Tivoli Gardens (1870-1883), Signboard Hill (1914-1973), Westin Crown Center

Now home to the Westin Kansas City at Crown Center Hotel, this location has been a crossroads and a destination throughout the city's history. The road that connected Westport to Westport Landing on the Missouri River ran through this area, and this was later the site of a stone quarry that produced many of the city's earliest buildings. In the 1870s, this was the site of Tivoli Gardens, a small amusement park with a brewery and German-style beer garden. After Union Station was completed in 1914, roads were extended, and the resulting cuts into the hills to create the roads created a high point here. The resulting bluff was soon surrounded by dozens of advertisements, resulting in the nickname Signboard Hill. At the base of the hill, a small business district sprung up that catered to railroad workers with restaurants, bars, and hotels, including the nine-story Plaza Hotel. The majority of Signboard Hill and the business district were removed during the construction of the Crown Center redevelopment project that opened in 1973. This former hill became Crown Center Hotel, today part of the Westin chain. The hotel was built into the last remaining section of Signboard Hill, and a small portion of the hill’s bedrock has been preserved inside the hotel and converted to a three-story indoor waterfall.

The original road that John McCoy forged from Westport down to the Missouri River ran down a gully from the bluffs above just east of here, which later became Grand Boulevard. Grant was the main road from Kansas City to Westport until 1910 and was also the route of one of Kansas City’s first horse-drawn streetcar lines. After the Civil War, a limestone quarry operated at this site, which produced stone for many of the original downtown buildings and the support pillars for the Hannibal Bridge. The miners dug deep caverns into the side of the bluffs.

The land sloped to the north at this location and was dotted with several springs, which drained down to OK Creek, located north of what is today Pershing Road. The location was unsuitable for farming, but in 1870, German immigrant Martin Keck saw its potential for something else: a brewery, German-style beer garden, and amusement park. As a baker by trade, Keck immigrated to the United States in 1855 and came to Independence, where he got a job at a bakery. He was one of a growing number of Germans who had moved to Jackson County and worked as artisans catering to the Santa Fe Trail traffic. In 1860, Keck moved to Westport, hoping to start his own bakery. He soon discovered that his abolitionist views, prevalent amongst German Americans, put him in the minority in Westport. He, therefore, decided to invest his money in a freight line and, over the next 6 years, made over 20 trips to the Southwest on the Santa Fe Trail. However, the Hannibal Bridge and the coming of the railroads ended the overland trail traffic.

Keck’s next venture was to purchase a small brewery with his father-in-law Heinrich Helmreich near the location of the old quarry. The springs provided the needed water, and the caves provided temperature-controlled storage for the beer vats. He purchased the six acres to the north and northwest of this location and created the Tivoli Gardens, named after the famous Danish amusement park. The Tivoli Gardens was a German-style beer garden and amusement park. The landscaping was manicured in a park-like setting with flower gardens, shady groves, and picnic areas. A pavilion held a large theater where vaudeville acts, concerts, and boxing and wrestling matches were held. On weekend evenings and Sunday afternoons, bands would perform at the outdoor bandstand while patrons walked the grounds, played at the 10-pin bowling alley, or visited the restaurant or ice cream parlor. The Tivoli was the scene of spectacles such as hot air balloon demonstrations, fireworks for the 4^th of July, charity picnics, and grand balls. And of course, the neighboring brewery provided an endless supply of beer.

However, in 1882, in response to the growing Temperance Movement around the nation, the city passed an ordinance that beer could not be sold on Sundays. Sundays were essential to the Tivoli, which billed itself as family friendly and relied on families coming out after church. His business took a hit. Moreover, the Tivoli was the scene of frequent drunken brawls between individuals or packs of patrons. One such incident in 1880 ended in gunfire and a man’s death. This drew the ire of the city’s nascent police force. Eventually, in 1883, Keck decided to close Tivoli Gardens. He subdivided the land and began selling the lots in a subdivision he named City View Park. He kept the lot on the southeast corner of 24^th (Pershing) and Main, where he had built his home. He and his father-in-law sold the brewery, which operated under a series of different owners until 1905.

When city engineers began planning for Union Station just northwest of this location, they realized they would have to transform much of the landscape. OK Creek, which ran through this area on its way to Turkey Creek in the west, was buried underground. Main St., which had previously ended at 22^nd St., was graded south to 27^th St. This necessitated the cutting and grading of the road up through the bluffs at this location. The cut, as much as 50' deep, required the removal of thousands of tons of rock and earth. 24^th St. was cut from Main St. to Grand Blvd. The original slope was graded down 44 feet to street level. The bluff was cut back past the locations of the original quarry diggings. This left a sheer 50’ tall cliff face at this location. The cuts of 24^th St., Grand Blvd., and Main St. had isolated the section of the Bluffs at this location into an island. The top of this “island” was inaccessible for development, but its visibility from downtown made it the perfect location for advertising billboards or “signboards” as they were then called. Soon, the hill was covered in signboards, leading to its nickname, Signboard Hill.

At the base of the Signboard Hill, a small business district soon sprung up to cater to the railroad workers at the new Union Station. There were restaurants, pool halls, bars and three hotels, including the 9-story Plaza Hotel. These businesses were far from the high-end establishments the city would have preferred to have across from Union Station for visitors to see when they got off the train. Moreover, many complained about Signboard Hill itself and the tackiness of having a hill covered in billboards outside the city’s new front door. A survey by the Kansas City Star in 1923 counted 75 billboards on the hill advertising everything from tires to liquor. However, in 1925, when the city attempted to raise $2 million to purchase the land via a bond issue, it was defeated at the polls. Subsequent attempts to redevelop the land in the following decades never left the planning stages.

Then in the late 1960s, Hallmark Cards began quietly purchasing the properties around its headquarters at 26^th and Grand, including Signboard Hill and the business district. The company had plans for a massive redevelopment project that would transform this blighted area of the city. Engineers removed over 400,000 tons of rock and earth as they demolished a large portion of Signboard Hill for what would become Crown Center. The former business district became home to the Crown Center Hotel, today the Westin Kansas City at Crown Center Hotel. The structure is built into the remaining section of Signboard Hill at this location. A small portion of the hill’s bedrock is preserved inside the hotel and has been made into a water feature.

Drouin, Jeremy. KCQ Taps Into the History of an Early Kansas City Beer Garden, KChistory.org. September 24th, 2021. Accessed March 8th, 2025. https://kchistory.org/blog/kcq-taps-history-early-kansas-city-beer-garden.

"1870s German Beer Garden Now an Iconic KC Destination." KC Star (Kansas City, Mo.) September 26th, 2021. , A sec.23.

"1940s When Billboards Flourished on Signboard Hill." Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.) August 7th, 1983. .4.

"Grand Concert at the Tivoli Gardens." Kansas City Journal (Kansas City, Mo.) June 28th, 1874. .4.

"Tivoli Park Garden." Kansas City Journal (Kansas City, Mo.) June 17th, 1906. .13.

"Will Remove Old Landmark." Kansas City Journal (Kansas City, Mo.) September 10th, 1910. .2.