Institution

<div>Translation/Traducción&nbsp;</div><div> </div><div>Paul “Waxie” Hernandez amaba el béisbol desde que era niño cuando jugaba para el equipo de la Escuela Primaria de Guadalupe a tempranos de los 1930. Después el jugo para muchos equipos de de beisbol Mexicano de lanzadores rápidos en la área metropolitana en las dos partes de Kansas, las de Missouri&nbsp; y Kansas. Paul empezó su carrera con el equipo juvenil en 1936, jugó y fue entrenador para béisbol y béisbol de lanzadores rápido por más de 60 años. El estaba entrenando aun cuando se enfermó&nbsp; y murió en 1992. Paul Hernández pasó su amor por el béisbol a sus hijos y nietos. “Paulie” se convirtió en uno de los lanzadores de béisbol más prodigioso conocido a través de la región de Kansas. El hijo de Pauli “Bubba” Hernández y su hija, Sidonia, ha seguido en los pasos de su padre y abuelo a han mantenido el juego vivo. Durante la muerte de “Waxie”, El Parque de Kansas City&nbsp; el Departamento de Recreación&nbsp; llamaron los campos de béisbol en el Parque de Valley Penn en su honor.&nbsp;</div>

How to get to Paul Waxie Hernandez Fields in Kansas City by Bus

Other

Paul waxie Hernandez fields playground in Penn Valley Park, Kansas City Missouri

Conference celebrating Kansas City's baseball heritage.

More Info

En Español tambien. Paul “Waxie” Hernández, Sr. loved baseball from the time he was a kid playing for the Guadalupe Grade School team in the early 1930s.  He later played for many of the Mexican American baseball and fast pitch softball teams in the metropolitan area on both sides of the Kansas and Missouri state lines.  “Waxie” started his baseball career with the Guadalupe Center youth team in 1936, played and coached baseball and fast pitch softball for over 60 years. He was still coaching when he fell ill and died in 1992. Paul Hernández, Sr. passed on his love of baseball to his children and grandchildren. “Paulie” became one of the outstanding fast pitch softball pitchers known throughout the Kansas City region.  Paulie’s son “Bubba” Hernández and his daughter, Sidonia have followed in their father’s and grandfather’s footsteps by keeping the games alive. Upon “Waxie” death, the Kansas City Missouri Parks and Recreation Department names ball fields in Penn Valley Park in his honor.



Paul “Waxie” Hernández Fields

Welcome to Kansas City! In this tour you will find an amazing route to a rich of history of the Latino/Latina community in this wonderful city. Follow the route of the tour to learn more about where and how our community has thrived and continues to do so.

Latino/Latina History of Kansas City 

Director

In the early to mid-nineteenth century, the modern-day Penn Valley Park was a heavily wooded ravine along the Santa Fe trail used by pioneers to head west into the Burgeoning United States. Nearby was a very small town that would go on to become Kansas City. By the end of the American Civil War, Kansas City was starting to grow, a trend that accelerated with the construction of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad over the Missouri river in 1869.The population of the city was growing rapidly and in 1893, the local government deemed it necessary to create a commission to survey the available land for suitable locations to have parks, boulevards and pleasure areas. That commission decided, among other things, that the city needed a large, centralized urban park like the Bois de Boulogne in Paris or New York's Central Park. They recommended this area for a park due to its geography and history. In 1900, 300 houses and buildings on the land within the Penn Street Ravine were purchased by the government and removed to make way for a 176-acre park.Penn Valley Park was one of the first three parks built in Kansas City and it was part of the larger 'City Beautiful Movement' in the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century. The engineering mind behind these citywide improvements was renowned landscape architect George E. Kessler. Early on, a lake was added and many amenities were built in the new Penn Valley Park including tennis courts, playgrounds, and swimming pools. The southern end of the park was used as a tourist camp for cross-country automobile drivers from 1918 to 1929. That same part of the park was used again during WWII as a recreational camp for soldiers on leave. After the war, this area continued to house veterans and their families until 1954. The park was heavily used and popular in its original state until 1949 when it was shrunk and most of its features were destroyed to make way for major thoroughfares like Southwest Trafficway and Interstate 35. Later, the park was cut nearly in half by Broadway Boulevard. Today, Penn Valley Park offers a dog park, a lake, a tennis court, a skate park, baseball diamonds, and the Just Off Broadway Theater. Near the theater, are the ruins of an old maintenance building that was made of stone. The park also features many monuments including the Firefighter Fountain, Pioneer Mothers Statue, and the Scout Statue, which depicts a Sioux Nation Native American on horseback surveying the landscape of Kansas City and serves as a memorial to the local tribes that have inhabited the area for many centuries. In 1915 the statue was initially in Kansas City on a temporary basis, but it proved so popular that local residents raised enough money to purchase the statue outright and have it permanently placed in Kansas City. In addition, the National WWI Museum and Memorial lies at the north end of the park, which opened in 1926 as the Liberty Memorial.

