“It’s an amazing city architecturally,” says Dawn Kirkwood, executive director of the Kansas City branch of the American Institute of Architects. “We lost some things during the urban renewal period, we didn’t lose a lot.”
In honor of our 35th Anniversary, Ingram’s salutes Kansas City’s architectural signature over the past 35 years.
Kansas City has done a better job than most of saving its old, historical buildings and landmarks. But more than a few have met the wrecking ball. Here’s a glimpse of four such icons that made a lasting impression on the city.
Lost Icons
MUNICIPAL STADIUM/ MUEHLEBACH FIELD
Before Kauffman and Arrowhead
stadiums represented Kansas City athletics,
Municipal Stadium hosted minor
and major league sports for nearly 50
years. The stadium–originally named
Muehlebach Field after local beer baron
and park owner George Muehlebach –
was built atop a wetland at 22nd Street
and Brooklyn Avenue during the early
1920s. With a capacity of 17,500, the
stadium initially housed the Negro American
League’s Kansas City Monarchs and
the minor league baseball team, Kansas
City Blues. After renovations increased
capacity to more than 30,000, Municipal
became home to major league baseball
teams—Charles Finley moved the
Philadelphia Athletics here in 1955 before
taking off for Oakland after 1967;
then the Royals were born in 1969 at
Municipal. Most notably, the former
Dallas Texans became the Kansas City
Chiefs and won a world championship
while playing in Municipal Stadium.
It was demolished in 1976, but left a legacy that includes players such as Ernie Banks, Satchell Paige and Jackie Robinson; a minor league team that won championships; and the Chiefs’ championship years. Currently single family homes are in development at the site.
EMERY BIRD THAYER
This downtown department store made its mark as the cornerstone of KC’s retail district known as Petticoat Lane, it made its mark on an era when people came downtown from throughout the region for shopping, entertainment and society.
“Downtown was where the action was,” says John Dillingham, president of Dillingham Enterprises. At the heart of the action was a trifecta of commerce that included department store behemoths Emery Bird Thayer, Macy’s, and Jones. Once tagged as “The Southwest’s Greatest Store,” the roots of Emery Bird Thayer can be traced back nearly to the origin of Kansas City itself, and its growth coincided with that of the city’s. In the 1890s, the department store opened a new downtown location that covered a full block at 11th Street and Walnut, reflecting the decades of growth and development of Kansas City.
KANSAS CITY STOCKYARDS
Kansas City’s reputation as a cow
town is largely tied to the Kansas City
Stock Yards, which drove the city’s cattle
business from 1871 through 1991 and
was a cornerstone of Kansas City economics.
“The yards were located here because there were 2 million Texas longhorns that needed a place to go after the Civil War,” says John Dillingham, whose father was president of the Kansas City Stock Yards for 26 years. “Kansas City is the front door to the West, not the back door to the East.”
Located in the West Bottoms on the
site where Kemper Arena now sits, the stock yards, like other area trade and distribution companies, benefited
from Kansas City’s advantageous location as a staging point
for the Santa Fe, Oregon and California trails, and the stock yards
played a significant role in making Kansas City a hub of development
and commerce. Although a major flood in 1951 caused a
downward spiral from which the stock yards could not recuperate,
its doors were not closed for business until Halloween 1991.
TEMPLE B’ NAI JEHUDAH
Built in 1967, Temple B’ Nai Jehudah was the design child of Kansas City architecture firm Kivett and Myers. Known for its Kansas City International Airport and Truman Sports Complex designs, its modern flair is evident in earlier structures as well. Located on 69th Street, the temple featured an unconventional, tent-like sanctuary and a 6,200-square-foot skylight–the largest in the world at the time – that gave a blue hue to the surrounding light. Preservationists applied for local landmark status after B’nai Jehudah–the area’s oldest and largest Jewish congregation– sold the site in 2002 to the Helzberg Foundation, but the effort failed to save the distinctive temple from demolition. In 2003, the temple was razed and replaced with University Academy, a public college preparatory charter school.
“I was present at the birth and the death of the temple,” says Vernon Reed, an architect formerly with Kivett and Myers. “It was very unique, very special. To have that kind of treasure in Kansas City and then to give it up was painful.”
Lost Icons
The Kansas City region is blessed with
historic and enduring buildings and other
icons that remind us of our rich and
colorful history. The list of icons that
continue to motivate and inspire us could
stretch several pages. Here, though, we
select just a few, for their architectural,
historical and emotional significance.
J. C. NICHOLS FOUNTAIN AND THE COUNTRY CLUB PLAZA
Located at the east entrance to the
Country Club Plaza, the fountain is dedicated
to the memory of Jesse Clyde “J.C.”
Nichols, visionary developer the Plaza.
The Nichols family purchased the fountain’s
figures, which were sculpted by
Parisian Henri Greber, as salvage from
an estate in New York and dedicated
the reconstructed fountain in 1960.
J.C. Nichols’ Country Club Plaza
is credited as being the country’s first
suburban shopping center, and the area
remains a popular regional destination
for retail, entertainment and dining. “The Country Club Plaza was intentionally
designed from a Seville model as
an outdoor shopping facility before the
invention of indoor malls” says Kimberlee
Ried, Historic Kansas City Foundation.
