About the Perkins Apartments ...

Perkins

A couple of folks asked me last week about the history of Chariton's distinctive Perkins Apartments, located on Lucas Avenue between 7th and 8th Streets in the northeast part of town. So this seems like a good time to write a little about them. 

Keep in mind that I have no useful advice to offer the owner, nor am I interested in starting one of those "he/she/they-should" and "we-shouldn't-have-to" conversations. But, yes, it is too bad that the apartments complex sits empty and it would be wonderful if the main building and its annex could be restored.

They're called the Perkins Apartments after William Lee Perkins (1886-1957), Chariton's best-known architect and designer of some of our most distinctive buildings --- Hotel Charitone, City Hall, American Legion Hall, Masonic Temple and the Steinbach-Crozier House among them. These buildings all are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the apartment complex certainly is eligible.

There actually are two buildings on one lot here. The apartment building faces Lucas Avenue to the north. The smaller annex is located on the alley to the south. Both were designed, built and owned by Perkins; he lived in the apartments with his wife, Jessie, and son, William Jr., and the building on the alley served as his office.

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A native of Ridgeway, Missouri, Perkins and his family arrived in Chariton during April of 1917 to open his practice as architect and civil engineer. If you'd like to know more about him, follow this link to an earlier post.

Although not immediately evident, the apartment building was constructed in two phases --- a one-story or one-and-a-half-story duplex built during 1925 to which a second story containing three apartments was added in 1940.

The Herald-Patriot reported the start of Phase I construction in its edition of May 14, 1925, as follows: "W. L. Perkins, the architect, has the grounds staked out for excavating for a double house on East Lucas avenue. The ground plans will be 40 x 60 feet, and the walls will be 16 feet, and constructed of brick. This gives ample space for upstairs rooms. The building will cost about $10,000, so it is stated."

Progress was noted by Chariton Leader editor Henry Gittinger in his edition of Aug. 11, 1925: "... the brick duplex of W. L. Perkins ... is progressing as the days go by, the walls almost being finished. Chariton is the city of opportunity."

Construction of Phase II of the apartment building was reported upon in The Herald-Patriot of Oct. 17, 1940, as follows: "Work has been started at 726 Lucas Avenue on the construction of a second floor on a one-story house owned by W.L. Perkins. The second floor will include three apartments. Work is expected to be completed by the first of the year."

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The smaller building on the alley took its current form during 1939 when Perkins was elected secretary of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards and moved that organization's offices and its two employees, Sadie L. Stubbs, executive secretary, and Lucille David, stenographer, from Chicago to Chariton.

The compact structure served both as Perkins' office and as headquarters (upstairs) for the national organization. It had been completed and the office and its employees moved by February of 1940. 

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William L. and Jessie Perkins continued to live in the Perkins Apartments until his death, resulting from a heart attack, at the age of 70 on Aug. 12, 1957. Some years later, Jessie moved to California to live near her son and the building was sold. She died in California during 1992 at the age of 103.

Lucille David, who arrived in Chariton to work for Perkins, married Cleo Judd during 1943 and Chariton remained her home until she died at age 90 during 2003.

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So far as I know, we have no notion exactly what the Perkins Apartments looked like during their first incarnation as a duplex. Most likely there was a sloped roof of some sort to accommodate the second-floor rooms that newspaper reports suggest were included. 

The decorative brickwork on the building's exterior probably dates from 1925; the heavy concrete elements, from the 1940 renovation and upward expansion.

Perkins-designed buildings were sometimes quirky, but generally of extraordinary structural integrity, built when possible of steel, masonry and concrete. Those steel-framed windows are, in Chariton, a good indicator that William Lee Perkins was at work here.

In their time, the Perkins Apartments were Chariton's best; perhaps that will be the case again --- if the stars ever align themselves in the proper order.