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Kansas City University was established in 1932, and just five years later, students pushed for an official college mascot. The city was abuzz with a new kangaroo exhibit at the Kansas City Zoo, and students noticed how their school's initials "KCU" rhymed with kangaroo. In 1937, students started a humor magazine called The Kangaroo, which featured a drawing of "Kacey Roo" by former Kansas City resident Walt Disney. When current student Bill Buffe and recent KCU graduate Abby Abercrombie started their malt shop, they tapped into the popularity of the student-selected mascot.The Kangaroo was located just east of the street car tracks at the time, and thanks to the expansion of the KC Streetcar, the coffee shops and restaurants that are now located here will once again be "on the right side of the car tracks" as the Kangaroo advertised itself. The student newspaper and yearbook included several mentions of the Kangaroo, known colloquially to students as their "jelly joint," which was slang for dancing a little too close to the opposite sex.

A photo showing the building where the Kangaroo was located. The gas pumps are on the east side of the building and the Kangaroo would have been on the west end.

A collage of scenes at the Kangaroo from the 1939 University of Kansas City yearbook includes Charlie Parker in the second photo on the right.

Add for the Kangaroo Sweet shop in the Kangaroo Magazine

A malt shop that was frequented by the University of Kansas City students, the Kangaroo was established by Abby Abercrombie and Bill Buffe in 1938 to offer a venue for UKC students who lacked a Student Union at that time. The Kangaroo offered a live music jam session on Thursday afternoons that attracted KCU students and Southwest High School students and included a variety of musicians who earned money by playing gigs, including the up-and-coming local saxophonist Charlie Parker. Parker would become widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz musicians of the 20th century, but in 1938, he and other members of Jay McShann's band performed here when they weren't entertaining crowds at the larger venues with their bandleader. The 1939 University yearbook included a collage of images from jazz scenes, including a photo of an 18-year-old Charlie Parker playing at the Kangaroo. The university was segregated at that time, and the Kangaroo was open to white students. The photo is the only known image of Parker playing the alto saxophone in Kansas City prior to his move to New York and international fame.

The Kangaroo (1938)

Instructor

The route follows the newly-expanded Kansas City streetcar loop from the River Market to UMKC. This interactive tour makes it possible to simply sit and read or listen to the histories of over two dozen landmarks that are viewable from the streetcar route. Kansas City's own streetcar history dates back to 1869 when the first mule-drawn carts operated. Within a short period, Kansas City was home to the third-largest cable car system in the United States, and later became one of the largest streetcar systems. In 1957, the city commemorated the last run of its streetcars, but increased interest in public transportation led to the creation of this streetcar line in 2016. This interpretive trail along the streetcar line was built in anticipation of the 2025 expansion that will extend the line south from Union Station to the UMKC campus. 

Frenchmen mainly coming from Canada first began settling the area of modern day Kansas City in 1799 with the village of Chez les Canses. There were about two dozen families in this initial move, numbering a few hundred people. One of the initial families to move there was the Prudhomme family led by Gabriel Prudhomme who became somewhat of an unofficial leader of the group. At first this area was a true frontier and the settlers took time to tame the landscape for farming and building. Around 1820, more French speaking settlers began showing up in the area by coming up the Missouri River from St. Louis. This group was led by Francois Chouteau and his brothers who were seeking to expand their family business to the west.The Chouteau’s were a very prominent fur trading family in St. Louis. Francois’s father Jean-Pierre and his brother Auguste Chouteau arrived at St. Louis in 1765 and quickly established themselves as the dominant name in the local fur trade. Francois Chouteau built several trade posts along the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, but the eventual long term one was built on the north bank of the Missouri a few miles east of Chez les Canses. Many inhabitants of the Chez les Canses village actively participated in the fur trade, and often spent months away from home on trapping and trading missions, leaving their wife and children to care for the family’s land. Gabriel Prudhomme was one such man from the village who made a small fortune plying his craft in the fur trade. In 1831 he used this money to purchase 257 acres of land in between the village and the trading post. This land consisted of land south of the Missouri River and east of the Kansas River all the way down to modern day Independence. On this land, Prudhomme owned and operated several businesses including a tavern and general store. This area served as an early communal square for the inhabitants of Chez les Canses and the Chouteau Trading Post. Gabriel Prudhomme’s time in the town was short lived though as he was killed in a brawl shortly after his purchase of the land. Prudhomme’s land continued to be used communally and was later made the initial property boundaries of Kansas City when it was first platted as a town in 1846.The text of this historical marker reads as follows:<blockquote>Like New Orleans' "Vieux Carre," Kansas City's old market square and its surrounding Old Town streets in River Quay are oriented on the bias to the river in the Old World fashion, rather than on the strict east-west Yankee survey. That is because when Francois Chouteau, the French-speaking founder of what is now Kansas City, first laid out his trading post and adjoining trails in 1821, the Missouri river was his superhighway to St. Louis and to the Northwest hinterland. The scattered French settlers who first permanently occupied Kansas City, around 1799, together with those who came with the Chouteau's in the early 1800s, maintained fields extending from the west (on Quality Hill) and up the hill from their cabins located eastward down along the Missouri. These tracts backed up to this open area, which formed a sort of "common fields." Unlike St. Louis, it was not fenced, and was not formally maintained. All this open area and adjacent land (114 acres) was claimed by an enterprising French grocer, farmer and tavern owner, Gabriel Prudhomme (from whom a number of Kansas Citians are descended), and he was given a patent to the land. Prudhomme, who showed much promise, was not destined to develop Kansas City, however. In 1831 he was "shot in a free fight by some fellow Canadians. It was a fierce brawl. When the fight was over there were many wounds and much blood spilt, and Prudhomme lay on the ground, still and dead." Thus it was that on the widow Prudhomme's land the "Town of Kansas" was platted in 1846 and, since the old residents, both French and American, probably had some informal community claim to the general area where the Market Square now stands, it is not surprising that it was dedicated as the square or village green of the new town.</blockquote>

Prior to the bustling city following the construction of the stockyards and railroads, this site near the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers was a hub for commerce and trade. Located between the original French village of Chez les Canses and Francois Chouteau's Trading Post, this location was once the center of Gabriel Prudhomme's land, who was an early resident of the Kansas City area. Prudhomme owned and operated some of the first businesses in the Square, including a tavern and general store. Little remains of the original structures of Kansas City's original marketplace as they were subject to many floods over the years. City Market continues to offer an array of merchants, eclectic shops, and dining.

Kansas City's Old Square Historical Marker

The Steamboat Arabia was a side-wheel steamer crafted by boat-builders in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, centered around the boatyard of John S. Pringle in 1853. The vessel measured 171 feet long and was capable of carrying 222 tons of cargo. The side-mounted 28-foot-tall paddlewheels could push the steamboat upstream at a speed of over five miles per hour. The Arabia was considered a dependable vessel and soon gained a reputation for speed, safety, and comfort. Arabia traveled the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers before being purchased for $20,000 by Captain John Shaw of St. Charles, Missouri, in February 1855. Her first trip on the Missouri took her to Ft. Pierre, South Dakota, with 109 soldiers from Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. In the spring of 1856, the Arabia was sold to Captain William Terrill and George Boyd, both of St. Louis. During the 1856 season, the Arabia made at least fourteen trips on the Missouri River. During this time, the Arabia served many recent converts of the Mormon church who were seeking transportation to the West. During the spring and summer seasons, Mormon Pioneer Handcart Companies crossed the Plains with converts from England, France and Scandinavia. River transportation aboard the Arabia made part of the trek much easier and faster for these religious pioneers.  Navigating the Missouri River was a difficult and dangerous business. A variety of perils awaited the steamboat pilot as he carefully guided his craft along the river’s uncertain course. The most treacherous of the many river hazards were fallen trees lying hidden from sight just under the river’s surface. These “snags” crippled and sank hundreds of steamboats, some even on their first trip up the river.  Of the estimated 400 steamboats lost to the river, about 300 were “snagged.” The Arabia was one of those victims.On September 5, 1856, Arabia's oak hull was pierced by a trunk of a fallen walnut tree embedded in the mud. The impact was tremendous, catapulting the bow from the water and throwing many of the shaken passengers to the floor. As the Arabia’s timbers gave way, the log was thrust into the heart of the boat. Water poured through the gaping hole, and the Arabia began quickly sinking.Within minutes, much of the boat and virtually all 200 tons of valuable frontier cargo lay at the bottom of the Missouri River. Fortunately for those aboard, the upper cabins of the Arabia remained above water for a time. The frightened passengers and crew nervously waited for the steamer’s single rowboat to ferry them and their precious few recovered belongings to the safety of the riverbank. All aboard were saved except for a solitary, forgotten mule that remained behind, tied to a piece of sawmill equipment on the deck.  The river bottom was soft, and the boat and cargo sank quickly into the mud and silt. The next morning, only the smokestacks and the top of the pilothouse remained visible. Even these disappeared in a few days, swept away by the tremendous force of the river.Notorious for its shifting channel, the Missouri River cut a new path and moved east, leaving the spot where the Arabia sank to no longer be in the river but rather lying deep beneath a Kansas farm field. Rumored to be filled with whiskey and gold when it sank, the Arabia drew the attention of treasure hunters and failed salvage attempts for many years.Using a metal detector, weathered maps, and old newspaper clippings to guide the search, David Hawley located the wreck in July 1987. Years of erosion and shifting sand left the lost steamer 45 feet underground and a half-mile from the present channel of the Missouri River. Hawley and his family worked to excavate the ship and uncovered thousands of well-preserved artifacts from the cargo. The lack of sunlight and oxygen was credited with preventing significant deterioration. Items included clothing, dishware, tools, and food. It proved to be one of the largest known collections of pre-Civil War artifacts and provided valuable insight into the daily lives of settlers during the 1850s.In 1991, the Arabia Steamboat Museum opened in Kansas City to house the excavated collection. Thousands of artifacts from the ship are on display, while an additional sixty tons of materials are still being cleaned by conservationists for future exhibitions.

The packet steamboat Arabia sank in the Missouri River near Kansas City on September 5, 1856, taking down 200 tons of valuable cargo with it. The ship carried many Mormon settlers traveling westward, so the cargo included many everyday items that they would have used after establishing homes. After its sinking, the Arabia vanished; the changing currents of the Missouri River buried it in mud and silt. In 1988, the ship was discovered buried 45 feet underneath a corn field, and half a mile from the present course of the river. The excavation that followed found well-preserved clothes, tools, guns, dishware and other artifacts. The Arabia Steamboat Museum opened in 1991 to preserve and display these items to illustrate 1850s settler life. The museum also includes a recreation of the historic steamboat, displays about river transportation, and the early history of Kansas City.

Arabia Steamboat Museum

Local legends about the original hotel include frequent visits by outlaws Frank and Jesse James. In 1863, that building became the headquarters for the District of the Border, a military unit commanded by Brigadier General Thomas Ewing Jr. Order 11 depopulated parts of Vernon Bates, Cass, and southern Jackson County, believing that this would reduce pro-Confederate raids into Kansas communities in the wake of Quantrill's attack on Lawrence. The orders were later revised to support civilian resettlement.

The Pacific House Hotel building at 401 Delaware Street is believed to have been designed by architect Asa Beebe Cross and operated as a hotel for many decades. The original building, constructed circa 1860, burned down in 1868 but was used as a Union headquarters during the Civil War. The building was where General Thomas Ewing of the United States Army issued General Order Number 11, which called for the evacuation of four Missouri counties in the wake of William Qunatrill's raid on Lawrence and other Kansas communities. After the war, the building again served as a hotel until it was destroyed in an 1868 fire. The building was quickly rebuilt and operated as a hotel for decades, and it was converted into loft-style apartments in 1999.

