If there’s one thing to know about Kansas City real estate, it’s that the grandest homes tell the best stories.
Built between 1912 and 1914, the limestone mansion on UMKC’s campus that would become Scofield Hall was the crowning achievement of clay pipe magnate Walter Dickey. In the early 20th century in Kansas City, clay was king. It was cheap, durable and essential for the infrastructure of a rapidly-growing city.
But Dickey’s ambitions extended far beyond sewers and pipe systems: He harbored a bitter rivalry with William Rockhill Nelson, founder of the Kansas City Star. Local legend claims that Dickey specifically chose his mansion’s hilltop location so Nelson would have to look at him from his own front porch. While unproven, this persistent myth captures the animosity between the two…