Posted on Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 07:55 pm:

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Topeka's growth to the west and south in the first half of the 20th century was a way to get away from the city's industrial section.

The railroad tracks limited access to the east side of town, said Mark Lahr, who worked in the city planning department for more than 35 years.

There were many more trains running during the first half of the 1900s than there are today. Interstate 70 creates a similar barrier today to East Topeka, Lahr said.

Areas outside the city limits had their own attraction.

1979 File Photo/The Capital-Journal

The house at 3155 S.W. Shadow Lane was the first to be built in Westboro.

Shawnee County didn't have any building restrictions until the late 1950s, Lahr said.

"Compact growth wasn't a consideration," he said.

The county was putting in roads, and families were starting to have more than one car, so subdivisions sprawled.

Still residential growth was heaviest in the areas within 2 or 3 miles of downtown in the years before World War II.

One of those was Westboro, laid out in the 1920s under the watchful eye of the developer. It is still considered one of Topeka's premiere neighborhoods. And with some of the homes appraised at more than $400,000, the area might be considered exclusive.

Neighborhoods in Topeka are defined by many criteria, said Lahr, a Westboro resident.

Some neighborhoods are known because of a building style, such as the Victorian homes in Potwin or the bungalows in Potwin, Lahr said. Others are defined by a workplace, such as Oakland being the residence of many Santa Fe Railway workers and Montara being populated by military families associated with Forbes Air Force Base.

The lake developments -- Shawnee, Sherwood and Jivaro -- have the physical features to define them.

"Clarion is an interesting neighborhood," Lahr said. Its streets meander and the developers worked to retain existing trees.

Westboro's definition comes first from its size, Lahr said. It was laid out on 160 acres as a residential area.

Its developers added convenants to the deeds that restricted what people could do with their property, Lahr said. They restricted the number of chickens, for instance, and allowed clotheslines only in the back yard.

"These were appropriate for the 1920s and '30s," Lahr said.

The developers, though, left no provisions for anyone to oversee building plans after they were gone, so residents have to rely on their neighbors' good taste.

The following is from "Westboro, A Neighborhood of Tradition," published in June 2001 by the Westboro Homeowners Association to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Westboro Homes Co. Its material came mostly from The Boro, a neighborhood newsletter. The book was edited by Susan E. Tucker, Marj Schnacke and Carol Green. Schnacke is credited with writing these excerpts:

On Aug. 2,1926, the Westboro plat was filed by M.R. Linscott, Tinkham Veale, H.B. Cowles and Alice M. Cowles along with the certificate of the surveyor and letters from the city engineer, the city planning board and the mayor of Topeka and city commission showing approval of the plan. Their company was called the Westboro Homes Co.

Linscott moved his family to Topeka, and he worked on the special platting for Westboro. He built the first home in the area. It is on Shadow Lane. The curved streets, many parks and large corner lots were a part of the grand design. Mr. Trooger, of Chicago, and the firm of Hare and Hare of Kansas City, renowned landscape architects, were employed to work on the design of the area.

Besides all his expertise in building, Linscott had a talent for landscaping, and he wanted this well thought out. He insisted on the double row of elm trees on all the lots, and it was the duty of his young son Scott to keep these little 6-foot trees watered. Few of these elms exist today because of the devastating Dutch elm disease that moved across the country in the 1960s.

The Westboro Mart was part of the overall plan insisted on by Linscott. In 1936, the Mart was started and at first had a corner drug store (called the Pink drugstore by many), a food market providing delivery service, a beauty parlor, barber shop and a "Turkish bath parlor." There was a Rathskeller (bar and restaurant below street level) in the basement of the drug store, which was a favorite haunt of teenagers.

Three other additions were made -- in 1938, 1945-46 and 1951. The offices above the stores in the 1951 addition had several physicians and dentists as early tenants.

On Sept. 7,1926, restrictions were filed by Veale and Linscott to be valid for 25 years and each 25 years thereafter. All were to be private, single family residences. The cost was to be between $5,000 and $15,000, depending on where the homes were located, and the front footage ran from 50 to 95 feet.

Among the restrictions:

• All outbuildings except greenhouses erected on lots shall correspond in style and architecture to the residence to which they are appurtenant.

