The 31-room Vaile mansion at 1500 N. Liberty, Independence, was designed by Kansas City architect Asa B. Cross and built during the early 1880s. The design was inspired by a large house in Normandy, France, that Harvey Merrick Vaile, U.S. mail contractor, and his wife had visited during a trip to Europe. The house was completed about 1881 at a cost of $100,000. An 1882 article in The Kansas City Times headlined Mansion d' Or described the mansion: This wonderful dwelling is Mr. Vaile's own design, and upon it he has worked out all his own conceits with a result which cannot but please every lover of the beautiful...As it stands it is the most princely house and the most comfortable home in the entire west. The grounds were described as being provided with a lake, arbors, fountains, a greenhouse, a wine cellar with a capacity on nearly 48,000 gallons, gas and water works and many other amenities. The home boasted nine fireplaces, each built from the ground up. The mantles are said to have cost $1,500 each. One has onyx trim which allows firelight to filter through. Italian painters were employed for such interior art as the controversial Innocence reclining on a couch, painted on the northeast bedroom ceiling. After the owner's death in 1894, the home became an inn for a brief period. Then it was used as a private asylum and sanitarium. A mineral water company, the Vaile Pure Water Co., operated from the site soon after the turn of the century. Later it became a rest home for the aged. Acquired by Roger and Mary Mildred DeWitt in the 1960s, the home was saved from destruction. It was given to the citizens of Independence after the death of Mrs. DeWitt in 1983. Today a museum facility is being established in the old mansion. It is open to the public daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Kansas City Times, September 6, 1985.
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