Created by the city in 1900 as one of three major parks for Kansas City and designed by George E. Kessler, Penn Valley Park provides ample green space within the otherwise concrete-dominated area south of downtown. The park features a live theater, the National WWI Museum, ball fields and an off-leash dog park, and numerous monuments. This park has been an integral part of Kansas City for over a hundred years. Prior to its creation, the 176 acres that constitute the park were home to over three hundred buildings and homes. The city's decision to purchase the land and remove people and businesses from the area was contested at the time, but today, the area is one of the highlights of the city. Penn Valley Park was one of the first three parks built in Kansas City and it was part of the larger 'City Beautiful Movement' in the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century.

Now recognized as the nation’s official World War I memorial, this historic monument was built as the Liberty Memorial and completed in 1926. Co-designers of Liberty Memorial, Kansas City architects Wight and Wight also designed these twinning fountains. Though they were part of the original design for the memorial site, official plans for the fountains were accepted in 1933, as well as the north terrace walls, the Great Frieze, and steps. Construction of the fountains started the following year and was completed in 1935. The entirety of the Liberty Memorial complex was completed in 1938. Situated on the north side of the memorial, these two, two-tiered fountains flank the 90-foot-wide steps leading from the Great Frieze terrace down to the North Lawn. The walls were constructed with Indiana limestone while the weirs and basins are made of granite. For each fountain, the upper tier features a set of geysers surrounded by a spray ring, as water cascades over the weir, creating multiple waterfalls into the lower pool. The front ledge of the lower tier is bowed and lined with small jets that issue water back into the pool. Honoring the lives lost in the war, each fountain features an inscribed excerpt.<blockquote>The east fountain is a passage from the patriotic anthem America the Beautiful by Katherine Lee Bates and reads: WHO MORE THAN SELF THEIR COUNTRY LOVED</blockquote><blockquote>The west fountain is a quote from Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges on the death of Sir Walter Scott which reads: THE GLORY DIES NOT AND GRIEF IS PAST</blockquote>In 2011, local architectural and design firm Gould Evans led a rehabilitation project for the site. Plans included repointing the masonry, stone patching, cleaning, mechanical and plumbing upgrades, and the application of breathable water repellent. In addition, deteriorating tiles in the fountains’ basins needed replacing, though the original glazed porcelain tiles had been replaced just 15 years prior. Some of those original tiles were preserved in the museum archives and used as reference to replicate the hand-made replacements. The project was completed in 2014, the same year the site received a second designation from Congress, effectively recognizing it as the National WWI Museum and Memorial.

Completed in 1935, these twin fountains flank the steps beneath the Great Frieze on the north side of the National World War I Museum and Memorial. The monumental site opened in 1926 as Liberty Memorial to honor the lives of the 441 Kansas City residents who died in World War I. Made of limestone and granite, these two-tiered fountains were designed by the co-architects of Liberty Memorial, Wight and Wight, and overlook the North Lawn, historic Union Station, and the iconic Kansas City skyline.

Liberty Memorial North Fountains

Of the millions of soldiers who perished during World War I, 441 were from Kansas City. Residents of the community proved eager to commemorate the conflict. In late 1918, shortly after the November 11 armistice ending active combat, prominent citizens of Kansas City organized the Liberty Memorial Association (LMA) to build a war memorial. The organization was led by noted local businessman and philanthropist Robert A. Long. The group launched a wildly successful fundraising campaign: in the span of ten days, over $2.5 million was raised through 83,000 individual donations. The Kansas City economy was booming during the early twentieth century, which made such large-scale public projects financially feasible.The LMA selected architect Harold Van Buren Magonigle and the firm of Wight and Wight to design what became known as the Liberty Memorial. They developed a limestone and granite complex consisting of a courtyard, a “Memory Hall” on the east side, and a “Museum Building” on the west side. The centerpiece was an imposing, 217-foot shaft. At the top was an electric light designed to resemble a fire, dubbed the “Flame of Inspiration.” It was flanked by four statues representing the guardian spirits of Honor, Courage, Sacrifice, and Patriotism. The memorial drew from elements of Greek, Gothic, Beaux Arts Classicism, and Egyptian Revival architecture. Planners chose to locate the complex on parkland directly across from Union Station, which at the time was a major transportation hub and would bring the monument plenty of exposure.Construction of the Liberty Memorial began with a lavish groundbreaking ceremony on November 1, 1921. More than 100,000 people attended the proceedings. The event was notable for having military leaders from every major Allied nation serve as dignitaries: American General John J. Pershing, British Admiral Lord Beatty, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Italian General Armando Diaz, and Belgian Lieutenant General Baron Jacques. The monument was completed in 1926 and formally dedicated on November 11 in another major ceremony that drew over 150,000 people. President Calvin Coolidge delivered the keynote address, with Queen Marie of Romania as his special guest. During the 1930s, landscaping, memorial trees, fountains, and friezes were added to the memorial site.<blockquote>“It [The Liberty Memorial] has not been raised to commemorate war and victory, but rather the results of war and victory which are embodied in peace and liberty." -President Calvin Coolidge, Dedication Speech, November 11, 1926.</blockquote>By the late twentieth century, lack of maintenance had left the memorial physically unstable, and in 1994 it was closed for safety reasons. In 1998, Kansas City passed a limited-run sales tax to raise money for the memorial’s restoration. When combined with funding from the State of Missouri, the federal government, and private donors, over $102 million was raised for the project. The renovations that followed also included the creation of a formal museum on the site; over the years, the Liberty Memorial had acquired tens of thousands of World War I artifacts. Located primarily underneath the structure, the new museum facilities were designed by Ralph Applebaum Associates and added 80,000 square-feet of space for new exhibits. The expansion also included the creation of the Edward Jones Research Center, which contains over 300,000 documents available to the public for research. In 2000, with the renovations underway, Liberty Memorial was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Congress designated the Liberty Memorial as the official World War I museum of the United States in 2004 as part of a 2005 defense spending bill. This designation prompted the institution to rebrand itself as the National World War I Museum and Memorial upon its reopening in 2006. That same year, it was listed as a National Historic Landmark.Today, the museum works to preserve the Liberty Memorial, interpret the history of World War I, and showcase thousands of artifacts to the public. A series of permanent and rotating exhibits, many with interactive and audiovisual features, take an immersive look into everything from the first shots fired in 1914 to the long-lasting effects of the war after the Treaty of Versailles. Artifacts range from typical equipment carried by soldiers to a full-sized French Renault FT-17 tank.

The World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City Missouri, is recognized by the United States government as the nation's official World War I museum. The landmark began as the Liberty Memorial, a monument created from 1921-1926 to honor Kansas City residents who had died during the war. The memorial was the product of tremendous community organization. Prominent locals operated a planning community, and city residents crowdfunded over $2.5 million for the project in less than two weeks. The monument draws from various architectural styles, including Beaux Arts Classicism and Egyptian Revival, and features an illuminated, 217-foot, limestone shaft at the center. Renovations starting in 1998 included the expansion of a World War I museum underneath the monument. It reopened in 2006 as the National World War I Museum and Memorial. The museum portion of the complex includes thousands of artifacts as well as the Edward Jones Research Center. The Liberty Memorial is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated National Historic Landmark.

National World War I Museum and Memorial

Construction of the Liberty Memorial South Fountain started in 1999 and was completed in 2002. It was created using Indiana limestone and Péribonka Black granite, and features three, semi-elliptical tiers which flow into an oval reflecting pool. The top of the fountain is situated at the base of the ascending south terrace and has a waterfall effect which cascades below. The succeeding tiers have channels cut between each level, allowing the water to flow down into the pool at the museum’s entrance. During a major restoration project started in 2011 and led by local architectural and design firm Gould Evans, this fountain was cleaned and rehabilitated. Efforts included a new skimming wall, select stone replacement, repointing of mortar, work to the basin, and new waterproofing, sealants, and granite veneer at the stepped terrace. The project was completed in 2014, the same year that the site received a second designation from Congress. The site for the Liberty Memorial was originally dedicated in November 1921. Following a three-and-a-half-year construction effort, the memorial was officially unveiled and dedicated on November 11, 1926, to a crowd of 150,000 people. The memorial was the result of a community-based fundraising effort to creating a last monument to honor those who had served in the First World War, particularly those who had died. The monument itself, which included the tower, staircases, and the sphinxes remained a fixture on the Kansas City landscape for decades, as well as Memory and Exhibit Halls. In 1998, money was raised to rehabilitate the memorial through a city-wide sales tax and private donations, in addition to state and federal funding. Renovations included the expansion of the museum into a state-of-the-art facility, as well as the addition of this fountain in the courtyard at the museum’s new entrance. Upon completion of the project, the site was renamed as the National WWI Museum and Memorial and was deemed America’s official museum and memorial dedicated to the Great War. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2006, and presidential legislation recognized it as the nation's official WWI museum in 2014.

Located at the entrance to the National World War I Museum and Memorial on the south side of the tower, this three-tiered fountain was originally installed as part of a major restoration effort to the historic Liberty Memorial between 2000 and 2002. The memorial was rededicated in 2002 and expanded to become the National World War I Museum and Memorial in 2004 and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

Liberty Memorial South Fountain

Steve Harvey entered the Kansas City jazz scene at a young age. His main group, Mass Transit, formed while he was a teenager. During his short career, he was well known for his talent on saxophone and his versatility, playing multiple instruments and sliding seamlessly into most jam sessions. Some considered him to be the next Charlie Parker, a legendary saxophonist who was born and raised in Kansas City. To maintain his abilities, Harvey, like Charlie Parker, practiced religiously. Sometimes, he played late into the night, throwing his instruments in the back of his car and leaving his residence so he wouldn’t wake the neighbors. On the night of November 4, 1980, that’s why he was at Penn Valley Park.That night, Raymond Bledsoe and his roommates were hosting a party at their suburban house when three of them hopped in their pickup and left. They drove to Penn Valley Park (used interchangeably with Liberty Memorial Park) with a dowel rod and a baseball bat in order to “harass homosexuals.” This was not the first time Bledsoe and his friends had done this, as the park was a known gathering place for the gay community. When they arrived, the three went to the public restrooms west of the memorial, next to a baseball field. There was a white man in the men’s room; Bledsoe broke the dowel rod on the man’s head. He ran, and Bledsoe didn’t pursue. When Bledsoe entered the other restroom, he found Steve Harvey there and hit him with the baseball bat. When Harvey tried to escape, Bledsoe chased him down and didn’t stop hitting him until he collapsed and stopped moving.Harvey’s body was found the next morning. Authorities had no leads until February of 1981, when Bledsoe’s fourth roommate stepped forward and told the authorities. Both of Bledsoe’s accomplices pled guilty to assault charges in exchange for their testimony, but that wasn’t enough to secure a conviction. Bledsoe was eventually acquitted by an all-white Missouri jury and the case was considered closed.At this moment, Alvin Sykes enters the story. Sykes was a good friend of Harvey’s throughout his life, and like many, he was outraged over the obvious lack of justice. As soon as the case ended, he scoured the Kansas City Public Library’s reference section while Harvey’s wife looked on, looking for any law or code that might let the case be reopened. Eventually he stumbled upon an amended section of title 18 of the US Code that read:“(b) Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, by force or threat of force willfully injures, intimidates or interferes with, or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with-- (2) any person because of his race, color, religion or national origin and because he is or has been-- (B) participating in or enjoying any benefit, service, privilege, program, facility or activity provided or administered by any State or subdivision thereof;”Sykes called the Justice Department right away. He knew he had what he needed to reopen the case. In the months leading up to the second trial, Sykes, as well as Harvey’s family and friends, collected over 6,000 signatures on a petition as part of the Steve Harvey Justice Campaign to show public interest in the case. Because of their efforts, Raymond Bledsoe was finally convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1983. His appeal was denied in 1984, and he has been denied parole several times since.Alvin Sykes’ career as an activist has extended far past this case. Following Bledsoe’s conviction, he spent much of his time advocating for victims around the country with the Justice Campaign of America, the successor to the Steve Harvey Justice Campaign. His travels inspired him to push for the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which was passed in 2008 and has been amended more than once. The law allows pre-Civil Rights era cases to be reopened and reinvestigated.Today, Steve Harvey’s murder is mostly unknown. The site is unmarked and vastly different from 1980. The public restrooms are gone, the one baseball field is now two, and the crime has largely faded in public memory.

In the wee hours of the morning on November 5, 1980, jazz musician Steve Harvey was murdered in a public restroom where the Paul "Waxie" Hernández baseball fields now stand.  The killer’s name was Raymond Bledsoe, a 19-year-old white man.  In August of 1981, Bledsoe would be acquitted by an all-white Missouri jury before Alvin Sykes, a civil rights activist, brought the case to the Justice Department.  Eventually, Bledsoe would be sentenced to life in prison under the Civil Rights Act of 1968 for interfering with Harvey’s right to use a public facility.  It was only the fourth such conviction in American history.

Site of the Murder of Steve Harvey

Prominent western American artist Alexander Phimister
Proctor sculpted this larger-than-life bronze grouping. It was one of the
most prominent works of the Pioneer Mother Movement (1925-1940). But public
interest in the statue soon waned. Today, it is largely ignored by Kansas City
residents. Yet the city refuses to give the statue to the village of Westport, which claims to be Kansas City's birthplace. 

For many years, Phimister Proctor wanted to create a
monument to female pioneers. That desire remained unformed until 1922, when he
viewed WHD Koerner’s Madonna of the
Prairie. Koerner’s instantly popular illustration
portrayed the beautiful young heroine of Emerson Hough’s popular novel&nbsp;The
Covered Wagon seated on a wagon box with the opening of the wagon cover
forming a halo around her face. Like Koerner, Proctor was determined not to
show a pioneer woman “plodding westward in a calico dress,” as many
pioneer monuments of that era did. Instead, Proctor depicted “another, no less
heroic side."1&nbsp;Proctor
placed his Prairie Madonna on horseback. She rides side-saddle with her baby in
her lap and her sunbonnet hanging down her back. Her buckskin-clad husband, a
grizzled mountain man guide, and a pack mule accompany her.&nbsp; 

Proctor drew on ancient scripture, Renaissance
imagery, mid-19th-century painting, and early 20th-century
illustration in his sculpture. Proctor adapted maternal imagery from George
Caleb Bingham’s famous 1851 painting Daniel
Boone Escorting Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap. Bingham’s famous
painting used the Renaissance image of Mary and Joseph’s flight to Egypt to
show American westward migration. The painter placed the Madonna on horseback at
the top of the grouping’s triangular shape. Proctor adapted this pyramidal
structure in his sculpture. By so doing, Proctor likened Pioneer Mothers to the
Virgin Mary. This emphasized the Pioneer Mother’s role in bringing white civilization
to supposedly savage Indian lands. To show his Prairie Madonna’s self-sacrifice
in migrating westward, Proctor encircled his larger-than-life bronze grouping
with a text from the Book of Ruth: “Whither thou goest I will go.&nbsp;Thy people shall be my people and thy God my
God.” Despite these varied cultural influences, Proctor was convinced that his
monument authentically depicted the spirit of frontier women who followed their
pioneer husbands westward.

Phimister Proctor prided himself on the authenticity
of his western-themed sculptures.&nbsp; Like
other leading western artists like Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell,
Proctor clung to a fantasy of authenticity. Yet their work was heavily
influenced by mythology and historical memory.&nbsp;
For example, to work on the Kansas City Pioneer Mother, Proctor moved his family from Palo Alto to southern
California. Proctor he was “[c]ertain that western characters would be easier
to find in Hollywood than anywhere else”2—even
though authentic frontier conditions persisted in the northern Great Plains at
the time.&nbsp; In Hollywood, Proctor soon
selected “an old bewhiskered gentleman” to pose for the westering family’s
trapper guide who had recently completed work as a body double for Ernest
Torrence in the film adaptation of The
Covered Wagon.&nbsp;Similarly, the young woman Proctor chose to
represent the pioneer mother in the Kansas City monument wore a costume of
questionable historical accuracy sewn by the artist’s wife. The model sat on a side-saddle given to the
artist by a woman who claimed--rather unconvincingly--to have ridden across the
Plains on it as a bride in 1852.

Kansas City businessman Howard Vanderslice sought to
honor his own mother and other pioneers by commissioning the pioneer woman
memorial that Proctor envisioned. The $250,000 cost ($3.4 million in 2015
dollars) was so exorbitant that Vanderslice kept it out of the newspapers.

The nearby village of Westport claimed to having
birthed Kansas City.&nbsp;Westport residents
believed that Proctor’s statue belonged in their community, instead. Westport business leaders and the Daughters of Old Westport urged Kansas City’s
Park Board to place the massive sculptural group on a tiny trolley island at
the heart of Westport’s business district that had been the site of their
original town. They insisted that Westport site's location on the old Santa Fe
Trail (which was built for commercial traffic to Hispanic New Mexico, rather
than Yankee overland migration) made it the most suitable location for
Proctor's sculpture of a westering Yankee family.&nbsp;In the end, though, the artist’s and donor’s preference for the statue to stand
on a hilltop in Kansas City’s Penn Valley Park prevailed.

