517 Elms Boulevard
This one-and-a-half, gable-front bungalow is brick on the first story, and has narrow wood clapboards in the gabled ends of the roof. The moderately pitched roof has wide, overhanging enclosed eaves with curved gable end returns. The central bay front porch has a low-pitched roof, also with wide eaves and curved gable end returns. Set much lower than the roof of the main part of the building, the porch roof is set on a wide entablature supported by square brick columns on a stone foundation. The porch is screened-in, with wood partitions. The porch entry door is off-center, and is reached by concrete stairs with metal rails. The corners of the front (west) elevation are chamfered, and a window is set within each of these corners. There are centrally located gable roof dormers on each side elevation with clapboard walls. Below each dormer, on the first story, is a half-hexagonal bay. The windows are one-over-one, double-hung sash, recessed within the brick walls, with stone sills. There is an interior chimney in the center of the ridge line.
The Rowell Residence
Constructed sometime between 1909 and 1910, the house has retained a high degree of architectural integrity. It is a virtually intact example of a simple residential property type. The house was built for Samuel Rowell, who was born two miles north of Excelsior Springs. Upon completion of a pharmacy degree in Kansas City, he returned to Excelsior Springs. In 1894, he joined A.M. Howard in a drugstore known as "The Annex". For 10 years he owned and operated the Rowell Drugstore on the corner of Broadway and Main. He attended Kansas City School of Law, and began his practice in the Rowell building on Broadway. He served as Mayor from 1916-1918, and Collector of the City prior to adoption of the city manager form of government in 1922. He served as Police Judge from 1930 to 1946. The house remained in the Rowell family for 63 years, passing from Samuel and Myrtle Rowell to their daughter, Froncie C. Rowell (later Tindall), then to her daughter, Moyne Tindall Woods. It was sold in 1973 to Lewis and Jeanne Flannery, who passed the house to their daughter, Mary Vosika. It has since had several owners.
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