Pacific House Hotel (1860-1868; 1868-Present)

David Woods Kemper was born in 1919 to James Sr. and Gladys Woods Kemper. The Kempers were a very prominent and influential banking family in the Kansas City and St. Louis area; for decades they have led Commerce Bancshares Inc. and its subsidiary Commerce Bank of Kansas City. Today they are still active in both the banking industry and philanthropy. David attended school at both Harvard and Stanford before enlisting in the Army in 1942. He was sent overseas to Italy where he eventually became a platoon leader with the rank of lieutenant. David was killed on April 25, 1945 just days before the end of the Second World War in Europe. In 1946 David’s father James Kemper Sr. and his brother James Kemper Jr. founded the David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation in his honor. It has awarded grants to many organizations and projects in Kansas City. In 2016 James Kemper Jr. established a second group, the David Woods Kemper Veterans Foundation, to provide financial support for veterans’ organizations in Kansas and Missouri.In 1962 David’s family commissioned a sculpture and fountain in his honor. The David Woods Kemper Memorial Fountain, more commonly known as the Muse of Missouri, was designed and sculpted by artist Wheeler Williams. It is meant to depict a Greek goddess known as a muse guiding the Missouri River. In Greek mythology, a muse was a female deity that provided inspiration and presided over arts and sciences. The fountain consists of 200 water spouts; rising above it is a nude statue of the goddess wielding a fishing net and surrounded by fish. Williams originally wanted to incorporate native Missouri River fish into the sculpture, such as carp and catfish, but he found them to be too ugly. Instead he created a carp and bluefish hybrid for the sculpture.The Muse of Missouri was dedicated and presented to the citizens of Kansas City on December 2, 1962. It is located on the median of 8th and 9th Street on Main Street. Maintenance of the fountain is handled by the City of Fountains Foundation, which holds an endowment for its upkeep. The Foundation is a non-profit group dedicated to conserving historic fountains and sculptures in Kansas City. The fountain and sculpture underwent an extensive restoration in 2005.

Also known as the David Woods Kemper Memorial, the Muse of the Missouri sculpture and fountain was dedicated in 1962 to the memory of David Woods Kemper, who was killed in action during World War II in Italy. It was a gift to the city by his parents Mr. and Mrs. James Kemper. Artist Wheeler Williams created the sculpture and designed the fountains. The sculpture depicts a muse, a Greek goddess of arts and sciences, with a fishing net from which fish fall to the the pool below. The water fountain consists of three pools that are filled by two hundred water spouts.

Muse of the Missouri

The building was designed to house Commerce Trust Company offices. Today, the company is a subsidiary of Commerce Bancshares, has headquarters in St. Louis and Kansas City, and remains the largest banking group in Missouri, with branches across the Midwest. Before its construction, there was no locally designed skyscraper in Kansas City beyond the cement structures that were built in the Pendergast Era to hold city and county governmental offices. Dating back to 1865, when it was founded as the Kansas City Savings Association, Commerce Trust Company has financed many of the city's leading businesses and provided financial stability for many local companies during the Great Depression. Following World War Two, Board Chairman James M. Kemper Sr. hoped to build a new corporate headquarters building that reflected the company's commitment to investing in the city's downtown neighborhood. The company prioritized functionality and hoped to select a design that reflected a new and modern era for Midwestern businesses. Kemper formed a three-member planning committee that toured the country to explore modern office building design. The committee's 400+ page report sought to integrate modern skyscraper design with the design of nearby structures.Designed by local firm Keene, Simpson &amp; Murphy, the design draws heavily from the Modernist Movement, which saw the transition away from the emphasis on ornamentation of the early 20th century to a more sleek, modern design. This structure is similar to many other corporate skyscrapers designed during the middle of the 20th century when builders focused on function and efficiency with prefabricated components. While some companies started leaving the downtown area in the 1960s, local companies like Hallmark and Commerce Bank commissioned landmark structures that they felt demonstrated their commitment to Kansas City. As a result, the placement of the final steel beam was a citywide celebration, with 180,000 residents signing the final beam, including Former President Harry S. Truman.The building was completed on April 2nd, 1965, with a 500-person grand opening held in the lobby. At the time of opening, the interior had a post office, a drugstore, a barber shop, and a branch of Commerce Bank, while most of the building held the company's headquarters. Some of the upper floors were rented to other companies, while the top floors were home to a popular restaurant for many years. In 1986, Commerce Bank moved its headquarters to the newly completed Commerce Bank Building at 10th and Main. The bank sold its interest in this building in 1990, leading to the transition of this structure to apartments and retail spaces on the first floor along with classrooms of Park University.

Constructed from 1962 to 1964, the 32-story Commerce Tower is the ninth-tallest building in downtown Kansas City and was home to the corporate offices of Commerce Bank and a popular rooftop restaurant in its first two decades. With the completion of the nearby Commerce Bank Building at 1000 Walnut Street in 1986, the bank sold their interest in this building in 1990 and it is now home to several hundred apartments along with retail space. The building's history is closely connected to the reinvestment in the downtown area that occurred in the postwar years and it became the first locally-designed skyscraper office building in Kansas City when it was completed. The building's planning committee studied various styles before selecting this modern and minimalist design by local architects Keene &amp; Simpson &amp; Murphy.

Commerce Tower

The Kansas City Public Library dates back to 1873 when the public school system allowed citizens to browse its only encyclopedia and borrow books from a single shelf of circulating titles. The city's first dedicated library opened in 1889 at 8th and Oak Street. In 1960, the library operated branches through the city and opened a new central library that included the first special collections department and reading room.By the 1980s, the library's collections and programming exceeded the capacity of its 1960 facility. In 1999, a commitment of $50 million in public funding and private donations allowed the Central Library to renovate and move into its present location, the former headquarters of the First National Bank in 2004. The move included a multi-year effort to renovate and restore the bank to its original grandeur while converting it into an ideal facility for library programming. The remodel also funded updates and modern conveniences such as custom designed tables that offer power outlets for portable computers. The library maintains a special collection of videos and a small theater in the former bank vault. It also maintains a small café that offers food and drink from local vendors. The First National Bank building was constructed in three separate building campaigns (1904-1906, 1926, and 1964). The concrete and steel building features elements of the Neo-Classical and Chicago School. The original Wilder and Wight three-story building, dominated by colossal Ionic columns and highly embellished double-leaf bronze doors at its main façade, was modified in 1926 when a fourth floor was added, and a four-story annex to the east was constructed. The marble-sheathed, five-story expansion to the north occurred in 1964. Edward T. Wilder and Thomas Wight studied architecture under the firm of McKim, Mead and White (the architects of the neighboring New York Life Building). Subsequently, Wight became one of Kansas City's most influential architects. The building was later purchased by Boatman's Bank, prior to it becoming the Central Library in the Kansas City Public Library system.

Located in the historic former headquarters of First National Bank, the Central Library serves as the major resource library for the Kansas City Public Library system. Offering breathtaking galleries and reading rooms, and an ingenious parking garage that looks like a bookshelf, the Central Library is consistently included in lists of the most beautiful public libraries in the United States. The former bank vault is now home to the Stanley H. Durwood film collection, while the old bank's 35-foot ceilings add grandeur to the main reading room. Located on the fifth floor of the Central Library, the Missouri Valley Room is the premiere collection of rare books and one-of-a-kind historical records related to the history of Kansas City. Patrons may use the reading room to view archival and genealogical materials that do not circulate beyond the library.

Central Library, Kansas City Public Library

The Newman Theatre was built in 1919 by Frank L. Newman, the premier exhibitor in Kansas City. While the Newman was his flagship theater, he also owned and operated two other theaters downtown, the Royal and the Regent. The Newman was built at the site of the Brady Building, which had been destroyed by a fire in 1918. The theater was designed in the Colonial Revival style by popular local architect Alexander Drake. It was built using steel and concrete to render it fire-proof and cost up to $400,000, reportedly the most expensive theater ever built in Kansas City at the time. Newman included many lavish features in his theater, including Italian tapestries, hand-painted murals, and Greek figures. It had seating for an audience of 2,000, a 35-piece orchestra pit, a mezzanine floor promenade, lounges, and even a nursery. The Newman Theater opened to much fanfare in June of 1919; each year the anniversary of its opening was celebrated with a week of special acts.  Frank Newman sold his theaters and left Kansas City in 1925 after being offered a job managing theaters for the Famous Players-Lasky Film Corporation in Los Angeles. Around 1941 the Newman Theater was acquired by Paramount Pictures Inc., which renamed it the Paramount Theater in 1947. Business declined over the next years and in 1969, the theater changed ownership and briefly operated as the Towne Theatre before finally closing. It was demolished in 1972. Today the site is occupied by the Lightwell Building, constructed as City Center Square in 1977.<h3>Walt Disney and the Newman Theatre</h3>Walt Disney had lived in Kansas City for several years before doing a tour in France with the Red Cross and upon his return in 1919, he decided to pursue a career as a cartoonist. He briefly worked for the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio where one of his assignments was the Newman Theatre contract. Here, he illustrated the covers for several issues of Newman’s weekly Newman Theatre Magazine.In 1920, Disney got a job at the Kansas City Slide Company (later the Kansas City Film Ad Service) which produced advertisements that were screened at local theaters. Using a motion picture camera borrowed from his boss A. V. Cauger, Walt drew and filmed a short set of cartoons in the garage behind his family home. They were primarily satirical works addressing current social issues and local happenings in Kansas City, such as crime and ladies’ fashion among other things. After showing the cartoons to his ex-boss Lou Pesmen, who was thoroughly amused, Pesmen suggested Walt take them to his client Frank Newman to pitch the idea of running them at one of his three local theaters. Disney put a few of the shorts together and titled them “Newman Laugh-O-grams,” then showed the two-and-a-half minute film to Newman Theatre manager Milton Feld. He agreed to screen them and asked for a new one each week.Newman Laugh-O-grams debuted on March 20, 1921 during a screening of the film Mama’s Affair, the first recorded airing of a Walt Disney production. The film shorts became included in the theater's newsreel called Newman News and Views, which covered topics relevant to the Kansas City community. Disney produced Newman Laugh-O-grams for the next several months, before starting his own side business, KayCee Studio, where he and Film Ad co-worker Fred Harman started creating fairytale versions of Laugh-O-grams. The original Newman Laugh-O-gram sample reel is the only known copy of a Laugh-O-gram in existence, as the nitrate film stock prints were casted on at that time were highly flammable and commonly destroyed when their run were complete.Walt remained working at the Kansas City Film Ad Service until the following spring, when he incorporated his first professional animation studio, Laugh-O-gram Films, on May 23, 1922.

Built in 1919 for local exhibitor Frank L. Newman, the Newman Theatre was known for its opulence and extravagant features. It was the biggest and most costly of any Kansas City theatre at the time, holding an audience of 2,000. Notably, in 1921 a series of short satirical cartoons called Newman Laugh-O-grams were screened, which were the first animated productions created solely by Walt Disney. The Newman became Paramount Theater in 1947 and operated for a short time as Towne Theater before eventually closing due to a decline in business. It was demolished in 1972 for an urban renewal project and today, is the site is occupied by a skyscraper called the Lightwell Building.

Newman Theatre (1919-1972)

Kansas City's Midland Theatre was built in 1927 by theater chain company Loews Incorporated. Founded by Marcus Loews, the company built and operated theaters in several major cities. At one point it even acquired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. In 1924, local businessman Herbert M. Woolf approached Loew with a proposal to build an opulent theater in Kansas City modeled after ones in Chicago and New York City. Construction of the theater began in 1926 and was completed only a year later at a cost of $4.5 million.Popular architect Thomas Lamb was commissioned to design the theater, with assistance from Robert Boller. It was built in the Renaissance Revival style and included elements of French and Italian Baroque. The building’s interior in particular was noted for its extravagant décor. It included five million square inches of silver and gold leafing, massive hand-cut Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers, and various artworks. With originally over 4,000 seats, the Midland was the third-largest theater in the United States at the time of its completion. It was also reportedly the first theater with a heating, cooling, and air ventilation system.The Midland Theatre had a lavish grand opening on October 28, 1927, with speeches, an orchestral performance, and a screening of the movie The Road to Romance. The theater originally presented silent films and live shows, but soon upgraded to screen sound films as well. From 1952 to 1971, the headquarters for the NCAA was housed in the building’s office space. After 33 years of operating as a Loew’s theater, the Midland closed in 1961. Months later it was converted into a bowling alley and housed the National Bowling League’s short-lived Kansas City Stars team. After the team and the bowling alley folded, the building was reconverted into a multi-screen movie theater in 1962.After changing hands several times in the early 1960s, the theater was purchased by AMC in 1966. In 1981 it removed the movie screens and the venue began featuring only live shows. In 2008, in conjunction with the development of the Power &amp; Light entertainment district, AMC oversaw a $28 million dollar renovation of the Midland Theatre. The refurbishment included the restoration of many historic elements, the remodeling of seating to create a space for tables or standing room, and the addition of several bars and lounges. In 2012 AMC ended its association with the Midland after closing its Kansas City headquarters. The following year Arvest Bank purchased the naming rights to the theater, which was renamed the Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland. It continues to host a number of concerts, plays, ballets, and other live performances.

The Midland Theatre is a historic entertainment venue in the Power &amp; Light District of Kansas City. It first opened in 1927 as Loew’s Midland Theater; at the time it was the third-largest theater in the United States. It became well known for its opulent interior, which included features such as gold leafing, hand-cut crystal chandeliers, and other ornamentations. After the original theatre closed in 1961, it was acquired and operated by AMC for a number of years. It underwent extensive renovations and restorations in 2008. Today the theatre is sponsored by Arvest Bank, and is formally known as the Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland. It hosts a number of live shows and performances throughout the year. The theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

The Midland Theatre

In 1850, Kansas City had less than 6,000 people and had two breweries. The population boom in the next decades attracts other brewers and existing breweries. Shortly after purchasing the brewery at this location, Heim's beer won national attention. In 1888, Heim built a five-story brick brewing complex in the East Bottoms, and thirteen years later, he built the bottling plant that is now home to the J. Rieger distillery, a modern business named in honor of a former Kansas City distillery that began in the West Bottoms in 1887. With its emphasis on history that includes numerous exhibits, Rieger also produces a modern version of Heim's lager that can be purchased on-site and is known as Heim Bier. In the mid-1880s, Heim and his sons acquired a former sugar mill refinery at the intersection of Agnes Avenue and Montgall to expand their operations. The family built a substantial five-story malt house the following year along with numerous other facilities in what became a vast brewery complex. The Heim family also built a streetcar line and Electric Park in 1899, an amusement park next to the brewery that was known for its display of over 100,000 electric lights along with rides and a theater, as well as a beer garden that served beer directly from the neighboring brewery. The streetcar line led to hundreds of families moving to the East Bottoms and Heim built a fire station that later became part of the city system. In 1907, the company moved Electric Park to 46th and Paseo, where it would earn the nickname "Kansas City's Coney Island." They sold their rail line to the city's largest operator, the Metropolitan Street Railway Company.

Now home to Main Street Theatre, this was the site of one of the largest breweries in Kansas City in the 1870s and 1880s. F.H. Kump arrived in Kansas City in 1859 and entered the soda manufacturing business with a small plant here in 1867. Kump used his equipment to bottle beer for other brewers, and within two years, the operation expanded to brewing and bottling his own beer. By 1884, the business had expanded and produced around 12,000 barrels per year when F.H. Kumps Star Ale Brewery was sold to Fred Heim and his family. Heim would later build one of the largest breweries in the city in the East Bottoms. This location was known by several names during Heim's tenure as owner, including the Bavarian Brewing Company. The theater was completed in 1921 and included several unique features, such as tunnels to the adjacent President Hotel that were utilized mainly by traveling actors who prepared their costumes and makeup in their rooms. The theater also featured a nursery for children whose parents were attending the show and a sub-basement with cages for animals such as elephants that could be lifted to the stage.

14th Street Brewery; Star Brewery

In the late 19th Century, a German-speaking Czech immigrant named Martin Beck tried to establish a career as an actor in America. Unable to fulfill this dream, but still wishing to remain in show business, he met a man named Morris Meyerfeld, Jr., also an immigrant, who served as president of the Orpheum Theater chain, to ask for advice. Meyerfeld was so impressed by Beck that he immediately hired him as a booking agent, and he later rose to the position of general manager of the Orpheum Circuit. The circuit at that time, with 60 theaters, had a monopoly on vaudeville houses west of Chicago, while the rival Keith-Albee Circuit covered the east coast. Beck's objective, in his own words, was to "make the Orpheum Circuit bring the highest forms of art within the reach of the people with the slimmest purses." He quickly decided to construct a "junior Orpheum" theater in downtown Kansas City, employing the Chicago architectural firm of Rapp and Rapp. Unusually for the time, the structure had a cooling system that made the building comfortable even in the summer months. The theater even provided, for parents who wanted a night out without worrying about their offspring, a free nursery in the building, complete with a trained nurse and assistants. Featured live acts included Charlie Chaplin, Cab Calloway, and the Marx Brothers.  The design of the Mainstreet Theater was similar to other Rapp and Rapp theaters, such as the Chicago and Tivoli Theaters, in that a monumental arch was employed at the main entrance. The rusticated terracotta and brick building differed from those other designs, however, due to two distinctive features: the Byzantine dome at the entrance, embellished with golden tiles, and the storefronts lining the building's east facade. Although films were beginning to outstrip vaudeville in popularity, Beck, a lover of live theater, resisted, and for that and other reasons, he was ousted from his position as Orpheum's president. (He went on to construct and manage the Martin Beck Theater in New York, now known as the Al Hirschfeld Theater.) The Mainstreet began to show films, but during the Depression, it was difficult for such a large theater to maintain an audience, even with a 10-cent admission charge. In 1938, it partially closed, then closed completely until 1949, when it was refurbished and reopened as the R-K-O Missouri. This theater had the historic distinction of showing the first 3-D movie in Kansas City. In the mid-1950s, the Missouri theater installed the complicated and expensive Cinerama process to attract a new audience, but the novelty of this widescreen technology soon faded, and the theater closed yet again. In the 1960s, it opened under a new name - the Empire - with a much-reduced seating capacity: only 1200 seats. The Empire was eventually split into a multiplex with four separate theaters but still could not remain viable. In October 1985, AMC, its owners, closed it for the third time, and it remained so for over 20 years. The developer who purchased the property wanted to demolish the Empire and build office space, leaving only the dome, but the City of Kansas City resisted and bought the property in 2004. On May 1, 2009, AMC, which partnered with a local developer, reopened the theater as part of the Power &amp; Light District as the AMC Mainstreet Theater (restoring its original name).  A reported $30 million was spent on the restoration. In May 2009, the theater was awarded the "Dr. George Ehrlich Achievement in Preservation Award" by the Historic Kansas City Foundation.The building was purchased from AMC by Alamo Drafthouse and operated under the name Alamo Drafthouse Mainstreet until the company filed for bankruptcy and the global pandemic led to the theater's closure. The historic theater now operates as B&amp;B Theatres Mainstreet KC at The Power &amp; Light District. The theater combines film screenings with in-theater dining to provide a novel moviegoing experience.

Located in downtown Kansas City in Jackson County, Missouri, the four-story Mainstreet Theater is one of the city's most visible historic landmarks. First opened on October 30, 1921, during the vaudeville era, it was built for promoter Martin Beck by the distinguished architectural firm of C.W and Geo. L. Rapp of Chicago designed some of the most significant theaters in America in the 1920s and 1930s. It was the largest theater in the city until the Midland Theater was built in 1927, and it is distinctive for its Beaux-Arts design and prominent Byzantine-style dome. With a seating capacity of 3,250, it was one of the first theaters of its type to cater to the working class. Between 1921-1949 it presented vaudeville acts, movies, and traveling shows. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. After many years of being closed, the theater reopened in 2012 after being purchased and renovated by Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas. The theater closed during the pandemic and was purchased and reopened by B&amp;B Theatres in 2021 and now operates as B&amp;B Theatres Mainstreet KC at The Power &amp; Light District.

Mainstreet Theater, Kansas City, MO

Charles Price arrived in Kansas City in 1911 and worked as a salesman for the National Candy Company prior to starting a soda and candy concession stand at the one-prominent Jones Store. He founded Price's Fine Chocolates in 1913. In addition to this building, the company built a second candy factory at 2 West 39th Street, which opened in 1929, shortly before the onset of the Great Depression. His son, Charles H Price II, worked at the family candy company from 1955 to 1981 (and managed it from 1973 until 1982), when the family sold the business. In 1969, Price II married Carol Ann Swanson, an heir to the Swanson food empire. Charles Price II met and befriended future President Ronald Reagan through his network of family and friends in 1970. In the spring of 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed Price as the United States Ambassador to Belgium. Two years later, Price left Belgium to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he proved instrumental in handling one of the United States' first foreign-terrorist attack tragedies: the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The Price family sold the company to Minnesota Twins (Major League Baseball) owner Carl Pohlad in 1982, and then the ownership changed several times before Sweet Shop USA acquired Price's Fine Chocolates in 2000. Meanwhile, in addition to serving as the home to the Price Chocolates, the building housed a sewing company, a heavy-machinery company, and a wholesaler of industrial sewing machines. Today, it's the home to Tom's Town Distilling Co., named, according to the company, "after the country's most corrupt political boss, Tom Pendergast. Pendergast started as a saloon keeper and the founder of a wholesale liquor company."

Now known as Tom Town's Distillery, named after Kansas City's infamous "Boss" mayor, Tom Pendergast, the building was built in 1908 and became the headquarter for the Price Candy Company. The wealth gained from the candy and chocolate business allowed them to live among the social elites. Charles Price II, son of the company's founder, married the heir to a food empire, befriended a future U.S. President, and enjoyed immense success in the private sector and as a U.S. diplomat.

Price Candy Building; Tom's Town Distillery

George Hierb established Main Street Brewery in the mid-1860s in a shack at the northwest corner of the 18th and Main Streets in Kansas City. Hierb chose the location because of a freshwater well that provided cold water for brewing. Hierb produced 3,000 barrels per year in 1869.The following year, in 1870, Swiss immigrants and brothers George and John Muehlebach purchased Main Street Brewery from Hierb and set about upgrading Hierb’s primitive setup. They added cellars to Hierb’s original “shack” and by the end of the decade were the second most-productive brewery in Kansas City, producing 3,932 barrels per year.In 1880, after John’s death, George built a new brewhouse, nicknamed the “Beer Castle” by local beer fans, a Romanesque, mansard-roofed marvel that ensured the brewery’s growing reputation was matched by modern architecture. The brothers’ brewery was known by many names following their purchase from Hierb: Main Street Brewery (until 1884); Muehlebach Brewing Co. – Main Street Brewery (1884-1890); Geo. Muehlebach – Main Street Brewery (1890-1903); George Muehlebach Brewing Company (1903-Prohibition); and George Muehlebach Company during Prohibition (through 1929). What did not change was the Muehlebach commitment to expansion: the facility’s capacity grew from 3,000 barrels per year in 1869 to 100,000 barrels per year in 1911, thanks to multiple additions to the 18th and Main site.George Muehlebach, the last remaining founder, died on December 22, 1905, but his family was well-positioned to carry on the business. His oldest son George E. Muehlebach was named President and General Manager; his wife Margaret was Vice-President; his daughter Sophronia Buchholz was Treasurer, and his youngest son Carl A. was Secretary (he would be promoted to Superintendent in 1907).George E. Muehlebach had been working in his father’s brewery since he was a child, and became a full-time employee at age 17, first as solicitor and collector, then as company Superintendent in 1904. George E. also secured the position of President in the Muehlebach Estate Company in 1905, which controlled the Muehelbach’s large real estate assets. In 1916, the company built the 500-room Hotel Muehlebach at 12th Street and Baltimore Avenue in downtown Kansas City, which still stands and was part of the Marriott Hotel at that location before being converted into luxury apartments. George E. Muehlebach’s passions extended to baseball as well as brewing. His father George had sponsored a local team, named the Muehlebach Pilseners after the company’s signature drink, and George E. played first base on that team. In 1917, George E. expanded the Muehlebach Company’s sponsorship of baseball, purchasing the local minor league team, the Kansas City Blues, and then the American Association baseball field at 22nd and Brooklyn, rebuilding and then reopening it in 1923 under the name Muehlebach Field. The brewery’s team set an American Association home attendance record of 450,000 in its inaugural year, and the team would win the Association’s 1927 and 1929 pennants. George E. dreamed of bringing major-league baseball to Kansas City, but this would not happen until 1955 and was connected to the Muehlebach company’s eventual demise. The Muehlebach brewery owned the Kansas City Blues until 1932.Prohibition, which banned the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States from 1920 until 1933, shuttered Muehelbach’s operations for almost a decade and led to the demolition of the brewery’s historic first location at 18th and Main. Muehlebach filed a trademark application for a maltless, non-alcoholic cereal beverage named Mulo on May 18, 1917, before the passage of Prohibition in December 1917, to be marketed as a soft drink and engineered to help the company weather the new legislative environment. Mulo, along with other soft drink products, kept Muehlebach afloat for over a decade, but the company ceased operation until 1929. On April 13, 1930, Carl A. Muehlebach was interviewed by the Kansas City Star for an article detailing the dismantling of the brewery’s alcohol manufacturing equipment, in which he sadly recounted the brewery’s construction in 1880 and admitted the building’s brewing equipment no longer had commercial use.Only a few years later, in 1932, public opinion was turning against Prohibition, and Carl, now acting President of the Muehlebach Estate Company, along with his older brother George E., began talks with investors to reopen the 18th and Main location, which the Estate Company still owned. The plan required $1.5 million, and the brothers could not secure funds until 1937 when a consortium of private stockholders financed the reopening of the George Muehlebach Brewing Company. Part of the deal was a change of site with a brewery at 4th Street and Oak, near the Kansas City riverfront, opening in 1938.The old brewhouse at 18th and Main languished. In 1941, city officials demanded the Muehlebachs make the building safe in five days or demolish it, and it was razed that year. The site was later chosen as the site of Trans World Airlines’ corporate headquarters, and that building opened in 1956. Its original mid-century modern façade has been restored, and the building now houses the offices of the Barkley advertising firm.The new brewery site at 4th and Oak initially focused on Muehlebach’s local appeal, resurrecting the popular Pilsener and Lager labels and a special brew in green bottles sold only at the Hotel Muehlebach. However, acquisition and out-of-state expansion provided new outlets for distribution, and the Muehlebach operation expanded again in the late 30s and early 40s, just as it had before Prohibition. Word War II dampened production, but the brewery hit an all-time production high after the war in 1947, selling 244,000 barrels and collecting sales of nearly $6 million.Muehlebach’s success would not last, however. A combination of factors in the late 40s and early 50s caused profits to collapse: the U.S. grain commitment to the European postwar Marshall Plan, a stateside shortage of glass, and a decline in local demand for Muehlebach’s beer even as they increased out-of-state sales. The company posted a net loss of $272,281 in its last fiscal year, and was sold to rival Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee in 1956.When the Kansas City Athletics, the city’s first major-league club, moved to the area in 1955, Schlitz Brewing Company was determined to make inroads in the Kansas City market and was the Athletics’ first radio sponsor. In 1956, following its quarter-million-dollar loss, Muehlebach sold its operation at 4th and Oak Streets to Schlitz, and an epoch of Kansas City beer history ended.

