Nelle E. Peters (1884 - 1974)

Nelle E. Peters was one of Kansas City’s most productive architects. She designed numerous buildings during the 1920s when she was one of the few women architects to have an independent practice. She specialized in designing apartment buildings and hotels. During her more than sixty years as an architect, Peters designed almost a thousand buildings, mostly in the Kansas City area.

Kansas City, Missouri

Postcard of Kansas City, Missouri, c. 1906.

[SHS 028009-1] Postcard showing the corner of Main St. and 12th St., Kansas City, c. 1928.

[SHS 026892-3] View of Union Station and the Kansas City skyline, c. 1930s

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Nelle E. Peters was born Nellie Elizabeth Nichols in a sod house in Niagara, North Dakota, on December 11, 1884. Her parents were John and Altha Nichols, and her siblings included Gertrude, Gordon, and John. Reared on a prairie farm, Nellie showed an early talent for drawing and sketching, as well as a love for mathematics, geometry, and algebra. She once told a news reporter, “When I was a child I preferred to draw mechanical things – anything from a bolt with all its threads to a steam engine.” Nellie believed these abilities came from her millwright Early millwrights were carpenters who specialized in building machines.

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Sioux City, Iowa View of Sioux City, Iowa, c. 1923

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The Nichols family later moved to Minnesota before settling in Iowa. While not much is known about young Nellie’s early education, she did attend Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa, from 1899 to 1902. She would have been high school age and studied vocal music at the school’s conservatory. At the time, the college was not officially recognized and did not grant degrees.

After finishing school, Nellie took the advice of her sister and decided to combine her love for math and art by pursuing a career in architecture. Although she lacked formal training, Nichols knew she could do the job. She moved to Sioux City, Iowa, to look for work.

An early design by Peters Designed in 1912, the Hanover apartment complex on Kansas City’s Central Street is one of Peters’s early designs as an independent architect.

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At first, the architectural firms in Sioux City would not hire Nichols. She didn’t give up, however, and went back to offices that had turned her down. Around 1903 her persistence paid off when Frank Colby of Eisentrout, Colby, and Pottenger hired her after making a bet with his partner. Nichols later recalled, “I talked and talked and at last I talked myself into a job.” The firm paid her $3 a week to be a drafter.

During her four-year apprenticeship with the company, Nichols took correspondence courses in architecture to add to the on-the-job training she was receiving. The firm transferred Nichols to their Kansas City branch around 1907, but the lack of work there soon led her to seek outside projects.

Nelle E. Peters, c. 1920s Nelle E. Peters, c. 1920s

[Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society Archives]

Nichols stayed with Eisentrout, Colby, and Pottenger until about 1909 before she decided to use her “small savings and a large amount of nerve” to set up her own practice in Kansas City. Her office was located at 209 Reliance Building. Nichols’s first works as an independent architect were three small houses, and she charged $15 for each design. Not wanting to appear as a beginner, however, she labeled her first plan No. 25.

In 1911 Nichols married William H. Peters, a design engineer for the Kansas City Terminal Railroad. While Peters continued to work during her marriage, her most productive phase as an architect did not come until after she divorced her husband in 1923. It was also around this time that she began using “Nelle” instead of “Nellie.”

Belleclaire Apartments

Constructed in 1927 for Harry E. Fisher, the Belleclaire Apartments were designed by Peters and located at the corner of Armour Boulevard and Gillham Road in Kansas City. They are shown here just before they were demolished in May 1979.

[Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society Archives] Exterior drawing of the Belleclaire Apartments.

[Nelle E. Peters Architectural Records (KC0041), The State Historical Society of Missouri Manuscript Collection]

During the 1920s, Nelle E. Peters rapidly became one of Kansas City’s leading architects. Much of this success was due to her partnership with Charles E. Phillips, a local developer. Their business relationship began in 1913, and the association shaped the path of Peters’s career. Throughout the 1920s, Peters designed many hotels and apartment buildings for the Phillips Building Company.

Large apartment complexes constructed around courtyards

The Spanish Court apartments on the 2700 block of Troost Avenue in Kansas City were featured in Building Age and National Builder in November 1924. Peters designed the courtyard apartment complex in 1923.

