Pratt’s Addition and the East Campus Neighborhood

CoMo 365
Written By Matt Fetterly

On January 3, 1905, the Pratt Family (George, Georgina, J.K., and Charles) registered the addition of eighteen large lots to the City of Columbia in what is now known as the East Campus Neighborhood. The addition is between today’s Rosemary and Wilson streets and contains many fine examples of residential architecture. Wilson Street, originally known Keiser Avenue, was the first street in the immediate area to develop and in 1910 the only street to have any houses, by 1917 it was nearly full. The Pratt Addition is a small, but early, part of the East Campus Neighborhood, notable for its early twentieth century suburban architecture. The neighborhood has always been associated with the University of Missouri due to its proximity, and was developed during a period of rapid expansion for the school. Many faculty built homes in the area and student rentals existed from the beginning.

The East Campus National Historic District, which encompasses 262 contributing buildings and 5 contributing structures, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 16, 1996. The nomination form, prepared in 1995 by local architectural historian Deb Sheals, describes the district as follows: 

“Although most of the land in the district became part of the city of Columbia in the 1860s and 1870s, the vast majority of the houses found there today were not built until the 1920s and 1930s. The houses in the district are typical examples of the styles and forms popular at that time, and brick and frame Bungalows and American foursquares predominate. Colonial revival and other "period" houses are also common, generally dating to the 1930s and early 1940s. Brick dwellings are the most common in the area, but there are also numerous frame and stucco buildings. Also included within the district are three of Columbia's few historic brick streets, which are counted as contributing structures. . . . The neighborhood retains a high level of integrity, in spite of recent redevelopment pressure, and a strong neighborhood association is working to preserve the historic nature of the area.”

The East Campus Neighborhood, including Pratt’s Addition

As shown in the 1917 Standard Atlas of Boone County, Missouri in the private collection of Matthew Fetterly

The Walter Miller House, drawn by Deb Sheals, is a 1916 Georgian Revival House

As depicted on page 91 of the National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form

South of Pratt’s Addition, across Wilson Street, is Bouchelle’s Addition. The Walter Miller House is in Bouchelle’s, on the southwest corner of Wilson Avenue and Williams Street. Its architect was Scottish-Missourian James Jamieson, whose St. Louis firm, Jamieson and Spearl, designed many MU buildings, including Memorial Union. The house is Georgian Revival, a subtype of Colonial Revival Architecture. The National Register of Historic Places nomination form, prepared in 1995 by Deb Sheals, describes East Campus Neighborhood Colonial Revival homes as follows:

“Colonial Revival houses tend to have accentuated front doors, often surrounded by classically inspired entablatures. The facades are more or less symmetrically arranged, and the entrance is often centered. Porches are supported by classical columns and a cornice with dentils or small modillions sometimes runs along the eave line. In contrast to Craftsman houses, which emphasize the blending of interior and exterior spaces, Colonial Revival houses are more self-contained, with fewer porches and more static rectangular plans. Roof types include gambrel, hip, and gable; the latter being found most frequently in East Campus. The windows are primarily double-hung and multi-paned, often with shutters, and exterior walls are clapboard or brick.

Colonial Revival houses come in many forms, and in East Campus one can find everything from large formal Georgian Revival houses to small Cape Cod cottages. Most of the East Campus houses from this category have simplified decorative elements based on Classical styles, with no strict adherence to particular models. There are a few examples which fit into the Georgian Revival subcategory. Those dwellings mimic the formal symmetrical fenestration of original Georgian houses and feature much more Georgian Revival houses tend to be more carefully executed emulations of original models, and even high-style architects worked in the style. The most impressive Georgian Revival house in the East Campus neighborhood is architect designed. The 1916 Walter Miller House at 1516 Wilson Avenue was designed by James Jamieson. It is the earliest, and largest, house of this type in the neighborhood and it probably infiuenced the construction of later, less elaborate examples.”

The W.T. Bayless House at 1316 Bass Avenue, built ca. 1898, demolished in 2016

As pictured in the National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form

Much further North of the Pratt and Bouchelle Additions is Anthony’s Addition. In it, at the southwest corner of Bass Avenue and Dorsey Street once stood one of Columbia’s finest surviving Victorian houses, until demolished by developers in 2016. To describe what was destroyed, we again turn to Deb Sheals’ 1995 nomination form:

“One of the largest, oldest, and most intact houses in the district, 1316 Bass is an archetypical Queen Anne style house. The two story house is given a vertical emphasis with a round tower and two polygonal corner bays. The large wrap-around front porch faces the intersection of Bass and Dorsey Streets and shelters nearly half of the ground floor. The porch has thin turned wooden posts, and turned wooden balusters. Wall surface treatments include fish-scale shingles at the tower and in the gable ends. and decorative belt courses at floor lines. A cast metal finial adorns the tower roof and turned spindlework sets off the facia boards of the gable ends. The roof brackets at the corner bays are further ornamented with turned pendants. There is a screened sleeping porch on the rear of the house, with a small screened porch below. Some early stained glass windows have also survived. The house has an ashlar limestone foundation and an irregular plan. The exterior has seen few changes and the house is in good condition. It is the single finest example of Queen Anne architecture found in the district and it is individually eligible under Architecture. There is a newer detached frame garage behind the house.”

This CoMo 365 blog entry was written by Matt Fetterly using these sources

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Matt Fetterly
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