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KC's West Bottoms was profiled in a September 29, 1907 article in the Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper

9th Street between State Line and Genessee on 9th Street was known as “The Wettest Block in the World” fthe wettest block in the world following Kansas prohibition with 23/24 buildings on the north and south side of 9th Street being saloons or liquor stores.Building at SW corner of 9th and State was constructed by Pabst Brewery in 1911. St Louis Ave and State Line, about a block south, was home to Joseph Schlitz Brewing depot.

West Bottoms and The Wettest Block in the World

This walk though the historic West Bottoms begins with a historical marker and the landmark Kansas City Live Stock Exchange Building which was the epicenter of the region's cattle industry. The tour includes several structures that were home to vast warehouses and factories along with additional historical markers and buildings, as well as the location of important landmarks that have been lost to time like Kansas City's Union Depot, the vast rail station that was abandoned owing to flooding and replaced by Union Station. 

Missouri was a long time frontier for the French monarchy as it looked to expand its colonial empire west beyond the Mississippi River. Many explorers and traders were sent by the French up the Missouri River to establish presence and trade with Native peoples and the Spanish in Santa Fe. Though several made it past the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers where Kansas City stands today, no permanent settlement for the French crown was founded west of central Missouri. The French Commandant of the Missouri mentioned in the marker is Étienne de Veniard Sieur de Bourgmont. He used Fort Orleans near the mouth of Grand River in central Missouri as his headquarters until his return to France in 1725. Bourgmont regularly traveled to and beyond the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers. His expeditions were heavily influential for the creation of the Santa Fe trail.The settlement mentioned in the marker as being founded in the early 1800’s was Chez les Canses, which was first settled in 1799. These French settlers found themselves to be apart from the United States in wake of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Inhabitants of the village were involved in farming and some level of the fur trade with Francois Chouteau’s trading post that was founded in 1821. Nothing is left of the original village after its destruction by flooding in 1844.The text of this historical marker reads as follows:<blockquote>One of America’s oldest and most prestigious livestock expositions, the American Royal, is situated in the very spot where Kansas City, the gateway to the agricultural West, had its beginnings. This little French-speaking enclave below the imposing bluffs, still today sometimes called the French Bottoms, was settled in the very early 1800’s by French-Indians who came down from the Northern Missouri River with their Blackfoot wives. They were part of the genesis of the vast cornucopia of riches of food and fiber which was to become the American West.</blockquote><blockquote>A Kansas City architectural historian surmised that at least some of the French cabins were of typical French “poteaux en terre” construction, i.e., upright posts in the ground, with thatched roofs. They were probably situated on narrow strips, as in France, Canada, and Saint Louis, using the arpent of “Paris Acre” measurement of land.</blockquote><blockquote>Using the 1841 map of Fr. Point, the French-speaking parish priest, we can compare the present day locations of the American Royal buildings vis-à-vis the French settles’ farms. The Prudhomme/Mercier plot would have been nearest to the American Royal/Kemper Arena complex. Nearer the “bulls on the hill” at Genessee Street – I-670 intersection was the little farmstead of Edouard. Straggling on to the North were those of the Bowirds, LaGautheries, Trembles, and Philberts and the Tugeons and Etues were nearby.</blockquote><blockquote>The French Commandant of the Missouri, referring to the general area from present Kansas City on Westward said, circa 1717: “This is the finest country and the most beautiful in the world; the prairies are like the seas, and filled with wild animals, especially oxen (buffalo), cattle, hind and stag, in such quantities as to surpass the imagination.”</blockquote><blockquote>These country French had week “bals” where the tasty pot de boullion and friendly cup of wine went round and the chansons and fiddles and laughter rang out. But after the great flood of 1844, all was washed away, and the village priest said that all one could hear wafting up from the little French clearings were the songs of the birds and the chattering of the squirrels.</blockquote>

Commonly referred to as the West Bottoms, the French Bottoms was the general location of the French speaking village of Chez les Canses, the first permanent White settlement in the modern day Kansas City. First settled in 1799, the village only stood for a few decades before being washed away by a flood in 1844. Into the late 1800s, this area became a commercial hub with the newly built Union Depot and stockyards. This historical marker was removed in 2018 for new construction at this location and is awaiting a permanent home.

