Residence of Mark J. Oliver in Wichita, KS, designed & built by W.H. Sternberg

The residence of Mark J. Oliver was located at 1105 North Lawrence (today Lawrence is re-named Broadway). This particular location was re-zoned “Light Commercial” and today the Saigon Restaurant sits on this site. This home is confirmed to have been designed and built by W.H. Sternberg (1832 – 1906). Sternberg was the largest designer and builder of upscale homes in Wichita between about 1875 and 1905. Because of the tremendous economic boom at the time this house was built, skilled workers from all over the country were relocating to Wichita in hopes of finding work. There were a couple of newly-relocated mural painters in Wichita and this house is reported to have had large hand-painted frescoes on the walls & ceilings. It should be noted that walls were a very important decorating point for Victorians. Indeed, a few years prior to the Oliver house being built, a book was published in 1881 by Clarence Cook entitled, “What Shall We do With Our Walls” and it was quite popular in the U.S. Panoramic (scenic) wall papers, in general, were very popular in the United States in the 1880s, but to have original hand-painted frescos would only further distinguish one’s home as being a tasteful thing of beauty. Consistent with Sternberg-designed homes this one displays the diamond pattern in the front slate awning. Very similar diamond patters are also seen in other confirmed Sternberg-designed and built residences such as Sternberg Mansion and the Levy Mansion. Also consistent with Sternberg-designed homes, this one features highly corbelled & decorative brick work on the chimney column and flue (especially the south chimney which corbels up through the limestone foundation and has decorative brickwork patterns the entire height of the house), a front window on the 2nd floor the that ties into a 3rd story window with a visual decoration (a decoration that appears to “break” the roofline) and hence gives the impression of a two-story enclosure from the front as well as a steeply pitched roof. There are additional design aspects of this home that resemble or appear to “copy” other confirmed Sternberg-designed properties such as the low sloping roof line on the north (similar to the Levy Mansion) and the and the wrap-around porch on the south side of the residence. Although not visible in this photo, the one porch covers two entryways to the residence with stairs on the east (showing in this photo) and stairs on the west side of the porch (not showing in this photo). A similarly styled wrap-around porch on the south side of the residence covering two entry doors with stairs on east and west side of porch also seen at Sternberg Mansion. It should be noted, however, that when the Sternberg Mansion south porch was re-built in the mid 1970s the west-side portion of stairs to the south porch was left off. Not exclusively, but commonly Sternberg-designed-built homes have the front entryway on the right side of the house.

 

This house itself was probably built in 1886. The Wichita City Directory does not list a residential address for M.J. Oliver in 1885, however in 1887, this address (1105 N. Lawrence) is listed as his residential address. This photo was taken in 1888. It's assumed that Mrs. Oliver and their child are in the front lawn for this photo.

 

Years before this house was built, Sternberg was promoting himself as both an “architect and builder” of homes, specifically offering “designing and drafting” services. An advertisement for Sternberg, Hall & Co in the 1869 - 1870 Chenango County, New York Directory noted, “Being Architects and Builders themselves, they know just what is wanted for a house and how to prepare it. Give them your patronage if you would have everything in first-class style.” It is interesting to note that they listed “Architects” first and “Builders” second in the list of services. Some have tended to think of W.H. Sternberg as just a contractor, but indeed the architecting and design services that he did himself were a substantial portion of his business.

 

Sternberg was well-known for creating decorative designs within the roof tiles of a home. Designs varied somewhat but common motifs that reappear in multiple instances include diamond shapes, “V”-shaped or “U”-shaped patterns (whether individually or connected together), inverted “V”-shapes (chevron patterns), geometric flowers, horizontal bands, zig-zag lines at the apex of the house and more. Sometimes decoration took the effect of a Greek key element within horizontal bands. Probably more common than floral or geometric designs within the roof (mainly due to cost) were banded roofs with different shapes of tiles and/or different colors of tiles distinguishing each band (usually two to four colors per roof top). Sternberg is known to have designed and fabricated a large number of banded roofs with different colors and different shaped roof tiles (for example the J.A. Wallace home) In all cases of roofs with geometric designs that Sternberg did, the design color was a lighter color than that of the roof (a reverse image of sorts with the background being a darker color than the design) and having a significant and very noticeable color contrast was an important characteristic of upscale roofs. A lighter design than the background slate wasn’t always the case, however, with other designers or with slate roofs in other areas of the country. Sternberg’s use of high-contrasting tiles was in essence taking what was already popular ornamental feature and emphasizing it even more so (using high contract tiles). One of the reasons Sternberg was so popular wasn’t simply because he built homes, but because he built with style that distinguished the home and set it apart from others. Slate tiles then, as today, came in a wide variety of colors from black, blue-black, various shades of gray including blue-gray, rust red, rich dark purple, greenish-gray and everything in between including a rare and expensive medium-yellow slate. In the case of the M.J. Oliver home above, there is a horizontal band running through the middle of the roof that contains geometric flowers enclosed within an upper and lower border (see immediately to the left of the chimney column). What is known is that at least two colors of slate were used and quite possibly more (perhaps three and maybe four colors). Very possibly the flowers were one color and the horizontal borders were a different color from the flowers. Possibly too the fill-in area within the background of the band was a different shade of slate from the rest of the roof. That combination would have been a four-color roof. When ordering slate tiles, Sternberg would have had a wide range of colors at his finger tips to choose from. One of Sternberg's signature designs was the amount of detail he heaped on to the roof section of a home and how he “pushed” the limits of roof design to create strikingly handsome homes. Decorative roof elements commonly designed by Sternberg include: an asymmetrical use of roof pitches - multiple pitches - not uncommonly 4 to 5 pitches to a roof, a variety of dormer styles - shed, eye-brow, gabled, inset, hipped and others, a multitude of window shapes (circular, half-round, quarter-round, square, rectangular sometimes set-off in rounded frames), highly corbelled chimney flues, decorative porches (typically on the 3rd floor), an incorporation of some very steep pitches (in addition to multiple pitches), decorative designs within roof shingles themselves - flowers, repeating patterns and/or diamonds, high-style roof cresting, colored glass windows (typically on the 3rd floor) and highly decorative eaves - usually with multiple moldings and decorative eave brackets, to name a few. Taken together, along with a good measure of Victorian whimsy, the decoration and level of detail of the roof section of Sternberg homes is by all accounts absolutely striking.

