Every President from Theodore Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan styed at the Muehlebach Hotel, which is now one of three buildings that make up the Kansas City Marriott. The hotel was created by George E. Muehlebach, the son of the founder of Kanas City's Muehlebach beer. While President, Harry S. Truman stayed at the hotel so frequently that some referred to the Muehlebach as the far west wing of the White House. The hotel hosted the guests of the 1928 Republican Convention and the 1976 Republican National Convention, an event that saw the nomination of Gerald Ford despite a strong challenge by supporters of Ronald Reagan. Ten years later, the Muehlebach Hotel closed and was vacant for ten years until acquired by Marriott. The grand lobby of the original 1915 hotel has been restored.

The Barney Allis Plaza Fountain was installed in 1985. 

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This large fountain was built in 1985 as part of a redesign of the Barney Allis Plaza, and urban park located above a parking garage at the site of the city's first convention hall which was built to host the Democratic National Convention of 1900. That convention hall was used until the 1930s and today, the plaza where it once stood is a tree-lined urban park that features several statues and is named after the manager of the former Muehlebach Hotel which was located across the street. That historic hotel is now part of the Marriott Hotel. Barney Allis managed the hotel for three decades beginning in 1931. Despite his short stature of 5 foot 3 inches, Allis had a tremendous presence and ran the hotel in a way that left a positive impression on visitors to the city. Allis earned a reputation as a perfectionist and his leadership bolstered the hotel's reputation which compelled a number of celebrities, including the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, and future President Harry Truman, to choose to stay at the Muehlebach. The fountain is on the north end of the plaza and features 112 water jets. The plaza was first created in 1956.

Discover the history of Barney Allis Plaza from Dr. Bill Worley

Barney Allis Plaza and Fountain

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This walking tour begins at the Kansas City Power & Light Building which was completed in 1931 and includes numerous historic theaters and other landmark buildings that were home to the leading economic, social, and cultural hub of the city. Highlights of the tour include the Mainstreet Theater, Kansas City Club Building, the Muehlebach Hotel, the Naismith College Basketball Hall of Fame, and of course, one of Kansas City's famous fountains.

The Kansas City Power &amp; Light Company (originally known as the Kawsmouth Electric Light Company) was established in 1882 when it opened the first electric power plant in Kansas City. The company struggled to compete against multiple rival electric companies in the area in its early years but survived thanks to its work to provide consistent power to the city’s growing system of electric trolley lines. The company began to prosper after building the Northeast Power Station in 1921. Today the KCP&amp;L services over 18,000 square miles in Kansas and Missouri, providing electricity to 800,000 residents. Originally the company’s offices were scattered in various locations around the city. In 1930, KCP&amp;L President Joseph Franklin Porter decided to consolidate all the offices together by building a single company headquarters.The popular architectural firm of Hoit, Price, and Barnes was commissioned to design a building for the KCP&amp;L. The firm was noted for designing multiple structures in Kansas City during the 1920s and 1930s, including the R. A. Long Residence (now the Kansas City Museum) and the Fidelity Nation Bank &amp; Trust Building. Construction of the KCP&amp;L Building began in 1930 and was completed in 1931 by the Swenson Construction Company. It was built in the new Art Deco style that included Indiana limestone and elaborate ornamentation on the exterior. It also notably featured a six-story lantern tower on the top. A series of color-changing copper floodlights illuminated the building at night and gave it the appearance of a flickering candle.At 32 stories and 479 feet tall, the KCP&amp;L Building was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River until 1962, when the Space Needle was built in Seattle. It remained the tallest building in Missouri until 1976. KCP&amp;L occupied the first nineteen floors of the building and rented out the remainder to various tenants in the early years. In 1957, the company sold the building but leased thirteen floors for continued use. In 2002, the KCP&amp;L Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.The KCP&amp;L Company left the building for good in 1991 and relocated its headquarters elsewhere. In 2014, the building lost its last tenant, and this was not the only massive building that was vacant prior to downtown's ongoing revival. Soon afterward, NorthPoint Development Co. purchased the building for $10 million, announcing a $70 million project to convert the building into a luxury apartment complex. Renovations were designed by NSPJ Architects and completed in 2016. Now known as Power &amp; Light Apartments, the building includes over 200 apartment units and a plethora of amenities for tenants. The original exterior floodlights were replaced with LED lighting as part of the refurbishments. The old floodlights were refurbished into light fixtures for the Beacon Lounge bar.

The Kansas City Power &amp; Light Building is a leading historic landmark in the city’s Power &amp; Light District. The building was constructed in 1931 and served as the headquarters for the Kansas City Power &amp; Light Company for six decades. The building’s Art Deco style and ornate rooftop lantern quickly made it a Kansas City icon, and to this day, the lantern appears as a symbol within logos for the Power &amp; Light District. KCP&amp;L occupied the first nineteen floors of the building's thirty-six stories when their new headquarters was complete, renting the other half until 1957, when they sold the property and became a tenant. The company continued to rent space here until 1991. In 2014, the KCP&amp;L Building was sold after its last tenant left. The historic office tower underwent refurbishments and reopened in 2016 as a luxury apartment complex. The building was the tallest in Missouri for nearly fifty years and remains the fourth-tallest in the city.

