Feature 300: 625 West Maple Avenue (in 2011)

Classification: Contributing.
Historic Name: The Maples.
Architectural Style: Commercial.
Construction Date: ca. 1929.
Period 3 of Harry S Truman’s Life: Developing Political Skills and Associations, 1920-1933.
Tax Identification: 26-340-12-06.
Legal Description: Moore's Addition, part of lot 15.
Description: Contributing four-story brick apartment building; rectangular in shape; parapet conceals roof form and materials; projecting decorative cornice across facade; brown brick exterior; one-over-one double-hung sash wood windows; brick foundation with basement partly above ground (in the rear). Building fills nearly the entire lot, with no lawn or landscaping; this building resembles the four-story apartment building immediately to the west.
• Alterations: Rehabilitated in 2000-2001 by Cohen-Esrey Housing Partners. The "Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation" was followed on the exterior.
History/Significance: The Maples Apartment Building was built around 1929, during a decade when several apartment buildings were constructed in Independence. James Oliver Hogg designed the building; George E. Randall constructed it. It replaced a one-story wood-frame dwelling owned and occupied in the early 1900s by Susan and William A. Noland, along with boarders. There were six apartments on each of three floors, plus a single apartment in the basement (in the early 1950s). The apartment manager lived on the first floor. Judging from the list of residents in a 1952 city directory of Independence, the majority of residents at The Maples were men. Those few women living there rented apartments on the third floor. The Maples is nearly identical in design to its neighboring Maplewood Apartments at 701 West Maple Avenue [Feature 302].