Among the numerous imaginative architects who practiced in Kansas City, Missouri, in the early twentieth century was Mary Rockwell Hook. Her style was reflective of her travels and education; the substantial houses she designed have contributed to the enduring character of some of Kansas City’s most beautiful areas.
Born in 1877 to a prosperous family in Junction City, Kansas, she was afforded an education at Wellesley College and the opportunity to travel – both at home and abroad. It was on a return trip from the Philippines in 1902 that she resolved to study architecture; she felt that the facilities used by the U. S. government there were insufficient and in need of improvement.
Studying architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1903, she was the only woman in her class. She was an anomaly in a field populated by men, and suffered for it from the start. Her experience is described by Wikipedia in this way:
“In 1905, Rockwell (later Hook) went to Paris to study in the atelier of Marcel Auburtin, an admirer of her sister Kitty, as a prerequisite for being admitted at the École des Beaux-Arts. As a female student in a predominantly male school, Rockwell (Hook) faced gender discrimination. In 1906, after her entrance examinations at the École des Beaux-Arts, French male students intended to fling buckets of water at her as she fled through the courtyard. She did not pass the exam nor repeat it as other students did and thus did not study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Instead, she explored French architecture on bicycle trips with her sister.”
This informal continuation of her education may have contributed to the characteristic warmth her work exudes; a more formal education may very well have stifled her natural talent.
Two years after her family moved to Kansas City in 1906, her first three designs were built; one in California for a sister and two in Kansas City – one for herself and one for her parents. Beginning in 1914 she designed the campus for the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Kentucky.
She married attorney Inghram D. Hook in 1921 just as her practice experienced growth. Her husband encouraged her career, a somewhat unusual thing for a man of that time period to do. In 1923 she partnered with Eric Douglas Macwilliam Remington to create the Hook and Remington architectural firm. It lasted until 1932 when Remington moved to California.
Often ahead of her time, she has been credited with having designed the first house in Kansas City to have an attached garage. While often credited with Kansas City’s first residential swimming pool it was actually her contemporary, Louis Curtiss, who achieved that distinction with a pool at the now-demolished 1899 Rule residence known as Oaklawn. She was also ahead of the pack in her occasional use of salvaged materials in her designs. She was fond of designing houses for sloping lots where she took full advantage of the terrain. She is said to have been the first in Kansas City to use a poured concrete foundation. She led a full and adventurous life, practiced into her 70’s, and lived to the age of 101.
The house she designed for herself has been on the market, allowing us to admire some rarely-seen interior views of one of her many fascinating and beautiful houses. This house will be followed by exterior views of a few other examples of her work. Enjoy!
Mary Rockwell Hook House, 1927. 4940 Summit Street, Kansas City, Missouri. Image source: zillow.com
Image source: zillow.com
Image source: zillow.com
Image source: zillow.com
Image source: zillow.com
Image source: zillow.com
Image source: zillow.com
Image source: zillow.com
Image source: zillow.com
Image source: zillow.com
Image source: zillow.com
Image source: zillow.com
Now let’s take a look at some other houses designed by Hook:
Bertrand Rockwell House, 1908 – 1909. 1004 W. 52nd St., Kansas City, Missouri. Photo courtesy of Google Street View.
Emily Rockwell Love House, 1915. 5029 Sunset Dr., Kansas City, Missouri. Photo courtesy of Google Street View.
Robert Ostertag House, 1922. 5030 Summit Street, Kansas City, Missouri. Photo courtesy of Google Street View.
The “Pink House”, 1922. 5012 Summit St., Kansas City, Missouri. Photo courtesy Google Street View.
5011 Sunset Drive, Kansas City, Missouri, 1922 – 1923. Photo courtesy of Google Street View.
Floyd Jacobs House, 1925. 5050 Sunset Dr., Kansas City, Missouri. Photo courtesy of Google Street View.
Now, a look at her earliest houses:
54 E. 53rd Terrace, Kansas City, Missouri, 1908. This is the first house Hook built, on a lot purchased for her by her father. The house has had alterations including the enclosed porch, replacement siding, replacement windows in the projecting bay, and an iron balustrade above it. Note the small scallops of the fascia boards. Photo courtesy of Google Street View, circa 2011.
54 E. 53rd Terrace as it appears today, with additional alterations. The unusual scalloped fascia is gone. Photo credit: Michael W. Kruse
Wasserman House, 1908. 930 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa, California. At one time the house was mistakenly attributed to Julia Morgan! Photo courtesy of Google Street View.
thanks for continuing to bring little known architects to our attention. her work is fantastic and not exactly tar paper shacks. hopefully your taste in houses will improve from perusing these pix. I don’t think the changes to her first house were much of an improvement – she did a great update on the traditional new England saltbox – very nice and her house – WOWEE zowie -mansion with a capital M!!and it even looks great from,the back, a feat not achieved by many big houses.
keep up the great work. I love this site.
I agree that the back of this house is beautiful; I think I like it better than the front! Amazing house, amazing architect!
Wow! Those are interesting. Do you have any idea how much the interiors of her house have changed over the years? It seems like a lot of the interiors have been simplified or toned down. Curious on your thoughts. That is some very cool work.
Great question – and I don’t have an answer. Like you, I suspect that the interior finishes have changed over the years as is typical of most houses. As a relatively unknown architect, Hook’s designs haven’t been photographed to the Nth degree as have a lot of works by better-known peers. There are a fair amount of images available depicting the buildings she did for the Pine Mountain Settlement School; they show a woodsy, WPA-like, aesthetic. Her residential works were no doubt more refined, but still probably a bit different than what we see today. I think she was far more successful of capturing the tone of European architecture than were many of her contemporaries who tried to do the same thing; you can tell her heart was in it!
The talent definitely shines through. There are intriguing things, like the wood flooring in her living room – diagonal cuts meeting strait cuts, and the railing on the stairs of the room with the hefty beams – really special. Makes me want a time machine in the worst way. I think we are seeing a dialed down version.
I’m a KC native who has lived in Chicago since the early 1980s, and I’ve always admired her work. The story about her having designed the first swimming pool in KC is not accurate, though, as Louis Curtiss designed one circa 1900 for William A. Rule’s Oaklawn at 44th and Oak.
Thank you for the clarification! It’s all too common for the truth to become murky and distorted over time. I will update my post with this information. I’m not surprised that Louis Curtiss may have beat her with a swimming pool; he was considerably more adventurous. Oaklawn was destroyed, unfortunately… I was not able to find an image of it. I like Hook’s work, too; she deserves more recognition than she has received.