In 1870, Swiss brothers George and John Muehlebach created one of Kansas City’s longest-running Kansas City breweries after purchasing George Hierb’s Main Street Brewery which was located here at the corner of 18th Street and Main Street. Hierb's brewery grew from a small shack producing beer in the mid-1860s to a sizeable plant that produced 3,000 barrels per year by 1869. This acquisition was part of the George Muehlebach Brewing Company's pattern of expansion that included the construction of a Romanesque brewhouse at this site that soon became known as the “Beer Castle.” That investment increased production at this site to 100,000 barrels per year by 1911. The Muehlebach brothers kept the Main Street Brewery title from their purchase in 1870 until 1884. After that time, the business saw several name changes that reflected the growth of Muehleback and the value of that brand in Kansas City and surrounding communities. When the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States, the 18th and Main location closed in 1929 despite Muehlebach’s attempts to diversify their business with several soda drink products and an alcohol-free cereal beverage named Mulo. Muehlebach reopened after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, although it took five years, until February 5, 1938, to secure funding and a new site for the brewery at 4th and Oak Streets near the Kansas City riverfront. The old brewery at 18th and Main was condemned and demolished in 1941. While the post-prohibition Muehlebach company grew through the 1940s and early 1950s, it succumbed to a similar fate as many large regional breweries, and its 4th and Oak brewery was sold to Minneapolis-based Schlitz Brewing Company in 1956.

George Hierb’s Main Street Brewery; Muehlebach Brewery (1869-1929)

The Monroe Hotel was designed by architect Raymond Sanneman and opened in 1921. The relocation of Union Station from the West Bottoms in 1914 was allowing the expansion of industry and business to the south of downtown, including restaurants, barbershops, drug stores, a hospital, and a post office. This expansion also created a need for affordable accommodations in the area, for both workers and travelers. Built within walking distance, Monroe Hotel was a budget hotel that typically housed single workers and traveling salesmen who found it necessary to live within close proximity to their employment. Political boss Tom Pendergast (1872-1945) bought the hotel in 1924 and hired the hotel's original architect Sanneman two years later to design a two-story building adjacent to the hotel. As this building served as the Jackson County Democratic Club and Pendergast headquarters, Monroe Hotel accommodated many of Pendergast's out-of-town visitors. Boss Tom eventually had a door installed connecting his second-level office directly to the hotel, allowing for a convenient and clandestine exit. This door was sealed in 1939 on orders from a Federal court following the release of Pendergast's’ imprisonment for tax evasion. Tom was barred from any further political activity. The hotel remained in business until 1971.The five-story Monroe Hotel is a Commercial style building, typical for the location and time. Costing around $150,000, it was constructed from reinforced concrete, brick, and terra cotta veneer on the façade of the two lower levels. While the large marquee above its center entrance still boasts the name ‘Monroe Hotel’, it has more recently been renovated into the Hotel Monroe Condominiums.

When the Monroe Hotel opened in 1921, it was one of many hotels in the area that catered to the needs of traveling workers following the relocation of Union Station from the West Bottoms. The hotel filled a need for affordable accommodations and housed mostly single workers and traveling salesmen as it was within walking distance to the rail station and other businesses in the area, including restaurants, barbershops, drug stores, and post office. In the years that followed, the hotel also accommodated many guests of political machine boss Tom Pendergast, especially after he purchased the building in 1924. A couple years later, Pendergast built the Jackson County Democratic Club in the adjacent lot which included a doorway between his second level office and the hotel. The door was sealed in 1939 after orders from a Federal judge following Pendergast's release from prison. The hotel stayed in operation until 1971 and was later renovated into luxury condominiums.

Monroe Hotel Building 

Though political machines sometimes produced beneficial results for cities, they routinely came at the expense of corruption, heightened racial and ethnic tensions, and poorer civic services (because jobs went to people as political rewards instead of those best qualified). From the Civil War to the Great Depression, patronage machines ruled multiple large cities, including Kansas City. In addition to the Pendergast machine, famous political machines include those of William M. Tweed in New York, James M. Curley in Boston, and Richard J. Daley in Chicago.The Pendergrast machine in Kansas City started with Thomas' brother, James, who built a political network with revenue from saloons, gambling, and brothels. Thomas' and James' parents, Michael and Mary Reidy Pendergast, immigrated to the U.S. from Tipperary, Ireland, to Ohio, and then moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1859. Michael Pendergast enjoyed a longtime membership with the Teamsters, as did many of his children. James moved to Kansas City in 1876 at roughly twenty years old. James first worked as a laborer, working ten to twelve-hour shifts, six days a week. He took some of his wages and gambling winnings to purchase the American House in 1881, a saloon, boarding house, and hotel. The establishment sat in the West Bottoms neighborhood, known for its rampant drinking, gambling, and prostitution, a vice lifestyle Pendergast's American House helped foster. From 1884 to 1892, James opened a second saloon while also working his way up the local political ladder, from ward delegate to Alderman, learning how to turn favors into political influence along the way. In 1894, Thomas (the youngest of nine children) joined the family business in Kansas City, became a Teamster like his dad, and learned from Jim the ins and outs of grassroots politics. James served nine terms as an alderman on the city council before dying in 1911, ostensibly leaving the machine he built in the hands of his younger brother. After James' death, Thomas served as an alderman for a brief period before becoming chairman of the Jackson County Democratic Party. As head of the party machine, he exerted immense influence to win elections for hand-picked candidates and provided innumerable government jobs to political supporters. As Chairmen, he gained tremendous support from the working class because he successfully funneled millions of federal dollars to Kansas City during the Great Depression, and his patronage and leverage over the police allowed illegal gambling, prostitution, and liquor sales to thrive during Prohibition.Where Jim would buy votes through favoritism in the form of jobs, food, and fuel, Tom manipulated elections. The Pendergast Machine consisted of an army of block captains, precinct captains and ward captains, for whom positions were political payments for favors done for the Machine. As a result, one Pendergast-appointed captain existed for every five voters. Additionally, Tom padded the voting ballots by using the names off the headstones of loyal yet dead democrats, known as the "ghost vote." By 1918, the Pendergast machine arranged for polling places to be staffed by election officials dedicated to Pendergast and guarded by thugs and ruffians. In one instance, Pendergast's Goat-Democratic-controlled police refused to intercede when a voter was beaten unconscious and bloodied during an election for the U.S. Congress involving Albert L. Reeves; Reeves suffered a resounding defeat.Voter fraud was merely part of Boss Toms' political power and manipulation. Tom threatened to hand code and license violations to any First Ward saloon that refused to buy liquor from his newly created T. J. Pendergast Wholesale Liquor Company. In addition, Tom arranged for the Ross Construction Company, owned by one of his ward captains, Michael Ross, to acquire lucrative city and county road paving contracts. Pendergast also operated as a silent partner in the company that disposed of the city's garbage. Moreover, he benefitted by contributing to Kansas City's Ten Year Plan in 1930, which involved building downtown skyscrapers and several miles of city and county roads, mainly with Pendergast Ready-Mix concrete. Furthermore, Pendergast worked with his puppet city manager, Henry McElroy, to take federal funds obtained via the Works Progress Administration and use them to award financially rewarding contracts to and hire loyal city employees, who provided kickbacks to Pendergast's bookkeeper.The historic headquarters played an integral role in the Pendergast machine. Tom Pendergast had the office constructed in the headquarters building, which could be accessed via a pathway to the second floor of his nextdoor Monroe Hotel. So, one could access the Jackson County Democratic Club in secret by entering the hotel instead of the headquarters building. But, not everyone arrived in secret. Pendergast held morning meetings three days a week with everyone from the unemployed and homeless to vendors and small-town politicians seeking favors. Pendergrast routinely paid for medical bills of those dealing with financial issues, provided aid to jobless citizens, or paid fines for those struggling. While on its face, the act seemed selfless, Pendergast said of providing help: "They vote for the fellow who gives it to them…We never ask them about their politics. We know pretty well how they will vote after we help them."By the early 1930s, Pendergast controlled the police, and his machine reached as high as the state and federal governments. Much like a mob operation, the machine growth resulted in more money gained from shady deals, fraudulent contracts, as well as gambling, prostitution, and bootleg liquor; every establishment provided a cut of their profits to either the police or Pendergast's enforcers. However, as the 1930s progressed, it became impossible for Pendergast and his machine to hide their rampant corruption and fraud. Activists, political enemies, journalists, women's groups, and even an influential Rabbi spoke out about Pendergast's corruption. But Pendergast's biggest mistakes came within the world of politics. In 1932, he pledged delegates to an ally James A. Reed, a former mayor and Missouri Senator, instead of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) at the Democratic Convention. Roosevelt retaliated by appointing Maurice Milligan, a Pendergast adversary, to the position of U.S. District Attorney for Western Missouri. Pendergast tried to appease Roosevelt by sending a 'New Dealer' to the Senate: Harry S Truman. When Harry departed for Washington D.C., Pendergast instructed him to "work hard, keep your mouth shut, and answer your mail."  Pendergast also backed Lloyd C. Stark in the 1936 Missouri gubernatorial race, but after Stark won the governorship, he turned his back on Pendergast and began working to dismantle Pendergast's political network and influence. Stark appointed Pendergast adversaries to Kansas City election and liquor control boards. Stark successfully lobbied the legislature for a permanent voter registration law and control over the Kansas City Police Department. Most significantly, upon looking into Pendergast's deals with insurance companies during the mid-1930s, Stark summoned the Internal Revenue Service to audit Pendergast's income tax returns, leading to FDR ordering the Department of Treasury to conduct an exhaustive investigation of Pendergast; an indictment followed.Pendergast represented a nationwide issue of machine politics, so it's no surprise that J. Edgar Hoover came to Kansas City to attend the trial of Boss Tom. The jury convicted Pendergast; he received a sentence of fifteen months in federal prison (Leavenworth Penitentiary). Additionally, the court banned Tom from all political activity, and he was not allowed to visit the now-historic headquarters during his probationary period. The court also forbade Pendergast from gambling because of the discovery of his severe gambling addiction, which he kept secret from family, friends, and political supporters. He lost as much as $6 million on horses alone. By the late 1930s, his debt to bookies and gamblers gave those he owed virtual control of Pendergast business, meaning he went to prison effectively broke, without control of his private enterprises, and politically ostracized.In the wake of the trial, voters began electing "reformers" in droves, essentially driving out any of Boss Tom's people by the mid-1940s. Thomas J. Pendergast is buried at Calvary Cemetery on Kansas City's south side. His headquarters survives as a physical reminder of Boss Tom, the political machine he built, and the boss politics that dominated big cities throughout the nation.