Kansas City Power and Light Building

The Hotel President was built in 1926 by the United Hotels Company. Founded in 1910 by Niagara Falls businessman Frank Dudley, United Hotels was a national chain of luxury hotels and at one time was the largest hotel company in the world. The Hotel President was designed by the architectural firm of Shepard &amp; Wiser and constructed at a cost of around three million dollars. The fourteen-story building contained 453 guest rooms and upon its opening was considered one of the most elegant and advanced hotels in all of Kansas City. It contained several meeting spaces and ballrooms such as the Aztec Room, Walnut Room, and Congress Room, and a two-story Presidential Suite. It also included modern features such as a public address system and an ice-producing plant, the first in any Kansas City hotel. The hotel’s fame was cemented early in its history when it acted as the headquarters for the 1928 Republican National Convention. The convention nominated Herbert Hoover for President.In 1941 the Hotel President underwent renovations and opened the Drum Room, a cocktail lounge designed by the architectural firm of Neville and Sharp and featuring a South Sea Island theme. The lounge featured a giant kettle drum in the center which held the bar along with large murals painted by New York artist Winold Reiss. The Drum Room frequently had live music and became perhaps the most popular lounge in the city, both for locals and visitors. A plethora of notable entertainers performed at the lounge, including Frank Sinatra, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Patsy Cline, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, the Marx Brothers, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Marilyn Maye.The Hotel President closed in 1979 and the building sat vacant for over two decades. During this time a large amount of the hotel’s furniture, fixtures, silverware, and works of art were auctioned off to the public. During the early 2000s several proposals for the creation of the Power &amp; Light entertainment district called for the hotel to be razed and replaced with either a park or a parking lot. The Kansas City Council ultimately intervened to save the building from demolition in any of those early plans, but the building still sat vacant until 2002, when Hotel President was acquired by real estate developer Ron Jury. who launched a $45 million project to renovate the building into a modern hotel under the Hilton franchise. The restoration process was beset by challenges, but guests to the hotel can now enjoy a lobby, ballroom, and several event spaces that were restored to their 1940s appearance. In addition, the Drum Room was restored and reopened. The original 453 rooms were converted into 213 modern hotel rooms that reflect the expectations of modern travelers. The Hotel President reopened in early 2006 as the Hilton President Kansas City. For his efforts to save the hotel, Jury was given the Historic Preservation Award by the American Institute of Architect’s Kansas City chapter.

From its opening in 1926, Kansas City's Hotel President reflected the opulence of Kansas City during the 1920s and was selected to host the 1928 Republican National Convention which nominated Herbert Hoover for President. Other notable guests have included Bob Dylan, Charles Lindbergh, and Presidents Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, and Nixon. The hotel’s Drum Room lounge, which opened in 1941, hosted legendary entertainers such as Frank Sinatra, the Marx Brothers, the Glen Miller Orchestra, Sammy Davis Jr., Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey. The President closed in the late 1970s and sat vacant for over 20 years. Saved from demolition, the hotel underwent a $45 million renovation in 2006 and reopened as a Hilton franchise, dubbed the Hilton President Kansas City. The President, along with multiple other hotels, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Hotel President (Hilton President Kansas City) and the Drum Room

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

The Union army in the border region experienced its fair share of difficulties with the Confederate army, particularly those unaffiliated supporters using guerrilla warfare throughout Jackson County. Having been backed into a corner, Union General Thomas Ewing strived to make a statement while remaining non-violent. Ewing issued Order No. 10 on February 4, 1863, threatening Bushwhackers with having their families removed from Missouri if the violence continued. However, guerrilla activity continued and was supported. Historian LeeAnn Whites explains that guerrilla warfare tactics are not under the same unsaid rules as traditional war. [1] “Guerrilla war, fought anywhere, on any terrain, and at any time, opens the prospect that women and children will be caught haplessly in the crossfire between competing groups of men,” said Whites. Whites further explains that while the men might have been the front-facing figures of guerilla warfare, the women were doing behind-the-scenes work, what she calls the [2] “supply line.” So, Ewing began arresting women who were accused of aiding Bushwhackers; some were arrested in public settings, and others were taken from their homes. While some women were found with resources such as lead, gunpowder, and suspicious amounts of cash, others were arrested simply for being associated with Bushwhackers and held as prisoners. Historian Joseph Beilein says one of the largest ways these women contributed was by creating [3] “guerilla shirts” for their husbands, boyfriends, and the like.[4] “The shirts were emblematic of the guerillas’ style more generally, the greatest influence on which was the look of the frontier hunters who had straddled the fringes of the white and Indian worlds since very early in the European settlement of the Americas." The women were not granted bond or bail and sat in the Kansas City prison awaiting trial in St. Louis. There were multiple prisons surrounding the Kansas City area, but the 1409 Grand Ave location was a tavern transformed to hold approximately 20 women. The tavern, already in poor condition, underwent mild renovation in order to house the women and create offices for Union soldiers. Kansas City native and future mayor Elijah M. McGee said in an affidavit that beams [5] “had been cut away from the girders or center beam” and other forms of support [6] “had already sunk some two or three feet." Although the building was inspected on August 3 and several structural deficits were noted, no action was taken. On the afternoon of August 13, the building collapsed, killing four women instantly and one more days later following her injuries. Many more were injured, including the teenage sister of infamous Bushwhacker William “Bloody Bill” Anderson. Rumors ran rampant that this tragic event was no accident. This was, in a sense, the final straw for the Bushwhackers, who demanded immediate action. [7] “We could stand no more… innocent and beautiful girls had been murdered in a most foul, brutal, savage and damnable manner. We were determined to have our revenge,” said John McCorkle, who lost his sister in the collapse. The Bushwhackers, led by Anderson and William Quantrill, began hosting meetings across farms in Missouri to discuss retaliation. On August 21, 1863, eight days after the prison’s collapse, Quantrill led the Bushwhackers to Lawrence, Kansas, and killed over 150 men and boys in under two hours. General Ewing had become increasingly frustrated with trying to control the Missouri guerrillas. This event prompted General Ewing to issue General Order No. 11 on August 25, 1863, four days after the Lawrence Massacre. The order stated that any Missouri citizens living in Cass, Bates, Jackson, and north Vernon counties had fifteen days to vacate. Ewing believed that this harsh order would finally put an end to the violent guerilla warfare that plagued Missouri and Kansas.The collapse of the Union Women’s Prison in Kansas City is one of a series of tragic events that eventually led to the conclusion of guerilla warfare along the Missouri-Kansas border. As stated on the marker, [8] “A tragedy here and Order No. 10 were blamed for the Lawrence Massacre.” Ewing’s orders following the prison collapse made it difficult for guerrillas to regain control of the area, weakening their support and resources. This left them no choice but to abandon the area. Regardless, this event was a pivotal moment in the Civil War and was aptly dedicated by the marker located in downtown Kansas City.

