What happens next as Kansas mulls buying Topeka home of Vice President Charles Curtis

Topekan Charles Curtis broke down racial and cultural barriers to come within a heartbeat of the presidency.

Chandeliers, stained-glass windows and a grandfather clock are among features that adorn the interior of the stately, turreted brick house at 1101 S.W. Topeka Blvd. that was home to Curtis, the nation's only Native American vice president. He rose from humble origins to hold that office from 1929 to 1933.

The Kansas Historical Society took a step toward potentially acquiring that house to run it as a historical museum when Gov. Laura Kelly on May 16 signed the omnibus budget Kansas legislators approved earlier that month.

That budget includes setting aside $300,000 to potentially purchase the Curtis House.

How will the state of Kansas determine the house's actual value?

The next step in the process involved calls for the state to determine the property's appraised value. Patrick Zollner, the historical society's executive director, is waiting for that to happen, he told The Capital-Journal on Tuesday.

Kansas statute requires the state to receive three independent appraisals of the market value of the property.

Results of those appraisals are to be used to establish how much the state may use from the $300,000 to help finance the purchase.

Who owns the Charles Curtis House?

The Curtis House has an appraised value of $240,480, according to the website of the Shawnee County Appraiser's Office.

It says the property is owned by Patty Dannenberg, Gene Cottrell and James Cottrell, who are siblings.

The three hope to sell the house and be paid for the value of the property and the value of its contents, Dannenberg told The Capital-Journal on Tuesday.

The house's owners are asking for more than $600,000, Kansas legislators were told in late April by Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover.

The Kansas Historical Foundation would privately raise any additional money needed to make the purchase beyond whatever reimbursement the owners might receive from the $300,000 set aside in the omnibus budget, he said.

House was in 'pitiful' shape when Jefferson County residents bought it

Dannenberg, Gene Cottrell and James Cottrell inherited the house from their parents, Don and Nova Cottrell, residents of Jefferson County who were newly retired when they bought it in 1993.

The property was in "pitiful shape" at the time, Dannenberg said.

But Don and Nova Cottrell restored the building and turned it into the Charles Curtis House Museum, which they operated as a tourist attraction.

Don Cottrell died at age 91 on December 2019, 23 days short of what would have been the couple’s 70th wedding anniversary.

Nova Cottrell had closed the museum because she was ill but hoped to reopen it, she told The Capital-Journal in January 2020.

However, she died at age 86 in April 2020.

Dannenberg has since continued to take care of the house and its contents, she said.

The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It attracted national media attention in January 2021 when Kamala Harris was inaugurated to become the nation's second vice president of color.

Who was Charles Curtis?

Curtis served as vice president for President Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933.

During that time, his official address was the house at 1101 S.W. Topeka Blvd., which was built in 1878. He had begun living there in 1907.

Curtis was born in 1860 in a log cabin in what is now part of North Topeka and was then known as Eugene.

He grew up to become a lawyer.

A Republican, Curtis served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate before being elected vice president with Hoover.

Near the end of a presidential term plagued by economic depression, Hoover and Curtis lost their bid for reelection in November 1932 to Democrats Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Nance Garner.

Curtis died at age 76 in 1936. He is buried in Topeka Cemetery beside his wife, Anna.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Appraisal next as Kansas mulls buying Topeka home of VP Charles Curtis