Rector Mansion

2000 East 12th Street

Rector mansion

Sarah Rector Campbell Crawford, or Sarah Rector (ca. 1901-1967), a native of Oklahoma and a woman known as "the first black female millionaire to live in Kansas City," lived in this American foursquare at 2000 East 12th Street.

Sarah Rector is deemed as one of the first Black women millionaires in the United States. Born in 1902 to African descendants of the Muscogee Nation, Rector was granted 160 acres of land by the Federal Government at the age of 12 as a result of the Dawes Allotment Act of 1887.[1] Rector’s land was located in Glenpool, Oklahoma, about 60 miles from her family’s home and was considered inferior soil that was not suitable for farming.

Rector and her family became burdened with paying land taxes on the property, and in 1911, the family leased the parcel to the Standard Oil Company. In February of 1913, an independent oil driller named B.B. Jones drilled a well on the Rector property which produced more than 2,000 barrels of oil a day. Rector began receiving an income of $300 (about $7,609 today) a day from this oil strike.[2] In October 1913, the property became part of the Cushing-Drumright Oil Field, and as a result Rector began receiving royalties of over $11,000, making her the richest 12-year-old Black woman in the United States.

News of 12-year-old Rector’s wealth began spreading across the country and she began receiving letters requesting donations. By the time Rector turned 18, her net worth was already over $1 million (about $11 million today).[3] Rector and her family relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, and settled in a large stone American foursquare home located at 2000 East 12th Street that still stands today.

At age 20, Rector married Kansas City businessman Kenneth Campbell and had three sons. She and her family were recognized as local celebrities and entertained guests such as Duke Ellington and Count Basie in the home. Unfortunately, Rector lost a majority of her wealth during The Great Depression and moved out of her mansion on 12th Street to 2440 Brooklyn Avenue.[4] Sarah Rector died in 1967 from a stroke at the age of 65.

Since then, the home on 12th Street has had multiple different owners and tenants such as a funeral home and office space for the 12th Street Heritage Development Corporation and now sits vacant. However, United Inner-City Services (UICS), a local organization that works with communities across the Kansas City Metro Area, has been working to restore the Rector Mansion in hopes of preserving her legacy. UICS has applied for historical and cultural preservation grants to aid the restoration of the home with hopes of converting it into a cultural center, museum, or economic incubator.[5]

Bibliography

Bender, Jonathan. “United Inner-City Services Hope Murals Bring Attention to the Rector House.” Flatland KC. May 17, 2019. https://www.flatlandkc.org/news-issues/united-inner-city-services-hope-murals-bring-attention-to-the-rector-house/.

Dennis, Megan. “Sarah Rector.” Kansas City Public Library. Accessed November 9, 2019. https://pendergastkc.org/article/biography/sarah-rector.

Patton, Stacey. “The Richest Colored Girl in the World” Crisis. Spring 2010, 31-34.

Reese, Linda. “Sarah Rector (1902-1967).” Black Past. March 31, 2014. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/rector-sarah-1902-1967/

“History Nearly Forgot Kansas City’s Sarah Rector.” The Greater Kansas City. Accessed December 11, 2019. https://thegreaterkansascity.org/history-nearly-forgot-kansas-citys-sarah-rector/

[1] Megan Dennis, “Sarah Rector.” The Pendergast Years, The Kansas City Public Library, accessed 9 November 2019, https://pendergastkc.org/article/biography/sarah-rector

[2] Linda Reese, “Sarah Rector (1902-1967).” Black Past, 31 March 2014, accessed 12 November 2019, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/rector-sarah-1902-1967

[3] Stacey Patton “The Richest Colored Girl in the World.” Crisis. Spring 2010, 31-34

[4] The Greater Kansas City. “History Nearly Forgot Kansas City’s Sarah Rector”, accessed 11 December 2019, https://thegreaterkansascity.org/history-nearly-forgot-kansas-citys-sarah-rector/

[5] Jonathan Bender, “United Inner-City Services Hope Murals Bring Attention to the Rector House” Flatland KC, 17, May 2019. Accessed 5 December 2019. https://www.flatlandkc.org/news-issues/united-inner-city-services-hope-murals-bring-attention-to-the-rector-house/

Content Provided by

Emily Barker, student at the University of Missouri Kansas City as part of Dr. Sandra Enriquez’s Urban History Class.

Want to learn more??

The National Trust for Historic Preservation awards the Rector Mansion with a $75,000 Grant from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

Check out The New Santa Fe Trailer’s full story about Sarah and her whole family’s experience from the November 26, 2019 blog post: