Mark and Anna Sue Spohn were with good friends Daphne and Jim Bowman when the subject of bed and breakfast locations came up.
It had been 20 years since the Spohns first discussed opening one of their own, but they’d relegated it to a future discussion after they visited one site Anna Sue didn’t care for.
“We just put it on the back burner and thought maybe we could talk about it some time down the line,” Mark said.
That’s when Jim made a suggestion that changed the direction of the Spohns lives.
“Jim made the statement, maybe you should buy the old Bill Payne property,” Mark recalled.
It was 9:30 at night, but the couples drove to the home at 426 Concourse Ave. that had served served as both the residence of Bill and Edna Payne and a night jail that Bill, Excelsior’s longtime chief of police, had built for overnight prisoners.
Payne, chief from 1926 to 1953, parked his police car in the garage behind the house.
Even using flashlights in the dark, the Paynes saw potential. They returned the next week and were won over – even though the property was boarded up, been divided into four apartments and fallen victim to a fire.
“My wife fell in love with the property,” said Mark.
The Spohns made an offer to a real estate company, but it was turned down. An online auction had failed, too, netting the seller a high bid of just $1,500.
But Mark had done his homework and knew the property, behind to the tune of $6,500 in back taxes, was soon to be sold on the courthouse steps.
Mark, a retired Claycomo Ford employee, then dealt the right card.
“I told them in 15 days this is going to sell one way or the other because I’m going to pay the back taxes,” he recalled telling the real estate firm. “You might as well get something out of it.”
It was sold on the basis that the Spohns would be responsible for all back taxes and problems associated with the property.
Because the couple had plans to restore historic buildings in the downtown area, Excelsior Springs City Council waived all unpaid city taxes. Clay County helped some, too, by reducing the Spohns’ tax bill by a third.
It wasn’t long that Mark began learning more about Bill Payne, a kind of law-enforcement icon in town.
“Bill was very well loved in the community and was known as Uncle Bill,” Mark said. “The story goes that they couldn’t afford a night jailer so he’d shackle them up and cuff them and bring them up here to spend the night.”
The Payne home was originally built in 1900 as a single-story wood structure, then rebuilt in 1912 as a two-story combination brick and wood building. The Paynes bought it in 1940 and Bill added the detached garage in 1945.
Mark found that Excelsior Springs had been plagued by Halloween vandalism until the chief came up with a community event that would curtail it.
To read the rest of this story, see the Friday, July 1 issue of The Standard