For Sale By Owner
Call: 816-233-7422
House History & Gallery
Built around 1912, the Barnes House at 101 South 15th Street sits on a prominent corner lot in the Museum Hill Historic District. As befits its proximity to downtown and its impressive situation, this brick house has been home to some of the important names in early St. Joseph commerce. It was built for Herbert J. Barnes, the Secretary Treasurer of the Martin-Barnes Dry Goods Company. Mr. Barnes was a young, ambitious entrepreneur who made a substantial living in the boom-town that was St. Joseph in the first quarter of the 20th century. He used those means to build himself an impressive home in one of the most desirable residential neighborhoods. But like many intensely ambitious men, Herbert was a wanderer. He had been born in England; by April 1916 he was had taken a position with a dry goods retailer in Pennsylvania.
When Barnes left, the house was purchased by Luther E. Reid. Reid was the President of the American Electric Company and was a prominent fixture in St. Joseph civic life until his death in 1949, serving for a time as the First Vice President of the St. Joseph Museums.
For the four years when Reid lived here, he rented out the rear of the home to boarders. In 1917, Charles L. Goodheart was the tenant. By this time, Goodheart was a solid citizen working a respectable job as a janitor. But neighbors with long memories may have remembered him from February 1898 when he was badly injured in a fight in a poker room on Market Square. His throat was cut by J.W. Dobson and for a time it was thought that he would not survive his wounds.
It was in the early 1920s that the Leibowitz family purchased the home; they and their children owned it until well in to the 1940s. Samuel Leibowitz, a jeweler who had emigrated from Russia in 1887 lived here with his wife Tilda, daughter Mollye and son Jacob (Jack) [both of whom had been born in Austria] and daughters Mae and Cecile who were born after Samuel and Toni came to Missouri. The Leibowitz Jewelry store was at 718 Felix, just a 10 minute walk from home for Samuel and Jack.
Cecile Leibowitz, who was a teenager when her parents moved into the home on S. 15th street, became a well-known name in St. Joseph arts. She became an accomplished dancer and by 1923, when she was only about 19 years old, she was running a dancing academy at 114 S. 7th Street.
In 1922, Mae became engaged to Louis L. Alexander of Chicago. When they married, he moved to St. Joseph and the couple lived with her parents on South 15th Street. Following the death of Tonie in 1925 of a brain tumor, the family continued to live at the house. In 1930 Cecile was the owner of record, in 1933 her older sister Mollye Naken was listed as the owner and from 1937 to 1946 the house was in the hands of Mae and her family.
By the end of the 1940s, the Leibowitz family were no longer associated with the home. The new owner was Robert R. Fleming who worked for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad and for a time he took in borders. One of his better-known tenants was Georgia B. Vaughn, a Home Economics teacher at Central High School. Sharing the house with Miss Vaughn was Dr. Lawrence E. Felz and his wife Joyce. Dr. Felz was an optician working for the St. Joseph Optical Company. In the early 1950s, it was home to Dr. James P. Swaim Jr., a local optometrist who practiced at Montgomery Ward – and on the tennis court; he was a well-known tennis player.
It is no surprise that doctors who specialized in vision saw what a terrific place 101 S. 15th street is. It needs some care, but it could once again be a jewel in a neighborhood with many wonderful historic houses.
