Perfection Stove Company 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.

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.

Rosin, Elizabeth. Perfection Stove Company Building - National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Missouri State Parks. January 1st, 2014. Accessed October 15th, 2022. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Perfection%20Stove%20Co.%20Bldg.pdf.