GEM THEATER/THE JAZZ DISTRICT
Located at the intersection of 18th and
Vine streets, Kansas City’s Jazz District
was once a Mecca in the music industry.
During the 1930s and ’40s, neighborhood
nightclubs such as The Blue Room hosted
the biggest names in Jazz. In the midto-
late 20th century, the Jazz District,
which had served as a center for African
American life and culture for more than
60 years, fell into disrepair. In the mid
1990s the district came back to life.
All located at 18th and Vine, the Negro
Leagues Baseball Museum is the only
museum dedicated solely to the Negro
leagues and its players, the Jazz District’s
legacy lives on in the American Jazz
Museum, and the Gem Theatre—built in
1912 as a venue for African Americans—
is now a modern performing arts facility.
While surviving, the district’s revitalization
has yet to reach critical mass.
UNION STATION
Constructed as part of the “City
Beautiful” movement, Kansas City’s Union
Station was the third largest station in the
world when work was initially completed
in 1914. But it is not simple square footage
that sets this structure apart. The station’s
innovative design allowed for trains to
actually pass through its terminals, an
unusual offering at the turn of the century,
and even the station’s location was a
major point of contention.
“Logan Jones of the Jones Store wanted it at the foot of Main Street near the merchants,” says John Dillingham. William Nelson wanted it near The Star building.”
An estimated 1 million passengers
traveled through Union Station during
WWII, but by 1971 the station’s relevance
was fading. Facing possible demolition it
closed in 1989. Union Station once again
made headlines in 1996 when a combined
Missouri and Kansas tax initiative, the first
of its kind, made $118 million available
for restoration.
THE SAVOY HOTEL AND SAVOY GRILL RESTAURANT
Dating back to 1881, the Savoy Hotel owes much of its notoriety to the growth in the city’s population and the subsequent building and economic booms, as it was during this time that stays in luxury hotels became popular. This particular hotel, at the intersection of 9th and Central streets, featured imported marble and tile, claw-footed tubs, brass fixtures, and stained-glass windows, all of which can still be seen in the hotel today.
For Kansas Citians who are curious
about the palates of their predecessors,
they need only visit the Savoy Grill restaurant.
Since 1903, the Savoy Grill has
offered an elegant dining experience and
has the distinction of being Kansas City’s
oldest operating restaurant. Through
the years diners have included Teddy
Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, W.C.
Fields and John D. Rockfeller.
FOLLY AND MIDLAND THEATRES
Kansas City’s theaters cover the spectrum
of entertainment from stage to film,
vocal to silent, and each venue has a
history all its own. Built in 1900, The Folly
Theater is Kansas City’s oldest operating
theater. It opened as a vaudeville and burlesque
house under its original moniker,
The Standard Theatre, and hosted rising
acts such as the Marx Bros. and Humphrey
Bogart. In 1971, after falling into disrepair,
the theatre dubbed “The Grand Lady on
12th Street” was in danger of demolition. A community urban renewal effort aided
restoration projects, and the Folly Theatre
re-opened for business in November
1981, remaining one of the region’s most
popular performance venues.
Although no match for the Folly’s age,
the Midland Theatre – located at Main
and Baltimore Avenue – had no local comparison
in terms of size and grandeur.
When it was built in 1927 as a silent
movie and live entertainment venue,
the Midland was the third largest theatre
in the nation and featured the design flair
of renowned theatre architect Thomas W.
Lamb. AEG LIVE, AMC Entertainment,
and The Cordish Company recently renovated
the venue and The Midland by AMC
re-opened in September 2008.
NEW YORK LIFE BUILDING
Ten stories tall, times have changed
since McKim, Meade and White designed
Kansas City’s first skyscraper, the New
York Life Building. Constructed in 1890,
the building was one of six in simultaneous
development by New York Life
Insurance Company. In addition to
doubling the height of the Kansas City
skyline, it also contained the city’s first
elevators. Located in the Ninth Street
Historic District—listed on the National
Register of Historic Places—and along
with other area businesses comprised
Kansas City’s business center.
Aquila, Inc. (Utilicorp United) bought
the building for its corporate headquarters
and in 1996 began restoring and
modernizing it. Although the building
still stands tall at 20 W. 9th St., its future
is once again uncertain. The building
began emptying after Great Plains Energy
bought Aquila in 2008, and local real
estate agents worry it will be difficult to
find new tenants that are an appropriate
fit for the historical structure.
LIBERTY MEMORIAL
Two weeks after the fighting in Europe ceased in 1918, Kansas City began planning a commemorative structure. A community fundraising campaign in 1919 raised more than $2.5 million in less than two weeks, and a national competition to select an architecture and design added to the excitement surrounding the monument. In 1921 nearly 200,000 people turned out for the site dedication and to listen to the speeches of five Allied military leaders, who for the only time in history gathered together in one place.
The monument was allowed to fall
into disrepair during the 1970s and 80s,
but a proposed interpretive, interactive
museum brought it back into the public
eye. A team of architects led by Steve
Abend—who received a national award
for his Liberty Memorial work—renovated
and updated the monument as
well as the surrounding space, and the
National World War I Museum opened to
national acclaim in 2006, and has quickly
become one of the region’s top draws. 
