Bonfils Building (Kansas City)

Completed in 1925, this distinctive Kansas City building has been home to the Wonderland Arcade and the headquarters of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The diverse uses of this building reflect the larger history of the city, but its most intriguing aspect might be its connection to its original owner, Frederick C. (F.C.) Bonfils. A descendant of Napoleon, son of a Missouri Judge, traveling circus show owner, co-founder of the Denver Post, and speculative investor, Bonfils was known for backroom deals and partners that were on both sides of the law. This structure was a purely speculative venture and one of Bonfils' numerous investments in Kansas City. Bonfils also purchased the Denver Post with Harry H. Tammen and the two transformed the small operation into a highly influential and widely circulated newspaper. The duo also found a way to draw money from those involved in one of the largest presidential scandals up to that point: The Teapot Dome scandal. The backroom deals, Blackmail, exposes, editorials, and yellow journalism provided the duo with substantial profits, but they also led to several lawsuits and one assassination attempt.

The start of Bonfils' career began quite different than the notoriety of his latter years with an appointment to West Point Acadamy in 1876 at the age of sixteen. Bonfils entered the academy two years later but did not graduate because he met and subsequently married Belle Barton. A few years later, F.C. Bonfils joined tens of thousands of land seekers in present-day Oklahoma during the 1889 Land Run. The Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 included an amendment that allowed President Benjamin Harrison to open the two million acres.

On April 22, 1889, Bonfils joined an estimated 50,000 people who lined up to claim land formerly held by the Creek and Seminole nations. For the twenty-eight-year-old Bonfils, the government's decision to repudiate past treaties and distribute land to settlers and speculators represented a chance to earn quick returns. After starting a stone business in Guthrie, Oklahoma, Bonfils developed a scheme in which he sold town lots in Oklahoma City without making it obvious to buyers that it was Oklahoma City, Texas, instead of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He also duped people into buying a fake money machine that, he claimed, could transform small bills into larger ones. 

After leaving Oklahoma during the early 1890s, Bonfils took a job with the Chemical National Bank in New York City before heading west again to Kansas City for a brief period before moving again, this time to Denver. After speculating in real estate in Kansas City, he became involved with the Little Louisiana lottery, one of many fraudulent lottery schemes at a time of largely unregulated gambling. In 1895, he disposed of his lottery interests because the federal government had prosecuted that company. Bonfils then traveled to Denver and co-founded the Denver Post in 1895 with Harry H. Tammen. The two transformed the Post from a small operation into an influential and widely circulated newspaper; the Post's circulation ranked third among the city's four newspapers in 1895 with around 4,000 subscribers. Circulation climbed to 27,000 by 1898. By 1933, the year after Bonfils died, the paper's daily circulation eclipsed 147,000 in a city with a population of around 280,000 residents. In addition to buying the Denver Post, Bonfils and Tammen acquired the Kansas City Post in 1909 and the duo managed that paper until its sale in 1922. 

The duo claimed their journalism existed as a "service to the people," with crusades against crime and corruption, but they often engaged in their own brand of corruption and did more than anyone else to introduce the Rocky Mountain region to yellow (sensationalized) journalism. During the infamous Teapot Dome Scandal, arguably the most notorious scandal involving an American president prior to Watergate, the pair had information on nefarious backroom deals between the Harding Administration and oil companies. Instead of reporting these potential cries, the duo chose to Blackmail those involved, a choice that seems particularly important in understanding Bonfils character given the fact that he was a newspaper publisher. Instead of profiting by breaking the story; the two newspapermen received an estimated $1 million for not reporting the story.

The combination of their propaganda and exposés often involved Bonfils and his partners in lawsuits. In 1900, Attorney W.W. Anderson represented "Man-eater" Alfred Packer, a prospector who killed and ate his partners in 1874. The Post accused Anderson of stealing Packer's life savings, although Anderson withstood trial three times without a conviction. The court convicted Bonfils and Tammen of jury tampering and Anderson retaliated by shooting Bonfils twice and Tammen three. The two managed to survive the shooting. 

In addition to the paper, Bonfils and Tammen co-managed the touring Sells-Floto circus from 1904 to 1921. Originally a literal "dog and pony show," the circus grew and eventually included Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show after the once-legendary touring exhibition had gone bankrupt after many successful years from the 1880s to 1914 when it was acquired by Bonfils. In 1915, the traveling show went by the name: "Sells-Floto Circus and Buffalo Bill West," with Buffalo Bill as a performer. In 1921, the American Circus Corporation purchased the Sell-Floto circus, which later became part of Ringling Brothers.

Borofils' reputation preceded him when he chose to invest in Kansas City real estate. The construction of the now-historic Bonfils Building. occurred in 1925, a period towards the end of extensive development as well as property speculation that peaked by 1926. The commercial building boom declined by more than 60% between 1927 and 1930. Bonfils died in 1932 after a life of schemes, fraud, and Blackmail combined with investments in newspapers, real estate, and other businesses, all of which allowed him to become a wealthy man. 

A variety of tenants operated businesses in this distinctive and historic building, including the popular Wonderland Arcade on the main floor from 1940 to 1983, the year the Bonfils Building was sold and subsequently renovated. From 2007 to 2020, the building served as the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) headquarters. 

Dwyer, John J. "America's last frontier: Oklahoma: with America's westward expansion petering out, owing to a lack of available land, easterners demanded that government open up Indian territory, leading to land rushes.." The Free Library. freelibrary.com. Retrieved September 11, 2022, from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/America%27s+last+frontier%3a+Oklahoma%3a+with+America%27s+westward+expansion...-a0435001704.

Editors of the Encylopedia Britannica. "Frederick Gilmer Bonfils:

American publisher." Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved September 10, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Gilmer-Bonfils.

Hilton, Mark. "Bonfils Building." The Historical Marker Database. hmdb.org. December 3, 2019. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=141691. Note: the historical building and marker are located in Oklahoma, a different structure than detailed in this entry for Kansas City.

Hine, Robert V. Hine and John Mack Faragher. Frontiers: A Short History of the American West." New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. 

History.com editors. "Teapot Dome Scandal." History Channel. History.com. April 11, 2022 https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/teapot-dome-scandal.

Kreck, Dick. "The newspaper newcomers who bought a failing paper and grew it into the largest in Colorado. 125 years of The Post's biggest characters: A look at the lives of Harry Tammen and Frederick Bonfils." Denver Post (Denver) October 15, 2017. Colorado News sec. https://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/15/denver-post-harry-tammen-frederick-bonfils/.

--- --- ---. "Teapot as Potboiler." Denver Post (Denver), September 25, 2008. Things to do: Books sec. https://www.denverpost.com/2008/09/25/teapot-as-potboiler/.

Matthews, Mary J. "Nomination Form: Bonfils Building." National Register of Historic Places. mostateparks.com. 1982. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Bonfils%20Bldg.pdf. 

McCartney, Laton. "Bought Off by Big Oil: The granddaddy of modern corruption cases and its toll on the '20s White House." U.S. News & World Report. usnews.com. January 11, 2008. https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/01/11/bought-off-by-big-oil.

--- --- ---. "How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country." New York: Penguin Random House, 2008.

"NAIA Relocates to New Downtown Location." National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). July 23, 2022. https://www.naia.org/general/2020-21/releases/NewOffice_Release.

Seippel, Sarah. "The History of the Sells Floto Circus." History in Photographs (HiP). historyinphotographs.com. November 8, 2018. https://historyinphotographs.com/blogs/news/the-history-of-the-sells-floto-circus.