Chatham Hotel (Senior Center of the Chathams)

When the Chatham Hotel opened in 1923, it was part of a larger trend of apartment hotels that catered to upwardly mobile middle-class professionals in up-and-coming urban neighborhoods that had easy access to streetcars. Guests of these hotels were often bachelors at the start of their careers who valued mobility and sought amenities such as fully-furnished rooms with kitchenettes. Without having to sign a lease, professionals enjoyed the flexibility of living in a hotel as they could move if their career path changed. By the 1940s, suburbs and automobiles profoundly changed how these hotels operated. The Chatham transitioned into a more traditional hotel and then, by the 1960s, converted into a dormitory that served women training to become flight attendants at the Weaver Airline Personnel School. The school operated until 1973, and its graduates usually secured employment with Trans-World Airlines which had its headquarters in Kansas City. After a period of low investment in this neighborhood during the 1970s and 1980s, the Chatham transitioned into a senior center and is now known as the Senior Center of the Chathams.

The Georgian-Revival designed Chatham Hotel, constructed in 1923, stands as an excellent example of middle-class apartment hotel architecture typical of urban centers throughout the United States during the 1920s. While Kansas City and other growing communities were home to many luxury apartments that catered to the wealthy, the Chatham was one of many dozens of apartment hotels that attracted upwardly mobile middle-class professionals. Given the rapid influx to cities like Kansas City after World War I, and the high cost and low availability of homes, apartment hotels not only served young professionals, but also families. 

Grand Hotels attracted great attention during the 1920s. Several that catered to the wealthiest members of society like New York's Park Lane and the Waldorf-Astoria, Chicago's Ambassador East and the Palmer House, and San Francisco's Palace and St. Francis, were featured in magazines. While long-term rentals make up a smaller share of the business at those famous hotels, it is important to remember that people of all social classes lived in rental housing at this time. As a result, there was a substantial and growing market for apartment-hotel that could serve the needs of the upwardly mobile middle class. Along with amenities deemed essential such as weekly maid service, some apartment hotels provided meals while others offered kitchenettes. They also offered middle-class professionals an opportunity to live in the city near trains, streetcars, jobs, theaters, shopping, and more. And, hotel apartments could provide all those features without requiring long-term leases, which allowed professionals to move easily if a new job opportunity arose.

In Kansas City, several middle-class apartment hotels were constructed the early twentieth century. Apartment hotels commonly contained weekly rooms for rent, kitchenette apartments, and larger suites designed for families. Like many middle-class hotel apartment buildings found throughout the nation, Chatham offered its guests numerous options including small appliances like toasters and a complete set of dishes and kitchen utensils. The Chatham was located between the upscale Old Hyde Park and Valentine/Roanoke residential areas, on Broadway, a central north-south corridor connecting downtown to newer neighborhoods and commercial buildings to the south. 

The Chatham opened at a time when Kansas City enjoyed a population boom, which coincided with prolific apartment construction. Between 1910 and 1930, the city's population increased by 150,000 to nearly 400,000 residents. From 1920 to 1929, 15,152 new apartment units and 1,092 new duplex units came on the market; 299 apartment buildings comprising 3,200 units opened in 1923. 

By the early 1930s, apartment-hotel trends changed. For example, New York has home to nearly 130 upscale apartment hotels at the end of the boom years of the '20s. However, by the 1930s, the economy changed dramatically. As a result of the economic downturn, apartment hotels saw more working-class and transient guests. The trend accelerated after World War II, when suburban construction boomed. By the end of the twentieth century, apartment hotels that once catered to the young and mobile were often home to the elderly. 

The Chatham survived the Great Depression and continued to serve the middle-class and upwardly mobile. For instance, one of its residents included Charles Keith, president of the Central Coal and Coke Company, who served a brief tenure as Kansas City mayor in 1939. By the early 1940s, a few investors even considered buying the property, but overall trends in the real estate market and urban demographics pushed investors to shy away from offering high prices for the Chatham. After World War II, The Chatham shifted to a traditional hotel model, serving mostly transient guests. 

By the 1960s, a group converted the Chatham into a dormitory-style residence for young women attending the Weaver Airline Personnel School. The women trained as flight attendants in the ever-expanding airline industry, most of whom went on to work for Trans World Airlines (TWA), which maintained its headquarters in Kansas City. However, By 1973, the Weaver Airline Personnel School closed due to a court injunction resulting from the school's false advertising. After the closure, the Chatham's decline ensued and began to show its age (as did the surrounding neighborhood). After a period where it stood vacant, notably during the 1980s, a renovation allowed it to transition into a senior center, now known as the Senior Center of the Chathams. 

The Chatham's history mirrors that of most apartment hotels that emerged during the "Roaring '20s." When it opened, it catered to financially successful professionals who sought to live in the city near jobs, streetcars, restaurants, and nightlife. But, as the twentieth century progressed, workers and even the wealthy moved to the suburbs, and the automobile took over as the dominant form of transportation. Hotels like Chatham no longer catered to those with wealth, but instead to workers and even the poor, often transitioning into a community center or senior living centers or sometimes demolished by the twenty-first century. 

Davidson, Lisa Pfueller. "A Service Machine": Hotel Guests and the Development of an Early-Twentieth-Century Building Type." Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture 10 (2005): 113-29. 

Gardner, Tony. "Nomination Form: Chatham Hotel." National Register of Historic Places. Archives.com. 2008. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63819100. A PDF version can be found here: https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/media/63819100/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MO/08000564.pdf.

Rome, Adam. The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism." New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.