Olathe's Navy Hill
The United States entered World War II after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. As part of the defense effort, the Naval Reserve Air Base, located at the Fairfax Airport in Kansas City, Kansas, needed room to expand. The Navy purchased 640 acres near Olathe to create the Olathe Naval Air Station (ONAS), now the New Century Air Center. ONAS was devoted to the mission of training a reserve of veteran pilots to man the planes and carriers of the Navy’s air might in the vent of national emergency. Thousands of people were assigned here, but housing was scarce.
Originally platted in the 1920s and planned for prosperous homeowners, Highland Park saw only two homes completed at the outset. Three prominent Olathe businessmen built homes in Highland Park in the summer of 1941 unaware that Uncle Sam was soon to enter the picture. The Federal Housing Administration authorized thirty new homes in Highland Park, the largest housing project Olathe had seen yet. Walter Klassen, a local developer who had build a subdivision near Shawnee Mission (now North) High School, was granted the contract and soon Navy families began arriving at their new homes. In 1943, W.H. Shackelford, Jr., added twenty-five duplexes to the Highland Park subdivision.
Located in what was then southeast Olathe, Highland Park was considered an ideal layout for the housing needed for Naval officers and their families. WPA funds had paved the streets, and the City of Olathe had provided water and sewer lines. “Navy Hill,” as the area was humorously nicknamed, was located south of Cedar Street in southeast Olathe; Ocheltree and Lane Streets were its eastern and western borders.
“Minimal Traditional: sums up the style of homes built in “Navy Hill.” This house style had been build in great numbers in the years immediately preceding the war and commonly dominated large tract-housing developments of the period. “Minimal Traditional: was a compromise style brought about by the economic depression of the 1930. It reflected the form of traditional houses, but lacked the decorative detailing. Most were relatively small (less than 1,000 square feet), one-story wood structures. It was not uncommon, however, to use brick, stone, or a combination of these materials in an attempt to soften and personalize the horizontal lines of the façade. Many were built on concrete foundations. Home costs ranged between $4,000 and $4,500, although a few did peak at $6,000 and were usually purchased by officers.
Even under wartime conditions, these homes were planned to be permanent. Most are still in use today, 55 years later, and many look much as they were pictured at the time. Today’s passerby may not notice these south-central Olathe homes; others will never forget their place in local and World War II history.
--ALBUM vol. 12, no. 2 (spring 1999)