. The Adam N. Schuster house, pictured below in views from the Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress) is one such mansion, a building that captured and held my interest from my teen years onward. Variously operated as a B&B and private residence, the mansion has survived into the 2020s in a good state of preservation.

In about 1985, when Linda Farber, its then owner, disposed of the property, I attended an estate sale in the house over a period of two or three weekends. Among my purchases were a painted folding screen, a pair of cast brass Chinese candelabra, a signed fan photograph by movie actress Norma Talmadge , a Royal Rudolstadt porcelain ewer, and an oil portrait of an unknown woman. These items were all disposed of years later before my move to China to begin a new life as a teacher.

The Schuster Mansion remains the most well-known local historic residence, along with the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion on Museum Hill, for many years the site of the St. Joseph Museum, and now a combination museum / events center.

Below are photographs from the HABS survey of 703 Hall Street, along with a video about the house from a Kansas City TV channel. The interiors are quite striking, and hopefully the houses' current furnishings are in keeping with its grand past.

Schuster Residence, St. Joseph MO

Credit: I_Dig_Doug's photos on Flickr

Facade, from the HABS archive

HABS image

Tower and ornamental roof trim

Video: Schuster mansion, KC By Design

Description of the house from the HABS Report

Toni M. Prawl's 1994 dissertation on architect Edmond Jacques Eckel [E.J. Eckel (1845-1934): The Education of a Beaux-Arts Architect and His Practice in Missouri] confirms Eckel and Mann (formed 1880) as responsible for the Schuster residence's design. Of interest is the mention of Stigers and Boettner as builders. Eckel had been in partnership with Francis R. Boettner until 1979, after Lewis Snell Stigers had supposedly retired. I will need to do some fact checking on this chronology.

The following photographs are from the HABS report, Library of Congress collection.

Stained glass windows in the main entrance doors

Southwest room (parlor), first floor, showing two layers of decorative ceiling treatments

Second floor bedroom and upper stairway hall

Central bath and stair hall ceiling decoration

Schuster (1881) vs. Wyeth-Tootle (1879) mansions: Two Victorian Italianates, symmetrical and regular, with projecting porches and bay windows. They differ only in the heavier cornice and prominent roof on the Schuster, and the extra attic story on the Wyeth-Tootle, not to mention the asymmetrically-placed tower at the left, an influence of castles on the Rhine.

Here are some screencaps from the video above:

Entrance hall and stairway; the Library to the right of the entrance doors, main floor

Interestingly, I haven't located any interior photographs of the Schuster residence online, other than the HABS images. Other Hall Street interiors have been illustrated on sites such as Zillow, but not this one. If anyone knows of such images, please contact me.

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