[Building Age and National Builder, November 1924, Volume 46, Page 96] Layout of the Spanish Court complex.

[Building Age and National Builder, November 1924, Volume 46, Page 96] Floor plan for one of the Spanish Court apartment buildings.

[Building Age and National Builder, November 1924, Volume 46, Page 96]

soon became Peters’s trademark. Her simple designs drew upon Tudor and Spanish Colonial styles, and she favored the use of columns and terra cotta ornaments. She also became known for her efficient use of space in floor plans.

Tudor and Spanish Colonial elements Peters often used Tudor and Spanish Colonial elements in her designs. Both of these styles can be seen in apartments located on West 46th Terrace in Kansas City. She designed the row-type complex in 1927.

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One of Peters’s most well-known sets of apartment buildings is the “literary block,” located on the west side of the Country Club Plaza Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza was designed by Edward Buehler Delk for developer J. C. Nichols. This conceptual drawing shows an aerial view of the plaza before it was built in 1923.

[SHS 029275] in Kansas City. Each of the buildings is named after a famous author, including Mark Twain, James Russell Lowell,

Part of the ‘literary block’ near Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza, the James Russell Lowell apartment building was built between 1927 and 1929. Like many of Peters’s designs, the James Russell Lowell Apartments contain Spanish influences.

[SHS 024379] Close up of the basement plan for the James Russell Lowell Apartments, which shows separate dressing rooms for white men and women and colored men and women. The building was built during the time of segregation when blacks were discriminated against and kept separated from white people in almost all aspects of life.

[Nelle E. Peters Architectural Records (KC0041), The State Historical Society of Missouri, Manuscript Collection-Kansas City]

Robert Louis Stevenson, Washington Irving, Thomas Carlyle, Eugene Field, and Robert Browning.

Ambassador Hotel Designed by Nelle E. Peters for Quality Builders, the Ambassador Hotel opened in 1925 and is recognized as one of Peters’s most significant works.

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In 1924 Peters completed designs for at least twenty-nine commissions, including the landmark Ambassador Hotel located on Broadway. When it opened the next year, the hotel was the largest in Kansas City and featured a roof garden. Around 1925 Peters set up a new office on the tenth floor of the Orear-Leslie Building. During the 1920s, Nelle E. Peters’s office was located on the tenth floor of the Orear-Leslie Building on Baltimore Avenue in Kansas City.

[Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri]

Beverly Apartments

The Beverly Apartments located on Hitt Street in Columbia, Missouri, c. 1929.

[SHS 2003-0021-16] The Beverly Apartments located on Hitt Street in Columbia, Missouri, 2009.

[Staff: Elizabeth Engel]

As Peters built a solid reputation, she also designed apartment buildings for other places in Missouri. In 1927 the Columbia Missourian announced The unnamed apartment building in this 1927 Columbia Missourian article would eventually become the Beverly Apartments.

[Columbia Missourian, March 15, 1927, Page 1, Column 6] a group of city businessmen would use a design by Peters for a new apartment building near the University of Missouri. The English-style building would have eight apartments on each of its three floors. This building became the Beverly Apartments located on Hitt Street. Later in the year, the same group of investors used another of Peters’s designs and built the Belvedere Apartments

The located on Hitt Street in Columbia, Missouri, c. 1929.

[SHS 2003-0021-16] Entryway of the Belvedere Apartments, 2009.

[Staff: Elizabeth Engel]

across the street. Peters also designed the Bella Vista Apartments Bella Vista Apartments located at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Marshall Street in Jefferson City, Missouri, 2009.

[Staff: Jeff Corrigan] in Jefferson City in 1927.

Luzier Building One non-residential project that Peters worked on was an office and plant for the Luzier Cosmetics Company. For the design, Peters incorporated elements of Spanish architecture, such as terra cotta ornaments and clay tile roofing.

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While Peters specialized in designing apartment complexes and hotels, she did not limit herself to them. She also planned single family homes, office buildings, and churches, as well as at least one hospital. In 1928 Peters did a design for the Kansas City-based Luzier Cosmetics Company, which combined their office and plant. The laboratory’s façade is recognized as one of her most notable designs. When the company acquired the building to its north in 1933, the new section was remodeled to match Peters’s design.

