When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

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FangKC
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

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Union Station lobby at Christmas. No date given.

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North Hall and Clock. Photo: 1932.

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South lobby. Photo: 1935

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Last edited by FangKC on Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

Post by warwickland »

KCKev wrote: Image
This picture is rather mindblowing. If someone were to have me guess the arcades location, I would say "somewhere in NYC." This is the sort of place (or more precisely, places pieced together with stuff from places like this) that is popular in hipster ghettos like Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

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Wonderland was great. My friend Chris Lockwood and I made a record on the machine pictured in those photos.Image
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

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I miss video arcades.
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

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It seems clear to me why a good portion of the last generation to experience unique places like this in Midwestern downtowns...ended up leaving as the old city crumbled.
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

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warwickland wrote: It seems clear to me why a good portion of the last generation to experience unique places like this in Midwestern downtowns...ended up leaving as the old city crumbled.
Don't know whether you are addressing that to me specifically, but you are spot on.
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

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Some of us are still here, by choice.
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

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Does anyone have a bunch of digital copies of photos from around the nelson, liberty memorial, or union station that I could use for a project I'm working on?
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

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ignatius wrote:Waiting for streetcars.
Image
Not waiting for the streetcar. This is the same photo shown on page 194 of the Star's book "Kansas City." This is a group of spectators who have gathered to watch flagpole sitter Alvin "Shipwreck" Kelly. Kelly stayed up there for 146 hours despite temperatures as cold as 17 degrees as a publicity stunt for local advertisers. I'm guessing that's why there are signs all over the front of the hotel that are not seen in other photos of the Westgate. In the Star's copy of the photo it's easier to see that those signs are advertisements. If you look carefully, you can just make out the figure on top of the flagpole.
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

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medleyj wrote: Not waiting for the streetcar. This is the same photo shown on page 194 of the Star's book "Kansas City." This is a group of spectators who have gathered to watch flagpole sitter Alvin "Shipwreck" Kelly. Kelly stayed up there for 146 hours despite temperatures as cold as 17 degrees as a publicity stunt for local advertisers. I'm guessing that's why there are signs all over the front of the hotel that are not seen in other photos of the Westgate. In the Star's copy of the photo it's easier to see that those signs are advertisements. If you look carefully, you can just make out the figure on top of the flagpole.
I am not calling you a liar, and I'm too lazy to do the research, but how is that possible? That's more than six days? Besides eating, how did he shit and piss?
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

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Daniel Baraniuk, an out-of-work 27-year-old from Gdansk, Poland set the world record for pole-sitting by sitting at the top of a 8-foot, 2 1/2 inch pole for 196 days and nights. In doing so he won the World Pole-Sitting Championship and nearly $23,000 in prize money.

All the competitors mounted their poles on May 15, 2002 and were only allowed to leave their 16 by 24 inch platform for 10 minutes every two hours. While his nearest competitor fell off the pole in October, Baraniuk finally gave up on November 26, 2002.
http://www.distant.ca/UselessFacts/fact.asp?ID=166

I'm guessing it was something akin to this.
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

Post by taxi »

Thanks for the clarification. I think I might have a new calling.
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

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taxi wrote: I am not calling you a liar, and I'm too lazy to do the research, but how is that possible? That's more than six days? Besides eating, how did he shit and piss?
I'm just repeating what's in the KC star book. I gave the page number. Check it out yourself. I think there might be a copy at the KC Public Library.
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

Post by voltopt »

ignatius wrote: KC disasters...





W Bottoms of course.  This guy was dealing with the building below.  Apparently shooting a can for a string to carry a hose up.
Image

Image
That building was called the New Nelson Building and was located at the SE corner of Missouri Avenue and Main Street.  Now it is a grassy buffer adjacent to the access road for I-70 in the north loop area of the river market.

Here are a couple other photos of it...

http://www.kchistory.org/cdm4/item_view ... X=1&REC=18

http://www.kchistory.org/cdm4/item_view ... X=1&REC=16
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

Post by warwickland »

Image

I love the scale of the density here...3-4 story streetwalls with many outliers like the westgate. Reminds me of certain streets of downtown Philly (Sansome is an example).
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

Post by mlind »

ignatius wrote: From the KC library...

"Queens" of the Priests of Pallas festivals (1887-1924) were disguised and
their identity never disclosed during the festival events. It was later revealed
that the "queens" were, in fact, men. At the time, it was felt the parade and
other activities would be too strenuous for a woman.  Drawing cross-dressers
from the region, many burlesque performers at cabaret clubs during
the jazz era were actually men.



Yes, the library claims these are men at least in the first 2 pics.  
Could the term 'queen' be taken any more literally?

1896.  Check out the goth dude.
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1905
Image

1900
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Early 30's.  All girls hotel known as 'lesbos inn'.  Opened years before
San Francisco's first lesbian bar.
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1890s?  Strike a pose.  She snaps her head back, "I'm better than you bitch"
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And while on topic.... Bank building, now a lesbian bar.
Image

It may have not been a lesbian place to live.  It was very common for cities to have women-only hotels.  They could be safe there.  The most famous was the Barbizon Hotel in Manhattan.  They used to advertise in the New Yorker.  That's where all the girls from the east coast women's colleges stayed when they went to NYC.

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/ny25.htm
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

Post by aknowledgeableperson »

mlind wrote: It may have not been a lesbian place to live.  It was very common for cities to have women-only hotels. 
It was also quite common for employers who had many single women working for them to have residences for those women, in particular hospitals.
I may be right.  I may be wrong.  But there is a lot of gray area in-between.
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

Post by KC Sporting Life »

Ignatius, GREAT photos.  I'd love to get prints of many of these if possible.  I can see that a lot of them are archived at the Public Library, how can I get copies?
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

Post by Highlander »

warwickland wrote: Image

I love the scale of the density here...3-4 story streetwalls with many outliers like the westgate. Reminds me of certain streets of downtown Philly (Sansome is an example).
My favorite all time street scene in KC.  I would love go back in time and preserve this.  Does Bahua have a time machine we can use?  This forum has everything doesn't it?
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Re: When Downtown KC was a powerhouse - A must see for all

Post by NDTeve »

hot tube time machine?  :lol:
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