• No pergolas or any detached structure for purely ornamental purposes may be erected on any part of any lot in front of a line 12 feet in front of the front building line without consent.

• No cesspools or privies without consent.

• No billboards, advertising boards exceeding 5 square feet in size for the display, posting, printing or painting of signs or of advertising on any of the lots without written consent.

• No fences or walls on any lot nearer a front street than the front building limit line without consent.

• The main body of any residence shall not occupy more than 80 percent of the width of the lots.

• All plans for residences, outbuildings, fences and walls had to be approved by the Westboro Homes Co.

Deeds contained pages and pages of restrictions pertaining to individual lots. Linscott had learned his craft well from J.C. Nichols and the restrictions were closely adhered to.

All residences were originally required to be two stories. In 1952, when Charles Blevins wanted to build the house at 1445 S.W. Westover Road, he needed a one-story home because his wife was in a wheelchair. Not only did he need to have (Veale's) approval, but all the owners in Westboro had to sign a petition granting him the privilege to deviate from the restrictions. The roof was put on three times to settle a dispute about its pitch.

An early promotional booklet talked of seven street parks. "In the several parks will be found fish pools, lily ponds and a canal, wading pools, park fountains, tennis courts and a shelter house for the use and enjoyment of Westboro people." A homeowners' association was envisioned to maintain the public area. "At an additional cost, service for yard maintenance, police protection, landscaping and rubbish removal will be provided." Also advertised were the schools and the closeness of Washburn College. "All the advantages of being in the country together with all the advantages of being in the city."

Early lots sold for $37.50 a front running foot. Development began at the east end with Shadow Lane and Pembroke Lane and moved north and west. Sidewalks were planned only for a few areas but where they were developed there were inlaid tiles with the street names at the end of each block. An example can be seen in the 1500 block of Pembroke Lane.

Veale and Linscott worked together developing Westboro until 1935, when the Depression hit the real estate business and there wasn't enough business for two. The partnership was dissolved, and Linscott moved his family to California where he began developing apartments and homes in the Westwood area of Los Angeles.

Tinkham Veale was born in Topeka on June 15, 1884, and spent his life here. After graduation from Topeka High School and Washburn College, he went on to earn a law degree from the Washburn Law School. He was admitted to practice in 1919 and served as Shawnee County attorney from 1920 to 1924. In 1919, he married Daisy N. Neil, and they had one daughter, Genevieve, who married to Cecil Cantrill. Genevieve attended Topeka public schools and then went on to Stanford.

In the early days, there was space around the new neighborhood for the Veales to keep their Tennessee Walkers near their home at 1535 S.W. Pembroke Lane. Friends remember seeing Genevieve frequently all dressed up in her red riding habit on one of the horses. As late as 1936, when the Ned Flemings were in the original house, the children kept their ponies nearby. During this time, Tinkham was a strict overseer ofthis addition. He insisted on an uncluttered look for the neighborhood and he learned about adhering to stiff restrictions from Linscott.

Tink could be seen walking the neighborhood almost daily to check to see that there were no infringements on the rules. Tom Crosby (son of the owners of Warren M. Crosby store) built the first home on Stratford Road and for a while he was isolated from the development in the east part. A most eager aviator, he generally flew his Inland Sport monoplane out of Billard airport; however, the land behind his home made for a great landing strip and was the one used in the early years by barnstorming pilots after World War I. Tom would land there to wash his plane or other times when he found it convenient to taxi up to his hack door and be home.

Several years before the Crosbys moved to Stratford Road, one of the town's bootleggers was killed in an airplane crash trying to land on the strip and another story reports that a barnstorming pilot sheared off a hit of the roof of the Cave home at 1421 S.W. Pembroke Lane. And still another pilot took off, just barely, and landed in the Kansas Evergreen Nursery (now Capital City Bank). He apparently didn't have enough money to have his plane towed away because it stayed there for quite a while before he recovered it.

Westboro was planned to be a "neighborhood" from its inception. The early Westboro promotion booklet speaks of a "domain of beautiful homes" with " the world of strife shut out" and "the world of love shut in." This friendly family feeling has been preserved, no doubt because of all the people involved. Pride in community has remained and new owners keep up the unwritten traditions because Tink's restrictions have long since gone out of law.

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