Beautiful 2-story brick Queen Anne style duplex for sale. Near Downtown and easy to get to St. Joseph Avenue or 229 Highway. This duplex has an excellent rental history. It has recent paint and carpet and was restored 18 years ago.
Purchase Price $95,000
Each unit: 3 bed · 1.5 bth
Contact: Gregg Lowrance at United Country Property Solutions
Call: 816-232-7160
House History & Gallery
Built around 1890, the Illmer Duplex at 705/707 N. 4th Street was the last house built on that side of the street in the 700 block. It was built at a point in the history of St. Joseph when the economy was booming and many rental properties were being built to house the growing and increasingly prosperous work force.
One of the first recorded tenants of the handsome brick duplex was Louis Illmer and his wife Emilie Haverland Illmer. The Illmers were natives of St. Louis, but he had come to the St. Joseph in 1887 to take up the position of General Agent for the Anheuser-Busch Company here. His responsibility included not only St. Joseph, but also all of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and the parts of Missouri that were tributary to St. Joseph. Louis set out to help the company grow here, buying additional land next to the plant in South St. Joseph. The Illmers left St. Joseph in 1892 when he landed a better job in Texas.
In the mid-1890s the Morey family lived in the duplex. A.W. Morey, his brother Gardner and Gardner’s wife Belle all set up housekeeping in 795. A. W. was the Superintendent of the St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad. It seems likely that they all lived together because of Gardner’s health; in February 1895 he died “after a lingering illness, of consumption.” He was only 38 years old. His wife Belle died in 1898 at the house at age 39.
The 1900 federal census tells us that in 1900 10 people were living in the duplex. In 705 you would have found the Hill family: John G. and Elizabeth and their 17 year old daughter Jennie. John was a salesman and Jennie was a seamstress. However, apparently it took more than those two salaries to make ends meet; they had two brothers Joseph and Edward Hawkins rooming with them.
On the other side of the duplex was the widow Josephine Wing and several of her children. Clara worked as a telegraph operator; and the twins Jessie and Josie were milliners. The middle sister, Emma, helped their mother keep house. In November 1900 the house got even more crowded when Jessie married Emmett Golden, a clerk in a dry goods store. The wedding took place at the house and there were about 70 guests. Every effort was made to ensure that Jessie had a lovely ceremony. The newspaper reported that “the bride’s gown was of white dotted silk muslin, elaborately trimmed with lace and pearl passementierie. Her flowers were white roses. After the ceremony, supper was served. The house was beautifully decorated with palms and white carnations.” The happy couple moved in to 707 with Jessie’s family.
The duplex was a wonderful place for a newly married couple to start their lives. In 1906 Viola I. Kuehl married William F. St. John and they made their first home in 707. Viola would have been very familiar with the duplex as her parents lived in the substantial brick house just next door on the corner at 703 N. 4th St. (this house is still standing). William was the proprietor of a printing shop.
In 1923 the duplex was home to two large families. In 705 was the widow Eugenia Volmer Scheibe and her three adult children: Clara, G. Adolphe, and Augusta. Eugenia had been born in 1845 in Stuttgardt Germany and was married to Fred Scheibe who worked in a drug store. Clara helped her mother keep house, but she died soon after they moved in of chronic myocarditis. Adolphe worked as a plasterer for the Moss Paper Company and Augusta was a bill clerk for an import company. None of the children ever married. On the other side of the wall in 707 were George W. and Rosie Pinger and their six children. Both Pingers were second generation Americans with at least one parent who had been born in Switzerland. George worked as a packer in a wholesale dry goods concern. Their oldest son Hobart (age 26) worked for Swift & Co. in the Southside. In October 1923 he was arrested at work for assault and battery, which must have been a concern for his parents (he remained in St. Joseph, eventually going to work for the Light & Power Co.).
In 1937 the neighborhood must have let out a collective gasp of concern when George and Cora Gallant moved in to 707 with their 19-year-old son Clarence. Clarence was a well-known figure to law enforcement both in St. Joseph and Kansas City. In June 1936 he and his companion Dale Garrison were arrested in Kansas City for driving a stolen car. When they were arrested the boys gave the police officers false names and that Clarence Gallant was wanted on suspicion of taking part in the robbery of the Patty Jean pastry shop at 918 Francis just a few nights previously. He was held on a $2,000 bond. In November 1937 he and another friend, Wilbur Clark stole the car of Fairleigh Enright, a prominent local banker. For this the bond was $2,500. He was convicted of the car theft and sentenced to four years in the state penitentiary in Jefferson City. When he registered for the draft in 1940, he did so from prison. However, he did not serve his entire sentence and by 1941 Clarence was back in St. Joseph and still stealing cars (happily for the neighbors on 4th Street, he no longer lived there – he gave 1420 N. 3rd Street as his address when he was arrested in January 1941 after he and a companion wrecked the car they had recently stolen).
As with all rental properties, a great variety of people have lived at 705/707 N. 4th Street in the 150 years of its life. Among them were Charles and Cedelia Fetzner who owned and operated a grocery at Olive and Vine. During the Second World War Edna Roundtree and Louise Ann Killpatrick lived here while their husbands were on active duty overseas. Others who lived here worked as clerks, salespeople, and in the skilled trades.
The duplex has been well cared for and would make an amazing income-producing property – you live on one side and rent out the other! It is located in one of the most historic portions of St. Joseph and is eligible for grants such as the Save Our Heritage Grant.