Constructed in 1926, this building served as the headquarters of the Jackson County Democratic Club which was led by Thomas Joseph Pendergast, the penultimate "boss" of the infamous political machine that controlled Kansas City between 1926 and 1939. Referred to by many as "Boss Tom," Pendergast took over and expanded the political machine his brother built, choosing candidates for office who returned the favor by voting in line with the wishes of Boss Tom. As a result, Pendergast's businesses won prized city contracts and he wielded enormous influence over almost every aspect of Kansas City's political, economic, and cultural life.As the Jackson County Democratic Party chair, Pendergast controlled the city's government through patronage, notably by providing jobs and government contracts in exchange for political support. Although Pendergast's corruption became well known by the 1930s, many residents continued to support Pendergast and his candidates because they believed his leadership had ameliorated many of the worst aspects of the Great Depression. Others appreciated Pendergast's refusal to enforce prohibition, leading to a vibrant jazz scene and Kansas City's reputation as a "Wide Open Town" where liquor and vice lived alongside strong financial support for civic institutions like schools and hospitals. Pendergast launched the political career of Harry S Truman, but his reign as a political boss ended in 1939 when he was convicted of income tax evasionToday, the financial crimes and violence that occurred under Boss Tom's watch are sometimes overshadowed by nostalgia for the Jazz Age. and a perception that Pendergast and his men were supporters of integration. In reality, the advances for the Black Community had more to do with neighborhood leaders within the Pendergast orbit and the pragmatism of the political machine that traded funding for Black schools and hospitals for votes. At the same time, Kansas City was home to "Black-and-tan-clubs" that accepted all races than any American city beyond New York in an era otherwise dominated by segregation.

Jackson County Democratic Club (Tom Pendergast Headquarters)

In the early 1900s, Kansas City was rapidly expanding with central industries like agriculture and meatpacking growing alongside new industries like automobile manufacturing. After a series of floods in the West Bottoms, the city built a new railroad depot further south. Union Station opened in 1914, leaving the area around Union Depot devoid of business travelers. The new Union Station on Main Street was accompanied by the construction of new buildings and parks, and local businesses that accommodated travelers moved to be closer to the bustling rail station. Jacob Rieger and his family immigrated to America from Austria-Hungary in 1879 and arrived in Kansas City in 1885. Jacob was a businessman with experience in many trades and while Alexander was only 15 when his family arrived in Kansas City, he went straight to work. First finding work as a stockboy at G. Bernheimer Brothers Dry Goods firm, he later joined his father after the family patriarch bought a small grocery store at 3rd and Gillis. Jacob later established J. Rieger and Co., a purveyor of liquor and a distiller in the Union Depot district, the central hub of the city at the time. Alexander took over the family operations in 1900 and created a grandiose marketing campaign for the spirits, offering free gifts with his mail-order service. He claimed J. Rieger &amp; Co. products to be the “Best on Earth” and “O! So Good!”, as well as the largest mail-order whiskey house with a base of over 250,000 customers. The expansion of businesses to the south of the original urban core that accompanied the relocation of Union Station led to the creation of restaurants, barbershops, drug stores, and even a new hospital, and post office. The growth of this area prompted Alexander to build a hotel that was within walking distance of Union Station. Rieger Hotel was one of three hotels built in the vicinity of 19th &amp; Main that catered to single working men without families, traveling salesmen, and itinerant workers needing long-term accommodations. The hotel advertised 21 rooms, private baths, and a restaurant. Designed by architects Smith, Rea, and Lovitt, and built by Gray Construction Company, the three-story hotel was constructed from brick with a terracotta facade, and a large marble cornice atop the building proudly displaying the nameplate “RIEGER”. Details included ornamental ironwork, marble, tile and terrazzo floors, skylights, and metal-framed windows. While this was not a luxury hotel, it was accommodating and convenient. Alexander even commissioned a mural on the south side of the building to promote the family business, J. Rieger &amp; Co.. In late 1919, the prohibition of alcohol led the Rieger family to pivot their business. Alexander Rieger closed the hotel in 1920 and opened the Home Trust Company with his son. With the pivot to finance, the Rieger's sold this building which became home to the Travelers Hotel in 1927. The building was also home to the office for EE Porter Soft Drinks. The building became vacant in 1941 but reopened after World War II as the Milton Hotel. The hotel also leased business space, including its longest tenant Acme Decal Company, until photographer Orville Anderson purchased the building in 1962. The photographer moved his corporate office to the main level and leased the rooms on the second and third floors to the Elms Hotel. The building was sold again in 2003 and like many other buildings in the area, it was renovated to offer condos. Ryan Maybee, a Kansas City bartender, recognized a growing interest in local distilleries and believed that Kansas Citians would appreciate the option to buy locally-produced spirits under a historic name like Rieger. Maybee began by opening Manifesto, a speakeasy concept bar in the basement of the historic Rieger Hotel. Manifesto opened in 2009, and the following year Maybee partnered with chef Howard Hanna to open The Rieger Hotel Grill &amp; Exchange, a historically-themed restaurant. on the main level. On the opening night of The Rieger, the last relative of the bloodline, Andy Rieger, came in to meet the owners and agreed they should work together to bring back the former Rieger distillery. Over the next few years, this team developed a business plan and partnered with a Kansas City creative agency. After acquiring the original trademark, J. Rieger &amp; Co. was officially back in business. Inspired by the past, the new J. Rieger &amp; Co. was branded using the original name, logo, and slogan (O! So Good!), secured property in the East Bottoms neighborhood, as the original distillery was demolished, and successfully launched Rieger’s Kansas City Whiskey in October 2014. After the closure of The Rieger and Manifesto in response to COVID-19 in 2020, the former Rieger Hotel has been vacant. However, the Rieger name continues to demonstrate the spirit of Kansas City's past as the distillery produces whiskey and other spirits at their distillery two miles east of Kansas City's River Market.

Built in 1915 as one of three hotels in this part of Kansas City that catered to traveling workers, the Rieger Hotel was developed by Alexander Rieger, son of Jacob Rieger and founder of Rieger &amp; Co. distillery. The hotel accommodated traveling businessmen, workers, and other individuals needing long-term but temporary accommodations during an era that saw the growth of industry in Kansas City. The hotel was open for only a few, short years before prohibition created a challenge for the family business and Alexander responded by closing the hotel and establishing a bank. The building changed hands several times over the years, accommodating a variety of businesses, including storefronts on the first floor and apartments on the upper stories. In a nod to the building's connection to the Rieger distillery, the building was home to The Rieger restaurant on the first floor and the speakeasy-themed bar Manifesto that occupied the basement.

The Rieger Hotel Building

The expansion of railroads after the Civil War spurred significant economic development in Kansas City. It grew into a booming transportation hub, with numerous railroads crossing through the city to ship cattle and other agricultural products. In 1878, a group of businessmen pooled their resources and constructed a large, single train station to accommodate the increase in traffic. Union Depot, as it was known, was located in the West Bottoms neighborhood for close proximity to the stockyards. Built at a cost of $410,000, the building incorporated aspects of Victorian and Gothic architecture, with extensive ornamentation and a 125-foot clock tower. Critics nicknamed it “Kansas City’s Insane Asylum” for the extravagant design. The continued growth of the railroad industry quickly rendered the depot inadequate for the city’s needs. Additionally, passengers transiting through the depot complained about the nearby stockyards as well as surrounding gambling halls, saloons, and brothels. Damages caused to the depot in a 1903 flood provided an impetus for leaders to seek a new location.In 1914, the Kansas City Terminal Railway, a partnership between a dozen area railroads, constructed a massive new Union Station along Main Street. Its creation was part of the “City Beautiful Movement” in Kansas City during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The urban planning campaign sought to improve and beautify the community through the construction of lavish public buildings, parks, and other facilities and amenities. Chicago architect and City Beautiful supporter Jarvis Hunt designed the station in the Beaux-Arts style. The six-story, 850,000 square-foot, T-shaped building was made with limestone and polished granite at a cost of $5.7 million, over twice the original budget. Notable features include a 95-foot-high ceiling, a six-foot-wide clock, and several 3,500-pound chandeliers. At the time of its opening, it was the third largest train station in the United States.Union Station contained railroad offices, lobbies, restaurants, a barbershop, post office, drug store, jail, hospital, and power plant. Until 1938, it also served as the headquarters for the Fred Harvey Company, which operated a chain of restaurants and hotels along major railroads. For many years, it was a bustling center of activity in Kansas City. Thousands of soldiers traveled through here during both world wars; during World War I, over 200 trains a day passed through the station. A young Walt Disney took a one-way train from the station to Los Angeles in July 1923 with all his possessions in a single suitcase.The eastern entrance to the building was the site of the Union Station Massacre (also known as the Kansas City Massacre), which left five people dead. On June 17, 1933, several law enforcement officers, including some FBI agents, were escorting convicted mobster and escaped prisoner Frank Nash to the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. As they were placing Nash into a vehicle in front of Union Station, three of his associates armed with machine guns opened fire on the group in a rescue attempt. Four officers were killed in the shootout, as well as Nash himself. Seeing that their effort had failed, the shooters fled the scene. The incident prompted a federal investigation and reforms to the FBI, including permission for agents to carry firearms.Union Station entered a precipitous decline in the 1950s that coincided with the nationwide decline in passenger rail traffic. By 1973, only six trains a day were running through the station. When Amtrak left in 1985—ending all passenger train service in the station—the building was left mostly vacant and deteriorating. Grassroots efforts began in the 1990s to save and revitalize the station. In 1994, the nonprofit Union Station Assistance Corporation was established and assumed control over the property. Two years later, voters in four counties in Missouri and Kansas approved a special tax to raise money for a science museum inside the station. This, coupled with private donations and federal funding, led to a $250 million renovation project. The work included restoring the station to its original appearance as much as possible while leaving space open for new amenities.Union Station reopened to the public in 1999 with the introduction of Science City, an interactive science museum housed in the former train sheds. Over the following years the station added historical exhibits, restaurants, offices, retail space, event spaces, galleries, theaters, and a planetarium. The commercial ventures help to keep the station financially sustainable. Passenger train service was restored to the station in 2002 when Amtrak resumed operations in the facility.

The third-largest railroad station in the country when it was completed in 1914, Kansas City's Union Station has been restored to its former grandeur and offers a variety of educational and cultural attractions, including Science City, theaters, restaurants, retail shops, office space, and museum exhibits. The Beaux-Arts style building, noted for its colossal size and fine ornamentation, was part of the "City Beautiful Movement" to develop more green spaces and aesthetically pleasing public facilities in Kansas City. The station served as the heart of city's booming transportation industry in the early twentieth century, when the Kansas City was at the intersection of multiple railroads. During its peak, over 200 trains passed through the Union Station daily. The facility experienced a period of decline and deterioration from the 1950s to the 1980s as passenger rail traffic collapsed. Community efforts starting in the 1990s led to a $250 million project to restore the station and revitalize it as a major commercial and educational center. It serves as a model for the potential of adaptive reuse in historical structures. Union Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Kansas City Union Station

This award-winning fountain was gifted to the city in 2001 by its namesake, H&amp;R Block co-founder and lifelong Kansas City resident Henry Wollman Bloch. The circular fountain was designed by accomplished fountain engineers at WET Design, the designers of the Bellagio Hotel fountains in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fountain features 232 vertical jets arranged in three rings. Water sprays in an evolving pattern every 30 minutes, synchronized by a computer. The jets are surrounded by a Black granite ellipse in which water barely covers, creating a mirror effect to reflect the monuments to the east and west as the fountain sits in the traffic median between the iconic National WW1 Museum and Memorial and Union Station. It received the design honor award in 2003 and was honored by the Prairie Gateway Chapter for its architectural accomplishments. Bloch dedicated the fountain to Kansas City one year after he retired as chairman of H&amp;R Block. Henry Wollman Bloch was a Kansas City native, born in 1922. He served as a B-17 crewman over Europe in the US air force during WW2. In 1946, in the wake of World War II, Bloch and his brother Leon founded a small bookkeeping and tax services company. The company suffered through several rough and unprofitable years until, in 1955, a very successful advertisement of their tax preparation services went out in the Kansas City Star newspaper. With that success, Henry and his older brother Richard founded a new company, named H&amp;R Block. The company became a national brand in the 1970s when it started offering professional tax services to a much wider market, growing to more than 8,000 offices at this time. It was also during this time that Henry began acting in commercials advertising for his company. H&amp;R Block grew to become one of the largest tax services and at the time of Henry Bloch’s death in 2019, the company had over 12,000 offices. Bloch was also well known for his vast philanthropic contributions to the Kansas City area, many of which were with his wife Marion. The Bloch's charitable work includes donations to Saint Luke's Hospital, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, both monetarily and in an extensive collection of paintings, and the development of the Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. The Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation was established in 2011 to continue their philanthropic legacy.