The Union Women’s Prison Marker is located off 1425 Grand Boulevard in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The marker was erected to honor those lost and injured after the building collapsed on August 14, 1863. The building housed female prisoners arrested under Union Brigadier General Thomas Ewing as part of a strategy in order to subside Confederate guerilla warfare along the Missouri-Kansas border. In 1863, Kansas City was named the headquarters of the newly-created U.S. Army District of the Border, which was charged with controlling the Confederate guerilla insurgency along the Missouri-Kansas border. The women were accused of aiding the Confederate guerillas, known as Bushwhackers. The 17 accused women were housed in the top two floors of a seven-year-old three-story building owned by renowned Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham. Union soldiers and officials worked in offices on the first floor. Four women were killed, and a number were injured. While it is unknown why the building failed, it is noted that Union officials removed support columns and bricks to make room for a storage cellar.

Union Women's Prison Marker

The Hall of Fame focuses on those who have significantly contributed to college basketball and compliments the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

In 2006, the NABC honored around 180 players, coaches, and other notable contributors to college basketball by inducting them into the founding class of the Hall of Fame. Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Dean Smith, John Wooden and the family of Dr. James Naismith were selected to represent the first class. Since 2006, over 70 players, coaches, and teams have been inducted into the hall of fame including famous players such as Shaquille O’Neal, “Magic” Johnson, Larry Bird, and Patrick Ewing.Both the College Basketball Experience and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame have received rave reviews since 2006 and owners say that the response from fans has been overwhelming. The CBE has hosted college basketball players and coaches, and even these “experts” have been impressed by the facility.

The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Kansas City, Missouri, occupies about one-third of the College Basketball Experience at the Sprint Center. This hall of fame compliments the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame by recognizing coaches, players, and teams that have made significant contributions to college basketball. Visitors can honor college basketball legends and learn about the history of the game by not just observing but by experiencing college basketball for themselves. 

National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame

John Wesley Jenkins, Jr., the son of the original music store’s founder, was brought into the company in the 1880s. With his brothers, after the death of their father, they formed the J.W. Jenkins’ Son’s Music Company in 1890. After three moves, the company settled at the current Walnut Street address in the Central Business District of Kansas City, Missouri, in 1912, originally constructed as a 6-story fireproof building. The firm of Smith, Rea &amp; Lovitt was a distinguished architecture firm in Kansas City with a national reputation. Among the other Kansas City buildings the firm designed are the Rialto Building, the Ivanhoe Temple, the Isis Theater/Wirthnam Building and the Firestone Building.The same architectural firm handled the Jenkins Music Company Building's renovation of 1931-1932. At about 132 feet in height, the structure is constructed with a steel and reinforced concrete frame, with a red brick side and rear walls with exposed concrete framing. The most ornate area of the building's exterior is the west facade, with embellishments and step-backs on the eighth story creating a strong vertical and rectilinear impression. On this facade, a basecourse of Black basalt is visually surmounted by Black-colored terra cotta which surfaces the ground and mezzanine stories. According to a 1932 music magazine article, at the time of its restoration, the Jenkins Building was a unique institution, with features on every floor. On the first floor was a salesroom for band and orchestra instruments, sheet music, and records. The mezzanine had a department displaying rare violins. The second floor included more sheet music and books. The third floor had more musical merchandise, the fourth contained the radio and refrigerator departments and the fifth contained the executive offices as well as a remote-control broadcasting studio. The seventh floor was devoted to a display of grand pianos and the eighth floor contained 23 music studios and an auditorium/recital hall with a seating capacity of 240.In 1947, the first of eight annual summer conferences of new music was held in the building, with several hundred of the nation’s most prominent composers, musicians and music teachers discussing music composition and materials, and new trends in music. At the height of its success in the 1950s, the company employed 700 people, though by August 1971, it had declared bankruptcy. In July 1973, David Richardson, founder of Rich Music Co., purchased the Jenkins company and closed many of its properties, including the main downtown Kansas City building. It is now connected to a parking lot constructed for the 1201 Walnut Street high-rise: only the west facade of the original structure is intact. Historic preservationists fought to save the facade in a manner similar to Kansas City's Harzfeld's Building. According to the building's current owner, the property is to be redeveloped into a mixed-use project with commercial space on the ground floor and loft style apartments in the balance of the space. The last Jenkins Music Store was closed in Midwest City, Oklahoma, in December 2014, decades after its namesake company went bankrupt. As the store’s 75-year-old owner, Ken Leerstang, said, “It used to be that when you wanted a musical instrument, you had to go to a music store. Now you can go on the Internet and get whatever you want.”