The "French Bottoms" - Early Day Kansas City Historical Marker

<h4>Brief History of the Kansas City Stockyards</h4>The history of the Kansas City Stockyards is as old as the city itself. This is because the Kansas City area was known as the gateway to the west, and along the Sante Fe Trail, thousands of cattle were moving from Texas to markets in the east. In the 1840s and late ‘60s, Native Americans, squatters, and farmers were converging in the West Bottoms to trade livestock, flour, furs, and more. Anticipating a further increase in trading, local businessmen constructed 11 pens, 15 unloading chutes, and a pair of Fairbanks scales in 1870. That same year, over 100,000 cattle were moved with those limited facilities. By 1871, the “Kansas Stock Yards Company” came into being. From there, the stockyards grew immensely over the years, acquiring more land and trading hundreds of thousands of livestock.1Kansas City grew around the stockyards, and towards the end of the 19th century, about 90-percent of the value in Kansas City lay in the West Bottoms. The stockyards continued to flourish, surviving floods and fires, and building the nine-story Livestock Exchange (at the time of its building in 1911, it was the tallest building in the world). In 1929, for example, around 2,179,000 head of cattle and 4,151,000 hogs were sold through the stockyard. Activity peaked in the 1940s with over $350 million in exchange every year.2 Unfortunately, the great flood of 1951 had devastating effects on the stockyard; many packing plants closed and farmers and ranchers began negotiating directly with packers or through small regional auction barns. Nonetheless, the stockyards continued for another 40 years after the flood, closing in 1991.

This historic Kansas City landmark was constructed between 1909 and 1911. The building serves as the headquarters of the Kansas City Stockyards which was once the second-biggest stockyard in the United States, trailing only behind the Union Stock Yards in Chicago. Founded in 1870, and operating until it closed in 1991, the Kansas City stockyards and its Live Stock Exchange Building were essential to the economic growth of the city, providing livestock owners with the best prices for their cattle. Beginning in 1899, the stockyards began what is known today as the American Royal Livestock and Horse Show. At the height of its operations, between 1911 and the devastating flood of 1951, the stockyards sold millions of cattle, including cows, hogs, sheep, horses, and many other animals. The Livestock Exchange, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, stands as a monument of the growth, development, and decline of Kansas City and its livestock industry. The building has been home to the Golden Ox steakhouse, an iconic Kansas City establishment, since 1949.

Kansas City Live Stock Exchange

West Bottoms overview here... Dick Brothers Brewing Company of Quincy Illinois was the first out-of-town brewery to create a depot at the northeast corner of 10th and Mulberry.

In 1877, Jacob Rieger established a distillery across from the Livestock Exchange that would grow to become the largest mail-order distributor of whiskey in the United States. J. Rieger &amp; Co. operated until prohibition in 1919.

J. Rieger & Co. (1877-1919)

Constructed in 1883, this building was home to several of the leading industries of the West Bottoms during the late 19th and early 20th century, each a part of the agricultural business sector that shaped Kansas City. Shortly after the Civil War, Kansas City was selected as the site of the first bridge over the Missouri River. With the construction of the Hannibal Bridge just over a mile northeast of this point, this area soon became the crossroads of commerce. Nine years later, Union Depot was completed just half a mile north of this location. This rail stop proved to make Kansas City a booming railroad city. The nexus of rivers and railroads attracted investors, including Charles Francis Adams Jr., the great-grandson of former president John Quincy Adams. Adams had local advisors, Nathan Thayer and Charles F. Morse, survey the business landscape and offer him investment ideas. While he would invest in land on both sides of the Kansas–Missouri border, no area appealed to Adams Jr. more than the West Bottoms. Two existing industries in the West Bottoms attracted him to the location. A block to the east was the John Deere building while the stockyards straddled the state border. With these businesses and easy access to the rail line, Charles Francis Adams Jr. invested in the location. Over the decades following its construction, the building was home to some of the most important agricultural businesses in the West Bottoms. The first of such tenants was The Buford and George Company in 1883. At that time, they were one of the largest agricultural firms in the country and sold equipment from various manufacturers. The company acquired a building in Kansas City in 1878 on the southwest corner of Union Avenue and Santa Fe Street, which demonstrated the growth of Kansas City's agribusiness sector. On June 10th, 1894, a fire demolished the original structure, but Buford and George reinvested in the West Bottoms and selected the firm of Van Brunt and Howe to design a replacement. This structure was completed in 1895 for $17,000 and would serve the company and its over 100 employees until owner Edward George sold the company to John Deere upon his retirement in 1903.John Deere maintained the same workforce, but some of their inventory and operations were naturally transitioned to John Deere’s main building, which was a block to the east. This building was used to support the saddlery and harness division that made Buford and George so popular after John Deere acquired the building, and soon John Deere decided to divide this part of the company into a separate entity, the Velie Saddlery Company in 1907. Veile produced and sold equipment to farmers in places like the American Southwest, but as farmers utilized mechanized equipment in the years that followed, the company downsized and left the building in 1913. Numerous agricultural firms operated out of this building in the next decades. Today, the structure is a mixed-use property with loft apartments and a salon at the base of the building.

