914 Main Street
Frank Sommer House
Asking price: $30,000

This circa 1882 Italianate with cupola was built for Frank Sommer, who began a small cracker factory in St. Joseph about 1874. By 1880, the business grew to $400,000 per year. A record was found at the Nabisco Museum that their Premium Saltine Crackers began in St. Joseph.

The southeast corner of the house forms a tripartite bay and the central entrance on this 2-1/2 story house greets visitors with a fresco that enlivens the turned stairway. Stenciling remains on the walls, as shown in the picture. The house will need complete rehab but is basically sound. It has parquet floors and natural woodwork of which some is usable and some can be replicated. The Sommer House has a generous lot with potential off-street parking.

914 Main Street reflects St. Joseph's newfound manufacturing wealth. This 3-story brick residence was built in the Italianate style. The style's character-defining features include hooded stone lintels over windows; a pronounced, bracketed cornice; a low-pitched, hipped roof, and a rooftop belvedere. Despite having later been divided into apartments, the building remains largely unaltered. Original painted stencil and mural work remains in the front entry hall. Almost all of the woodwork appears unaltered and unpainted. Fireplace mantels, however, have been removed. The third floor, finished attic, which apparently served as servants' quarters and/or work area, remains completely unaltered.

If you are interested in this property please contact The Guardian Angel Preservation Planners, 816-233-0297 or toll-free at 888-303-2643, email: gapreservation@aol.com. You can reach the owner Gus at Singh@aol.com or by phone at (727) 581-6125.

A Brief History of Frank Sommer & 914 Main Street

Frank Sommer, a native of West Virginia, left his home in 1869 and made his way to St. Joseph. In 1874, Sommer began a small cracker factory here that did $50,000 a year in business. At the 1876 Buchanan County Fair, the ‘blue ribbon for excellence’ went to a soda cracker later christened "Premium." This type of soda cracker, known as "Premium Flake" or "Saltina," was already successful in Missouri and west of the Rocky Mountains, and the 1876 County Fair brought wider success. It was Frank Sommer's factory that more than likely made the Premium cracker. By 1880, Sommer's business grew to $400,000.

When Sommer bought the lot at 914 Main in 1882, his cracker manufacturing firm, F. L. Sommer & Company, occupied a 4-story building located on the northwest corner of Main and Francis Streets. They employed 100 workers and their business extended over a seven state area. By 1892, the business was listed as the Sommer-Richardson factory of the American Biscuit Company with Frank Sommer as the General Superintendent. American Biscuit Company and the New York Biscuit Company merged in 1898 to form the National Biscuit Company, now known as Nabisco. The Nabisco Museum states their famous Premium Saltine Cracker began in St. Joseph, Missouri. The competing cracker manufacturer, Uneeda, kept the Premium cracker confined to the Midwest for a number of years. By the 1920's, however, National Biscuit Company factories nationwide began manufacturing Premium Soda Crackers, its name later changed to the more familiar Premium Saltine Crackers. Today Nabisco bakes more than 35 billion Saltine crackers each year.

The City Directory first lists a household at this address in 1883. Consequently, 914 Main Street is presumed to have been built in 1882. Mr. Sommer lived at 914 Main from 1883 to 1896 and remains as the property's most prominent previous owner.

The following problems will need to be corrected for the property to comply with city codes:

The following requirements must be met if you plan to sell or transfer the property:

2000 IPMC - Sec. 107.5 Transfer of ownership.
It shall be unlawful for the owner of any dwelling unit or structure who has received a compliance order or upon whom a notice of violation has been served to sell, transfer, mortgage, lease or otherwise dispose of such dwelling unit or structure to another until the provisions of the compliance order or notice of violation has been complied with, or until such owner shall first furnish the grantee, transferee, mortgagee or lessee a true copy of any compliance order or notice of violation issued by the code official and shall furnish to the code official a signed and notarized statement from the grantee, transferee, mortgagee or lessee, acknowledging the receipt of such compliance order or notice of violation and fully accepting the responsibility without condition for making the corrections or repairs required by such compliance order of notice of violation.