The Jenkins Music Company Building in Kansas City, Missouri, was originally constructed in 1911-1912. The building was built to serve as the general offices, retail headquarters and the wholesale division of the prominent musical instrument and music publishing firm, the Jenkins Music Company, founded in 1878 by John Wesley Jenkins, Sr. During the 1890’s, the Jenkins Company became one of the largest manufacturers of guitars and mandolins in the world and one of the most distinguished publishers of sheet music in the nation. The structure was designed by locally-based architectural firm, Smith, Rea &amp; Lovitt, especially by the firm's senior partner, Charles A. Smith. It is a significant example of unaltered, Modernistic-style commercial architecture, combining Late Gothic Revival and Art Deco decorative elements. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Jenkins Music Company Building

Louis Curtiss, who was born in Canada and who spent almost his entire adult life in Kansas City (he died in 1924 at 58), was nevertheless, according to the Boley Building's&nbsp;NRHP nomination form,&nbsp;a "nationally important" architect. Curtiss, called the "Frank Lloyd Wright of Kansas City," was a very mysterious and eccentric figure. He was said to have studied design at the University of Toronto and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, yet no records of his having attended either institution now exist. Curtiss arrived in Kansas City in 1887 and two years later started a partnership with architect Frederick C. Gunn, finally striking out on his own about a decade later. His early work reveals a classical influence, but beginning in the early 20th Century, he began to evolve a more contemporary style.&nbsp;&nbsp; The Boley Building is considered Curtiss' most significant achievement for several reasons: 1) it was one of the first "curtain wall" buildings in the world, that is, it consists of a steel frame enclosed in flat planes of glass, as the walls hang upon the structure, rather than support it; 2) it is composed of solid steel columns rolled in one piece ("rolled columns"), rather than steel plates riveted together; 3) it is built entirely on caissons, with 92 caissons of approximately 37 feet each that are used as the building's foundation; and 4) it employs experimental suspended building structures.&nbsp;This last signifies that not only the facade, but also the entire floor structure for the bays directly behind the facade, are suspended by one-and-a-half foot square steel hangers from a forty-two foot plate girder at the roof line.&nbsp;It has round-arched entrances at the ends of its two facades, as well as white terra-cotta framing with Art Nouveau detailing. The design was not well-received at the time, with some commentators considering it stark and barren. But curtain walls allow a great deal of sunlight to flood the interior of a building, and this fact made the design popular from the 1950s onward. However, by that time, Curtiss had&nbsp;long since died.&nbsp; The building is now the headquarters of Andrews McMeel Universal (AMU), a media company founded by Jim Andrews and John McMeel in 1970 as Universal Press Syndicate.&nbsp;&nbsp;The partners achieved their first real success serializing Garry Trudeau's classic comic strip Doonesbury, though 40 newspapers had already turned down Trudeau's work. They also syndicated the strip Cathy, about a single working woman,&nbsp;by&nbsp;Cathy Guisewite, one of the first highly successful strips written by a woman cartoonist.&nbsp;By the 1980s, AMU had signed some of the most popular cartoonists in the United States, and was ranked as the syndicate with the highest success rate with comics, according to Cartoonist Profiles magazine.&nbsp; To accommodate its hundreds of employees, AMU completely renovated the Boley Building,&nbsp;incorporating the abandoned post-modern food court in the adjacent town center office building. The new interior, which takes full advantage of the plentiful sunlight provided by Curtiss' design, includes a&nbsp;multi-story grand stair, expansive skylights and a ground floor café. In this way, it "resonates with the energy of a company looking to the future while respecting its past."

The Boley Building is a six-story, steel-frame Art Nouveau commercial building constructed in 1909 by noted architect Louis Curtiss. The building's National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination form called it Curtiss' "single most important work." 

Originally occupied by clothing store Charles N. Boley, the building may have been the very first "curtain wall" metal and glass structure in America, as it was constructed almost a decade earlier than San Francisco's Hallidie Building, which is sometimes considered the first "curtain wall" design. It was not well received in its day, but this design concept would become popular beginning in the 1950s. Thus, the building was at least 40 years ahead of its time. 

The building is also known as the Katz Building, because the Katz Drug Company owned the building for a time. It is now the headquarters of Andrews McMeel Universal, a publisher of noteworthy comics and books including "Calvin and Hobbes" and "Doonesbury." It was included in the NRHP in March, 1971.  


Boley Building (aka Katz Building)

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

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 boomed in the fifteen years following the Civil War, reaching a population of 60,000. By 1910, the population had grown to a quarter million. Recognizing this growth in the midst of the booming 1890s, Bernard Corrigan hired architect Louis Curtiss to design a luxury hotel for the growing commercial center. When it opened in 1899, the six-story Baltimore Hotel was widely-regarded as one of the finest hotels west of the Mississippi River. Reflecting the era’s optimism and latest design concepts, the hotel was built entirely of brick, iron supports, cement, and terra cotta. The designers also minimized the use of wood within the interior. As was the case of many similar buildings that followed these guidelines, the Baltimore Hotel was dubbed “fireproof.”The Baltimore Hotel was not only on par with leading luxury hotels, it was the second-largest hotel outside of New York in 1900-the year that Kansas City hosted the Democratic National Convention. Not content to be second to Chicago’s Palmer House hotel, the proprietors expanded the hotel throughout the next decade. The hotel’s solid and thick walls not only provided safety, they also supported the construction of two additional stories by 1901. The hotel also extended its lower floors southward and added an additional 12-story tower at 12th and Baltimore in 1908. These three projects tripled the capacity of the hotel, from 160 guest rooms to a total of 550 rooms.Curtiss envisioned his hotel as a symbol of Kansas City’s growth and significance. Like many of the city’s boosters, he anticipated that Kansas City would become the leading commercial city in the Midwest. As a result, few expenses were spared on the hotel’s interior, with marble columns and sculpted ceilings throughout the lobby and public rooms. Curtiss even traveled to Europe and returned with an elegant fountain for the center of the dining room. (That fountain was later moved to the suburban Mission Hills neighborhood). The main dining room seated 700 and became the first in the city to feature air-conditioning in 1915. Curtiss devoted equal attention to guestrooms and amenities—presenting chamber music and acquiring the chef from New York’s famed Astoria Hotel. In an era when most hotels had interior rooms, each of the rooms in the Baltimore Hotel had exterior windows. The hotel underwent a massive remodeling project in 1914. At a cost of over $400,000, the dining room was expanded and every room was refurbished and air-conditioned.Recognizing that many of his guests attended the nearby Willis Wood Theater, Curtis constructed a wide underground tunnel to connect his hotel with the theater so that guests would not have to face traffic and the elements. The tunnel soon earned the nickname “Highball Alley” as it also connected to a men’s lounge within the theater. The tunnel’s utility came to an end in 1917, when a fire destroyed the Willis Wood Theater.The onset of the Great Depression and increasing competition led the hotel’s business to decline. Ownership of the hotel passed to several different companies, but nothing could alter the fact that the building was simply too costly to maintain and operate. The Baltimore Hotel closed in 1938 and the hotel was razed the following year. The location of the former hotel served as both a vacant lot and a parking lot in the decades that followed. Today, it is home to City Center Square.