Interview with Nelle E. Peters Nelle E. Peters was interviewed by the Kansas City Journal in 1925.

[Kansas City Journal, November 21, 1925, Page 7]

While she may have been one of the few women working as an architect at the time, Nelle E. Peters never saw herself at a disadvantage. During one interview in the 1920s, she talked about working in a man’s profession. One man she designed a building for told her he was surprised to find himself discussing architectural details with a woman. Peters concluded, “All the talk you hear about men not wanting to take instructions from a woman is bunk, I believe.”

Kitchenette apartment Exterior drawing of a kitchenette apartment building Peters designed for Quality Builders during the 1920s.

[Nelle E. Peters Architectural Records (KC0041), The State Historical Society of Missouri, Manuscript Collection-Kansas City]

One of the reasons Peters had the opportunity to compete and excel as an architect was that the profession was unregulated in Iowa when she began. The profession was also not regulated in either Missouri or Kansas until the 1940s. The lack of regulations in these states meant there were no educational requirements to prevent people from pursuing a career in architecture. This allowed Peters to enter a business otherwise off-limits to most women.

Peters's advertisement In 1928 the Republican Party held its convention in Kansas City. Peters advertised her architectural services in the event’s booklet.

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While these circumstances gave Peters the chance to pursue her dream, they did not guarantee success. Her ability to quickly produce high-quality, efficient designs allowed Peters to thrive as an architect in the 1920s. In a 1925 interview with the Kansas City Journal, Peters told a reporter, “I want each building to be as perfect, as economical and practical, as if I were building it for myself.”

The skills Peters developed brought her a lot of work, as well as national attention. In 1930 her work was featured in an Architectural Record Nelle E. Peters’s design for the King Cole Apartment complex in Kansas City was featured in Architectural Record in 1930.

[Architectural Record, March 1930, Volume 67, Page 244] article on “the place of the apartment in the modern community.” The article showcased designs by only a handful of Midwestern architects and only one other woman. For Peters to be included was a noteworthy accomplishment.

Nelle E. Peters, c. 1930 Nelle E. Peters, c. 1930

[Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society Archives]

While Nelle E. Peters spent almost six decades working as an architect, her career basically ended in the 1930s. During the Great Depression, private construction largely halted across the country. Most of the work available to architects was designing public buildings for the local and federal governments. Since projects like these usually went to much larger firms, Peters saw a sharp decline in work. To make extra money, she did seamstress work, painted china and watercolors, created and sold crossword puzzles, and wrote poetry.

In addition to fewer available projects, Peters faced other setbacks. During the early 1930s, she had a “breakdown” and later became quite ill. For a time, she was unable to walk. Although both she and the economy eventually recovered, Peters never again received the same level or amount of work she had once known.

Obituary for Nelle E. Peters Nelle E. Peters's obituary from the Kansas City Star

[Kansas City Star, October 12, 1974, Page 10, Column 5]

One of Peters’s last major projects was designing an addition to the Ohio Street Methodist Church in Butler, Missouri. The original structure had been built in 1901, and the church hired Peters to plan an educational wing in 1959. Peters retired in 1965, although she continued to accept small projects that she could complete at home for a short time.

On October 7, 1974, Nelle E. Peters died of heart disease at the age of 89 at the Fairview Nursing Home in Sedalia, Missouri. Her ashes were buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in Kansas City.

Nelle E. Peters Historic District This apartment building located on West 37th Street in Kansas City was designed in 1923 and is part of the Nelle E. Peters Historic District.

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Since her death, Nelle E. Peters has received renewed attention for her architectural work. While some of her work has been demolished, many of the buildings she designed still stand. They can be found in historic districts throughout Kansas City, such as the Ambassador Hotel Historic District and the Walnut Street Warehouse and Commercial Historic District.

Two districts in Kansas City have even been named after her, an honor not given to many individuals. In 1982 the city designated a section of buildings at the corner of Summit Avenue and 37th Street as the Nelle E. Peters Historic District. Another section along 48th Street was named the Nelle E. Peters Thematic Historic District in 1989.

With nearly a thousand buildings to her credit, the architectural legacy Peters left behind shaped the appearance of Kansas City, as well as other towns and cities throughout Missouri and the Midwest.