Newspaper coverage of the monument was extremely
enthusiastic.&nbsp; Several local residents agreed
that “’This is the only kind of statuary worth a d--n.”3&nbsp;Nearly 30,000 reportedly attended its 1927
dedication.&nbsp;Like
Pioneer Mother monuments in other western cities, though, interest in the
statue quickly waned. 

By the 1980s, residents and city leaders had chosen
to forget the statue that glorified westward expansion and depicted women as
meekly submitting to their husbands. But Westport merchants once again sought
to claim Proctor’s statue for their business district.&nbsp; Advertiser Tom Tupper declared that the
“gigantic statue” was only viewed “by about 16 people a year--if they can find
it.”4&nbsp;Instead, the Westport businessmen proposed to
move it to Heritage Park to commemorate Westport’s 150th anniversary.
They argued it would also commemorate a Westport resident and civic volunteer
who was among the 114 killed when the skywalk of Kansas City’s Hyatt Regency
hotel collapsed near Proctor’s Pioneer
Mother monument in 1981. Tupper suggested that private donations to that
victim’s memorial fund should cover the estimated $50,000 cost to move the
statue. Westport’s business and political leaders endorsed the plan. But the
Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to
leave the statue where Proctor had placed it a half-century earlier,
overlooking downtown Kansas City.

The Kansas City park board was determined to keep the
statue, but not to maintain it. By 2007, the Kansas City Star decried the “embarrassing weedy mess” that
surrounded the “icon of KC's frontier past,” opining that it “should be a place
for peaceful contemplation and beauty.”5 Tellingly, city officials only
discovered the neglect of the statue while surveying potential light-rail
routes through the park. Local residents who visit the park regularly remain
unaware of its existence.

1927 statue by famed western artist A. Phimister Proctor. Modeled after artist's own mother to honor women who migrated West on the overland trails in the mid-19th century. The monument was celebrated at its dedication, but soon forgotten. The nearby village of Westport sought to claim the statue in the 1980s. Westport claims to be the birthplace of Kansas City.

Pioneer Mother statue (Kansas City, MO)

American soldiers serving in the Spanish-American War, European-American military response in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion in China, and Phillippine-American War nicknamed themselves "hikers." Kitson made the Hiker statues in their honor, designing them based on Leonard Sefing, Jr., a Spanish-American War veteran who served as a model after winning a contest. After Kitson created the first design, the Gorham Manufacturing Company bought the rights. Over the next four decades, they cast at least fifty statues, many of which were not erected until some time after Kitson's death.The original HIker statue can be seen at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, while most of the other statues are displayed in parks across the country. According to a Texas guide, the statues depict a soldier "stripped of his parade uniform and shown ... reacting to the challenges of the battlefield." The Hiker design has been praised for its realism and historical accuracy. The figure in the statue wears an accurate period uniform and carries a Krag-Jorgensen rifle. The Kansas City HIker is located in Penn Valley Park, south of the World War I Museum and Memorial. It was dedicated in 1947 thanks to veterans of the Spanish-American War.

Dedicated in 1947 and located just south of the Liberty Memorial within Penn Valley Park, The Hiker commemorates those who served in several early twentieth-century wars and conflicts from the Spanish-American War, to the U.S. military's occupation of the Phillippines and Amerian troops who participated in the European-led military interventions in China at the turn of the 20th century. The statue and many others of similar design were created by Theodora Alice Ruggles Kitson. The Kansas City landmark was dedicated in 1947, more than twenty years after the World War I memorial opened. Some former pre-World War I veterans, themselves known as "hikers," were present at the ceremony.

The Hiker - Valor and Patriotism Commemorative Statue

The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank opened a new headquarters in 2008 and at that time, Indiana-based artist Tuck Langland was commissioned for two sculptures to adorn the entrance. Langland created two, three-dimensional representations of the original reliefs that were sculpted into the limestone facade of the original Federal Reserve building at 925 Grand Boulevard in 1921 by Henry Hering. Fittingly, the statues represent the spirits of commerce and industry, as the purpose of the Federal Reserve is to ensure stability to our economy. The 12-foot silicon bronze statues portray female figures holding up symbols of virtue. The Spirit of Commerce holds a torch representing progress and the caduceus (staff) of the Roman God Mercury, protector of merchants. She also wears a coat of chainmail signifying security. The Spirit of Industry holds up a bundle of wheat signifying agriculture and a distaff representing manufacturing. Waterfalls flow from the granite base of each figure into a reflecting pool. Additionally, the pool with the Spirit of Commerce extends to contain three geysers representing missions of the Fed- monetary policy, supervisory and regulatory oversight, and safe, reliable, and efficient financial services. Harold “Tuck” Langland is a world-renowned artist known for both abstract and realistic pieces. After graduating from the University of Minnesota with his BFA and MFA in sculpture, Langland taught for three years in England. He moved back to the states in the late 1960s and taught first at Murray State University in Kentucky before moving to Indiana University at South Bend in 1971. He retired in 2002 but continues to sculpt full-time. His work is found around the world in public plazas, collections, and museums. He has also authored two books and produced a slide collection of Medieval architecture from his travels.