One of the largest hotels beyond New York City and perhaps the most luxurious hotels in the West prior to World War II, the Baltimore Hotel was the center of social life and politics in Kansas City during the first half of the 20th century. The hotel was popular among local business leaders, visiting celebrities, and even played an integral role in national politics. A young Harry Truman had many fond memories at this hotel-including his role (which he later denied) in bringing a live moose into the hotel during one of the Democratic Party's national conventions.

Baltimore Hotel, 1899-1938

The Muehlebach Hotel was constructed in 1915 by local businessman George E. Muehlebach (1881-1955). Son of the famous brewer George Muehlebach (1833-1905), George E. Muehlebach expanded beyond his father’s brewery enterprise and into the real estate business. Under the banner of the Muehlebach Estate Company, he purchased a plot of land on the corner of 12th Street and Baltimore Avenue, at the site of the former First Baptist Church, in 1914. Muehlebach demolished the church and began construction of a 500-room hotel building. The twelve-story building was designed in the Beaux-Arts Classicism style by the Chicago architectural firm of Holabird and Roche. The hotel opened in May 1915 and immediately garnered attention for its level of elegance and luxury. The Muehlebach boasted restaurants, a banquet hall, a ballroom, a tearoom, a music room, a drawing room, and a professional staff with experience in hotels around the world.The hotel flourished over the next several decades and hosted numerous parties, meetings, and other social gatherings both for local and national groups. It attracted a number of celebrities; guests included Babe Ruth, Ernest Hemingway, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Helen Keller, and every U.S. president from Theodore Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter. Harry Truman reportedly spent so much time at the Muehlebach during his administration that it was nicknamed the “White House West.” It was at the hotel’s Presidential Suite that Truman and his staff awaited the results of the 1948 presidential election. Other historic events took place at the Muehlebach as well. In the hotel’s Plantation Grill on December 5, 1922, the Coon-Sanders Nighthawks Orchestra became the first band to perform regularly over the radio. In March 1938, O. C. Cash met Rupert Hall at the Muehlebach; after discovering that they shared a passion for barbershop quartet singing, they went on to form what is now the international Barbershop Harmony Society.In 1931, prominent local hotel operator Barney Allis became owner and manager of the Muehlebach. His strict management, high expectations, and demand for outstanding quality kept the hotel afloat during the Great Depression and made it one of the most reputable hotels in the world. Under Allis the hotel expanded twice in the 1950s. An eleven-story addition was built to the west of the original building in 1952, followed by an eighteen-story addition, known as the Muehlebach Towers, in 1957. A five-story hotel convention center was also later built in 1965. Allis sold the hotel in 1962 and passed away just months later. The Muehlebach was eventually purchased by Radisson Hotels in 1976 and became its flagship property.After peaking in popularity in the 1950s and 60s, the Muehlebach began to decline in the 1970s and 80s as business shifted away from the downtown portion of Kansas City. Radisson closed the hotel in 1986. It remained vacant until 1996 when it was purchased by Marriott Hotels, which incorporated it into the nearby Kansas City Marriot Downtown hotel. The Muehlebach Towers was demolished in 1998 and replaced with a new hotel tower connected to the original Muehlebach with a sky bridge. Marriott also renovated and restored the hotel’s lobby and public spaces, which it continues to rent out for events. The hotel rooms have remained closed since 1986. In 2018 it was announced that Platform Ventures would be converting the Muehlebach’s hotel rooms into a 117-unit apartment complex at a cost of $26.5 million.

From the time of its construction in 1915 to mid-century, the Muehlebach Hotel was one of the centers of Kansas City social life. The luxurious hotel was built by the son of the city's famous brewer and hosted celebrities, famous athletes, and even presidents and foreign dignitaries. The hotel is also the site of the first band performance to be broadcast over the radio, the birthplace of the Barbershop Harmony Society, and the place where Harry Truman stayed while waiting for the 1948 presidential election results. The Muehlebach, along with several other downtown hotels, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. After closing in 1986, the Muehlebach was acquired by Marriott Hotels and incorporated into the Kansas City Marriott Downtown. In 2018 it was announced that Platform Ventures will convert the historic hotel into an apartment building.

