Why don’t we start at this spot which is the grounds of the WW1 museum. Aside from learning history you could climb the 217 ft Liberty Memorial Tower. On either side of the tower are two Assyrian sphinxes, wings shielding their faces.
Once at the top, you’ll have some of the best views of Kansas City! The most immediate structure you will see from the top is Union Station. It opened in 1914 as the third-largest train station in the country. Designed in the grand Beaux-Arts style, it reflected the city’s status as major Midwestern metropolis and a significant passenger and freight rail hub with links to all parts of the nation.
Another visible landmark of the skyline is the Giant Western Auto sign. Company started by George Pepperdine, a young bookkeeper at the Regent Tire Company.
With the rise of the automotive industry, popularity of the Ford Model T introduced in 1908 he saw a lucrative opportunity in the growing demand for aftermarket car parts. Started a mail-order parts business from his home and it soon rapidly outgrew its humble beginnings into the Western Auto Supply Agency.
The building below originally belonged to the Coca Cola Company as part of its west-central expansion, drawn by Kansas City’s strategic location and the development of new Union Station. Completed in 1915, its distinctive shape was a result of the peculiarly shaped lot and the need to access streets and rail lines at different elevations. Initially, it was crowned with a large Coca-Cola sign. Western Auto’s expansion led them to lease and eventually buy the Coca-Cola building in 1951. A year later, they replaced the Coca-Cola sign with the Western Auto sign.
Economic downturns in the 1980s led to its decline. After changing hands between Sears Roebuck and Advance Auto Parts, the building was vacated in 2000, and the sign was left largely unlit for 18 years. In 2002 building was purchased for conversion into luxury condominiums. In 2018, the Western Auto Lofts homeowners’ association funded the sign’s repair, bringing it back to life
As we enter the Power & Light District, Mainstreet KC is a 3,000-plus seat theatre opened in 1921 hosting vaudeville acts. It took on different ownerships and closings over the years until 2009 and it has been continuously operating since.
The building bearing the namesake of this district, Power and Light was constructed in 1931 and served as the headquarters for the Kansas City Power & Light Company for six decades. Kansas City Power & Light Company emerged in 1882 when it opened the first electric power plant in Kansas City. At 36 stories and 479 feet tall, the KCP&L Building was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River until 1962 when the Space Needle was built in Seattle. In 2014 the KCP&L Building was sold after its last tenant left. It underwent refurbishments and reopened in 2016 as a luxury apartment complex.
Hotel President opened in 1926 reflecting the opulence of Kansas City during the 1920s. It wasn’t until 1941 that the Drum Room Lounge, a swanky restaurant and bar opened. Legendary figures passed through its doors such as Frank Sinatra, the Marx Brothers, the Glen Miller Orchestra, Sammy Davis Jr., Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey. Hotel closed in the late 1970s and sat vacant for over 20 years. After a $45 million renovation in 2006 reopened as a Hilton franchise
The Phillips Hotel was Kansas City’s tallest hotel when it opened in 1931. Today it is still a hotel managed by Hilton, under its “Curio Collection”. Tucked behind it you see the ghost sign of a former Hotel Bray which opened in 1915, today its affordable apartments.
Not another hotel? Muehlebach is the name of a Swiss immigrant who settled in Kansas City in 1868 and known mostly for starting a brewery business. Also owned a baseball team and stadium which is former home of the Kansas City Athletics and first home of the Royals and the Chiefs. Pictured below is the addition to the original hotel. Muehlebach family got into the hotel business and opened the opulent 500-room hotel in 1916. The hotel went on to serve many famous guests including every U.S. President from Theodore Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter. Since 1998, a restored portion of the original hotel has survived as a part of the Kansas City Marriott Downtown.
An impressive public art is the parking garage for the Kansas City public library. The outside was made to look like an enormous bookshelf with the book spines of several classics forming the building wall. These books stand about 25 ft high (9 ft wide) and run the length of the south side of the parking garage for the Central Library.
This building is the third city hall that Kansas City has had since the incorporation in 1853. Built in 1937 in the Neo-Classical and Beaux-Arts styles. It’s one of the tallest city halls in the country!!
Funds for construction were made available through federal WPA assistance and a voter-approved Ten Year Plan of 1931, a massive $50M urban renewal and jobs project. The connection between the bond issue, the construction projects, and the concrete company is Thomas J. Pendergast. He not only owned the concrete company, he was the boss who ran Kansas City’s political machine between 1911 and 1939.
Another public building created under the project included the Jackson County Courthouse constructed in 1934. The presiding Judge was future president Harry Truman.
Below Pickwick Plaza built in 1930 was designed by the firm of Wight and Wight, notable for aforementioned Kansas City Hall and the Jackson County Courthouse. Its mixed use included offices, a hotel, a parking garage, a regional bus terminal, ground-level retail storefronts, a restaurant, and a radio studio. Business began declining in the 1960s as the city population migrated from downtown to more suburban areas. In 1972, the hotel portion of the Pickwick was converted into subsidized housing for low income and elderly residents, but occupancy was often low and the building gradually deteriorated. From 2015–17 the Pickwick was redeveloped into new downtown apartments.
Below is the iconic clock tower that was preserved as part of the rehabilitation efforts.
The Bryant Building built in 1931 operates now as a datacenter housing web servers. It was originally constructed by the Kansas City Star newspaper but was occupied by law firms for much of its history.
The New York Life building is a high-rise in built in a Neo-Renaissance style between 1887–90 by famous New York City architects McKim, Mead and White. When completed in 1890, it was the city’s tallest and largest building and represented the city’s transition from “cow town” to a city of importance. The building was in use until 1988, when it was abandoned. In 2010, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph purchased the building and renamed it the “Catholic Center.”
The Bunker Building built in 1881 to house the publishing house of Western Newspaper Union, a company that provided printed sheets for many Midwestern newspapers. Its namesake Walter A. Bunker also purchased the Kansas City Journal and operated a real estate business in the building.
Going back to 1882, the Kansas City Club was the place kings of industry, social elite and other big shots gathered for hard talk, hard liquor and cigars. Notable members included a couple of presidents — Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Due to declining membership and a worsening financial state, Kansas City Club closed down in 2015
Union Carbide resulted from the merger of five different companies that shared a need for carbon and calcium carbide in the products they made for other industrial manufacturers. The Kansas City building opened as the Carbide and Carbon Building in 1931. Recently it has been converted to luxury condominium units.
Here we have Sentinel Federal Savings Building. What caugfht my attention was the distinctive temperature clock on the corner of the building.
Oak Tower, also called the Bell Telephone Building, is a 28-story skyscraper in Downtown Kansas City
Charles Evans Whittaker Courthouse clearly contrasts with the rest of the rectangular-shaped skyscrapers. The cylindrical form, half-covered with glass, was raised in 2000, has 12 stories and 12 columns that go through the entire structure up to the roof.
Lastly I will take you to a neighborhood where a lot of change is underway, midtown Kansas City. The Katz building was built in the 1930s and at 20,000 square feet, the building was said to be the biggest drugstore in the world when it opened. Katz pioneered the business model combining pharmacy, grocery, and general store services that is still in use by the major drug store chains. The Katz building is currently being redeveloped into a 192-unit apartment project.
A commemorative plaque exists to remind the public what Katz used to be.
Right across the street you have the Southwell building. takes its name from George Southwell was a composer of band music played in bandstands in small towns across the country.
Warwick Theater was built in 1912 as a 1,000 seat cinema. It closed in 1953 and then in 2015 it was announced that the theatre had been purchased by the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre Company to be used as a live theatre.