 

The broad side of the Oliver home with a larger and more substantial porch than the east side of the home (which was actually the face of the home) faced south towards downtown. The roof line of this home in many ways resembled that of the Charles R. Miller at 507 S. Lawrence which Sternberg certainly played a role in designing and building. In addition to rooflines, the orientation of both homes was similar in that the broad side of the Miller home intentionally faced north overlooking the prosperous downtown area and about equidistant on the north side of town the broad side of the Mark J. Oliver residence faced south overlooking downtown. Both homes were on Lawrence Avenue. There are additional design aspects of the Oliver home that resemble or appear to "copy" other confirmed Sternberg-designed properties such as the low sloping roof line on the north (similar to the Levy Mansion) and the and the wrap-around porch on the south side of the residence (reminiscent of Sternberg Mansion).

 

The Georgian-style porch on the south of the residence (closest to 10th street) with opposing stairs on each side indicates that even though this is the largest porch on the residence, it was not the front or main porch. The main porch on Sternberg homes always has the widest staircase and always leads directly into the home - it's a straight shot into the home. However all other staircases in Sternberg homes encompass turns or twists between the time a person enters the staircase and essentially “leaves” the staircase (whether exterior or interior). In the case of the south porch one must turn to enter the house. With regard to interior staircases in Sternberg homes, they are also never straight passageway. When you enter the staircase you're never exactly sure where you might end up as they always turn at least once if not more than once and rarely (or not easily) can you see the final destination of the staircase from the starting point. For this reason, Sternberg staircases are almost passageways of mystery and what a Victorian delight they would have been at a time when most staircases were purely functional. This design aspect also had practical purposes, too, as it shielded the private areas of the second floor from lookers on the first floor without having to use portieres or doors for privacy. Perhaps this was one reason W.H. Sternberg was so popular for residential design. In the late 1800s, he was specifically building homes for the enjoyment and livability of its occupants, which was an idea that wasn't common for persons of moderate to upscale means. Victorian homes were normally built first for appearance and secondly for comfort and enjoyment of its occupants. Only the extremely wealthy could afford to have their homes architected and built to suit their own comfort and Sternberg did maintain and use the services of prominent architects when the situation called for it. Indeed, Sternberg is credited with having been the first person in Wichita to use the services of an architect (outside of the area) purely for residential design. That residence was the home of C.R. Miller on South Lawrence (home commonly known as “Lyndhurst”) and the architect for that was none other than Standord White who had a national reputation for designing homes for the super wealthy including the Vanderbilts, the Astors, Joseph Pulitzer and many other notable and wealthy persons of the day. Another “novel” feature that W.H. Sternberg is credited with having built (for the first time ever in the Wichita area) was a first-ever laundry chute (built in the Pratt-Campbell Mansion). Again the notion of designing and building one's home specifically for the comfort of its occupants was not at all common in the 1800s. Work was the standard and the notion of “short-cutting” the stairs by building a laundry chute was unheard of. But Sternberg brought many of these types of new designs together and introduced them to prospective home builders and it resulted in wide-spread appeal and acclaim to his benefit. The Biographical Album of Sedgwick County notes in 1888, that W.H. Sternberg designed and built “probably twice as many” homes and buildings as the next largest contractor. What he did was new and different and many people had the means to do something new and different. Sternberg was the area's leading designer and contractor at a time in the 1800s when Wichita had a larger population than Dallas, TX and was by some measures the fastest growing city in the entire country (#2 would have been New York City, #3 would have been Kansas City). His building styles to this day are well-loved by all who see them.

 

Another common design feature seen regularly among Sternberg homes is the incoporation of a single half-moon window on the 3rd floor of the residence. Single half-moon windows on the 3rd floor are also seen in the Levy Mansion and Sternberg Mansion and in the Oliver home above (all confirmed Sternberg-designed & built structures). In the Oliver home above the half-moon window appears on the 3rd floor directly above the main entryway of the home. In both the Levy Mansion and the Oliver residence the half-moon window looks out over the front of the residence. In Sternberg Mansion, however the single half-moon window on the 3rd floor looks out south towards the main section of the block.

 

Your thoughts, comments, ideas and / or additional information are welcomed and appreciated!!

 

This photos is courtesy of the Wichita Public Library, (www.wichita.lib.ks.us).

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