Muehlebach Hotel

Kansas City has long been a stopping point given its location at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers. The Santa Fe trail, which was a major transportation route in the 1800s, passed through the city as well. As such, hotels were needed to provide temporary lodging to travelers. The number of hotels rose over time and by 1922, there were 86 in the city. Several more, including the Aladdin, were built in the remainder of the 1920s.By then, the city was in direct competition with large east coast cities in attracting conventions. Hotel developers spent tens of millions of dollars to provide the best accommodations and amenities including air conditioning, central public address and radio, large meeting rooms, cocktail lounges, and restaurants. Aesthetics were just as important too. Well-known architects were hired to design the hotels in a variety of architectural styles. As a result of these efforts, the city landed a number of major conventions, including the Republican National Convention in 1929. The city also chose to build its municipal auditorium in the area in 1935 because the seven hotels were located close to each other.The Armour Building Company, which was headed by insurance executive and builder C.O. Jones and his partner W.B. Weaver, built the Aladdin Hotel in 1925. It included an enclosed roof garden and retail spaces on the first floor along the north wall. In a contest for new buildings sponsored by the Business District League in 1925, the hotel won third place. A number of celebrities stayed at the hotel including baseball player Mickey Mantle and actress Greta Garbo (mob bosses apparently stayed here as well). The Aladdin was remodeled in 1980 and then again 2006. The building closed in the Spring of 2020, but new ownership has plans to reopen the building.

When it opened in 1925, the Aladdin Hotel was the tallest building in Kansas City. The 16-story building was designed by architect Phillip T. Drotts in the Italian Romanesque style, with architectural highlights that included a white limestone facade on the first through third floors with arches and terra cotta detailing, ten-story brick pilasters topped with life-size terra cotta female figures, sets of five arched, recessed windows on the 16th floor, and a pyramidal roof. The Aladdin is architecturally significant but also serves as a reminder of the city's prosperity during the early 20th century when grand hotels helped attract major conventions, a critical part of the local economy, and a source of civic pride. As of August 2022, the hotel is closed but its current owners acquired it in December 2021 and plan to redevelop the historic hotel. The Aladdin is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Downtown Hotels in Kansas City, Missouri district, which consists of seven hotels and numerous other structures.

Aladdin Hotel

Following World War II, gay men and lesbians in communities throughout North America began organizing as part of an effort they referred to as the Homophile Movement. Believing that gay men and lesbians could and should form communities and work to counter the discrimination they faced, the Homophile Movement was an important step within the larger history of gay rights that occurred in an era when many needed to continue to "wear the mask," a phrase of the early and mid-20th century referring to the need to keep one's sexual orientation private. The movement at this time explored ways to emphasize their common humanity and reduce attention away from the sexual aspect of their identities as a way of countering negative images and replacing those stereotypes with more accurate portrayals of life. Emphasizing basic human rights, community, and safety through unity, the movement of the 1950s and 1960s took on what may appear to be a conformist approach. The meetings that occurred in Kansas City were inspired by the Modern Civil Rights Movement led by Black Communities, but also demonstrate continuity with the post-war efforts to create community while working to counter negative images and discriminatory laws in an era when most gay Americans still had to hide their sexual orientation for fear of losing their livelihood or enduring violence.Across the country, homophile movements were created in the 1950s and 1960s. Individual organizations worked within their own communities until February 1966, when fifteen different homophile organizations sent out representatives to meet for two days in Kansas City, Missouri. The meeting included the creation of a national defense fund and plans for demonstrations for equal rights. This meeting also included the creation of a national organization known as the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO).Following the National Planning Conference of Homophile Organizations (NPCHO), another homophile organization that began in Kansas City in March of 1966 called The Phoenix Society for Individual Freedom. The organization was founded by Drew Shafer, an openly gay man who served as the organization’s first president. He made it the organization’s goal to improve gay men and lesbians' status in the economic, legal, and social spheres.The Phoenix Society also made declared its mission to bring local and national homophile organizations together. After an NPCHO meeting in San Francisco, the Phoenix Society was tasked with publishing magazines, pamphlets, and newsletters of homophile organizations across the country so that they could reach a wider national audience.Alongside this activism, they were also known for creating a magazine entitled The Phoenix (the first LGBT magazine in the Midwest) thanks to Shafer’s access to his father’s printing press. In 1968, the Phoenix Society opened the first LGBT community center in Kansas City. As other organizations that mirrored their goals increased membership, the Phoenix Society of Individual Freedom officially disbanded in 1971 but its creation and the 1966 meetings in Kansas City commemorated by this marker remain an important milestone in the history of civil rights.

This historical marker commemorates the 50th anniversary of the first National Planning Conference of Homophile Organizations. Dedicated on October 12, 2016, at the corner of 12th and Wyandotte in Kansas City, the marker shares the history of one of the early LGBT civil right organizations in Kansas City, Missouri, The Phoenix Society for Individual Freedom, and its founder, Drew Shafer. The marker was created with the help of community members, historians, activists, and the Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America, which is housed at the Miller Nichols Library at the University of Missouri - Kansas City.

The North American Conference of Homophile Organizations / Phoenix Society for Individual Freedom Historical Marker

<h4>History of the Folly Theater</h4>First known as the “Standard Theater,” this extraordinarily designed building opened on September 23rd, 1900. In its early years, the theater showcased vaudeville and burlesque performances, and due to a fire at the nearby Coates Opera House, the theater soon produced opera and comic opera performances as well. By 1902, the theater changed its name to the “Century” and, in addition to vaudeville and burlesque, featured prizefighting and wrestling (including the likes of Jack Johnson and Jack Dempsey). The theater closed in 1922 and reopened a year later, renamed the “Schubert's Missouri.” It was during the roaring ‘20s in Kansas City that the theater featured major dramatic productions, but unfortunately, in 1932, the theater closed once again.1The theater reopened in 1941 as the Folly Theater, and during this time, the theater showcased a new form of burlesque, the striptease. Famed striptease artists such as Tempest Storm, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Cherry Smash performed during this time. Many other types of shows were performed at the theater, ranging from singers to clowns and jugglers. Eventually, the entertainment at the theater became seedier, leading to a raid in 1963 for allowing total nudity and an attempted bombing (a stick of dynamite in a nearby drain pipe) in 1969. The Folly Theater closed in 1973 and was set to turn into a parking lot, but after being placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the theater was purchased and renovated. In 2014, the entire archives of the Folly Theater were handed to the Kansas City Public Library.2

