Monterey Apartments Then and Now

1310 Central Avenue

It’s kind of amazing to realize the intersection of Central Avenue and Hickory Street was considered suburban until the 1920s. Earl and Marie Zweig bought a six-room bungalow at the southeast corner of that intersection around 1922. In those days, Earl owned a Franklin automobile dealership with Robert Rath and he also operated the projector at the Beeson Theater.

The Zweigs built the Fairview apartments next door to the south and decided to add another building in the Spring of 1925. The firm of Arthur R Mann and Co. was hired to design the Monterey Apartments. Initial plans called for a three-story building with a total of 12 apartments, four on each floor.

Mann’s final design consisted of a two-story brick building with eight apartments and a basement. This new structure would occupy the lot where the Zweigs’ home stood so the bungalow was moved to the northeast corner of the property at 103 E Hickory Street. Construction began in August of 1925.

Newspaper accounts of construction costs always vary and I’ve seen estimates anywhere from $30,000-$40,000 for the Monterey, which is equivalent to $541,000-$726,000 in today’s money. That’s even with Earl installing all of the electrical since by that time, he owned Z-Y Electric Shop.

The Monterey is shown here as construction was wrapping up with the Fairview to the right and the Zweig home to the left.

This modern building boasted electric refrigerators and ranges, both Simmons automatic day beds, which were basically futons, and disappearing (Murphy) beds. There were oak floors and linen window shades throughout. The building had a garbage incinerator and a private garage for each apartment out back. It was a nice place!

An open house for the Monterey was held on June 13, 1926 almost exactly one year after the Zweigs’ plans were announced.

In July of 1932, the Zweigs sold the Monterey along with the Fairview building next door and the exact sequence of events is a bit murky. It was reported that Mrs. Emery R Ray would be managing the apartments after the sale.

United Investment Company handled the sale and it just so happened Emery and Sadie Ray were the primary officers of that firm.

United Investment Company went into receivership in November of 1932 and legal notices for a December 24 Sheriff’s sale began appearing in the Globe the same month. The Rays were arrested for making false financial reports which made the company appear more solvent. When auditors arrived, they were told the Rays had discarded the records because they needed to make room in the office. Who among us…am I right?!

Emery pled guilty, probably to spare his wife, and received a sentence of one to seven years in a state prison.

Meanwhile, Norval White managed the Monterey in the mid-1930s and early 1940s. The building was sold to brothers Maurice and J. D. Mullin in October of 1942. Property values hadn’t yet recovered from the Great Depression so the purchase price was only $30,000.

Aside from a small furnace explosion in 1956, things were pretty quiet until the 1970s.

That’s when the arrests of Monterey residents for petty drug offenses started popping up in the newspaper. In those days, your address would appear in the paper if you were arrested or even got a speeding ticket. Bob Johnson managed the Monterey in the mid to late 1970s followed by Laurin Jones in the 1980s.

During junior high and high school, I drove by the building every day and it didn’t look great. The whole neighborhood has really turned around over the past several years and the Monterey seems to be in pretty decent shape. I love that most of the windows are the correct size and understand why concessions may have been made in the bathrooms.

This is how the Monterey Apartments look today:

In case you’re curious, Emery and Sadie Ray lived in Wichita after he served his time and Emery became an award-winning car salesman. He also operated his own real estate agency. The Rays later divorced and Emery moved to Arizona with his third wife, where he worked for A BANK until his retirement.

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