Building History

If the walls of Park House could talk, they would recall Parkville, Mo., founder George Park and his family, who lived in the modest cottage off and on from 1848-74. They would describe the college campus that rose up around the house, co-founded by Park and built by Park University’s earliest students. They would remember Park faculty who resided in the house and generations of Park students who visited the house when it served as a campus museum.

And now those walls can boast of the Park alumni who saved the historic house from demolition. When they learned Park House would need to be moved or razed to make way for the new Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center, alumni were determined to preserve the building. “Park House is a tangible reminder of our earliest campus history and one of the oldest surviving buildings in Platte County (Mo.),” said Carolyn Elwess, ’71, university archivist. “Once those places are gone, they’re gone forever.”

Elwess chaired the alumni committee that raised funds to move Park House. Tasked with raising $124,000 in just a few months, Park alumni rose to the occasion. The house was lifted onto a trailer and pulled 400 yards uphill to a new foundation to the east of Hawley Hall, where its front porch overlooks the Missouri River. The move took place on August 7, 2019, 52 years to the day after Park House was previously moved during a highway expansion project. “I won’t say it’s miraculous, but that poor old place has survived quite well,” said Elwess. “I’m just really pleased that alumni were able to make their contribution to the total cost of the move.”

The newly located Park House will be home to the George S. Robb Centre for the Study of the Great War, where Park faculty and students will conduct research for the Valor Medals Review. The project identifies minority service members of World War I whose valiant acts might have warranted Medal of Honor recognition but were overlooked, possibly due to discrimination. At the conclusion of the multiyear review, a new list of service members will be recommended for posthumous Medal of Honor nominations.

Park House removed from its foundation.

Park House being towed to its new location on the Parkville Campus.