56th Symphony Designers’ Showhouse

See Showhouse Location for more details on this year’s location. Stay tuned for pictures of the house over it’s history!

12 West 53rd Terrace

The Prairie Style, stone and stucco, three-story house with Spanish tile roof located at 12 W. 53rd Terrace in Kansas City, Missouri has served as a beloved home to numerous families since its construction in 1909.

Alfred J. Poor, a grain dealer on the Kansas City Board of Trade in 1903.

Josephine (Josie) was painted numerous times by their son, Henry Varnum Poor. While he was at Stanford University in California studying art, Henry, the youngest Poor son, wrote home with suggestions about the house. One was that they hire a licensed architect rather than letting a contractor take his brother Herbert’s drawings to build the house. There might have been a little sibling rivalry there.

The original owners of the house were Alfred (A. J.) and Josephine Poor. The home was designed by their oldest son, Herbert Poor, who also built a similar residence for himself next door at 28 W. 53rd Terrace.

A. J. Poor, a nephew of the elder Henry Varnum Poor for whom the Standard and Poor’s Index is named, was a grain dealer at the Kansas City Board of Trade. He had previously opened a bank and traded grain at Chapman, KS, building some 30 grain elevators mostly on the line of the Union Pacific Railroad. He married Josephine (Josie) Graham of Chapman, KS, and they had three children, Herbert, Henry, and Eva May.

Today Henry Varnum Poor who was no doubt named in honor of his illustrious great uncle is the best known of the Poor family. He is an American watercolor painter whose work is collected in galleries throughout the United States, and two original paintings are on loan from the Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery in Lindsborg, Kansas and will be shown in the kitchen and the dining room.

In 1921 the Poor Family moved to their farm near Bonner Springs, KS and sold the house to Margaret D. (May) Campbell Ridge, the widow of Dr. Isaac M. Ridge. Mrs. Ridge possessed superior musical talent both as a vocalist (high soprano) and pianist.

Mrs. Ridge died in 1923 and the Showhouse was passed along to numerous heirs. In the late 1920s the house was occupied by Geoge W. Curtiss who was a pioneer in the movie business. He was a photographer by trade and the first filmmaker in Kansas City and possibly west of the Mississippi. He captured the earliest filmed scenes of Kanas City, including the junction at Ninth and Main Streets.

By the mid-1930s the Showhouse was owned by Eunice Lillian Dawson May, the widow of Harry Elmo May who are both buried at the Lee’s Summit Historical Cemetery.

The home was owned by John M. Keeling and his wife Florence in the late 1930s. He was District Manager of Art Metal Construction Company. His grandson, also named John Keeling, says that the couple rented out rooms at the Showhouse.

The Showhouse was bought by the King Sisters, Mary and Ella by the mid-1940s. Mary worked with her brother, Roy King, Sr. at the King Cabinet Company in the Argentine area of Kansas City, KS. Her sister Ella managed the house. The King Sisters were first cousins of Ewing Kauffman on their mother’s side. Mr. Kauffman invited them to invest in his new pharmaceutical company and use their basement for its headquarters, but they declined. They sold the Showhouse to their nephew Roy King, Jr. in the 1970s.

Roy King, Jr., his wife Gerry, and two children, Sherry and Steve, called the Showhouse home until the late 1970s. Roy was a Hallmark artist and later had his own furniture and cabinetry studio. Sherry King Goering remembers having a photo shoot at the house in the parlor with the beautiful stained glass windows for a Hallmark retirement card.

The King Family was followed by the Edwin and Mary Hood Family in the late 1970s-1990s. Ed Hood has five decades of legal experience in taxation, estate planning, and business law as well as his many years of teaching at the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law. Mary Hood recalls being on the tour of the Simpson-Yeomans Country Side historical homes tour in 1995. The Hood children are Heidi (Jim Sullivan), Anna Hood Diaz, Carrie Hood (Brad Miller), and Matt Hood (Amina), who now manages the Hood Law Group.

The Hood Family was followed by the Robert and Kathleen Arthur Family with their two sons, Rob and Brendan, who went to Rockhurst High School. Robert was a banker and Kathleen was a medical technologist in Kansas City. They now live in North Carolina.

The most immediate past owner, Bradley Redburn, a retired professor of psychology at Johnson County Community College, remembers the Showhouse as “Fun, Almost Paradise.” His projects at the Showhouse include remodeling the garage to add an apartment upstairs, refurbishing the Spanish tile roof by removing the tiles and putting on new felting (the old may have been made out of camel’s hair), and putting the existing tiles back on with a few replacements from Chicago. Brad and his late partner of 33 years, Jon Campbell, built a multi-level deck on the back of the house.

Our wonderful hosts in 2026 for the 56th Symphony Designers’ Showhouse are Dr. Blair Thedinger of the Kansas City Care Clinic and Ellen Ritchie, a Child and Family Mental Health Provider at Children’s Mercy Hospital. They have two daughters ages 13 and 10 who look forward to moving into the Showhouse after we close on July 5, 2026. We thank this wonderful family for sharing their home for our final Symphony Designers’ Showhouse.

Beverly Shaw, House Historian