Built in 2001 by the designers of Las Vegas's famous Bellagio Hotel fountains, the Henry Wollman Bloch Fountain features 232 water jets and performs a five minute show every 30 minutes. The fountain was given by and is named for well known Kansas City businessman and philanthrope Henry Bloch, who was the co-founder of the premier tax preparation company H&amp;R Block. Bloch is also known for his charitable contributions and commitment to improving the quality of life in the greater Kansas City area.

Henry Wollman Bloch Fountain

Of the millions of soldiers who perished during World War I, 441 were from Kansas City. Residents of the community proved eager to commemorate the conflict. In late 1918, shortly after the November 11 armistice ending active combat, prominent citizens of Kansas City organized the Liberty Memorial Association (LMA) to build a war memorial. The organization was led by noted local businessman and philanthropist Robert A. Long. The group launched a wildly successful fundraising campaign: in the span of ten days, over $2.5 million was raised through 83,000 individual donations. The Kansas City economy was booming during the early twentieth century, which made such large-scale public projects financially feasible.The LMA selected architect Harold Van Buren Magonigle and the firm of Wight and Wight to design what became known as the Liberty Memorial. They developed a limestone and granite complex consisting of a courtyard, a “Memory Hall” on the east side, and a “Museum Building” on the west side. The centerpiece was an imposing, 217-foot shaft. At the top was an electric light designed to resemble a fire, dubbed the “Flame of Inspiration.” It was flanked by four statues representing the guardian spirits of Honor, Courage, Sacrifice, and Patriotism. The memorial drew from elements of Greek, Gothic, Beaux Arts Classicism, and Egyptian Revival architecture. Planners chose to locate the complex on parkland directly across from Union Station, which at the time was a major transportation hub and would bring the monument plenty of exposure.Construction of the Liberty Memorial began with a lavish groundbreaking ceremony on November 1, 1921. More than 100,000 people attended the proceedings. The event was notable for having military leaders from every major Allied nation serve as dignitaries: American General John J. Pershing, British Admiral Lord Beatty, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Italian General Armando Diaz, and Belgian Lieutenant General Baron Jacques. The monument was completed in 1926 and formally dedicated on November 11 in another major ceremony that drew over 150,000 people. President Calvin Coolidge delivered the keynote address, with Queen Marie of Romania as his special guest. During the 1930s, landscaping, memorial trees, fountains, and friezes were added to the memorial site.<blockquote>“It [The Liberty Memorial] has not been raised to commemorate war and victory, but rather the results of war and victory which are embodied in peace and liberty." -President Calvin Coolidge, Dedication Speech, November 11, 1926.</blockquote>By the late twentieth century, lack of maintenance had left the memorial physically unstable, and in 1994 it was closed for safety reasons. In 1998, Kansas City passed a limited-run sales tax to raise money for the memorial’s restoration. When combined with funding from the State of Missouri, the federal government, and private donors, over $102 million was raised for the project. The renovations that followed also included the creation of a formal museum on the site; over the years, the Liberty Memorial had acquired tens of thousands of World War I artifacts. Located primarily underneath the structure, the new museum facilities were designed by Ralph Applebaum Associates and added 80,000 square-feet of space for new exhibits. The expansion also included the creation of the Edward Jones Research Center, which contains over 300,000 documents available to the public for research. In 2000, with the renovations underway, Liberty Memorial was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Congress designated the Liberty Memorial as the official World War I museum of the United States in 2004 as part of a 2005 defense spending bill. This designation prompted the institution to rebrand itself as the National World War I Museum and Memorial upon its reopening in 2006. That same year, it was listed as a National Historic Landmark.Today, the museum works to preserve the Liberty Memorial, interpret the history of World War I, and showcase thousands of artifacts to the public. A series of permanent and rotating exhibits, many with interactive and audiovisual features, take an immersive look into everything from the first shots fired in 1914 to the long-lasting effects of the war after the Treaty of Versailles. Artifacts range from typical equipment carried by soldiers to a full-sized French Renault FT-17 tank.

The World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City Missouri, is recognized by the United States government as the nation's official World War I museum. The landmark began as the Liberty Memorial, a monument created from 1921-1926 to honor Kansas City residents who had died during the war. The memorial was the product of tremendous community organization. Prominent locals operated a planning community, and city residents crowdfunded over $2.5 million for the project in less than two weeks. The monument draws from various architectural styles, including Beaux Arts Classicism and Egyptian Revival, and features an illuminated, 217-foot, limestone shaft at the center. Renovations starting in 1998 included the expansion of a World War I museum underneath the monument. It reopened in 2006 as the National World War I Museum and Memorial. The museum portion of the complex includes thousands of artifacts as well as the Edward Jones Research Center. The Liberty Memorial is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated National Historic Landmark.

National World War I Museum and Memorial

The Federal Reserve, known as the FED, is an indispensable part of Kansas City history and modern banking. It was actually the third national bank of the United States, as the first one fell victim to congressional bureaucracy and the second one was largely scapegoated for many of America’s woes by Andrew Jackson, who eventually refused to renew the bank charter in 1836, effectively dismantling the whole system. From then, economic and societal panic and collapse followed without a regulated and insured national bank. It was not until President Woodrow Wilson’s tenure in 1913, that American legislators finally agreed enough to bring back a nationalized bank, but it was up to Wilson to implement this new bank.A new national Bank became an obvious necessity after the economic turmoil brought on by the panic of 1907, and most members within the national government agreed to fix the problem. By 1910, two federal commissions headed up by Republican senate minority leader Nelson Aldrich went out to investigate both the state of the American monetary system and the banking systems in Europe. Aldrich, the rest of Congress, and various American banking experts then devised the basic plan that would come to be the Federal Reserve system. The bones of their plan was to have a single, centralized national bank in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., with fifteen separate branches of the bank geographically spread out to service the most Americans. This plan was known as the ‘Aldrich plan’ and in the spirit of bipartisanship, Democrat president Woodrow Wilson resolved to change very little of the original plan after he took office in the wake of the 1912 election. The largest change Wilson made was giving more power over the banks to the government in the form of control over the board of directors. The banks themselves serve very important roles in the American economy. One major problem that caused the financial panics prior to the FED was that small banks that did not have enough cash reserves to keep up when all their customers wanted to withdraw, so those banks collapsed and their customers lost their money. The FED provided a federally backed lender of last resort to prevent banks from collapsing and safeguard American’s savings. They have also been known to give out massive loans to prevent large companies from collapsing, all in the name of preserving the status quo, and preventing large-scale economic hardship. The Federal Reserve Banks also serve as a central bank, controlling cash flow, and acting as a regulatory body for the rest of the nation's banks and financial institutions.Notably, Missouri is the only State with multiple Federal Reserve Banks. When the government was initially surveying the country for important population centers to place the banks, they determined that both St. Louis and Kansas City were isolated and important enough to warrant their own bank. Each city serves as the commercial center of a large area that crosses state lines, so it was only practical for Missouri to have two. The Kansas City branch serves western Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado &amp; northern New Mexico, and has branch locations in Denver, Omaha, and Oklahoma City. Initially the Kansas City Federal Reserve was housed in the R.A. Long Building at 928 Grand. Built in 1907, it was the first building in Kansas City with an all steel frame and one of the first fireproof buildings in Kansas City, making it ideal for housing money. It was always temporary though, as the FED required more office space than the building could provide, so a replacement building was quickly ordered and completed across the street in 1921. Due to a growing workforce and additional responsibilities given to the Kansas City branch, a new headquarters was built in 2008 at 1 Memorial Drive.After the end of his presidency in 1954, a financially bereft Harry Truman moved back to his home state of Missouri. He made his new office in the Kansas City branch of the FED and split his time between his office in his presidential library in Independence. From those offices he wrote his memoirs and managed his post-presidency affairs. Truman’s legacy remains at the bank in the form of his extensive coin collection that has been put on display within the Money Museum. This is a small museum inside the FED that covers the history and importance of currency, giving guests a relaxed and judgment free environment to learn about inflation, deficits, and all the complicated aspects of the economy and personal finances. The Money Museum also offers unique opportunities to do things like lift a real bar of gold and get acquainted with the many currencies of the world and of the past.

Originally located downtown, the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank has continued to serve several states throughout the Midwest and Southwest since 1907. The Federal Reserve is one of the most important financial institutions in the country that regulates and controls the flow of money. Due to growing responsibilities at the Kansas City branch, a new building was constructed in 2008. Located inside the bank, the Money Museum features President Truman’s extensive coin collection and offers free, self-guided tours where guests have the unique opportunity to get their hands on a solid gold bar, setting the Kansas City Federal Reserve apart from other banks.

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and Money Museum 

The Willows was opened by Edwin and Cora May Haworth in 1905 and moved to this location three years later after they acquired Asa Maddox's mansion and converted it into a maternity hospital. The Haworth family and their staff endeavored to provide unwed pregnant daughters of middle-class and affluent families who could afford their rates a chance to give birth away from public scrutiny. The institution reflected the racially segregated nature of Kansas City at that time, with African American women entering Florence Home for Colored Girls. The era's view of race, religion, social class, and ethnicity could also play a significant role in the decisions of family members to send their daughters to maternity homes. According to KelLee Parr, author of Mansion on a Hill: The Story of the Willows Maternity Sanitarium and the Adoption Hub of America some of the women who entered the Willows did so largely because they did not support their daughter's desire to marry the father of their child."Several have shared with me that because of religious differences between the young man and young woman," Parr explained in an email to Dr. David Trowbridge, "the parents wouldn't allow them to get married. One was a woman who shared that the boy's father was a Methodist pastor and she was Catholic. There was no way he would allow them to be married. Another woman told me that she and her boyfriend were deeply in love (this is the one who wrote all the letters to the boyfriend while at The Willows) but the boy was of Lebanese heritage and she was blond and blue-eyed. The boy's mother wouldn't allow him to marry her." Ironically, Parr added, their baby was adopted by a family of Lebanese ancestry.Many residents at the Willows commended the staff for their kindness during difficult times in their lives. An estimated thirty thousand women gave birth at the home over the years it was in operation. By the late 1960s, however, the perceived need for maternity homes was on the decline as a reflection of changes in society.Sometime after the closing of the Willows Maternity Sanitarium, almost all of its records were destroyed. According to the research of KelLee Parr, records from the home were initially were offered to the Jackson County Court, which refused to accept them. According to Parr, the records were taken to the Federal Reserve where they were destroyed. The loss of records led Parr and many other descendants of babies born at the Willows on extensive and often unsuccessful attempts to discover their family histories.Former nurse Florence Beale Bolte donated a small number of items to Missouri Valley Special Collections (MVSC) at the Kansas City Public Library. The MVSC website provides this disclaimer to researchers "Please note that MVSC does not have any records from any of the Kansas City maternity homes, nor are we aware of where any surviving records may be located." The Jackson County Historical Society also houses some materials from the organization. The building that housed the Willows Maternity Sanitarium is no longer in existence; an apartment complex now sits on the lot where the home once stood. Families who are connected to this history raised thousands of dollars to create a historical marker that is in storage as of July 2022. The group hopes to secure the permission of the current property owner to dedicate the marker at this location.

Now home to an apartment complex, this was the location of the Willows Maternity Sanitarium from 1908 until 1969. This home for unwed mothers was one of many maternity homes in Kansas City, which was nicknamed the “adoption hub” of the United States owing to Missouri's unique adoption laws that provided simplicity and privacy for mothers and the adopting parents. Tens of thousands of mothers came to Kansas City in the first half of the 20th century owing to the existence of numerous institutions like Willows Maternity Sanitarium, as well as partnerships between social services organizations and Kansas City hospitals. The Willows and its owners, Edwin P. and Cora May Haworth, earned a reputation for kindness, first-class medical care, and exceptional accommodations for the young women under their care. These factors distinguished the Willows from many other maternity homes, but still, nearly all of the estimated thirty thousand women who entered this facility left alone as nearly all of the babies born here were placed for adoption.