While the family of John Adams and John Quincy Adams is best associated with Washington D.C. and Massachusetts, Charles Francis Adams Jr., the great-grandson of John Quincy Adams, left his mark on Kansas City when he had this West Bottoms building constructed in 1883.  At that time, this was prime real estate between Union Depot and the old Stockyards, and Adams understood the economic power of agricultural business in the area. This building was home to several important agricultural businesses over the years, starting with the Buford and George Company, a leader in the farm implement business. A fire that swept through the area in 1894 destroyed the original structure and Buford and George occupied the building until 1903, the same year as a devastating flood that served as a harbinger of future floods. John Deere eventually took over the location and used it to support their saddlery and harnesses business until 1913. By then, Union Depot's fate was sealed as Union Station was only a year from completion, and many businesses that depended on rail transportation were moving to the Crossroads area. The building is now a mixed-use property with loft apartments and a barbershop and salon on the first story alongside businesses such as West Bottoms Whiskey next door.

Charles Francis Adams Jr. Building

The Central Industrial District of Kansas City, known locally as the West Bottoms, developed slowly in the years leading up to and immediately following the Civil War. Following the construction of the Hannibal Bridge in 1869 which became the first railroad bridge to cross the Missouri River, the West Bottoms grew quickly and soon became a major manufacturing, agriculture, and warehousing center. With its connections to the nation's railroads, large structures were built throughout the West Bottoms owing to the connections it offered to major cities in the northern, midwestern, and southwestern United States.<blockquote>Steam engines like the Hannibal raced from Kansas City to Chicago at speeds over 30 miles per hour after 1869 when the Hannibal Bridge across the Missouri River linked the existing lines. The completion of the bridge set off a railroad boom and made Kansas City the hub of a rail network extending into the Great Plains and the Southwest.</blockquote>With this, growth in the West Bottoms took off, and the area became the home to numerous agricultural and industrial businesses. Albert Marty, a local real estate and land developer, saw the potential in this and commissioned the construction of the Albert Marty Building, a warehouse in an ideal location near the railroad depot and local businesses. When the Union Depot was constructed in 1877, the West Bottoms saw increased construction that would later include this building.It is unknown which of the many local architectural firms Marty hired to design his building. However, its Romanesque Revival style was a favorite of Van Brunt &amp; Howe, so most believe this building was also their work. If this were true, it might be the last building of their design to still stand in Kansas City, as most of the rest have been demolished.Buildings of this style are usually blocky, compact, and made of solid, heavy brick, and the Marty Building is no exception. The wide doorways and arched windows were also characteristic of the Romanesque Revival tradition. Since the building has been almost completely unchanged since its initial construction, apart from some renovation efforts to keep it in good shape, it remains a good example to this day of American Romanesque Revival architecture.After its construction, the multiuse building supported a variety of businesses that operated in the West Bottoms. The first occupants were various farm implement suppliersarm implement suppliers who used it for warehouse and office space. Some of its initial owners included Marseilles Manufacturing and Peru Plow in 1886 and Stowe Brokerage Firm and Kansas City Hardware Company in 1887. It housed the Gustin-Bacon Manufacturing Company from the 1910s to 1964. After this, it moved hands from them to the Columbia Burlap Bag Company, whose name is still printed on the building, to a tire company, and to an antique vendor.In 1903, a severe flood of the Missouri River took place, swelling to nearly 13 feet above the natural riverbank, and a similar flood followed in 1908. These events damaged most historic buildings in the West Bottoms to the point that they either collapsed and were so damaged that they needed to be demolished. Owing to the design and sustainability of the Marty Building, city planner Adriance Van Brunt used this building as an example when updating city building codes. From then on, buildings in the West Bottoms, as well as other neighborhoods nearby the Missouri River like the Stockyards, were built with elevated ground-level floors, heating equipment on the roof, and no basements. Since the Missouri River can be especially flood-prone, this design proved essential to the Marty Building's durability.