The historic Folly Theater is Kansas City’s oldest theater and entertainment venue, dating back to 1900. It still operates as a functional theater today (showing live theater, jazz performances, national touring shows, and other programs) and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Although the Folly Theater is seen as a place of quality, family entertainment, the theater’s origins were based in vaudeville, burlesque, and, later, striptease performances, showcasing nationally acclaimed artists such as Gypsy Rose Lee and Tempest Storm. In the 1920s, however, the Folly Theater (then named the "Shubert's Missouri”) produced dramatic productions and even featured the Marx Brothers and a young Humphrey Bogart. After falling into disrepair in the 1970s, the KCMO community took up the cause and saved the Folly Theater, and it is now one of the most important theatrical and historical sites in the downtown area.

Folly Theater, Kansas City

Long before Kansas City was a bustling midwestern American metropolis, it was a frontier area for the colonizing French monarchy. Settlements like Fort de Cavagnial and Fort Orleans were set up deep into the Missouri Territory to serve multiple functions as military outposts and trading centers. Commandant of Missouri River Étienne de Veniard Sieur de Bourgmont, had command of Fort Orleans until its closure in 1726 and Fort de Cavagnial was largely run by Frenchmen like Joseph Deruisseau, who cornered the fur trade for France in their respective areas. These Frenchmen were well known for their skilled outdoorsmanship and negotiating abilities. This official French presence in Missouri vanished after the Louisiana Territory was ceded to Spain in 1762 in wake of the Seven Years War.The exit of the French crown was hardly the last Missouri had seen of the French presence. Most of the French nationals living out in the frontier of the Louisiana Territory remained, despite the change in the rulership over their land. The French fur traders, like the Chouteau family, had developed many close business relationships with various local Native American people groups and they continued to use these relationships to their advantage well into the nineteenth century. The Chouteau's became valuable U.S. Citizens after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and were very influential in America’s westward expansion. They provided supplies and personnel to the Lewis and Clark expedition and continued to facilitate trade between St. Louis and Native Americans.Francois Chouteau is largely credited as the founder of Kansas City for his efforts in establishing trading posts along the Kansas and Missouri rivers near their confluence in the 1820’s. Much of Kansas City’s earliest residential developments occurred under his watch. Frenchmen had already been living in the area for a few decades and some among them quickly found employment in Chouteau’s trading ventures. The original village and trading posts have all been washed away by nineteenth century floods and little physical evidence remains of them. The text of this historical marker reads as follows:<blockquote>A short distance northwest of this marker was the center of the village which in the early 1800's the St. Louis Chouteau called "Chez Lez Canses"" meaning "at the home of the Kansas." Others called it "Chouteau's." The Chouteau's founded Kansas City in 1821 to trade for beaver furs with the French-speaking Kansa. French traders started coming up the Missouri as early as 1680 and traded on the River thereafter; some located here temporarily in 1799, and a few Canadian French farmers arrived here about 1803 to 1813. To the west was the Church of St. Francis Regis, built of logs by the French-speaking parishioners in 1835, with its cemetery behind. Down over the West Bluffs were little arpent strip farms of the French, and their songs and the music of their fiddles could be heard in the area which is now Quality Hill. To the North along the Missouri river were their open fields which became Kansas City's old square. North of Ft. Leavenworth was the abandoned site of Fort Cavagnal (1744-1764) at the second old Kansas Grand Village. East past Prudhumme's farm which downtown Kansas City was platted, was Francois and Berenice Chouteau's trading post near the present Chouteau Bridge. Further east near Brunswick, Mo., was the former home of Ft. Orleans established at the Missouri Village in 1723, for trade with Taos and Santa Fe, by Etienne Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, protege of Louis XIV and the Regent. French mountain men-turned trail guides visited Westport to the South, probably including Sacajawea's son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, former "Chouteau's" resident. Out Wornall Road, the Old French trail led to Pappinville, abandoned Ft, Carondelet and Chouteau's Trading Post, South among the Osage.</blockquote>

Kansas City was first officially incorporated as a town in 1850, but for several decades prior it had been an area of settlement for Frenchmen. Traders in St. Louis and along the Mississippi River had long used the Missouri River as a westward route to trade goods with the Native Americans. Kansas City sits at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers and is a natural crossroads of traffic, making it ideal for settlement. French people's presence in the region long outlasted the French state's presence which mostly left by 1763.