Located at the entrance to the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, these two 12-foot bronze sculptures symbolize commerce and industry. Created by Indiana artist Tuck Langland, the Spirits of Commerce and Industry are three-dimensional depictions of the reliefs that were sculpted into the limestone of the original Federal Reserve Bank in 1921. That building was located downtown at 925 Grand Boulevard. When the Fed built the new headquarters in 2008, Langland was commissioned to create these sculptures based on the design of the original building. Water flows from the base of each sculpture into a reflecting pool, one of which contains three geysers representing the missions of the Federal Reserve.

Spirits of Commerce and Industry

The Federal Reserve, known as the FED, is an indispensable part of Kansas City history and modern banking. It was actually the third national bank of the United States, as the first one fell victim to congressional bureaucracy and the second one was largely scapegoated for many of America’s woes by Andrew Jackson, who eventually refused to renew the bank charter in 1836, effectively dismantling the whole system. From then, economic and societal panic and collapse followed without a regulated and insured national bank. It was not until President Woodrow Wilson’s tenure in 1913, that American legislators finally agreed enough to bring back a nationalized bank, but it was up to Wilson to implement this new bank.A new national Bank became an obvious necessity after the economic turmoil brought on by the panic of 1907, and most members within the national government agreed to fix the problem. By 1910, two federal commissions headed up by Republican senate minority leader Nelson Aldrich went out to investigate both the state of the American monetary system and the banking systems in Europe. Aldrich, the rest of Congress, and various American banking experts then devised the basic plan that would come to be the Federal Reserve system. The bones of their plan was to have a single, centralized national bank in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., with fifteen separate branches of the bank geographically spread out to service the most Americans. This plan was known as the ‘Aldrich plan’ and in the spirit of bipartisanship, Democrat president Woodrow Wilson resolved to change very little of the original plan after he took office in the wake of the 1912 election. The largest change Wilson made was giving more power over the banks to the government in the form of control over the board of directors. The banks themselves serve very important roles in the American economy. One major problem that caused the financial panics prior to the FED was that small banks that did not have enough cash reserves to keep up when all their customers wanted to withdraw, so those banks collapsed and their customers lost their money. The FED provided a federally backed lender of last resort to prevent banks from collapsing and safeguard American’s savings. They have also been known to give out massive loans to prevent large companies from collapsing, all in the name of preserving the status quo, and preventing large-scale economic hardship. The Federal Reserve Banks also serve as a central bank, controlling cash flow, and acting as a regulatory body for the rest of the nation's banks and financial institutions.Notably, Missouri is the only State with multiple Federal Reserve Banks. When the government was initially surveying the country for important population centers to place the banks, they determined that both St. Louis and Kansas City were isolated and important enough to warrant their own bank. Each city serves as the commercial center of a large area that crosses state lines, so it was only practical for Missouri to have two. The Kansas City branch serves western Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado &amp; northern New Mexico, and has branch locations in Denver, Omaha, and Oklahoma City. Initially the Kansas City Federal Reserve was housed in the R.A. Long Building at 928 Grand. Built in 1907, it was the first building in Kansas City with an all steel frame and one of the first fireproof buildings in Kansas City, making it ideal for housing money. It was always temporary though, as the FED required more office space than the building could provide, so a replacement building was quickly ordered and completed across the street in 1921. Due to a growing workforce and additional responsibilities given to the Kansas City branch, a new headquarters was built in 2008 at 1 Memorial Drive.After the end of his presidency in 1954, a financially bereft Harry Truman moved back to his home state of Missouri. He made his new office in the Kansas City branch of the FED and split his time between his office in his presidential library in Independence. From those offices he wrote his memoirs and managed his post-presidency affairs. Truman’s legacy remains at the bank in the form of his extensive coin collection that has been put on display within the Money Museum. This is a small museum inside the FED that covers the history and importance of currency, giving guests a relaxed and judgment free environment to learn about inflation, deficits, and all the complicated aspects of the economy and personal finances. The Money Museum also offers unique opportunities to do things like lift a real bar of gold and get acquainted with the many currencies of the world and of the past.

