Director

Josiah Beattie Moss made quite a name for himself recounting his life in historic St. Joseph. Though he lived to the age of 93, passing away in 1942, J.B. Moss retained his sharp mind and keen memory of his life’s events. He wrote nearly two hundred articles recounting St. Joseph history, becoming an invaluable, if not apocryphal source for the pioneer town.J.B. Moss was born in St. Joseph in 1849. His father, Preston Talbot Moss, ran a wholesale business in Savannah, MO with his brother-in-law, Robert I. Boyd. Also a part of the Savannah wholesale market was Josiah Beattie who worked for the newly founded firm of Nave-McCord. When Beattie passed away in 1845, his family prepared to return to their original home in Virginia, but his daughter Susan had fallen in love with Preston Moss and the two were wed. The Beattie stock in the company was sold to the young upstart company of Tootles, Fairleigh, and Smith. Before the end of the decade, all businesses and families involved would have moved to St. Joseph as it quickly became the economic center of the United States.J.B. Moss told tales of seeing the first Pony Express rider pick up the email at the Patee House, of witnessing the first train arriving in St. Joseph, of the unfortunate incident that led to the city losing its chance to become the first bridge across the Missouri River, and of various interactions with St. Joseph’s founders. By the 1870s, J.B. Moss had acquired a fortune from the lumber and real estate businesses. In 1890 he commissioned Eckel &amp; Mann to construct both an office building at the corner of Eighth &amp; Edmond and his own bachelor’s home at 906 Sylvanie Street.Harvey Ellis was in charge of both constructions, creating an oriel on the Moss building and high roofed towers on the Chateauesque home. The medieval looking castle on a hill with gothic stylings was just the type of mixed whimsical stylings Ellis was so well known for and is perhaps the best example of his vision made reality in the city of St. Joseph.Moss married Mary Wood Leach in 1891 and they had two children; Catherine Corby Moss and Preston Leach Moss. They gave up their castle in 1930, the Knights of Columbus purchased the building and resided there until 1974 when Barbosa’s Castillo purchased the building. The Mexican restaurant operated in the Moss home until 2019 when it closed due to vandalism. The Moss Building at Eighth and Edmond was lost during Urban Renewal.

More Info

By the 1870s, J.B. Moss had acquired a fortune from the lumber and real estate businesses. In 1890 he commissioned Eckel & Mann to construct both an office building at the corner of Eighth & Edmond and his own bachelor’s home at 906 Sylvanie Street. His home was one of the finest examples of Harvey Ellis' work in St. Joseph.

J.B. Moss House

Harvey Ellis was born in Rochester, New York to Dewitt and Eliza Haseltine Ellis on October 17, 1852. He was the eldest of four brothers, the youngest passing away in infancy. He attended West Point, but was discharged due to failing grades in 1872. Harvey was artistic throughout his youth and after leaving West Point joined a group of artists in Rochester creating and teaching art. They formed the Rochester Art Club, one of the oldest continuing clubs, in 1877. The year of the club's founding, Harvey joined the architectural firm of his brother, Charles. Harvey's art gained national attention and his architectural stylings came to define Rochester.  The firm of H. & C.S. Ellis operated in Rochester from 1877-1885, constructing civic and residential buildings throughout their hometown. The brothers consistently made the news, Harvey as a renowned artist and Charles as a member of the school board. Their mother, Eliza, passed away on September 13, 1884 and by the beginning of 1885, the firm became embroiled in a bribery case. Charles was indicted on January 29 on charges of bribing a public official to secure the contract to build the county jail. The trial was messy and heavily publicized and by March, Harvey had left Rochester for Minnesota.  After spending some time in St. Paul, Harvey joined the firm of Leroy Buffington in Minneapolis in 1887. Buffington became famous for inventing the skyscraper and was the premiere architect in the Midwest through the 1880s. As Ellis was an award winning architect and artist at the time, it is likely Buffington sought him out for his work. Their styles worked well together and Buffington provided a shining reference for Ellis when he and his wife adopted a Swedish orphan they named Charlie.  Harvey Ellis came to St. Joseph in 1889, hired by Eckel and Mann to draft plans for the St. Louis City Hall. Ellis was the highest paid employee at Eckel and Mann from 1889-1891, splitting his time between St. Joseph and St. Louis as construction on the City Hall commenced. Mann and Ellis moved permanently to St. Louis in 1891, creating numerous works for the city until 1893 when Ellis returned to Rochester and restarted the firm with his brother as Charles S. and Harvey Ellis, Architects. Harvey passed away January 2, 1904 leaving a legacy of art and architecture.

