The Dent House in 2024.Photo byJon Roanhaus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The historic Lester and Norma Dent House is at 225 N. Church Street in La Plata, Missouri (Macon County). The house, also known as the House of Gadgets, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 18, 1990.

The one-and-a-half-story Dent House was constructed in 1941. The architectural style is Modern Movements. When the house was built, Dent called it The House of Gadgets.

The Dent House is important because of its association with Literature as Lester Dent was a well-known writer. He designed the house and helped with the construction.

Lester Dent wrote popular pulp fiction

From 1933 to 1949, Dent wrote or revised novels that featured the Doc Savage character.

Thanks to Lester Dent’s classic Master Plot, a pulp hero can be expected to face some physical peril with almost every turn of the page. And each peril may usher in some new twist that pulls the hero into a new direction—and a new peril. (Source.)

For over 16 years, Dent's Doc Savage novels were credited to the pen name of Kenneth Robeson which was used by Street & Smith Publications. Dent wrote most of the Doc Savage novels.

Pulp fiction was the genre of action-based stories featured in magazines usually published on inexpensive, ragged-edged paper made from wood pulp. They were extremely popular.

The house

The Dent House draws attention at the national level because of its association with the history of popular literature relating to Lester Dent.

Dent's Doc Savage served as the literary ancestor of the most pervasive serial heroes of popular culture, including Superman, Batman, and James Bond. (Source.)

The Dent House in La Plata is the only house Lester Dent ever owned. It served as his home and office. The upper floor had a nautical design reminding Dent of his boat. The basement had a Western design that reminded him of his family's ranch in Wyoming. He also had a passion for gadgets which is how the house earned its nickname, The House of Gadgets.

According to the Redfin real estate website, the house was last sold on November 15, 2022.

Dent's early life and his writing

Lester was born on October 12, 1904, near La Plata at his maternal grandfather's house in Adair County, Missouri. His parents, Bernard and Alice Norfolk Dent, lived in Wyoming, but his mother returned to her father's house in the last months of her pregnancy.

At age two, his family moved to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma where Lester's father bought a farm. Unfortunately, a tornado destroyed their home. They sold the land and returned to Missouri near La Plata.

In 1908, the Dents started their long journey to return to Wyoming. For a short period, they were in Alliance, Nebraska to earn money for the rest of the trip. In 1909, they arrived at their 4J ranch at Pumpkin Buttes which was near Gillette, Wyoming.

Dent's mother, a graduate of Kirksville Normal School taught him until he was age 9. He and his mother were in a rented house in Gillette during the school year returning to the ranch when school was out. It was on the ranch where Dent developed his imagination, especially since he didn't have anyone to play with.

In 1917, the Dents returned to the Norfolk farm by La Plata where they built their own house. They built a second home after the first was destroyed by fire.

Dent attended Business College in Chillicothe, Missouri where he planned to major in telegraphy. After graduating in 1924, he worked at Hutchinson's Western Union Office in Carrollton, Missouri. In 1925, he worked in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He moved to Ponca City later that same year and married Norma Gerling in the summer. She was also his telegraphy student in Carrollton.

In 1926, Dent studied International Code and worked as a telegrapher for the Associated Press (AP) in Chickasha and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Kansas City, Missouri. At the Tulsa AP office, Dent learned about another telegrapher selling a story for $450 to a pulp magazine. This inspired Dent to write stories.

In 1929, Dent's story, Pirate Cay, was accepted by Street & Smith. In 1930, he submitted a story to Sky Riders, a Dell publication. He received a contract and wrote a majority of the content for Dell's publications, Sky Riders and Scotland Yard. During the Depression, due to cutbacks, these magazines were canceled. This didn't stop Dent from writing. He also wrote western and detective stories and he had several pen names.

In 1931, Street & Smith introduced The Shadow. Later, the Doc Savage stories came out. There were 181 Doc Savage stories written and Dent wrote 124 of them. In 1933, Street & Smith granted Dent the motion picture, newspaper strip, and radio broadcast rights to the stories he wrote.

From 1931 until 1940, the Dents lived in hotels and apartments in New York City never living more than a year in one location. In 1934, Dent bought a boat that appealed to his long-time interest in sailing. The boat was called the Albatross. During the summers, they lived on it.

After nearly a decade, Dent returned to La Plata. They stayed with Dent's family where Lester continued to write. He wrote a Doc Savage novel entitled Land of Always Night. From 1934 through 1940, the Dents spent parts of each year in La Plata.

Lester became involved with the community. He served as the La Plata Commerce Club president. In 1936, he traveled throughout Missouri making a film named Hunting Pirate Gold that included his boat, the Albatross. The profits from his film were used to purchase school lunches and eyeglasses for children in northeast Missouri who endured drought conditions.

In early 1938, the Dents went to Europe. They collected rocks from each country they went to which were later used for the fireplace in the house they were going to build. While living in New York City in 1938, they shipped their furniture to La Plata. Dent always knew he would return to Missouri.

In 1940, his doctors advised him of a heart condition and told him he had to slow down. He sold his boat and rented a house in La Plata at Clark and Owensby Streets. He drew the blueprints for their new house and supervised its construction.

After World War II, sales of pulp magazines started to drop. The magazine market was expanding with other publications. There were other comic books and of course, the radio, films, and television.

During the final years of the Doc Savage pulp, Dent wrote three successful mystery novels. In 1946, Dent was noted as Missouri's author of the year by the Missouri Writers' Guild. In 1949, Street & Smith canceled their remaining pulps, which included Doc Savage. After that, Dent didn't write as much.

Dent served in roles of the community in La Plata. He wrote two more mystery novels and short stories. One of his stories was published in the Saturday Evening Post in early 1958.

Lester Dent died in Kirksville, Missouri on March 11, 1959, at age 54. His wife, Norma Gerling Dent, also died in Kirksville on August 23, 1995, at age 94. They are both buried at the La Plata Cemetery. Lester was an only child. He and Norma also apparently had no children.

In 2006, quality trade paperback reprints of the Doc Savage novels began to appear. Visit here for the series on Goodreads under the pen name of Kenneth Robeson.

Thanks for reading.