Willows Maternity Sanitarium (1905-1969)

The Pla-Mor was built by Charles A. Smith, an architect known for his work on Kansas City area schools. The facility cost over $500,000 and became the country’s largest indoor entertainment complex upon its completion. On November 24th, 1927 the Ballroom made its debut welcoming 4,000 patrons into its 14,000 square foot dance floor to dance to the Jean Goldkette Orchestra.1 Dancers may have been surprised to find some extra spring in their step as 7,000 springs sat below the dancefloor flexing up to a quarter-inch as they moved across the ballroom dancefloor.4The Kansas City Times review of the Ballroom's opening demonstrates the magnitude of the event within the larger history of the city in the final years of the "Roaring 20s." "For those who went merely to see, there was magnificence for the eye. The entrance was under a brilliant electric sign. Once past the door, wall decorations of freehand painting attracted attention. Rich carpet gave an impression of luxuriousness. Up a flight of steps and down a hall past the women’s cloakroom the eye followed vivid hunting and jungle scenes of the modern motif...The ball room and mezzanine were decorated in a more strictly patterned manner. Here the lighting brilliance demanded the first and lasting attention. Ceiling fixtures of beaded glass chains suspended bowl-shaped, with variable colors glowing through them, vied with tinted lamps casting full and toned colors across the floor from the walls."1The Pla-Mor Ballroom was also the site of an ugly event in Kansas City jazz history. Though the ballroom relied on the entertainment of African American Jazz legends, this club was open to white guests only. Jazz legend Cab Calloway found that he was no exception to this rule. On December 23rd, 1945 Calloway was invited by friend and bandleader Lionel Hampton to watch his set at the Pla-Mor.5 When Calloway attempted to enter the all-white club he was stopped at the door. The situation escalated until a nearby off-duty policeman William Todd assaulted Calloway by beating him in the skull with his pistol.5 Calloway had to be taken to the hospital and received 8 stitches. At the end of the night, he faced three misdemeanor charges while Todd went uncharged.5 Calloway went on to sue the Pla-Mor ballroom for $200,000 but this attempt was unsuccessful.5 When Lionel Hampton learned of the incident, he stopped playing and refused to play at the Pla-Mor Ballroom ever again.5

The Pla-Mor Ballroom was a popular jazz venue and entertainment complex that operated from 1927 to 1951. The legendary Kansas City venue opened on Thanksgiving 1927 to a crowd of 4,000 patrons who came out to dance to the sounds of the Jean Goldkette Orchestra.1 The Pla-Mor was home to more than music, and the complex claimed to be the largest indoor amusement center in the country in the 1920s, offering a bowling alley and billiards room underneath the ballroom and an ice hockey rink next door.4 In 1931 the Pla-Mor complex added the largest swimming pool west of the Mississippi.4 During its heyday the Ballroom welcomed jazz greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Louis Armstrong, and Frank Sinatra. The popularity of the Pla-Mor ballroom declined in the 1940s as suburbanization drew populations out of the city and ballroom entertainment became less attractive. The ballroom permanently closed in 1951 with other attractions at the Pla-Mor complex following soon after. in 1971 the site was demolished and replaced by a car dealership. 4

Pla-Mor Ballroom (1927-1951)

The Row House Buildings comprising 1-3 &amp; 5-7 East 34th street and 3401 Main Street in the Westport district is a rare surviving example of row house architecture in Kansas City. The Row House Buildings (circa 1888) exemplifies the Queen Anne style design and includes Eastlake style elements, represented by the irregularity of its plan, its variety of texture, and its use of many bays and roof shapes. Row house buildings of this design grew popular during Kansas City's 1880s population and building boom. People flooded to Kansas City, MO and westward into Kansas during the 1880s (the population of Kansas City doubled between 1880 and 1890). The growth coincided with a tremendous railroad expansion from Missouri into Kansas as many Americans moved westward. Many of course, chose to stay in Kansas City as job opportunities grew. The Row House Buildings emerged in 1888 at the height of the boom. At the time of its construction, the buildings stood in what was then Westport, Missouri. It formed an integral part of a residential area located outside the city limits of Kansas City, similar to present-day suburbs. Kansas City annexed Westport in 1899. Although George W. Craig, a laborer for the Metropolitan Streetcar Railway Company, technically built in 1888 the Row House Buildings (located on the southeast corner of East 34th Street and Main Street), it is doubtful that he funded the project. A laborer for a streetcar railway company would probably not have the financial means to build such a sizable structure. Craig likely represented an out-of-state speculator (individual or firm), a common occurrence during Kansa City's building boom of the 1880s. Speculators and investing grew rampant during the 1880s, part of an overall cycle of booms and busts that grew prevalent in the Plains during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Missouri and Kansas added several thousands of miles of railway tracks during the 1880s, which coincided with a population boom for the Kansas City area. Construction of the Row House Buildings occurred in 1888 at the height of the boom (and just before a bust put a damper on the growth during the following decade). The population boom also coincided with a building boom, much of it predicated on out-of-town speculators investing in Kansas City construction. Although a railway laborer technically built The Row House Building, it's likely he served as a representative for one of those out-of-town speculators. The Row House Buildings existed as one of several row house structures to emerge during the 1880s in Kansas City, many of which enjoyed a Queen Anne design; very few have survived into the twenty-first century.

Row House Buildings

The Goodenow Textiles Company Building served as the home to the Goodenow Textiles Company, a nationally known manufacturer of men's underwear and a significant contributor to the Kansas City garment industry. The open floor plan and spatial arrangements reflect technological changes in industrial design consisting of reinforced concrete and suitable for assembly line manufacturing. The factory building, located outside Kansas City's bustling garment district with rail spurs to freight yards, also reflects the beginning of the shift from rail to vehicular transportation of supplies and finished goods in the post-World War I period. Its design reflects principles introduced during the 1920s and inspired by Progressive Era ideals that light, comfort, and positive workplace relationships increased worker productivity. In the last half of the nineteenth century, Kansas City, Missouri, developed into one of the nation's major railroad hubs, which occurred concurrently with significant population growth and a boom in industrial development and commercial growth, including the garment industry. In 1900, eleven factories in Kansas City manufactured men's and women's clothing with a value of approximately $1.2 million. By 1945, more than eighty garment factories operated in Kansas City, doing an annual business between $75 million and $100 million and employing between 6,000 and 7,000 workers. Frank Goodenow began his career in the garment industry in 1901 when he went to work for the Chicago-Kenosha Hosiery Company in Wisconsin, which later co-founded a company that became Jockey International. Frank Goodenow married in 1909 and, together with his wife and his new cousins-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Brookfield, moved to Kansas City to start a new business. Goodenow and his childhood friend from Chicago, Arthur Brookfield (who also moved to Kansas City), formed the Goodenow-Brookfield Knitting Company in 1909, which became evolved into the Goodenow Textiles Company. The company moved several times in its early years, reflecting its growth (and the entire industry) as each space proved larger than the previous one. World War I profoundly influenced the industry as garment makers mass-produced clothes for troops. Thus, during the first decades of the twentieth century, clothing production shifted from homemade garments and tailor-made clothing to mass-produced, ready-to-wear items, including underwear. In fact, the history of underwear changed substantially during the twentieth century. During the eighteenth century and much of the nineteenth century, undergarments for American women and men consisted of a long shirt hanging from shoulders to calves called a chemise or vest. During the last half of the nineteenth century, pants worn as undergarments came into use, as did two-piece garments similar to today's long underwear, although baggier in form. Working-class men usually wore woolen undergarments while middle- and upper-class men considered it unnecessary, notably given their limited level of activity. Before World War I profoundly influenced the garment industry, a one-piece "union suit" emerged during the first decade of the twentieth century and grew popular, notably as companies made advancements in the style's design. During World War I, underwear became shorter, had elastic bands (instead of buttons), and consisted of breathable materials; the "boxer" was born, and sales soared. With the onset of mass production after the war, companies produced men's underwear in record volumes, meeting consumer demand for clean, durable undergarments. (By World War II, men could also buy bikini briefs and colored underwear.) Like many industries during the Gilded Age and into the early 1900s, thousands of European immigrants provided ample low-cost labor. Industrial (technological) changes plus an abundant labor force sped the process of producing underwear from three days to one hour. Initially, the Goodenow Textiles Company manufactured products including hosiery and the "Good-knite" pajamas line. After World War I, the company began concentrating on the men's summer union suit. The company's success forced the company in 1919 to add to its factory to meet the increased demand. Also, in 1919, Brookfield left the company, so Frank Goodneow's brother, Fred, joined the company as its Vice President. Not long thereafter, the company had to relocate to an even bigger location within the city's wholesale garment district. In the new location, the Goodenow Textiles Company raised its production from 750,000 sets of underwear per year to one million sets in 1928. Yet again, the company outgrew its production space. So, in 1929, before the onset of the Great Depression, the company announced plans to move (again) to a bigger facility. The new facility would not only allow for greater production but also adhere to new ideas about providing workers with better workspaces, which would also enhance production. Furthermore, the new location offered insight into the evolution of transportation. The growing popularity of automobiles (notably, trucks) made it possible to build a facility in a place away from the city's railroad freight hub. The new (now historic) factory opened in 1930 and, at 40,000 square feet, was twice as big as its previous facility. The Goodenow Textiles Company Building allowed for a boost in both production, and the company increased its workforce from 200 to 300 employees. Despite the Great Depression, the company continued to grow; the company expanded into international trade by 1939. The company occupied this building for twenty-one years. In 1951, the Goodenows sold the business to James Lenaghan, the company's accountant. He moved operations to Monett, Missouri, but the Lenaghan family continued to own the Main Street building until 1977. Afterward, the Main Street building occupants included various businesses such as a stationary company, photographers, and a balloon business.

Constructed in 1930, the Goodenow Textiles Company Building represented the growth of a family business from a small operation in 1909 to one doing upwards of $100 million in business by 1945. The company focused on undergarments and hosiery, and its growth mirrored that of the garment industry in Kansas City. The company's growth also mirrored the mass adoption of standardized undergarments around the time of World War I when the mass-produced, one-piece, elastic-banded underwear commonly worn today regardless of social and financial status became more common. This production facility was designed with design ideas of the Progressive-Era; with a factory that allowed for plenty of light and offered workers a better environment with the goal of increasing production as a result of the better workspace.

Goodenow Textiles Company Building

Known over the years as the Tocoma, Hawthorn Plaza Apartments, and Netherlands Hotel, the ten-floor structure built in 1928 (now eleven stories) survives as an excellent representation of the robust hotel development in Kansas City's Hyde Park neighborhood during the 1920s. The hotel boom reflected Kansas City's population boom, including a surge in upper-middle-class residents moving to the Hyde Park area. The hotel enjoys a Spanish Revival style with Moorish and Baroque elements, designed by renowned architect Robert F. Gornall. Between 1910 and 1930, the city's population increased by 150,000 to nearly 400,000 residents. The population boom occurred concurrently with an apartment boom, especially during the 1920s when 15,152 new apartment units came on the market. Also, during the '20s, businesses and residents routinely moved southward away from the business district. Streets and Boulevards such as Broadway, Main, and Armour grew popular as spots for large homes and luxurious apartment-style hotels, including the Netherlands Hotel. The apartment-hotels, many of which opened in the Hyde Park area in the 1920s, generally catered to upwardly climbing middle-class residents. Residents often stayed long-term in the hotels, usually in rooms that included kitchenettes. The middle-class professionals enjoyed living near the city's trains and streetcars that provided easy access to jobs, theaters, shopping, and more, without having to sign long-term leases. Surrounding the hotels were numerous retailers and service industries such as candy stores, pharmacies, and one of the city's most socially elite ballrooms: The Jack '0 Lantern. Guy H. McCanles, who had already succeeded in building the Bainbridge and Kenwood Apartments on Armour Boulevard and the first to construct a transient hotel in the South Side area, built the Netherlands Hotel. Although, the initial plan consisted of twin ten-story buildings. It's unclear why McCanles ran short of funds, but by 1928, he altered his original plan. He sold the southern property to Bradley W. Young of the Netherlands-American Mortgage Bank. McCanles hired Robert F. Gornall, a well-respected Kansas City architect proficient in the classical revival style and his spin on the city's popular Spanish Revival style. The Uptown Theatre, built in 1926, stood as one of Gornall's most notable buildings, which served as a prototype for the Netherlands. Plans for the remaining hotel building included fireproof construction and a design consisting of a ground floor lobby and two storerooms on the lowest floor. The upper floors were to have a mix of "bachelor" units (stories 2 - 7) and kitchenette apartments (top three floors). The Arthur Fels Company partnered with Netherlands-American and took over the management of the Netherlands as an apartment/hotel business until 1981. California investors acquired the building in at that time and planned to re-open it as an apartment complex for the elderly. Today, after an extensive renovation in 2018 and challenges presented by the 2020-2021 global pandemic, the historic structure again operates as a luxury hotel and residential building, just as it did when it opened in 1928.