It contains a 1200 lb bronze sculpture of St. Joseph’s founding father, Joseph Robidoux, created by Joseph Behler; a complete wall mural by Virginia based muralist, Sam Welty; a framed copy of the original city plat map; full sized birch bark canoe replica; and display cabinets with artifacts from many of the county’s museums.

The St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau is an organization that develops and implements marketing programs designed to maximize the economic impact of visitor dollars to Buchanan County. The St. Joseph CVB was established by Buchanan County voters in the spring of 1993 with the purpose of advertising and promoting tourism in Buchanan County, Missouri. The downtown location at 911 Frederick Ave. was opened on  August 21, 2017 during a total eclipse of the sun.

 The Harvey Ellis exhibit will be moving to the CVB's 502 N. Woodbine address on January 19, 2021

St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau

St. Joseph has a strong German heritage. German immigration to Missouri was consistent throughout the 1800s, but reached its peak in the 1870s-1890s with the Wars of German Unification. The fertile Missouri River Valley provided German immigrants with land similar to their homeland around the Rhine River, which earned the area the nickname of the Rhinelands. With St. Joseph being the westward terminus for the country, many entrepreneurs found their way to the city.Prussian immigrant, Frederick Smith, was one of the earliest settlers in the St. Joseph area, platting the city out for its founding in 1843. As German immigrants favored abolition, the influx of Germans into Missouri altered the predominant southern slave owning population of the state, increasing tensions leading into the Civil War. After the war, due to the large German population in St. Joseph, civic infrastructure was developed to serve the community, including a German-English School, Heckel’s Benevolent Home for German Immigrants, the Volksblatt newspaper, and the German-American Bank.The German-American Bank was founded in 1887, but it quickly outgrew its original location at 114 North Fifth Street. In 1889 the directors of the bank hired Eckel and Mann to design a new building at the corner of Seventh and Felix Streets. As this was the height of Ellis’ work with Eckel and Mann, the building was one of the first skyscrapers in the city with red brick Richardsonian design, open loggia, archways, and gargoyles and bas reliefs throughout. Its construction was delayed as plans for a grand hotel behind it failed to come to fruition.The German-American Bank served the German speaking population of St. Joseph until the onset of the First World War. As anti-German sentiment rose in the United States, it quickly became dangerous to identify with the culture of your homeland. WWI marked the end of the “hyphenated American.” You were either fully American, or you were the enemy. As such, the German-English School was renamed the Longfellow School as German language courses were removed from the school district and the German-American Bank became the American National Bank in 1918. The German and American crests which adorned the main entrance were covered until restorations in the 1970s. In 2015 Mosaic Life Care purchased the building. After extensive renovation and restoration, the building now serves as Mosaic's administrative offices.

Designed by Edmond J. Eckel, during that time the Eckel and Mann Firm, in the Richardsonian Romanesque style in 1889. The construction of the building is primarily red brick,  The institution arose out of the desire by the large German population in St. Joseph to establish their own bank. On the facade, you will find zoomorphic grotesques, gargoyles, and Eckel's signature wreath motifs. 

German-American Bank Building

The city's growth prompted the construction of the station. Before it was built, law enforcement activities were spread out among several locations and there was not enough room to add new police officers. The new station alleviated these issues and enabled the city to expand and centralize law enforcement.

Originally built in 1891, the former Central Police Station is historically significant for its Romanesque architecture and the role it played in shaping local law enforcement from the turn-of-the-century to 1939, at which point a new police station was built. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, it was for a time the location of the National Military Heritage Museum, which closed in 2016. It is not clear whether the museum has moved to a new building. 

