Chatol
A ballroom fitted with furnishings salvaged from the 1933-34 Chicago World’s Fair sits inside a 10,000-square-foot house built to look like an ocean liner — porthole windows, curved walls, and ship-rail banding, landlocked in small-town Missouri.
At a glance
Architect Sam Bihr designed Chatol in 1940 for F. Gano and Annie Chance, son and daughter-in-law of Albert Bishop Chance, the inventor of the earth anchor. Reflective of Streamline Moderne and International Style architecture, the roughly 136-by-92-foot mansion packs over 10,000 square feet of living space into a design built around curved walls, porthole windows, horizontal “ship” banding, and stair-step massing — nautical Art Deco imagery applied to a private house far from any coast.
Key facts
- Built: 1940
- Architect: Sam Bihr
- Original owners: F. Gano and Annie Chance
- Style: Streamline Moderne and International Style
- Size: Approx. 136 x 92 feet, over 10,000 sq ft of living space
- Address: 543 S. Jefferson Street, Centralia, Missouri
- Heritage: NRHP #79001346 (April 20, 1979)
- Notable feature: Vaulted ballroom furnished with pieces from the 1933-34 Chicago World’s Fair
History
F. Gano Chance, son of earth-anchor inventor Albert Bishop Chance, built Chatol in 1940 as a showpiece residence in Centralia, a small town in central Missouri far from the coastal cities where Streamline Moderne architecture was more common. The house’s scale and detailing — steel footings on a concrete foundation, a spring system built into the walls, and a vaulted ballroom outfitted with furnishings acquired from Chicago’s 1933-34 Century of Progress World’s Fair — reflected the family’s considerable wealth from the Chance Company’s earth-anchor patents.
The house passed through private ownership over the following decades and is now held by Gil and Tam Stone. The National Register of Historic Places listed Chatol in 1979, recognizing it as an exceptional example of Streamline Moderne residential architecture in a part of the country where the style rarely appeared at this scale.
What you see
Chatol commits fully to the nautical vocabulary of Streamline Moderne: curved wall sections, round porthole windows, and horizontal banding that reads as ship railing wrap a house nearly the footprint of a small hotel. A spring system built into the walls and steel footings on concrete give the house unusual structural engineering for a private residence of its era, while the vaulted ballroom — furnished from a world’s fair — turns the interior into as much a period showpiece as the exterior.
Practical information
- Status: Private residence — exterior viewing only
- Best view: From S. Jefferson Street, taking in the curved massing and porthole windows
- Photography: Exterior photographable from the public street; respect the private residence
Getting there
Chatol stands on South Jefferson Street in Centralia, Missouri, a small town roughly 25 miles north of Columbia via US Route 63. Columbia Regional Airport is the nearest commercial airport.
Nearby
- Downtown Centralia historic district — a short walk from Chatol
- Columbia, Missouri, and the University of Missouri — about 25 miles south
Sources
- Wikipedia: Chatol
- National Register of Historic Places, NRHP #79001346 (April 20, 1979)
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