Old French Kansas City Historical Marker

The first convention hall in Kansas City was built and opened in February 1899. It was a grand building intended to represent the city's growth and host national events, but soon after its completion, the structure burned to the ground in April 1900. Just months later, a replacement hall was constructed in time for the city to host the Democratic National Convention. It soon became clear that this structure would not be large enough to suit the city’s needs, but voters rejected bonds to build a new one several times over the following years. In the early 1930s, a Ten Year Plan was proposed to construct a series of public facilities in an effort to revive the city’s ailing fortunes during the Great Depression. The plan would provide jobs to many unemployed workers and create new buildings, including a municipal auditorium, city hall, and a county courthouse, to modernize the city and propel it forward. Much of the planning and support for the project was organized by the local political machine of Tom Pendergast. A $40 million bond for the Ten Year Plan was passed overwhelmingly in a special election in 1931.The Municipal Auditorium was the first building to be constructed under the Ten Year Plan, and work began almost immediately after the bond was passed. Originally scheduled to be built in one year, the auditorium took six years to build and was $2 million over its $4.5 million budget. Two separate architectural firms were commissioned to design the Municipal Auditorium. The firm of Gentry, Voskamp &amp; Neville handled the overall structure of the facility, while the firm of Hoit, Price, and Barnes designed the heating, air conditioning, and ventilation infrastructure. The auditorium was created in what is now known as the Streamline Moderne style of Art Deco architecture. The eleven-story structure was made primarily with limestone and stretched as wide as a city block. The Municipal Auditorium consists of four venues; a 10,000-seat arena, an exhibition hall, a music hall, and a little theater for smaller events. The exterior features decorations such as medallions, friezes, and flag poles.Municipal Auditorium was formally dedicated in a ceremony on October 13, 1936, with President Franklin Roosevelt delivering the keynote address. Over the years it has hosted countless sporting events, concerts, speeches, rallies, dances, plays, meetings, and trade shows. Basketball games have notably been one of the most popular events at the Municipal. The arena hosted nine NCAA basketball championship games, and today it hosts both the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association tournament as well as the NAIA Men’s Division I Basketball National Tournament. It is currently home to teams such as the UMKC Kangaroos, the Kansas City Roller Warriors, and the Kansas City Tornados. In September 1961, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech at Municipal Auditorium to the attendees of the national meeting of the National Baptist Convention. The following year, King addressed a crowd of eight thousand at the Festival of Faith. Both speeches focussed largely on faith and religion, but in each address, King also denounced racial discrimination as incompatible with Christianity. In recent years the Municipal Auditorium has undergone renovations twice, in 2007 and 2013. The changes include electrical upgrades, new seating, more ADA accessibility, and increased stage room.

The Municipal Auditorium, nicknamed the Municipal, is a historic event center in Kansas City. The Art Deco structure was built in the 1930s as part of a Ten Year Plan to revive the city’s economy with construction jobs and new public buildings. Over the decades it has hosted many community and national events, including national basketball championship games and two speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr. Today, the historic structure is part of the overall Kansas City Convention Center Complex.

Kansas City Municipal Auditorium

As the population of Kansas City rapidly grew in the 1880s, so too did the city’s elite business class. Eventually a group of these local businessmen decided to organize a social club, similar to ones that existed in other major cities. The Kansas City Club was formally incorporated in 1882 with 42 members, including Abia A. Tomlinson, Charles E. Hasbrook, and C. S. Wheeler. Membership, which was fairly restrictive and included an annual fee, quickly increased. To accommodate this growth, the club built a five-story clubhouse on the corner of Twelfth and Wyandotte. Expansion continued, and by the 1910s it was clear that the club would need larger facilities. In 1915, the Kansas City Club purchased property on the northwest corner of Thirteenth and Baltimore for $100,000 for a new clubhouse.Construction on what became known as the Kansas City Club Building first began in 1917. Lack of funding from the club (total costs reportedly reached $2.5 million) coupled with a wartime shortage of building materials slowed progress, and substantial work was delayed until after the end of World War I. Architect Charles A. Smith and the firm of Smith, Rea, and Lovitt were commissioned to design the new building. The fourteen-story building was designed in the Gothic Revival style, and had a steel structure with a brick and limestone exterior with terra cotta ornamentation. The interior was decorated with features such as plaster, carved stone, and hand-hewn walnut wood. The building was completed and opened in 1922. It originally contained a multitude of facilities available for members of the Kansas City Club: guest rooms, meeting rooms, bars, lounges, athletic facilities, a swimming pool, a banquet hall, and a rooftop terrace.The Kansas City Club flourished for several decades following the opening of the clubhouse. Its members included prominent locals such as Tom Pendergast, Robert A. Long, and national figures such as Presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and General Omar Bradley. Membership reached a peak of 2,000 in the 1980s, and then began a precipitous decline, a trend seen in city clubs nationwide. In 2001, with membership below 900, the Kansas City Club merged with the University Club, sold this building, and moved into the University Club’s building at 918 Baltimore Avenue. In 2002, the former clubhouse was converted into an apartment complex called Baltimore Lofts. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Club continued to see declining membership at its new location and eventually shuttered in 2015. That same year, the Kansas City Club Building was purchased by Platform Venture, which renovated some of the building’s facilities into luxury event spaces called the Brass on Baltimore.In 2018, Platform Ventures announced a $59.5 million project to convert the building's apartments into a 144-room hotel. It was part of a larger plan by Platform to redevelop the historic 18th &amp; Vine District into a major commercial and residential center. The new hotel opened in 2020 as the Hotel Kansas City, part of the Hyatt chain. The hotel was designed with a 1920s aesthetic and retained much of the building's original features, such as stained glass windows, murals, chandeliers, and woodworking.

Now home to Hotel Kansas City, this historic structure Gothic Revival-style building served as the headquarters for the prestigious Kansas City Club for nearly 80 years. The Club was first formed in 1882 to provide a place for the city’s business class to socialize. In 1922, the organization celebrated the completion of this building which offered numerous amenities for club members, including guest rooms, meeting spaces, athletic facilities, and a banquet hall. With declining membership reflecting trends in other cities, the club sold the building in 2001, and most of the structure was converted into apartments. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. In 2020, Hyatt Hotels converted the building into Hotel Kansas City, preserving its historic features such as the two-story stained glass mural in the main ballroom crafted by Ronald Neill Dixon.

Kansas City Power and Light District Walking Tour

Barney Allis Plaza and Fountain

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information