Central Police Station

James Dowd McNeely was born in Ireland in 1831 and came to the United States when he was 21 years old, eventually making his way to St. Joseph in 1856. Once arriving in the city, he established a wholesale grocery and liquor business at the northeast corner of Fifth and Messanie Streets, running the store until his death in 1899. In 1861, he married Ellen M. Treacy. They had nine children together, six of whom survived into adulthood. Ellen’s father, James Treacy, was an engineer. He oversaw the construction of Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley. Treacy purchased the lot of land the McNeelys would eventually build their home upon from John Patee when he established Patee Town.A prominent citizen, James Dowd McNeely served on the City Council in 1863-1865, 1867, 1876, and 1878-1879. He was on the board of directors of the St. Joseph Bridge Building Company in 1871, constructing the bridge across the Missouri River by 1873. This sparked his interest in railroads and he expanded his mercantile business by becoming a railroad contractor. McNeely oversaw the expansion of the Rock Island line to the west of St. Joseph over the newly constructed bridge as well as the St. Joseph and Des Moines Railroad in 1877. McNeely also represented the state of Missorui at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.In 1890 J.D. McNeely constructed a magnificent home at the corner of Locust and Eleventh Streets. An 1890 article detailing the magnificent Romanesque homes constructed by Eckel and Mann in the previous year details McNeely’s open tower, combination porch and porte cochere, and intricately carved stairway and sideboard. The home still retains the vast details of woodwork, stonework, parquet floors, built-in buffet, eight tiled fireplaces, stained glass and an impressive curved glass window difficult to replicate in modern times. The archways, towers, and turrets are classic Harvey Ellis and the home differs very little from Ellis’ original 1889 rendering.Colonel John Dowd McNeely, James and Ellen’s son, was the last resident of the McNeely home. Colonel McNeely was a veteran of four military campaigns, from the Spanish-American War to World War I, and a local lawyer who offered pro bono service to the early St. Joseph Museum. The James McNeely Estate sold the house to George J. Strumpf in 1955 and it was converted into a senior living facility. It remained in that capacity for another fifty years, but has recently returned to a single family home.

In 1890 J.D. McNeely constructed a magnificent home at the corner of Locust and Eleventh Streets. The home still retains the vast details of woodwork, stonework, parquet floors, built-in buffet, eight tiled fireplaces, stained glass and an impressive curved glass window difficult to replicate in modern times. The archways, towers, and turrets are classic Harvey Ellis and the home differs very little from Ellis’ original 1889 rendering.

J.D. McNeely House

James William McAlister was born in Lincoln, Kentucky in 1852. He married Josephine Embry Withers in 1883 in his hometown, though he had relocated to St. Joseph by that time to seek his fortune. Through the 1880s McAlister worked as a cashier for the Saxton National Bank, located at Fourth and Francis. He worked his way up to Vice President of the bank until its merger with the Schuster-Hax National Bank to form the First National Bank in 1894. McAlister remained as first cashier for the First National Bank until 1902 when he and his family relocated to California.At the height of St. Joseph’s building movement, corresponding with Harvey Ellis’ tenure with Eckel &amp; Mann, J.W. McAlister commissioned a home for himself and his growing family at the corner of 19th and Felix Streets. Ellis drafted two radically different plans for the structure, but the finalized home maintained the form of the second plan. It was a large brick structure in the Spanish-Romanesque style. It had several towers and oriels, a loggia and archway over the main entrance, as well as an arched carriage entrance attached to the rear of the building. As with many of the Ellis buildings, the McAlister home was completed in 1890.The McAlister home had a long history of occupancy following the departure of its original owners to California. Albert Jacob August, founder of the A.J. August Clothing Store at Fourth and Felix Streets, purchased the home from McAlister and moved in in April 1903. August was born in New York in 1860 to Jacob and Bertha Eppstein August. His father, who was also a clothier, moved the family to Kansas in the 1880s. A.J. August came to St. Joseph to marry Sarah Weil in 1885, establishing his own business which would become one of the most well known brands in the region. The couple had a son, Stanley, and a daughter, Elaine, who were teenagers when they moved into the former McAlister home.After A.J. August passed away in 1940, the home became the perfect location for the St. Joseph Museum. The museum, which had been established in 1927, had made its home in the annex of the St. Joseph Public Library at Tenth and Felix. Its ever growing collection required a larger space, so the board of directors purchased the A.J. August house to make room for the museum’s extensive exhibits. The museum was located in the A.J. August home from 1942-1947 when it expanded once again into the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion.The short tenure of the St. Joseph Museum location within the home is often cited as an example of the paranormal activity which seems to occur within. The museum had a difficult time maintaining security guards to watch the building overnight due to reports of running water and closing doors. Residents since have cited hearing a child, a servant, and a young man as well as movement through the home and missing items. Stanley August passed away at the young age of 36 while still residing in his parents’ home. J.W. McAlister allegedly lost a child whose face was carved in terra cotta above the entrance arch by Ellis’ design. These legends have continued to make the McAlister/A.J. August House a favored piece of St. Joseph architecture through the generations.

