Highland Park History

History of Highland Park Community

The earliest days of Highland Park began in June of 1886, when a man named Joseph Kennedy Hudson took title to a section of land on a hill just southeast of the Capital City. Joseph Hudson was born in 1840, in the town of Carrollton, Ohio. His father was publisher of several newspapers throughout Ohio, and was a strong Abolitionist whose home became a well-known station along the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. In 1861, Hudson was stationed at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas and eventually rose to the rank of General before his retirement. At the time of his promotion, Joseph Hudson was one of only two Generals serving in the Army. In 1879, he founded the Topeka Daily Capital, which was soon recognized as one of the most influential newspapers throughout the Midwest and espoused the cause of prohibition.

Highland Park was established in 1887 outside the Topeka city limits by Major Joseph K. Hudson. A civil war veteran who had started the Topeka Daily Capital in 1879, Hudson purchased an L-shaped area in 1886 bounded by Adams St. on the east, 29th St. on the south, Indiana Ave. and California Ave. on the west, and 23rd St. and 26th St. on the north. He platted the streets and alleys, naming the north-south streets after states and naming the east-west streets after birds. These names, Oriole (23rd), Falcon (24th), Canary (25th), Swan (26th), Goldfinch (27th), Eagle (28th), and Jay (29th) were later changed to the numerical names we have today. Hoping to set the standard for the homes in his newly platted neighborhood, he built five 2-story Victorian-style model homes to serve as examples (2518 SE Massachusetts, 2424 SE Pennsylvania, 2726 SE Pennsylvania, 2430 SE Ohio, and 2527 SE Ohio). Major Hudson's wife Mary had rows of trees such as ash, catalpa, elm and box elder planted along the development's streets.

Hudson acquired all rights to the land from a fellow Topekan and architect named George W. Veale, and filed the plat known as Highland Park in March of 1887. The design of this plat was complete with 25' wide lots, streets, alleys, and even a dedicated right-of-way for the Highland Park Circle Railway to connect his "distant" suburb with the City of Topeka, proper. Early settlers were limited to a minimum purchase of 6 lots, so as to spread out the construction of homes. Several prominent citizens built homes in the fledgling neighborhood before the City's building boom crashed, which halted progress until long after his death.

Electricity was the first "service" to be provided (1900) followed by water (1918), pavement of the neighborhood's first road (1920), and finally gas service (1928). Sewer service was eventually extended by the City of Topeka to the Highland Park area in 1948 and 1949, greatly increasing the neighborhood's prospects as a suburban residential destination. In fact, most of the physical fabric of modern day Highland Park was built after that time.

Many of the larger and more stately homes within the interior of the neighborhood were built between the years approximately 1880-1940, several of which were envisioned by Joseph Hudson himself as part of his model home concept that sought to market the neighborhood's suburban character with modest homes on large lots. During this period, housing styles varied from ranch, bungalow, homestead and Victorian era houses. Over time, however, one of the most abundant housing styles in the neighborhood became minimal traditional (post-World War II style), which were designed with affordability in mind. Central Highland Park has a traditional grid street pattern because many of the blocks were platted in the early 1900's before the widespread use of the automobile. SE Maryland Avenue, in fact, was intended to be the main streetcar thoroughfare in the neighborhood, which never came to fruition.