Purchase Price $89,900
4 bed · 2 bath · 2,200 sqft
Amazing historic home. Tons of natural woodwork and wood floors. Has too many features to list, but some of the highlights are: detached two car garage with bonus workshop/studio above, has a chair lift on stairs, and much more.
Contact: Mark Clark at Berkshire Hathaway Homeservice
Call: 816-294-0880
House History & Gallery
The charming brick home at 1430 S. 25th St. was built in 1913 by local attorney Eugene Silverman and his new wife Josephine Heuschele Silverman. The couple’s wedding on June 22, 1911 took many in town by surprise. They had been sweethearts since they had been in school together but they had not announced that they were engaged. It was a small wedding officiated by Rabbi Louis Bernstein of Temple Adath Joseph in the parlors of the Robidoux Hotel with only immediate family in attendance. Eugene and Josephine lived with his mother until their house on South 25th Street was completed.
Both Eugene and Josephine were St. Joseph natives, their parents among the large Jewish community that made such an impact on St. Joseph in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Eugene’s parents were German immigrants, while Josephine’s, Charles Heuschele and Molly Mary Schafner were born in New York (though they were married in St. Joseph). One reason for the relative quietness of the wedding might have been that both families had some scandal in their background. In December 1884, Eugene’s father, Louis Silverman killed himself with an overdose of morphine due to severe financial problems. In 1897 Josephine’s father Charles Heuschele, who owned a drug store on St. Joseph Avenue, abandoned his wife and children. Josephine’s mother divorced him and he remarried quickly – so quickly in fact that in 1898 the newspapers were reporting that he had once again disappeared and his wife (#2) was worried (he returned and lived in St. Joseph until his death in the 1950s).
Eugene and Josephine attended the high school in St. Joseph together; Eugene was an honor student, and was valedictorian when he graduated in 1900. He then attended law school at the University of Missouri, graduating cum laude in 1906 and returning to St. Joseph to begin his career as an attorney. He was prominent in the musical culture of the Jewish community. On December 30, 1910 he sang tenor and was a soloist at the “Feast of Lights” at Temple Adath Joseph [Ethel Kinnaman, whose girlhood home on S. 17th Street is also featured on the Emporium: https://historicsaintjosephemporium.com/songbird-duplex, sang alto].
Eugene’s practice, Graham & Silverman, was housed in room 204 of the German American Bank Building. In 1916, he represented the Justices of the Peace in their quest to be paid salaries. He threatened to sue the county judges unless the JPs were paid fairly.
In 1922, Eugene and Josephine moved to an apartment on Frederick Avenue where they both lived until their deaths, and sold their home to Isaac and Genevieve Knotts who owned the house until well into the 1940s (it appears that at times they rented it out and lived elsewhere). Isaac was the manager of the Central Coal and Coke Co. Genevieve was 22 years younger than her husband whom she had married very unexpectedly in 1913. Genevieve Borngesser was a highly accomplished young woman before her marriage. She was the daughter of Frederich and Mary Borngesser and was known in the city for her fine singing voice. At the time of her marriage she was living in Chicago studying music. When she returned to St. Joseph after her marriage there she continued to perform sporadically around town. She and Isaac had two sons, Roy and John.
Isaac died on December 4, 1925 of appendicitis leaving an estate of more than $60,000 (appx. $864,600 in today’s money) that was to be placed in trust and used to support Genevieve and the boys until the boys were adults with the stipulation that if she remarried before the trust fund was administered, she lost her access to the funds. Genevieve and her youngest son John “Woody” continued to live at 1430 S. 25th St.. In 1942, John, still living with his mother, registered for the draft listing himself as unemployed and Genevieve as his closest relative. Eventually Genevieve did remarry and at the time of her death in 1965 she was living on N. 13th St.
During the 1930s Genevieve rented the house to others and lived elsewhere. The first of these was Leo and Hypatia Naeve. Leo was a manager for Hirsch Brothers Dry Goods and Hypatia was the recording secretary for the YWCA. In 1921, Leo made a bit of a stir in town when he won the single championship in tennis. When the Naeves moved out their place at 1430 was taken by the retired farmer Ruben Holmes, who died at the house in Feb. 1933. Between 1933 and 1936 Frederick and Hattie Dunn lived here [the Dunn’s later house, the Easton Bungalow at 1907 Pacific is also featured on the Emporium https://historicsaintjosephemporium.com/easton-bungalow]. Frederick was a line superintendant at the St. Joseph Railroad, Light, Heat, and Power Company. When the Dunns moved out Genevieve and her son John returned and remained there until about 1947.
This lovely house has been home to extraordinary people over its lifetime and it is waiting for its next owner to make more extraordinary memories.
