The Story of the Sophian Plaza starts with . . . Harry’s first Kansas City Apartment House
Harry Sophian, a Russian emigré at age nine, lived and worked as a “real estate man” in New York City, during a time when development of tall apartment buildings (8-12 stories) was exploding, especially along Manhattan’s upper west side. As a transplant to Kansas City, he imported a well-developed vision of elegant apartment living. He arrived in Kansas City in 1916, and set to build his first apartment house, the Georgian Court apartment hotel.
Armour Boulevard and
main street
He selected a site at the auspicious corner of Armour Boulevard and Gillham Road, two blocks from the mansion of Kirkland Armour, meat packing magnate, and other Kansas City luminaries. The KC History site (Midtown KC Post) describes just how fashionable Armour Boulevard was in this time. According to Midtown KC Post, at the turn of the 20th century, Armour Boulevard was one of the most celebrated streets in town, proudly featured in numerous postcards of the day showing off Kansas City’s new boulevard system.
Harry purchased the corner lot in 1917 (Jan 2), with architectural plans already in hand. He attracted the financing might of bankers from New York and Chicago to underwrite the building, and broke ground (Jan 11) to build an eight-story apartment hotel. With speed that is remarkable in today’s terms, he declared the building would be ready for occupancy as early as October 1917. Although Harry was the man-on-the-ground, the bond financing notice shows that the new building was jointly owned by Harry and Jane, Abraham and Estelle Sophian. Shepard, Farrar & Wiser were the architects. The Kansas City Star article announcing the building’s debut, noted that its “appointments will be elaborate beyond anything yet attempted here.” (KC Star, 1-17-1917).
Georgian Court opened in 1917
The building offered 24 large apartments, most were 9-rooms, “exceptionally large and light,” including large foyers, sun parlors, breakfast rooms, and sleeping porches. A pergola and ballroom were planned for the top floor. The announcement included details about provisions for service staff, which included day and night elevator service, hall service, and footmen, all of whom would be attired in uniforms, and for whom onsite dormitory accommodations would be provided.
Architectural historians, Ellen Uguccioni and Sherry Piland noted that Georgian Court Apartment Hotel started the high-rise building boom here. The Georgian Court was deluxe and “set a standard for the others that were to follow. It had no rivals.” (Armour Boulevard, National Register of Historic Places).
Armour Boulevard (1918)
Glimpses In And Around Kansas City
(Fred Harvey)
The building filled its 24 apartments quickly. In a marketing coup, I suspect Harry Sophian nudged the folks at Kellogg-Baxter, the publishers of the Social Register, to include every family who became a tenant in the 1918-19 Kansas City Social Register. Twenty-four apartments, twenty-four families on the Social Register listed their address at Georgian Court, 400 East Armour Boulevard.
“The Georgian Court was deluxe and “set a standard for the others that were to follow. It had no rivals.””