Historic Landmark to Come Down / Make Way for Extra Turn Lane

Historic O’Connell House to be Razed

The black net fence around the building at 222 North First Street means that one of the surviving 1890s mansions will soon be razed.

Once the building is removed, the vacant lot will make room for an extra traffic lane on North First Street to aid large trucks heading for the industrial park on Denton Road.

The two and a half story structure with its intricate gabled roof and wrap-around front porch has been empty for more than a year. The building was once an impressive example of a cluster of large rambling homes of Pacific’s well-to-do built during the heyday of railroad traffic here.

It sat across the street from three historic houses that still exist, the Mauthe brick home and frame home, now painted blue with green trim, face North First Street. Both have been renovated and are occupied as residences.

Directly behind the blue and green Mauthe house sits the brick home of Benjamin Smith, the man who drove the first train to Pacific.

The home of mayor Albert Koppitz directly across Osage is now occupied by Farmers Insurance

The relocated home of pioneer auto dealer Clarence Mayle, next door to the Koppitz house, was recently renovated and is now occupied by England Company

The two-story Queen Anne home that faces North First Street directly across from 222, one had an identical house next door on a lot that is now vacant.

The house that is to be razed now was known locally as the “Aunt Kate O’Connell house.” 

The late Carrigan twins, Marcia Carrigan and Marcella Hoeflinger, had fond memories of the house. As children they spent two weeks every summer there. They were born in the house a stone’s throw away at 411 North Columbus Street. Their father was a Missouri Pacific Railroad conductor. Following the 1922 railroad strike his job moved to St. Louis and he moved the family there but the twins came back to Pacific each summer for school vacation and stayed in the house with Aunt Kate.

“She wasn’t really our aunt. She was just a close family friend,” Marcia Carrigan said. ” It was a nice house. Aunt Kate lived on the first floor. Chick Sally and his wife Ruth lived on the second floor.”

Sally was the Frisco Railroad agent famous for the horehound candy that was so well known on the Frisco line that engineers would stop the train to buy a sackful.

The City of Pacific purchased the 222 North First property in April for $100,000, using funds from the East Osage commercial improvement district (CID). The City will spend an additional $34,730 to demolish the building, remove and dispose of residential structure, footings and foundations, outside patio, deck and parking lot area. 

The demolition cost escalated from $18,000 when it was learned that the roof shingles contained asbestos.

The city bought the building to make way for MoDOT’s 2020 improvements on Route 66 that would include widening First Street at this intersection.

Local historian Sue Reed said she believes the cluster of homes at the North First and Osage intersection were all built in the 1890s. 

It was a decade when most Pacific families had at least one relative who was employed by the Missouri (later Union) Pacific or Frisco railroads. Rail traffic and railroad workers provided a thriving economy for the local department stores, hotels, mills and grocery stores.

When the street widening project was first proposed, city officials had hoped to save the O’Connell house as part of the historic heritage of that era in Pacific history when more than a dozen large rambling homes were built.

The decision to demolish the building came after unsuccessfully trying to sell it to someone who would relocate it.

After the street widening, mayor Herb Adams said aldermen have discussed developing the vacant lot in a way to preserve the historic importance of the site.

Among items that were discussed is a small park with some kind of historic monument or monuments.

“One of the things discussed was a  mural wall,” Adams said. “If we did something like that I would want it to be comparable to things being done like the Red Cedar museum project or the BIGFOOT plaza adjacent to City Hall.”

Adams said he would recommend that future plans for the site be put in the hands of a committee.

The lot could be a companion to a planned historic Route 66 mural that is planned for the concrete wall on the north side of Osage between First and Second streets.