The Mack B. Nelson house is a historic residence located at 5500 Ward Parkway in the Sunset Hill neighborhood of the

Country Club District The Country Club District is the name of a group of neighborhoods comprising a historic upscale residential district in Kansas City, developed by noted real estate developer J.C. Nichols. The district was developed in stages between 1906 and 1950, ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

History

Mack Barnabas Nelson was born in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

in 1872. He came to Kansas City in 1894, where he worked for the Long-Bell Lumber Company. At the time of construction, Nelson was vice-president of the lumber company, but he later came to the top position in the company after Long suffered financial reverses early in the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Construction took place during the same time as construction of the

Bernard Corrigan House The Bernard Corrigan House is a historic residence at 1200 West 55th Street in the Country Club District, Kansas City, Missouri. The building is an important regional example of the Prairie Style, and it was one of the earliest residential struc ...

, which is located directly across 55th Street.

Architecture

Built in 1914, the house is a large rectangle built around an interior atrium, which is lit by movable skylight. It houses 16 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, a swimming pool with pool house and a basketball court. The architect was

Henry F. Hoit Henry Ford Hoit (4 August 1872 – 30 May 1951) was a well-known Kansas City, Missouri, architect in the early 20th century. He and his partners designed many of Kansas City's most iconic commercial and residential buildings including the Kansas ...

who also designed the R. A. Long residence which is now the

Kansas City Museum The Kansas City Museum is located in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. In 1910, the site was built by lumber baron and civic leader Robert A. Long as his private family estate, with the four-story historic Beaux-Arts style mansion named Corin ...

. {{coord, 39.0278, -94.6044, type:landmark_region:US-MO, display=title Houses in Kansas City, Missouri