Constructed in the Romanesque Revival tradition in 1886, the Albert Marty Building is one of the oldest remaining structures in Kansas City's West Bottoms. The building represents a period of rapid growth that followed the construction of Union Depot in 1877. The building's history also reflects the larger history of the West Bottoms, serving as warehousing space for farm implement suppliers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when this was the epicenter of rail traffic. The building was later utilized for manufacturing, including the Columbia Burlap Bag Company whose name remains on the structure. The building survived the shift away from warehousing and the closure of the stockyards and numerous Missouri River floods, and serves as a reminder of the late nineteenth-century architecture.

Albert Marty Building

Constructed in 1886 by Fred Hamilton, who also was responsible for the construction of the Albert Marty building next door, this site holds an important place in the region’s history. The building served as the headquarters of a regional branch of the Creamery Packaging Manufacturing Company and was used for warehousing and distribution 1887 to 1895. The growth of this area dates back to the construction of the Hannibal Bridge in 1869 and Union Depot in 1878. The Hannibal Bridge, running just east of what is now Interstate 169, was the first permanent rail crossing over the Missouri River. This made the location a crossroads for rail traffic and led to investment in the area. For many decades, a railroad spur entered the back of the building to facilitate the warehouse’s daily activities. On February 11th, 1895, a fire in the basement spread quickly throughout the building, and firefighting efforts could not save the largely wooden interior. Much of the inventory was lost and much of the original structure was unusable. The company relocated nearby with offices at 931-933 W. 8th Street while reconstructing this structure, which they leased out for decades, until returning to this location in 1921. The company operated from this building in the West Bottoms until May 1964, when they merged with the St. Regis Pulp and Paper Corporation of Delaware. In the period between the company's first and second stint at the location, various tenants, starting with Flint, Walling, and Company in 1886. This company produced windmills and water pumps that were crucial to agricultural irrigation systems across the Midwest. The company operated from this building for only one year before moving one block east. C. Sidney Shepherd and Company leased the building in 1897, producing domestic goods as did the next tenant, O.L. Chase Mercantile, who sold sewing machines. The last tenant was by far the longest-lasting. From 1902 to 1921, the Chandler Pump Company was the sole tenant of the building and used the warehouse to provide products for plumbing businesses throughout the Midwest.

In 1886, Kansas City's Creamery Package Manufacturing Company Building was constructed, and served as a regional branch for the Creamery Packaging Manufacturing Company. The company used this Romanesque Revival style building for operations until 1895 when a fire forced the company to relocate. The company operated from nearby buildings and returned operations to this building in 1921. In 1964, a merger with the St. Regis Pulp and Paper Corporation of Delaware forced a reorganization of company assets. In the years since, various tenants occupied the building, including Flint, Walling, and Company, C. Sidney Shepherd and Company, O.L. Chase Mercantile, and the Chandler Pump Company. The building's architecture reflects its rich history, with its Romanesque Revival style and original façade, although some parts were replaced in 1952 after a flood.