Originally located downtown, the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank has continued to serve several states throughout the Midwest and Southwest since 1907. The Federal Reserve is one of the most important financial institutions in the country that regulates and controls the flow of money. Due to growing responsibilities at the Kansas City branch, a new building was constructed in 2008. Located inside the bank, the Money Museum features President Truman’s extensive coin collection and offers free, self-guided tours where guests have the unique opportunity to get their hands on a solid gold bar, setting the Kansas City Federal Reserve apart from other banks.

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and Money Museum 

Sculptor Cyrus Dallin was strongly influenced by the art and culture of Native American tribes in his native state of Utah. Prior to creating this statue, he created several other works that sought to capture the dignity and unique cultures of those tribes. In 1912, city leaders tried to raise funds to purchase a similar sculpture by Dallin. That statue, titled "Appeal to the Great Spirit," was on display at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, and citizens of Boston raised the $12,000 needed to keep the statue in their city before fundraising efforts in Kansas City could reach the required amount. Kansas City's Margaret Coburn had written letters in support of acquiring Coburn's statue in 1912, and she once again led efforts to acquire The Scout in 1916. Working with her father, banker James Coburn, they invited Cyrus Dallin to dinner and told them their hope to bring the Scout to Kansas City as a way of improving their odds of raising funds. Dallin approved the idea, and the statue was first displayed at 15th and Paseo, then a prominent location. The statue was then moved to Penn Valley Park, an idea that Margaret Coburn had back in 1912. In August 1916, Chief Little Bull, the son of the famous Sioux leader Sitting Bull, visited Kansas City and commented favorably about the authenticity of the artist's design. Dallin spent many years sketching Native Americans prior to making the statue, including many who were part of Buffalo Bill's touring show. Many residents of Kansas City supported the effort to raise funds, but after several months, the Chamber of Commerce still had less than half of the needed amount. News that the Smithsonian was considering purchasing the statue inspired Ida Nelson, wife of publisher William Rockhill Nelson, to donate $1000 to the effort if the community could raise the remaining amount in two months. Two days later, the fundraising effort had reached its goal thanks to efforts by school children who collected dimes and nickels alongside larger donations from organizations and leading philanthropists. After the successful fundraising effort to purchase this statue, it quickly became one of the symbols of the city. City National Bank and Trust (UMB Bank today) added the Scout to its logo in the Great Depression. When a National Hockey League franchise was awarded to the city, the team was known as the Kansas City Scouts during their short tenure in the mid-1970s.The statue has remained close to its original location over the past century, being placed between Penn Valley Park's lake and Summit Street. In 1921, the statue was moved around three hundred feet south, making its vantage point another 25 feet higher and offering a better view of the growing city. Although its base has changed, the statue has been vandalized and repaired numerous times. The first instance of vandalism occurred sometime in 1917, shortly after the statue made its Kansas City debut. The Kansas City Star reported the news that the arrow and bow had been stolen and placed the action in historical context: "Perhaps he [the vandal] thought the Sioux could not completely typify the American Indian until he bore the scars of the white man’s vandalism,' the 1917 article editorialized.Acts of vandalism occurred throughout the 1920s, and despite efforts to discourage people from carving their initials into the side of the horse, this became a regular occurrence. By the 1930s, many considered moving the statue from the park to City Hall to prevent vandalism. The Parks Department regularly replaced missing portions of the statue, and there were numerous debates about moving the sculpture to a well-trafficked part of the city. In 1960, R. Crosby Kemper funded the construction of the stone pedestal base. The eight-foot base placed the bronze portion of the statue beyond the reach of ordinary vandals. As a visitor in the modern era will attest, the vandalism of the Scout's first decades has continued, with graffiti at the base being removed by the Parks Department at regular intervals.

Sculptor Cyrus Dallin displayed this sixteen-foot bronze statue of a mounted Sioux Indian at San Francisco's 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition. The sculpture was awarded the gold medal, leading to a cross-country tour of temporary installations that included Kansas City in 1916. In response to the statue's popularity, local newspaper editorials called for action, noting that the touring statue was for sale with a listed price of $15,000. Seventeen area organizations led efforts to raise funds, and local teachers worked with area school children to collect small donations, including nickels and dimes. Collectively, the efforts raised the needed funds to purchase and permanently display the sculpture. The effort was successful, with area residents contributing enough to purchase the statue and place it in Penn Valley Park. The Scout has been one of the symbols of Kansas City since its public dedication in 1922.

Penn Valley Park

Paul “Waxie” Hernández Fields

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Additional Information