History
The Daughters House Inn is also known as the Hulse-Daughters House and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. The Hulse-Daughters House was designed by Herbert McCure Hadley, the first licensed architect in the state of Kansas. Being from New York, Hadley designed the house for his client, David C. Hulse, to resemble the popular shingle style homes of the east coast. Built of native limestone and cedar shakes, the Hulse-Daughters House has four complete stories of living spaces from the beautifully restored limestone walled cellar to the hidden penthouse of the third story which serves as the private retreat of the owners of the Inn.
Sadly, the Hulse-Daughters House was not always the showplace of Richardsonian Romanesque beauty that it is today. From 1985 until 2007, the house stood abandoned and empty; a victim of decades of neglect, sprawl and unhelpful zoning which allowed some formerly residential portions of south Manhattan to be turned into commercial property and tear downs. A common problem in college towns, the fortunes of the Hulse-Daughters house took a turn for the better with a new infusion of investment by young families, the city of Manhattan and new zoning ordinances meant to discourage tear downs and oversized rental units in the midst of single family homes. Even more exciting, under the leadership of Manhattan’s Historic Resources Board, the Hulse-Daughters House found itself in the aura of the newly formed (2008) Houston and Pierre Street Historic District, the first such district in the city. Across from the house is the old city square, originally designed as the home of the County Courthouse, it is now a passive park for use by neighbors, the Boys and Girls Club and Manhattan Municipal Court.
Restoration of the Hulse-Daughters House took over three and one half years (Feburary 2007 through October 2010).
Here are some photos of the restoration process:
And getting closer…
And finally, we are done!
(Well, you are never totally DONE, but close enough.)