Historic Creamery Packaging Manufacturing Company Building

The West Bottoms became a center for manufacturing and the transportation of goods after the Civil War thanks largely to the construction of the Hannibal Bridge. The city invested heavily in infrastructure, constructing a massive railroad terminus and replacing the previous rail station with the grandiose Union Depot. The West Bottoms grew rapidly in the last few decades of the nineteenth century, with buildings springing up across the neighborhood to take advantage of new opportunities. However, the West Bottoms and surrounding neighborhoods exist in a low-lying flood plain along the Missouri and Kansas Rivers. The floods of 1903 and 1908 devastated the area. Many buildings were lost, either collapsing in the floods or having to be demolished later. Several years after many of its neighbors were destroyed, the building once stood at 1200 Union Avenue was destroyed in a fire. These events affected how buildings were constructed in the area from then on; most were built without basements and with their ground floors slightly elevated, and some, like the Perfection Stove Building, were made to be fireproof, often made of stone or brick but reinforced with concrete on the inside.The Perfection Stove Company was a Cleveland-based manufacturer of stoves and ranges. They came to Kansas City in 1919, the same year as a strike at their Cleveland factory. While there was talk of building a new factory elsewhere to continue production despite the striking workers, it's unknown if the Kansas City location was the result of labor strife or had already been planned before the strike. Regardless, the company commissioned a Cleveland architectural firm to design their new building, and Kansas City's Perfection Stove Company building was born.After the floods and fires of the previous decade, code regulations had been updated to keep more buildings from being destroyed. Thanks to these stricter requirements, as well as the building being built with its business needs in mind, the Perfection Stove Company Building was made to be simple, sturdy, and built to last. It is also somewhat smaller and shorter than the warehouses that used to occupy the area. Its rectangular shape and simple brick exterior don't give the average passerby much idea what the building was built for or who its current occupants might be. This doesn't mean the building was completely plain, though - since it was its company's new headquarters, they were allowed to decorate the entrances with terra-cotta patterns. The windows also came in different designs depending on if they opened to office or warehouse space.By the late 1950s, Perfection Stove Company had moved on, taking its headquarters elsewhere. It was home to the Weber Paper Company from 1958 to about 1978, and from then to 2008, housed Weld Wheel Industries, the makers of race car tires. It has been vacant ever since, despite some efforts to restore and repurpose the historic building.

After the Hannibal Bridge was built across the Missouri River, the West Bottoms became a hub of transport thanks to the railroads passing through the area. Much of the neighborhood's economy was based on meatpacking and warehouses. This building was constructed in 1919 for the Cleveland-based Perfection Stove Company and provided both office and warehouse space. The building changed hands several times over the decades, first housing a paper company and then serving as the home of a manufacturer of race car wheels. This building is one of several that were built after the floods of 1903 and 1908, as well as area fires. These disasters led to the West Bottoms Union Depot being replaced by Union Station further South. In response, many of the buildings constructed in the West Bottoms were smaller and designed to be less susceptible to flood damage by not including basements. Similar to other structures that followed a series of fires, the Perfection Stove Company utilized more stone and masonry and less wood to reduce susceptibility to fire damage.

Perfection Stove Company Building

Union Depot had a unique design. It was so unique that most weren't sure what architectural style it was supposed to be. Aspects of many architectural traditions could be seen, including "Italian-Renaissance to French Empire, Gothic, and Victorian," leading some to believe it was just a combination of all or several of those styles. The building boasted "steeples, towers, turrets, arches, cupolas, and detailed ornamentation. It was topped off by a 125-foot, four-sided clock tower." It was wider, taller, and more ornate than most area buildings, and as such, it stood out, towering over the West Bottoms with its elaborate design.Opinions on its one-of-a-kind style ranged from praising it, calling it the "Pride of Kansas City," to a "monstrosity." Some thought it was too ambitious for a city whose population had only passed 10,000 the decade before and still only reached 60,000, and it was hard for them to imagine that the town would ever grow to need such a huge station. They called it the "Jackson County Insane Asylum" for its "crazy" size, intricate, often extreme details, and as a jab to its builder, who also built a mental hospital in Topeka.No one could have predicted that the population of Kansas City would more than double just another decade later. Kansas City's population shot up to 132,000 by 1890. This led to a considerable increase in traffic through Union Depot, which overwhelmed the station. Before long, the West Bottoms was crowded and dirty. People complained about the Depot's lack of space and its proximity to "West Bottoms saloons, cheap hotels, brothels, and the stench of the Stockyards."The last straw for the Depot came after the turn of the century. With the 1903 and 1908 floods, the people of the West Bottoms were reminded the hard way just how flood-prone their neighborhood was. The area, built on low-lying land next to the river, was devastated. Many buildings were destroyed, and others were damaged beyond repair. Union Depot was one of the lucky ones, still usable after the waters receded. However, by this point, Kansas City was more than ready to move its railroad traffic through another, drier part of the city. Union Station opened in 1914, and the old Depot was demolished the following year.

