Showhouse History
55th Symphony Designers’ Showhouse, 3641 Madison Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri
The 2025 Symphony Designers’ Showhouse (No. 55) is located in the Roanoke Historic District at 3621 Belleview across the street from the Thomas Hart Benton home at 3616 Belleview. The water permit for the house was issued in October, 1906. Research is ongoing to document the architect of this large Elizabethan-Tudor home.
The house stands on the original grounds of the Kansas City Inter-State Fair which was sold to the Roanoke Investment Company.
The builder and first owner was William Dever Johnson, a livestock dealer, but it was not until 1908 that his name appears in the City Directory at 3621 Belleview. Actually there were two William D. Johnsons, father and son. In 1911 William D. Johnson, Jr. was listed as a student and in 1913 as a farmer. The Johnson family was composed of the mother, Mrs. Anna M. Kern Johnson, born in Texas, four daughters and the one son. In 1914 they moved to Grandview, Missouri and called their home Belvedere Farm just off U. S. 71 and Outer Belt Road, formerly the home of Reuben Mastin. Until a stroke caused him to retire in 1948, Mr. Johnson was a millionaire cattleman, landowner, and benefactor of William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri.
In 1914 the property was then sold to Alvin L. Harroun. He first worked as vice president of Builders Material Supply Co. Later he had his own investment company and was a broker. His most famous business endeavor was the Lucky Tiger Gold Mine which made many millionaires in Kansas City, but he was also credited for being an early auto manufacturer. We are wondering if he was associated with the Harroun Motor Sales Corporation operated by Ray Harroun of Michigan, the first winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 1911.
Mr. Harroun is not known to have married, but he lived in the house as a member of an extended family which included his mother, Mrs. George H. Harroun, who died while being in residence there in 1919. He also had two sisters living in the home, Miss Edna Harroun and Mrs. Katheryn H. Willitt. There must have been financial reverses because by 1938 the house was being cared for by servants, and there was a giant auction of “complete furnishings of a fifteen-room residence, one of Kansas City’s show places” at 3621 Belleview, Kansas City, MO.
In 1939 the next owner is shown as William D. Harris, President of Refinol Mfg. Corp. and his wife, Velma Claver Harris. His business was refining oil products, specifically cleaning crankcase oil to be useful once again. Velma was assistant to the president and then became head of the company when he died in 1949. She came from Grand Rapids, Michigan and had been a concert violinist on the Shubert Theater circuit and at age 14 played in Kansas City. She was interviewed by the Kansas City Star for the Sunday edition on October 19, 1952 and said that her greatest thrill was a command performance before the Prince of Wales in Johannesburg, South Africa. Of course the theme of the interview was how a society woman like Mrs. Harris was also head of a company that dealt with greasy steel drums of recycled oil. She explained that Bill Harris was persuaded to come to Kansas City by businessman A. L. Gustin who saw the future of recycling crankcase oil. It was during World War II that the business really grew in order to supply reuseable oil to many military bases in the Midwest.
After the war Mrs. Harris was known for the parties she hosted at 3621 Belleview which often included her neighbor across the street, artist Thomas Hart Benton. However there were business reverses and by 1956 there was an article in the Kansas City Times called “Bid by Creditors” detailing the sale of the plant located at 2020 Charlotte. The Kansas City Symphony Alliance president, Kellie Sullivan, was especially interested in the location of the Refinol plant because it has been in the news recently as the newest University Health Building for her employer where it will house the Recovery Health Services Department for Behavioral Health and will provide treatment for people using substances.
By 1994 the house had been bought by Robert and Cindy Pratt Stokes who lived in the home and lovingly preserved its rich heritage of early 20th century design and history. Dr. Robert Stokes moved from engineering to medicine and practiced emergency medicine and later moved into general practice. He died of cancer in 2016. Cindy Pratt Stokes came from a family which admired and collected antiques. Her brother, Wayne Pratt, is credited with the concept for Antiques Roadshow. Dr. and Mrs. Stokes added their personal touch to the third floor ballroom by commissioning Nicole Emanuel to paint a very personal mural in November 1996. In it you can see the Stokes themselves as well as other significant symbols and hobbies they enjoyed such as the colorful birds.
Mrs. Cindy Stokes was instrumental in maintaining the integrity of the house, and the new owners, Tim and Julie Steele and their four children, are very appreciative of her efforts. They have only been in the house since May of 2024 and have since added central air conditioning by using existing structures in the house to camouflage the ductwork. The woodwork just needed to be cleaned to bring it back to its original condition. Tim is president and CEO of Associated Audiologists and has already collected a portfolio of articles and information about the house itself and those who have lived there.
There are some interesting features of the house that you will want to see. There is a laundry chute to send the dirty clothes to the basement and an “enunciator” to call for service in various parts of the house. The Johnson family legacy is an etching on a window in the living room. There is also a dedicated “coal room” in the basement. The carriage house has an original gas pump and space to work on some of Kansas City’s earliest cars.
Tim Steele has been given a quick course in the ingenious engineering that undergirds a large early 20th century house like this one. For example, when the Spanish tile roof needs to be repaired, it’s not just the tiles that need to be replaced like legos but the underroof as well. Only a few tiles at a time can be taken off; otherwise the shift of weight on the roof could destabilize the entire house. The house also has to “breathe.” There is a billow wall to keep the house from being too snug to prevent condensation. The sleeping porch off the second floor was called the “tuberculan porch.”
Beverly Shaw, House Historian