08/18/2026
One of the most historical homes in Topeka is finally available for it's next family! Bill Welch - Performance Realty, Inc. 785-925-3648
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HISTORY OF 240 SW FAIRLAWN RD.
The house at 240 SW Fairlawn Road (Topeka, KS) is the oldest residence in the West Hills Subdivision. Built in 1906, it is the sole surviving structure from the area’s pre-subdivision agrarian era and is directly tied to Prospect Farm and the later Fairfield Farm dairy operation.
Association with West Hills Subdivision West Hills (Phases 1 and 2) is a planned mid-20th-century luxury/middle-to-upper-class residential subdivision developed starting in 1955–1956 by Donald Seltsam and Arthur Hanni on land north of what became Prospect Hills and Highway 40/I-70. Most of its roughly 161 houses date from the mid-1950s to the 1970s (primarily ranch houses on curvilinear streets with large lots). The 1906 house at 240 SW Fairlawn Road (southwest corner of the neighborhood, KHRI 177-5044) is the only structure that predates the subdivision’s formation. It is described in the City of Topeka/Kansas Historical Society’s 2021 intensive-level historic resources survey as surviving “as a reminder to the area’s agrarian past” and the only resource attributed to the early-20th-century farming era.
Fairlawn Road itself was constructed contemporaneously with West Hills No. 2. The house sits near the intersection area historically associated with Fairlawn and Sixth. Dairy Farm and Agrarian History (Prospect Farm / Fairfield Farm)The land that became West Hills (and adjacent areas including parts of what is now Cedar Crest/the Kansas Governor’s Mansion and Prospect Hills) began as Potawatomi allotments in the 1860s (recipients included Margaret Curley James, Elizabeth Bourassa Pappan, and Anthony James). Early non-Native owners included U.S. Indian agent Hiram Farnsworth (and wife Harriet), followed by Fry W. Giles, then J.B. (Josiah Breckbill) McAfee starting in 1879.
Under the McAfees, especially son Henry Wilson McAfee (who managed operations), it became the successful Prospect Farm. Features and operations included:
• Clydesdale horses (among the early studs in Kansas).
• A dairy operation.
• An 80-acre apple orchard and a large cider press (described as the largest west of the Mississippi for a period; the farm supplied cider widely).
• Short-horn cattle and other livestock; later adoption of mechanization (tractors).
• Undulating landscape with forest, creeks, and grazing fields. It functioned as a local landmark and social center for Topekans, hosting events. Henry McAfee was also involved in improved stock breeding associations. J.B. McAfee served as Topeka mayor (one term, around 1870). Management later passed to grandson Leland.
In 1921, David Gladstone Page (1881–1949; connected to the Thomas Page milling family in Topeka) acquired the western portion of the relevant section (western 985 feet of Section 27) plus acres to the southwest at the northeast corner of Section 33. He owned the land until 1941 and operated a successful dairy farm he named Fairfield Farm. He erected a large dairy barn at the southwest corner of present-day Fairlawn and Sixth (within Section 33; no longer extant). Page resided in the 1906 dwelling northeast of the Fairlawn/Sixth intersection—the house that is now 240 SW Fairlawn Road. A post-1929 panorama photograph of Fairfield Farm shows the farmhouse (visible on the left); other farm buildings shown in that image no longer exist.
The house is thus the surviving farmhouse of this dairy operation. The broader area later saw a golf course (Prospect Hills Golf Course, visible in 1930s photos) before residential development. An aerial view from around 1925 shows the West Hills/Prospect Hills area prior to major later changes (and before I-70).Additional Context and Sources The most detailed published account of ownership chains, the transition from prairie/Indian allotments through farming to subdivision, and related details is Stephen E. Good’s Prairie to Property: A History of the Ownership of West Hills (Steuben Press, 2020). Good (a West Hills resident) provided extensive research, photographs, deed/chain-of-title information, and other primary sources that the 2021 historic survey relied on heavily. The Kansas Historical Society/City of Topeka survey report (July 2021, by Jaime L. Destefano/JLD Preservation Consulting) synthesizes this history and evaluates the subdivision (recommending it as potentially National Register-eligible as a mid-century planned suburb under Criteria A and C, with the 1906 house noted specifically for its earlier association).
No detailed public architectural description of the 1906 house itself beyond its age, location, and farm association appears in the readily available survey excerpts, and later farm outbuildings (including the dairy barn) are gone. Current property records, recent sales data, or occupant history beyond the early 20th-century farm period are not covered in these historical sources. Local resources such as the Topeka Room at the Shawnee County Public Library, Shawnee County records, or Good’s book would likely yield further deed, directory, or photographic details. In summary, 240 SW Fairlawn Road is the 1906 farmhouse of Fairfield Farm (David G. Page’s dairy, 1921–1941), built on land with earlier ties to the McAfee family’s Prospect Farm dairy/orchard operations, and it stands as the sole pre-1950s homestead remnant within the later West Hills Subdivision.
Welcome to 240 SW Fairlawn Road, the original homestead of the West Hills Subdivision. Built in 1906, it is the sole surviving structure from the area’s pre-subdivision agrarian era and is directly tied to Prospect Farm and the later Fairfield Farm dairy operation. Discover a rare piece of Topeka ...