After Hannibal Bridge was built in 1869, Kansas City needed a larger train station to manage growing railroad traffic while supporting passengers travel. City leaders saw this project as an opportunity to impress travelers and sought out several land developers, architects, and others in the construction trades to help create a grand new depot. The city purchased a piece of land on Union Avenue across from the bridge for this purpose and invested so heavily in the project that some doubted whether the new Union Depot, which was completed in 1878, would ever reach capacity. The project was a success and supported Kansas City's claim to being a center of commerce until it was replaced by Union Station.

Union Depot (1878-1915)

The West Bottoms became a major commercial district in the last half of the nineteenth century following the construction of a railroad bridge, the first to cross the Missouri River, into the neighborhood. What followed was several decades of expansion, with numerous railroad companies expanding their lines through Kansas City and businesses putting warehouses and headquarters as close to the depot as they could get.However, as rail traffic increased, the neighborhood became crowded, with less room for businesses to operate. In 1903 and 1908, floods devastated the area, destroying many of its buildings. Finally, in 1914, the construction of Union Station as a new passenger station took pressure off the West Bottoms. While some businesses took these events as a chance to leave the neighborhood, seeking opportunities in other parts of the city, many chose to stay, taking advantage of whatever awaited them.One such business was the Ridenour-Baker Grocery Company. Operating in the area since 1878, this company lost its original building to the 1903 flood. Additionally, midway through the construction of their new building, a fire damaged the complex, one of several to impact West Bottoms businesses during the 1910s. As a result, much of the unfinished building needed to be rebuilt. When finishing their work, the builders kept the possibility of floods and fires in mind. Like other newer buildings in the area, the Ridenour-Baker Building was built with no basements, a new measure to prevent flood damage. It was made of reinforced concrete, a then state-of-the-art fireproofing measure. Its flat roof and simple, minimally decorated exterior were encouraged by city officials for some time after the floods.It is clear from looking at the Ridenour-Baker Building that it was built with its company's needs in mind. Despite the movement of some businesses to Union Station, there was still significant railroad traffic through the area from the 1910s onward, so much of this company's business would have had to do with shipping goods. The building's large size, proximity to the street and railroad tracks, and ample loading dock allowed for this. These features enabled the company to store what they needed before quickly and efficiently loading it onto train cars to be sent elsewhere in the country.Ridenour-Baker flourished for some time during and after its construction. Despite losing seventy-one of its 350 employees when they enlisted in the military during World War I, the company became a prominent local supporter of the war effort, successfully fundraising over $300,000 for the Red Cross and United War Work. They were significant contributors to the grocery industry during the 1920s. However, the company began to struggle during the early Great Depression thanks to the declining economy and competition in other midwestern cities such as Omaha. Finally, Ridenour-Baker dissolved in 1936 after the retirement of co-founder Edward Ridenour.After this, the building leased its space to several smaller businesses. Most of these companies, like Ridenour-Baker, made their homes in West Bottoms to take advantage of the neighborhood's opportunities. Most of the early renters were transportation companies. Later, companies used the building's capabilities as a warehouse, using it as storage space while preparing to send their goods away on trains, just as Ridenour-Baker had done. The most recent company to work out of the building was Weld Wheel Industries, Inc., from 1978 to 2003. Since then, the building has been vacant. Developer William Reeder announced plans in 2015 to convert the building into apartments. However, as of 2022, plans have changed to demolishing the building completely, as it has become "too deteriorated to be adapted," and just making a new building. As of October 2022, demolition efforts have not yet begun.

Consisting of four blocks, constructed between 1910 and 1919, the Ridenour-Baker Grocery Company Building is a great example of West Bottoms commercial architecture after the catastrophic floods and fires of the previous decades. It was home to a flourishing grocery company throughout the 1920s. They, like other area businesses, worked with the building's advantageous location near the railroad tracks to make money shipping goods around the country. In the 1930s, the business closed in the wake of the Great Depression, and the building was leased by a series of smaller businesses who, like Ridenour-Baker, made their living transporting goods. However, after its last owner moved out in 2003, it sadly remained vacant and fell into disrepair.

