Nelle Peters

• Name — Nelle Peters • Birth Name — Nellie Elizabeth Nichols • Born — 11 December 1884 • Birthplace — Niagara, North Dakota • Died — 7 October 1974 • Place of death — Sedalia, Missouri • Education — Buena Vista College • Spouse — William H. Peters (1911–1923) • Significant Buildings — * Ambassador Hotel • Belvedere Apartments

She was born Nellie Elizabeth Nichols was born in December 1884 in a sod house in Niagara, North Dakota. During her childhood, her family moved to Minnesota and then Storm Lake, Iowa. As a young girl, she was interested in art and mathematics.

She attended Buena Vista College at Storm Lake, Iowa as a vocal student. After her graduation, she pursued architecture as a means of combining her interests in art and mathematics. She moved to Sioux City to look for work, and was hired as a drafter by the Eisentrout, Colby, and Pottenger. She worked there for four years while taking correspondence courses in architecture. In 1907, she was sent to work in the firm's Kansas City office but in 1909, she left to establish her own business. In 1911, she married William H. Peters, a designer with the Kansas City Terminal Railway, and continued to work. Following her 1923 divorce, she entered a particularly productive phase, designing a multitude of buildings over the next five years. Among her most outstanding works in Kansas City are the Ambassador Hotel, the Luzier Cosmetic Company building, and several apartment buildings, including the "literary group" named after famous authors on the west side of Country Club Plaza. Her work also included buildings in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Columbia, Clinton, Boonville, and Jefferson City, Missouri; Nashville, North Carolina; Newark, New Jersey; and Columbus, Ohio. Except for two periods of illness, Peters remained an active architect until retirement in 1965. She specialized in the design of apartment buildings and hotels, and she designed churches, residences, and commercial buildings. Frequent use of terra cotta ornamentation is a characteristic of her style.

Her last years were spent in a nursing home in Sedalia, Missouri where she died in 1974. She is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Kansas City.

• McConahay Building, Kansas City, Mo., 1922 • Ambassador Hotel, Kansas City, Mo., 1924 • Luzier Cosmetic Company, Kansas City, Mo., 1928 • Park Castles, Kansas City, Mo., 1929 • Ambassador Hotel, Tulsa, Ok., 1929

• Illustration — Nelle E. Peters Troost Avenue Historic District. 2719-37 Troost, Kansas City, Mo. • Illustration — Pennbroke Apartments, Kansas City, Mo. • Illustration — Luzier Special Formula Laboratories Building KCMO • Illustration — Valentine on Broadway Hotel, KCMO • Illustration — Ambassador Hotel, Tulsa, OK, Southeast • Illustration — Senate Apartments, Topeka, KS