More LPA-Sponsored Properties Added To Lawrence Register of Historic Places

The Lawrence City Commission voted unanimously on February 13 to list four properties on the Lawrence Register of Historic Places. One, the Santa Fe Depot, was nominated by the City of Lawrence, the new owner of the building. The other three were nominated by LPA in partnership with the property owners.

These three properties are part of a larger LPA initiative to document and list significant local properties that were not listed on local, state or national historic registers.  In May 2016, the LPA Board funded the project with a $5,000 allocation. This project is now almost complete.

The Santa Fe Depot, constructed in 1955 in the Midwest Mid-Century style, retains a tremendous amount of architectural integrity, including some of its original furniture. A long-awaited rehabilitation of the structure is about to begin. Already listed on both the state and national historic registers, the depot has qualified for historic tax credits that the city will use to help finance the rehab project.

The Louis and Eva Poehler residence at 801 Alabama, completed in 1900, is a somewhat unusual gambrel-roof sub-type of the Shingle style of architecture. The front porch, and sleeping-porch wing in back were added in the 1920s.

The Thaddeus D. and Elizabeth K. Prentice House at 1645 Kentucky, built in 1921, is a good example of the Craftsman style. Unlike the situation in many cities, Craftsman-style homes in Lawrence are scattered throughout a number of neighborhoods, rather than concentrated in one or two subdivisions.

The Adam and Annie Rottman house at 2127 Barker was built in 1870. This handsome brick Italianate served originally as a farmhouse for a farm that covered most of what is now the Barker neighborhood.