Ridenour-Baker Grocery Company Building

The Abernathy brothers hailed from Ohio but settled in Leavenworth, Kansas, just before the Civil War. At the time, Leavenworth was a thriving, growing city thanks to the business coming in from the nearby Missouri River. James Abernathy took advantage of this, choosing to start the family's furniture business there. When James went to serve in the military during the war, William took over the business, running it until his death in 1869, at which point James took it over. While William ran a store in Kansas City during his tenure, James was responsible for opening the company's second plant in the West Bottoms. At the time, this neighborhood was the industrial hub of Kansas City, largely thanks to its proximity to the railroad. Abernathy also took advantage of this, as the company relied on trains to bring in lumber and ship their finished products. During the company's time in the West Bottoms, Abernathy became one of the largest employers in the area. As the company grew, the Abernathy building was expanded several times, eventually reaching a size of 300,000 square feet and stretching onto Ninth Street and Liberty Street. Most of the extended building is still intact today, although one of the extensions was demolished in the 1970s.By the 1950s, most manufacturers who had found success in the West Bottoms had moved elsewhere, and the area was in decline. Around the same time others were leaving, Abernathy Furniture Company and both its manufacturing plants were bought out by the United Industrial Syndicate, Inc., and Davidson's Furniture Company. They subsequently sold the buildings and laid off some 100 employees. It is unknown what the building was used for after this. However, like many other West Bottoms buildings, it likely sat vacant for some time, judging by its poor condition as of 2016.That year, MCM Company bought the building, as well as two adjacent ones, and partnered with design and construction companies for a $68 million restoration project. They cleaned and restored the red brick on the outside of the building while painstakingly working around the Abernathy Furniture Co. writing to make sure the building's history remained clear. MCM also instructed the construction company to leave the graffiti on the ground level alone. According to project manager Wayne Schasteen, "it was a really nice graffiti. They found the artists and had them come back and touch it up." Once this was done, MCM had transformed the deteriorated Abernathy building into the West Bottoms Flats.

Established in 1856, Leavenworth-based Abernathy Furniture Company is "one of Kansas' earliest and most successful businesses." It was founded by brothers James, William, and John Abernathy. As their business grew, they expanded to Kansas City, opening their new plant in the West Bottoms in the following decades, likely circa 1880. The company remained successful for nearly a century, with its furniture gaining a reputation for being "of good quality and servicable." Ultimately, Abernathy was bought out by another company in the 1950s. After an expensive restoration project in 2016, the building was converted into apartments.

Abernathy Furniture Company Building

In 1886, Frank Smith, cofounder of West Bottoms-based Smith and Moffatt Tea, Coffee, and Spice Company, died suddenly in an accident at the company headquarters at Santa Fe and 9th Street. On the encouragement of his uncle, a local banker, Major Thomas Graham Beaham bought Smith's shares of the company, taking over as co-owner and turning the company into Beaham and Moffatt. Faultless Starch was born in 1891, just a few years later, when Beaham bought the formula for a dry white starch from Harvey Bosworth, an area druggist. The new brand quickly took off, gaining popularity with housewives for how easy to use it was. It was also adapted to other uses by its customers as a treatment for skin irritations, a finish for embroidery and lace work, and as a baby powder.Originally, Beaham and Moffatt sold Faultless Starch together through their tea and spice business, which they continued to operate out of the Santa Fe building. However, in 1898 Beaham decided to devote all his efforts to his new product, selling his shares in the spice company and running Faultless on his own.Faultless Starch Company moved to its current location, a larger and more modern building, after the old building was damaged beyond repair in the 1903 floods. The building was designed by the local firm Shepard and Farrar, who later became known for the Charles Keith house in the Plaza area and the President Hotel and Deramus Building downtown. Its multiple entrances, loading docks, and location near the street and railroad tracks gave the business what it needed to quickly load goods onto trains for shipping across the country. The building also shares its minimal exterior decoration, simple rectangular shape, flat roof, and numerous large windows with other area buildings after the flood. Not only were they inexpensive to build this way, but city officials encouraged this kind of simple, sturdy construction after the loss of so many other buildings to floods and, later, fires.From there, the company continued to grow in size. Starting around the turn of the century, John Nesbitt, a Texan salesman, attached brochures to the company's products with rubber bands, advertising Faultless Starch to what would become the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. This led to the spread of the company's popularity in the Southwest. After spreading across the rest of the country, it grew on the international level - today, the company sells its products in over twenty countries. In response to the growth of the company and its additions of new products, expansions were made to the building twice, once in the 1930s and once in the 1950s after another devastating flood. In the 1970s, the offices were moved to another building about a mile away to make room for manufacturing. These offices have moved twice since then, but the building on 8th street is still home to the manufacturing plant for the company's many products, as well as those of the acquired Bon Ami company.