The construction of this apartment-hotel in 1928 coincided with a city-wide population boom, as well as an influx of wealthy and upwardly mobile middle-class residents in Kansas City's Hyde Park neighborhood. With easy access to streetcars and a vibrant neighborhood, this building, known as the Tocoma, Netherlands Hotel, and Hawthorn Plaza over the next century, began as one of several luxury apartment-hotels constructed in the area during the 1920s. The historic building demonstrates the popularity of the Spanish Revival style of architecture at this time in Kansas City. Renowned architect Robert F. Gornall designed the building, which also incorporates both Moorish and Baroque elements. In 2013, the building was included on lists of endangered historic structures, but thanks to the efforts of preservationists and investors, the building once again serves as a residence and hotel for the same reasons as it did a century before- a vibrant neighborhood and streetcar line.

The Netherland (aka Netherlands Hotel, Tocoma, and Hawthorn Plaza)

The founders of the Katz chain, Mike and Ike, were born in the small Ukrainian village of Husiatin. The hardships of rural life wore on the Katz family, and while the brothers were still young, they immigrated to the United States. Ike settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, quickly abandoning school in favor of a sales career on the railroad. It would be these hardships that turned to opportunity that molded the young pair. By the turn of the century, the brothers decided to move from St. Paul to Kansas City, a crossroad of railroads where their experience selling products along the railroads would fit perfectly. With the West Bottoms district serving as the main transportation hub following the construction of the Hannibal Bridge, the development of the stockyards, and the expansion of the Union Depot brought many to the area. The Katz brothers started a fruit stand in the West Bottoms and found quick success. By 1914, the brothers decided to move operations nearer the new railroad station, Union Station by opening a store at 8th and Main along with one at 12th and McGee.These stores would see a boom following World War One laws that went into effect. The first law was a heavy ten percent tax on tobacco products to fund the war. Rather than passing the tax onto the consumer as every other store did, the Katz Brothers had a different business model. “Katz pays the tax” became the new slogan for the store, making the price of cigarettes much cheaper than competitors. Customers flocked to the store and quickly came to appreciate the low prices. A federally imposed curfew in 1917 made it so that only drugstores were allowed to be open past 6 p.m. Naturally, the Katz Brothers hired a retired pharmacist and started filling prescriptions that year. This allowed customers to also have the convenience of buying cigarettes and other items past the federally imposed curfew, legally.While the Great Depression hurt many retailers, Katz Drug Stores saw significant growth. Every store opened with a gala akin to a red carpet walk, full of glamor and hope. In 1934, this flagship store at Main Street and Westport Road was designed to be the modern hub for the company moving forward. The largest drugstore in the world, when it opened December 7th, was designed by Clarence Kivett to house everything a modern community hub should. This included more than just a soda fountain, lunch counter, and grocery aisles. One could expect modern features like air conditioning, a large selection of vinyl records, Katz-branded beer, home appliances, and even the occasional exotic pet for sale from alligators and baby monkeys. The Katz Brothers even sponsored the local baseball team in 1961. A decade later, Katz Brothers merged with Skaggs Drug Co., with over 65 stores in seven states.After the merger, this location operated from 1971 to 1985 as a Skaggs drugstore until 1985, when Osco took over the premises. In these years, the novel features of Katz faded, and the shopping experience was similar to modern stores like CVS, which acquired Osco. The building became vacant in 2006, and the unique design and historic character of the building made the property of interest to residents of Kansas City. In 2011 Redeemer Fellowship church bought the property to use it as an artist incubator. In 2019, the property was listed for sale, and Historic Kansas City placed the location on their Most Endangered Places list that year. Local residents and preservationists hoped the building would be acquired by a company with plans to thoughtfully redevelop the property. Developers from Lux Living in Saint Louis, Missouri worked with Historic Kansas City to develop an apartment complex that preserved some of the exterior architecture including the iconic clocktower.

The largest drugstore in the world when it opened in 1934, this former flagship store of the Katz chain remains an iconic Westport landmark. The company was founded by brothers Mike and Ike Katz, who hailed from a small village in Ukraine. Their family immigrated to the United States and settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, where the pair grew up selling goods along the railroads. Upon moving to Kansas City, the pair opened a fruit stand in the West Bottoms district and later expanded to operate two stores. In the next two decades, the company prospered, leading to the creation of this flagship store in the heart of the Great Depression that soon became a hub of the Westport neighborhood. The Katz chain offered everything from a pharmacy and soda fountain to home appliances and pet monkeys. This store operated as a Skaggs Drug Company operation following a 1971 merger, and this location eventually became an Osco owned by CVS Corp. In 2011, the property was bought by a church and was later acquired by Lux Living developers from St. Louis, Missouri. As of 2024, the company is transforming the building into an apartment complex while preserving many of the unique exterior features of the store, including the iconic clock tower.

Katz Drug Store (1934-1971)

The church started as a small Sunday School for boys in 1888 before maturing into the "Springfield Avenue Christian Church," which opened in 1890 with twenty-five members. The congregation built its first permanent structure in 1894 (a wood-framed building) and subsequently renamed themselves "Southside Christian Church," supporting 127 members. As membership grew, the need for larger facilities arose. In 1909, after five years of planning and building, the members moved into a large Spanish Renaissance-style church with a main floor and balcony that supported 950 attendees. The new facility opened in 1909 and came with another name change: Linwood Boulevard Christian Church.The designers planned for church growth, which came to fruition. As the twentieth century progressed in the first two decades, many (notably white middle-class and wealthy residents) moved away from the aging and crowded business center to the southern parts of the city, which resulted in steady attendance increases. In 1925, the church began to broadcast its services on the radio and, as part of the process, enjoyed its last name change, referring to itself as Community Church.A devastating fire in October 1939 left the members without a worship facility, but it also started the process of creating a relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright. Six months after the fire, the head pastor purchased a vacant lot and hired Wright, who presented an idea to build a "church of the future." Although some members worried about Wright's unique plan that put function over form with non-traditional layouts, which included unique geometrical forms such as an expansive hexagonal sanctuary, they ultimately approved his proposal.Additionally, the plan included a multi-level parking garage, reflecting the increasing presence of the automobile in American culture. Indeed, although the Great Depression initially slowed car sales, automobile purchases steadily increased during the mid- and late-1930s, leading to tens of millions of cars on American roads when Wright proposed his plan for Community Church.The Community Church plan differs from the stereotypical Prairie School design for which Wright is most associated, which speaks to the change in his architectural style during the second half of his career. The Great Depression certainly impacted Wright, as he shifted his focus to affordable housing. In January 1938, Wright published an article in Architectural Forum outlining the idea of Usonian housing, which involved machine-like standardization and pre-fabrication while still exhibiting style and quality. To avoid the traps of standardization that can lead to stale designs, Wright relied on the Prairie School idea of working with landscapes and the natural environment, including utilizing local materials in constructing the homes (which also served as a cost-effective).  Wright also experimented with materials during the 1920s and 1930s, which are present in the Community Church design. He routinely employed steel framing and became impressed with concrete's strength and versatility (especially concrete blocks with steel reinforcing bars). For Community Church, Wright used pressure-sprayed concrete on corrugated steel. The church also enjoyed heated and cooled floors and abundant windows for light and ventilation.Wright's choices of materials and form, notably the building's rhombus shape and other unique geometric features, all demonstrate the famous architect's mission to build the "church of the future." Almost three years after Community Church saw its worship center burn, The Wright-designed structure opened its doors for the first worship service on January 6, 1942; it remains the home of Community Church today, seating roughly 900 people.

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1940 and constructed the following year, Community Church is Wright's only non-residential building in Kansas City. The congregation dates back to the late 19th century with the formation of a youth mission that grew to become a small congregation by 1890. After a fire in 1939 completely burned the church's building, the lead pastor contacted the famed architect who incorporated a variety of his design aesthetics and modern materials, including prefabricated materials and concrete. The architect worked to blend modern elements into the area's natural landscape, with building lines and other features that evolved from his "Usonian Model."

Community Church designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

Mill Creek Park fountain (formerly J. C. Nichols Memorial Fountain) was designed in 1910 in France by sculptor Henri-Léon Gréber for New York millionaire Clarence H. Mackay. The cast bronze fountain features four heroic horsemen representing the world’s four mightiest rivers: the Mississippi, Volga, Seine, and Rhine. Surrounding the horsemen are four smaller figures of children playing on fish, a common feature in fountain design at that time. Clarence H. Mackay (1874-1938) was a key figure in the development of the international telegraph and heir to his father's empire which was built from profits mining silver. Mackay completed the three-story, 80,000 square foot Renaissance-style chateau, Harbor Hill, in 1902. Resting along Long Island’s Gold Coast, Harbor Hill cost more than $781 million and was the site of lavish parties, including a celebration of aviator Charles Lindbergh after his transatlantic flight in 1927. Mackay had collections of fine art and Renaissance-era armor and held back no expense in landscaping his marvelous estate. In 1910, Mackay commissioned Gréber and Harbor Hill became home to the fountain, centered amongst the mansion's grandiose garden. It is thought that this mansion gave rise to the famous novel, The Great Gatsby. Mackay fell victim to the Wall Street crash in 1929 and was forced to sell his collections. Following his passing, the bank foreclosed on the estate in 1940 and the remnants of the property were subject to vandalism before the demolition of the mansion in 1947.The equestrian fountain outside the former mansion was purchased with contributions from the Nichols family, the city, and fundraising efforts which raised over $50,000 in private donations. Mackay’s fountain was brought to Kansas City in 1951 by Miller Nichols, son of real estate and Country Club Plaza developer J. C. Nichols. Due to its condition, the fountain needed to be refurbished. Artist Herman Frederick Simon was hired and, in addition, created a replica of one of the fish figures, which had been missing prior to the purchase. Resting on the east side of the Country Club Plaza in Mill Creek Park, the fountain was installed and dedicated to J. C. Nichols in 1960. The Nichols family endowed the fountain to the City of Kansas City, now one of 48 city-owned fountains. Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation funded a large portion of the renovation of J. C. Nichols fountain in 2014, which included removing the sculptures and equipment for cleaning and replacing in some cases. An unexpected piece was also replaced after a New York family treasure was discovered in 2008. The Singer family had purchased a small statue of children playing on a fish from the Mackay estate in 1947, without ever knowing the fate of the others. The “fourth fish” was then purchased by the City of Kansas City in 2010 and replaced the replica in the 2014 renovation. The replica now rests nearby on a concrete pedestal accompanied by a plaque describing its history. Due to increased awareness of J. C. Nichols' connection to restrictive covenants that barred African Americans and Jewish residents from buying or renting property, and after months of debate from community leaders, the Board of Parks and Recreation voted unanimously on June 30, 2020, to rename the fountain. With the support of the Nichols family, the fountain and nearby parkway now bears the name Mill Creek. One can see the fountains running from Fountain Day, the second Tuesday in April when all of the City fountains are brought back life through October.

Mill Creek Park fountain (formerly known as the J. C. Nichols Memorial Fountain) was brought from New York to Kansas City in 1951 by the Nichols family and is now one of the 48 city-owned fountains. The ornate fountain was designed and cast in France in 1910 for New York financier and telegraph mogul Clarence Mackay who was also a leading collector of fine art and Renaissance armor. The cast bronze fountain features four horsemen, representing the world’s four mightiest rivers, surrounded by four smaller sculptures of children playing on fish. One of these small fish sculptures had been sold prior to the demolition of Mackay's estate in 1947, so a replica of the fish was commissioned so that the fountain would match its original appearance when it arrived in Kansas City. The fountain was refurbished, installed, and dedicated to J. C. Nichols in 1960. The missing fish was eventually found and installed in a 2014 renovation. In recent years, city leaders have begun a process of recognizing the influence of J.C. Nichols in shaping the city in both positive and negative ways, including his use of racially restrictive covenants to bar African American and Jewish residents from his residential and commercial developments. In an effort to show that Kansas City parks are open to all, city leaders voted unanimously to rename the fountain on June 30, 2020.

Kansas City Streetcar History Tour

The Kangaroo (1938)

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources