Louis Curtiss: The Frank Lloyd Wright of Kansas City

[FangKC]

Hmmm. I see what the NR says but I also remember an extensive search for verification turning up nothing. Either way, it's an interesting building.

I think it says he designed it in this book: Stalking Louis Curtiss, by Wilda Sandy and Larry Hancks, which is available at the KC public library. I haven't looked at that book in a long time, so I don't know if they provide a lot of references in the end notes, and used Curtiss' papers to document it.

Curtiss' papers are kept at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library Archival Collections at the University of Kansas.

[chaglang]

IIRC there's nothing in his papers, and I know it's not on the building permit. But there's kind of a valid question here that if it wasn't Curtiss, who else could it have been? There aren't any likely other candidates.

[FangKC]

Photo update.

More updated photos since the photos above can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/SaveTheVictorBeutnerHouse

[FangKC]

Union Depot structure assessed as good

A structural engineer that recently assessed Joplin’s long-vacant downtown train station, the Union Depot, concluded that the building is in good structural condition.

Lori Haun, director of the Joplin Downtown Alliance, said an engineer who specializes in restoring historic properties “felt very confident it could be rehabilitated.” She gave the update at a meeting of the Joplin City Council.
...
Long listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a locally significant building, the depot was designed by Kansas City architect Louis Curtiss and was built by the Manhattan Construction Co. of New York. It opened in 1911 as a passenger stop for the Kansas City Southern Railroad.

Curtiss, who designed and built a number of recognized buildings in the Midwest, particularly in Kansas City, used mining chat from the Joplin area in the building’s concrete exterior, a technique that gained him a reputation for building fireproof buildings.
...

https://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_ ... tid=Zxz2cZ