Constructed in 1890 for banker J.W. McAlister, this home has had a long history and fascinating history. Though McAlister only lived in the home for a few decades, it became the home of clothier A.J. August for several years before being donated as a location for the St. Joseph Museum. The museum also only remained for a short time, fueling tales of hauntings that persist to this day.

J.W. McAlister/A.J. August House

Samuel Miller Nave was born in Savannah, MO in 1849 to Abram and Lucy McCord Nave. Abram and Lucy’s brother, James Walker McCord, founded Nave-McCord Mercantile Company in Savannah, MO in 1846. By 1857, they moved the business headquarters to St. Joseph, MO which had become the business capital of the Midwest. The business prospered and Samuel finished his education in St. Joseph before attending Princeton University. He graduated in 1871 and returned to work for his family’s company, eventually becoming president of Nave-McCord Mercantile Company.Samuel married Minnie Holliday of St. Louis in 1871 and they had two children; Lucille in 1877 and Samuel Fritz in 1881. By 1889, the year Harvey Ellis came to St. Joseph, the Nave family was looking to construct a new home. Until that point, they were residing at the southeast corner of 8th and Jules Streets, and they resided in the Wyeth Flats at the corner of 11th and Faraon while it was being constructed. Eckel and Mann secured the contract for the home to be constructed at the corner of 22nd and Clay in September of 1889 for $20,000 (over $270,000 today). It was completed in October 1890 and published in American Architect on November 22, 1890.Samuel married Minnie Holliday of St. Louis in 1871 and they had two children; Lucille in 1877 and Samuel Fritz in 1881. By 1889, the year Harvey Ellis came to St. Joseph, the Nave family was looking to construct a new home. Until that point, they were residing at the southeast corner of 8th and Jules Streets, and they resided in the Wyeth Flats at the corner of 11th and Faraon while it was being constructed. Eckel and Mann secured the contract for the home to be constructed at the corner of 22nd and Clay in September of 1889 for $20,000. It was completed in October 1890 and published in American Architect on November 22, 1890.Harvey Ellis’ original 1889 design for the S.M. Nave house was much larger and extravagant than the building which still stands today. It included a carriage house connected by walls with archway entrances. An updated rendering by draftsman Ben Trunk in 1891 more closely resembles the current state of the home. Whether Ellis’ design was constructed and cut back in the following years is unknown. As with most of Ellis’ work with Eckel and Mann, it is likely his version served as an idealized starting point for his fellow draftsmen to build off of, resulting in the final product similar to the 1891 design. The Nave family lived and entertained in the home in 1890, so were the 1891 plans drawn after construction or did they represent changes to the original, already completed home?Samuel Miller Nave passed away in 1901. His daughter Lucille married figure skater Irving Brokaw in 1903. Fritz joined the Navy for a short time and was also married in 1903. He moved around between California and New York, marrying three times before his death in 1918. Minnie Nave moved to New York with Lucille after Sam died. She then moved to Paris and renounced her American citizenship in 1908, but returned to New York after WWII. She outlived her two children, passing away in 1949.

In 1889, the Nave family was looking to construct a new home. Eckel and Mann secured the contract for the home to be constructed at the corner of 22nd and Clay in September of 1889 for $20,000. It was completed in October 1890 and published in American Architect on November 22, 1890.

