A Little Trip

Happy August a day late . 
Tech issues.  :(

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to
tour a beautiful "home" in Lee's Summit 
Missouri about 30 minutes from our 
house.

The beauty pictured above is the Longview
Mansion. A massive 22,000 square foot 
structure. It has 48 rooms, 6 fireplaces,
14 bedrooms and 10 baths. This was the 
"country estate" of Kansas City Lumber 
Baron R.A. Long (1850-1934). He also 
had a "city home" in Kansas City--
Corinthian Hall, which is now the 
Kansas City Museum. 

In 18 months, Longview Mansion and 
50 other farm structures were 
constructed in 1913 and 1914. It took 
2,000 workers to turn 1,780 acres into 
this beautiful "farm."

Back in the day there were 51 buildings
on the property including a horse race 
track, large greenhouses, barns with 
wood pegged floors, they had their own 
police and fire departments, a hotel for 
men, housing for employees, a church 
and a newspaper.

They were ahead of the time by having 
their own electricity, filtered water and 
steam heat.

The mansion is listed on National Register 
of Historic Homes. For many years it sat 
idle as ownership changed hands. today
renovations continue to be done to fully
bring this beauty back to what it once 
was.

The above three pics are views guests see
as they walk out the front door looking 
north.

Above is the front hall as you enter
the front door.
Below is the grand staircase leading 
to the second and third floors. The 
front door is to the right in the pic.

These two pictures are of  what would 
have been the "living room." The floor 
is original and the built in below came 
from Corinthian Hall. There is another 
directly across the room from this one.

Welcome to the dining room complete 
with swinging doors to the left and right. 
Restoration needs to be done on the fire-
place. When it sat idle, vandals
did some damage to the bottom base.

As I mentioned above restoration has been
done to the home. In 2018, 3.2 million was
spent in the restoration. It is billed now as 
an "Elegant Estate Venue." Above is the
Pavilion which is used a lot for weddings.
Below is a "sun porch" that leads into
the Pavilion.

When a wedding is being held in the 
Mansion this room in these two pics is 
for the bride and attendants. 

Down the hall is he room(s) is for the 
groom and attendants.

Do you know what this is? It is the 
upstairs laundry shoot. They maids 
opened it up and sent the laundry 
down to the basement.

This was the show horse barn for all of 
the horses that R.A. Long purchased for 
his daughter, Loula. 
From a very young age Loula loved horses. 
Today it is one of the schools in the Lee's 
Summit School District. There was a family 
on our tour, their older daughter goes to 
school here and her mom said it is fun to 
read all the history they have displayed.

Historic plague explaining the school
to visitors.

As you can see it is named for Loula.

This is a burial marker for one of Loula's
prized show horses. Revelation is buried 
there on stable/school grounds.

Love the clock tower.

A cute "Little library" right on the school
grounds.

Remember the church, here it is today.

This is a picture of Loula Long Combs,
world famous equestrienne and owner
of Longview Farm/ Mansion. She
dedicated her life to raising and
showing horses. She entered her first
show at a fair in 1896. For almost 65
years her horses won blue ribbons
throughout the country, Canada
and England. She was also known
in the community for her philanthropy
and love of animals. 

This is Loula's husband Robert Combs,
President of the Peoples Trust Company
of Kansas City and horse lover. After 
their marriage in 1917, the couple lived 
in the mansion for many years. Mr. 
Combs passed away in 1961 and Loula 
passed away 10 years later.
Such a fun place to tour and all the 
history!


Thanks for hanging with this one. It is
such a beautiful home and I learned so
much about a place I really had no clue 
about.


School's around the corner, posts might 
be hit and miss till I get back in the swing 
of things.

~Keep on Dreaming~