Faultless Starch Company was founded in the late nineteenth century and continues to operate within this historic building the company has owned for more than a hundred years. Both the business and building are among the oldest in the West Bottoms, and this building has been the home to the company since its last building, located just a block away, was lost in the West Bottoms flood of 1903. Like other area businesses, Faultless Starch chose to operate out of the West Bottoms due to its proximity to the railroad which supported their need to sell and ship products all across the country. In 1971 Faultless Starch purchased the Bon Ami Company, merging to become Faultless Starch/Bon Ami Company, as the company is known today.

Faultless Starch Company/Bon Ami Building

Nationally linked steam-powered railroads didn't reach Kansas City until the 1860s, but their story started as far back as 1803 when President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon's government. In doing so, Jefferson doubled the size of land claimed by the United States which encouraged western settlement and investment. By 1840, nearly forty percent of the people of European and African descent in lands claimed by the United States lived east of the Appalachians. With the settlement of western states like California, the United States had grown so large that travel, transport of goods, and even simply sending mail across the country was difficult and time-consuming. The answer to this problem was the railroad.The first railroad connecting the West to the midwestern United States, fittingly called the First Transcontinental Railroad, was completed in 1869 after several years of work. The nearly two-thousand stretch of railway linked California to Iowa and, through it, the rest of the country. However, even though this railroad was such a massive undertaking, and even though there was an ongoing Civil War, it didn't bring railway construction elsewhere to a halt. In 1864, the Kansas Pacific Railway was completed, linking Kansas City to the rest of the state of Kansas, as well as Colorado. Over the next several decades, a series of other companies built their railroads through the city in all directions, connecting the city to others all across the country, from New Mexico and Texas to Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan.In 1866, the Hannibal Bridge, the first railroad bridge to cross the Missouri River, was completed in Kansas City, directly connecting to the West Bottoms. This caused railroad and industry growth in the city to take off. Railroads belonging to companies such as the Atchison, Topeka &amp; Santa Fe, Missouri Pacific, St. Louis-San Francisco, and Chicago, Burlington &amp; Quincy were built through the area, and by the turn of the century, Kansas City was home to nearly forty different lines. The West Bottoms in particular became a center of transport for one of the city's biggest exports, cows, as well as other goods. The importance of the railroad to the city's growth is best put by the final paragraph on the marker:<blockquote>Railroads allowed Kansas City to enter the 20th century as one of the nation's most important transportation hubs. By connecting north and south, east and west, the rails transformed America into one nation while establishing Kansas City as a thriving center of business and culture.</blockquote>

This historical marker in Kansas City's West Bottoms district shares the history of the first railroads that transported goods and people through Kansas City in the 1860s and 1870s, culminating with the construction of Union Depot which operated from 1878 to 1915 and its replacement, Union Station. In 1863, Lawrence and Kansas City were connected by a new line operated by the Union Pacific. After the Civil War, this part of Kansas City was selected for the first railroad bridge to cross the Missouri River. Within just five years of the completion of the Hannibal Bridge, there were five railroad companies operating in the West Bottoms including the Atchison, Topeka &amp; Santa Fe, Missouri Pacific, St. Louis-San Francisco, and Chicago, Burlington &amp; Quincy. These railroads led to the rapid development of the West Bottoms area and connected Kansas City to markets across the country. As a result, Kansas City was able to "grow into more than just a way station for livestock" - it became a hub of transport for live cattle, meat, and other agricultural products by way of the railroads.

Kansas City's West Bottoms Driving Tour

West Bottoms and The Wettest Block in the World

Introduction

Images

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