Bellaire Apartments

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(Look across the street for this building.)

Newly widowed, Mrs. Annetta Skaer built the apartment block you see across the street in 1928-29. Her home in the middle was built in 1919, and she constructed the Bellaire Apartments around the house to both sides, with 18 apartments in each wing. The apartments were open for tours Sunday, March 10, 1929, and featured the latest word in appliances and fittings. Among the notable features of the apartments were new General Electric refrigerators, an uncommon feature of homes at the time – at the start of the 1930s, only 8% of U.S. homes had a mechanical refrigerator! Another modern device provided to tenants was a telephone-activated security system. Visitors could call up to a resident using the house phone system, and from their apartment the resident could unlock the door for them with the press of a button. The apartments remained in the Skaer family until 1977, when the house and complex were sold to Carol and Floyd Thomas. After Floyd's death in 2007, Carol retired and sold the complex to a private individual.

Sources: Wichita Eagle & College Hill Commoner