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 had 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.
The Hudsons built their family 2-story, stone, Victorian-Gothic style house on land comprising four square blocks at 2700 Virginia Ave., where St. Matthew's Church complex now stands. Major Hudson’s attempt to develop Highland Park was unsuccessful as the Topeka area real-estate boom came to a close, so large blocks of Highland Park lots were sold at sheriff’s sale at a fraction of their original advertised price. Due to his losses in the Highland Park development, Major Hudson was obliged in 1895 to turn over ownership of the Topeka Daily Capital to the bank. As late as 1910 many of the wide streets he had laid out were overgrown with grass because they were so little used.
Hudson’s original house was torn down in 1898 by Mrs. Fred O. Popenoe, who bought out Major Hudson, and replaced it with a stately home of red Colorado limestone. In 1907, Popenoe sold the property to Central National Bank president J.R. Burrow, who in 1932 remodeled the home into the French Chateau style we see today. Burrow’s widow sold the home and grounds to the Catholic Church in 1956.
While many Topeka neighborhood streets are lined uniformly with similarly-styled houses all from a particular era, Highland Park’s streets reflect a more gradual development with a wide mix of architectural styles and sizes found intermingled throughout the district. Several blocks have architectural varieties ranging from late Victorian vernacular style houses and cottages from the 1890s through the turn-of-the-century, to Craftsman style bungalows and cottages built from the late teens through the 20s, to a number of English Cottage and Colonial Revival Style cottages, mostly modest with some more elaborately detailed, built mostly in the 1930s and 40s. Later infill included post-war cottages and ranch-style homes. Highland Park also possesses a significant number of homes from different building periods that are faced with stone.
One of the most notable historic sites in Highland Park is 2303 Pennsylvania Ave., where a small rustic cabin known as John Brown’s Cabin once stood on abolitionists Daniel and Susan Sheridan’s Farm. Though the cabin burned and was demolished in 1950 following years of speculative attempts to have it restored and developed as a historical attraction, many Topeka newspaper accounts document the site’s history as an important stop along the Underground Railroad, including evidence of an underground passageway. Further archaeological research and excavation is needed to help document and preserve this nationally significant site. Nearby, at 23rd and Virginia Ave., before houses were built on the site, “a steady stream of cold, clear water” (SCHS Bulletin, p. 32) known as Crystal Springs was said to have been used as a watering place for people on the Underground Railroad as well as people and stock going over the Oregon Trail.
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Sources:
Highland Park History - Shawnee County Historical Society Bulletin, 1956.
Scottie Memories 1868-1980, Highland Park Junior High School Yearbook, 1980.
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Notes on John Brown’s Cabin:
Topeka Daily Capital, July 5, 1938:
"The house contains three rooms, one large room on the main floor, and two smaller rooms in the basement. Cottonwood was used in the frame of the structure, but it is the walnut siding that gives the house its principle claim to architectual (sic) distinction."
Topeka State Journal, June 9, 1941:
"Topeka's John Brown hideout and underground railway in Highland Park is unquestionably authentic, according to information supplied out of records maintained by the Kansas State Historical society."
History of the State of Kansas (1883) by A.T. Andreas:
"He (John Brown) left Lawrence for the north on the 20th of January, 1859... He stopped in the vicinity of Topeka a short time at the house of Mr. Sheridan, and while there his fugitives were supplied by neighbors with food and articles of clothing..."
Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1903-1904:
"The Sheridan home was the headquarters for John Brown when he was in the vicinity of Topeka."
Topeka Capital-Journal, MIDWAY, August 20, 1967:
"Originally owned by Daniel Sheridan, the cottonwood frame cabin allegedly was connected to a tunnel or series of tunnels through which slaves could escape.... Shortly after Mrs. Briggs halted demolition, he and his wife restored more than 100 feet of the original tunnel. They also drained the basement of seepage, strung electric lights through the tunnel.... (in 1947) spring rains filled the tunnel....On July 3, 1952, a sewer line collapsed when an 18-foot excavation caved in atop the tunnel."
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