Hardesty Storage, formerly National Cloak and Suit Building and Bellas Hess

Constructed from 1919 to 1920 and now home to Hardesty Self Storage, this building's size compared to other buildings on Independence Avenue serves as a reminder of its past when it was a major employer. The building was originally home to the National Cloak and Suit Company, a mail-order merchant of fashionable clothing that later merged with Bellas Hess. For the next two decades, the New York-based company used this structure as its Midwestern mail-order fulfillment center. In the 1920s, around two thousand men and women worked in the many departments in the company's complex. Bellas Hess expanded to other buildings and eventually sold this building to United States Government in 1941. The structure was converted to a wartime depot and was used as a records-keeping facility in the decades after the war. Since the late 1970s, the building has served as a storage facility.

Brothers Solomon "Sol" Herman and William Rosenbaum founded New York City-based National Cloak and Suit Company in 1888. The company grew thanks to its reputation and mail-order business. Under Sol's leadership, the company became known for bringing high-style fashions to rural parts of the Eastern United States. In 1918, the family began plans to expand operations to the growing cities of the Midwest. The company leaders spent the next fifteen months exploring possible sites for a new building, and eventually chose Kansas City, Missouri, over several other cities, including Chicago, Omaha, and St. Louis. The first building at this site was complete after six months and opened in 1920, with several supporting buildings that allowed the company to more fully utilize the potential of the 22-acre plot in subsequent years. National Cloak and Suit soon became a major Kansas City employer, and a school operated onsite to train new workers in various departments. Once full operations were reached, the Kansas City location became the fulfillment center for orders from the entire western United States, achieving greater efficiency for the company that had previously shipped its merchandise from the New York headquarters.

Sol Rosenbaum retired as head of the company in 1925, putting Harold C. Freeman as the new president. National Cloak and Suit merged with Bellas Hess, another mail-order company, in 1927. The original Bellas Hess, also based in New York, had been a rival to Cloak and Suit. Under new management, the larger company operating under the Bellas Hess name shifted some of its focus from the mail order business. This included opening a large department store on the grounds of a new Kansas City headquarters building and acquiring more warehouse space in North Kansas City. The change in focus to mixing discount retail with mail-order made the company's operations more comparable to stores like Sears. This Kansas City building remained the cornerstone of the western market until 1941 when additional facilities in North Kansas City were utilized.

With the company leaving this large building at the onset of World War II, the United States Government saw the potential of the Hardesty building and acquired it for use as the Quartermaster General Depot. In 1948, the building became the new home of the Kansas City Records Center when five area centers were consolidated. The federal government left the building in 1977 and the structure has served as a general self-service storage center in the last few decades.

Bushnell, Michael. Twelve-story edifice houses famous Bellas Hess for 60 years, Northeast News. January 19th, 2011. Accessed January 27th, 2023. https://northeastnews.net/pages/twelve-story-edifice-houses-famous-bellas-hess-for-60-years/.

Bushnell, Michael. National Cloak and Suit Company, Northeast News. December 29th, 2021. Accessed January 27th, 2023. https://northeastnews.net/pages/national-cloak-and-suit-company/.

Millstein, Cydney. National Cloak & Suit Company - National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, MO State Parks. July 31st, 2017. Accessed January 27th, 2023. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/National%20Cloak%20and%20Suit%20Co..pdf.

Schultz, Ray. The Ballad of Bellas Hess, Multichannel Merchant. June 1st, 2008. Accessed January 28th, 2023. https://multichannelmerchant.com/mcm/the-ballad-of-bellas-hess/.

Schultz, Ray. The Ballad of Bellas Hess, Multichannel Merchant. June 1st, 2008. Accessed January 28th, 2023. https://multichannelmerchant.com/mcm/the-ballad-of-bellas-hess/.