The City of Gladstone has temporarily delayed it scheduled the demolition of the historic “Atkins Farm’s” summer kitchen/slave quarters for today, Monday, June 14, 2010. The historic building is believed to have been built prior to the Civil War, in c. 1850, and was most likely used by the Atkins family as a slave quarters or the estate’s summer kitchen. The single room, or “single pen,” quarter is typical of those kitchens found on most large farms and plantations of the Upper and Lower South, which includes the slave state of Missouri.

Since obtaining the property in 2005, the City of Gladstone, in association with the Friends of the Atkins-Johnson Farm, have restored the main “big house” where the Atkins family lived. Originally built as a log house some time in the 1820s and 30s, the log house was enlarged into a Southern central hall “I” house between 1850 and 1860. It is believed the slave outbuilding was built during the big house additions from before Civil War. Since 2005, the possible slave quarter and other outbuildings, which are listed in the site’s National Trust Nomination, have been falling into disrepair.

The “Friends of the Atkins-Johnson Farm” recently contacted the Missouri architectural and cultural historian Gary Gene Fuenfhausen to present his program on Missouri’s Southern slave quarter architecture, “Little Cabins: Slave Dwelling Architecture in Missouri’s Little Dixie.” The presentation was scheduled for their organization’s annual meeting held this month on Saturday the 26th. The presentation was to discuss the slave quarter architecture and culture associated with the Atkins Farm and other sites in Missouri’s Little Dixie region. Fuenfhausen, who found out about the demolition just this last week, said it is a great tragedy to loose another one of these rare buildings. He went on to say not only can the building speak to us about how African American slaves lived in Missouri, but the site where the building now stands is a treasure trove of archeological information.

Others historians and professionals from Missouri in the field of historic preservation all agree that the building should be saved since it is so significant. In an email yesterday from Dr. Gary Kremer, coauthor of “Missouri’s Black Heritage” and the Executive director of the State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, the well known and respected historian of African American history commented:

“Given the Atkins family history (i.e., they were clearly slaveholders when this structure was built), given its physical relationship to the main house, given its size and construction, I think it is very possible that it was a slave quarters.”

A representative of the State Preservation office in Jefferson City also agreed with Kremer the building was clearly of special historical significance, because of its relationship with the over all context of the Atkins Farm. It should be saved. They went on to say that this is one of only a few intact farm sites from the antebellum period still standing in Clay County and listed on the National Register.

This issue is not the first in Clay County and the Northland area. Earlier this year a similar crisis developed at the historic pre Civil War Arnold farm named “Woodneath” near Liberty in Kansas City, Missouri. The Mid Continent Library, who owns the property, is proposing a new development of the site, which includes the incorporation of a 30,000 square foot addition to the historic 1850’s Greek Revival Arnold house. Listed on the National Register, the antebellum farm also includes several c. 1870s barns and slave related sites that would be destroyed with the new development. Like the Atkins property, any development or destruction of the buildings and sites listed in the Nominations could potentially remove the property from the National Register of Historic Places.

MORE ON SLAVE QUARTER/SUMMER KITCHEN ARCHITECTURE AND THE ATKINS Family And SITE

Often, summer kitchens not only were used for meal preparation and work area, but also to house the farm or plantation’s cook. Examples do exit in Missouri, such as at the historic “Prairie View” Plantation in Cooper County, the slave quarters and kitchen of the slave women “Ann” at “Oakwood” in Howard County, the slave women “Sophia” at the Rice family plantation in present day Raytown, and “Aunt Ann’s” quarters at the Smith plantation in Boone County, Missouri.

Fully developed by the early 1700s as a Southern form of architecture, the slave and kitchen buildings served as a way for keeping noise, odors, heat, and the general commotion of preparing meals in a separate building some distance from the main “big house.” The danger or possibility of fire in the kitchen was risk also associated with cooking during the antebellum period. Not only was the slave building used to for these practical reasons, but it provided the separation of the slave’s work area and quarters from the main house and established a clear division between master and slave.

The slave era farms and plantations of the South, such as the Atkins Farm, often required the preparation of large meals throughout the day to feed the large number of people who lived on these estates. For example, in 1850 some 13 people were living at the Atkins’s Clay County farm and by 1860 the estate was the home of 16 individuals, including 5 slaves.

Jonathan Q. Atkins was the son of the early Kentucky pioneer John Z. Atkins who settled in Clay County in the early 1820s. At one time the property was a part of his father’s estate. Jonathan became the sole owner of the farm in the 1830s and was listed as a slave owner of 3 slaves in 1850 and 5 slaves in 1860. Mr. Atkins was a farmer in 1850, but also was in the milling business carding wool and ginning cotton. Cotton was a crop grown in the region prior and during the Civil War.