S.M. Nave House

St. Joseph began to be settled sometime before 1830 when fur trader Joseph Robidoux founded a trading post for the American Fur Company. He eventually bought the company's interest in the post in 1830. The location attracted him and other settlers because it was where Blacksnake Creek and Missouri River met. Robidoux filed a plat for the city in 1843 and the city quickly grew (the Platte Purchase of 1837, which opened up Northern Missouri to white settlement, facilitated this growth). When gold was found in California in 1848, St. Joseph became the starting point for the Oregon Trail.  As St. Joseph grew, the need for a local cemetery became apparent. Sadly, disease was prevalent and many people died even before starting off on their journeys west. Residents buried their loved ones on their own property or in cemeteries in other parts of the county. Finally, a civil engineer and businessman named Simeon Kemper bought land for the cemetery. Its naturalistic setting and design made it a popular burial place. It does not appear that it is open to more burials.Established in 1851 and redesigned by noted architect W. Angelo Powell in 1872, Mount Mora Cemetery spans twenty acres and is a beautiful example of the rural garden cemetery movement in landscape architecture. Mount Mora was the preferred burial place for the city’s elite who could afford to hire architects to design their grave markers. The cemetery possesses a significant collection of funerary art including elaborate headstones, as well as twenty-one mausoleums that house some of St. Joseph’s most influential citizens, lining what is known as “Mausoleum Row.”  Not only a final resting place for the city's elite, within the gates of Mount Mora is a significant cross section of St. Joseph history, including approximately 280 civil war veterans, three Missouri governors, Pony Express riders, writers, inventors, musicians, the first licensed embalmer/funeral director in the U.S., and many more. Though its architectural significance hinges on the monuments to the city’s elite, its history is enhanced by the life stories of all those who are buried there.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, Mount Mora Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in St. Joseph, Missouri. It was established in the early 1850s to meet the needs of a growing town. People buried here include three Missouri governors, musicians, Civil War officers from both the Union and the Confederacy, Pony Express riders, and governors. Though it was primarily used by the rich, there is a variety of graves from mausoleums to simple headstones, showing the wide range of people interred in the cemetery. The mausoleums, of which there are 30, are particularly notable. Resembling small buildings, their ornate design reflects Egyptian and Classical architecture and the wealth of the those within them.  

Mount Mora Cemetery

Alfred Thomas Smith was the son of Spotswood and Mary Ann Thompson Smith. He was born in 1839 in Cooper County, MO and came to St. Joseph in the 1860s where he established a boot and shoe wholesale business. He married Corrine Cordell Stevens in 1889 and they had four children. With his shoe business booming, A.T. Smith hired Eckel and Mann to craft a home for him at 802 Hall Street. Unfortunately, his business collapsed in the panic of 1893 and the Smith family was never able to live in the home they had constructed. A.T. Smith joined his brothers in the business of Smith-McCord-Townsend Dry Good Company and worked for them until his death in 1907.John James Tootle was a second generation multi-millionaire. His father, Milton Tootle, came to Missouri in 1842, settling in Andrew County. Milton Tootle began his rise to fortune as a clerk at the store of George Smith in Savannah, MO, alongside his two brothers, Thomas and Joseph, and William Fairleigh. In 1849 these partners moved to St. Joseph, establishing Tootles &amp; Fairleigh.In 1860, Milton’s brother Joseph passed away and Thomas withdrew from the company. Milton and William Fairleigh married the sisters, Katherine and Alice O’Neill. Katherine and Milton had three children; a daughter Frances, and two sons, Milton, Jr. and John J. In 1887, the family purchased the Wyeth Mansion at Eleventh and Charles Streets, but Milton, Sr. passed away before they could move into the home. The teenaged children grew up in the mansion and Milton, Jr. resided there with his family for the remainder of his life.John J. Tootle married divorcee Ella Parker in 1896 and adopted her two daughters as his own. They made their home at 1912 Clay Street with a country home at the corner of Thirty-Sixth and Asylum Road called Cloverly (currently the site of the Bishop LeBlonde High School). They had a daughter of their own, Katherine and in 1919 they moved into the former A.T. Smith home at 802 Hall Street.John J. Tootle founded the Missouri Valley Trust Company in 1899, constructing the historic building at Fourth and Felix. He was president of the company until 1919 when he sold it to Frank Boder. After the death of his uncle, Thomas Tootle, in 1908, John J. took over the Tootle Dry Goods Company until his retirement in 1949, one hundred years after the Tootle family business was founded.The home at 802 Hall Street was not completed according to Ellis’ original design, though elements of his style remained. The main facade is asymmetric, as with many of Ellis’ works. There is a mixture of Chateauesque and Romanesque styles with towers and dormers, chimney stacks and steeply pitched roofs. Ornate finials accentuate its roofline. Similar to the McNeely home, the A.T. Smith home featured curved windows accented by heavy columns, tiled fireplaces with marble fronts, a rich woodwork in the interior.

Constructed in the 1890s, this Chateau-Romanesque home was designed by the firm of Eckel and Mann. Alfred Smith, a local shoe merchant, commissioned the home, but  lost his fortune in the panic of 1893. His family never resided in the home which bears his name, but by 1920 802 Hall Street was the home of John J. Tootle, son of multi-millionaire Milton Tootle. 

Towers of St. Joseph: The Local Architecture of Harvey Ellis

J.B. Moss House

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Additional Information