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

[moderne]

Could we rebuild the Board of Trade? Germany rebuilt scores of destroyed historical buildings, some that did not even have rubble left to incorporate.

[TheLastGentleman]

It’s definitely my choice for a recreated building in KC. The lot is still empty, and it was built the same year as the Rookery in Chicago by the same architects. The Rookery is one of the most important buildings in modern architecture history, so having a building so closely related to it was a major honor for KC.

To make it more economical, a replica wouldn’t have to be perfectly correct in the interior, aside from the primary spaces. Most of the building could be hotel rooms, for instance, but with historically accurate exterior, atrium and staircases.

[moderne]

The trading room is the interior feature I would want to see reproduced.

[Jblanco]

Found this online from 1945. The density is amazing.
https://kchistory.org/image/st-marys-ep ... fset%5D=13

[TheLastGentleman]

Found this online from 1945. The density is amazing.
https://kchistory.org/image/st-marys-ep ... fset%5D=13

[FangKC]

14th and Cherry was the red light district at one time.

...
Or about his visit to Harry Truman in the White House in 1948, with Julia Lee and Baby Lovett: “Truman’s got his bar in the White House. They’ve got Secret Service men. They’ve got Danny Kaye, Arthur Godfrey, Julia Lee, Baby Lovett and myself and Truman. And he’s still drinking Pendergast whiskey. So I have a few shots, and I say to myself, ‘Look at this little Jew from an orphan home, standing here with the president of the United States. I wonder what words of wisdom he’s got to say.’ He turns around to me, and he says, “Milt, they still got all those whores down around 14th and Cherry?’"
...

http://www.kcjazzlark.com/2010/04/remem ... orris.html

[daGOAT]

Heartbreaking, I understand not everything can be saved, but an entire neighborhood was decimated. I'm sure a modern streetcar would have been funded by a TIF by now and this neighborhood would have been one of our densest and most exciting had we salvaged more. It would likely be that the south of river population would never have sunk to its lows and even accelerate downtowns comeback now.

[moderne]

Decimated means one in ten. This neighborhood vanished with hardly a trace. Can anyone guesstimate how many people would have resided in the area of the photo(whores and all)?

[herrfrank]

Thank you FangKC for posting the Milton Morris quote about Harry Truman above (and for the linked blog). I saved, but have since lost, that Sunday KC Star special magazine section they ran when Milton's Tap Room was torn down in 1989 (it was torn down DURING the filming of Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. I remember that Paul Newman made it a minor cause celebre at the time). For those too young -- this was part of the ongoing urban scar known then as the Glover project and now as Home Depot/ Costco.

I was 15 or 16 when Milton died, but it didn't stop me from using a fake ID and going to Milton's on Main every weekend (usually with a crew of SME 83ers). They didn't really enforce the age rules there; this was during the 18-beer-exception period. I got to meet some fascinating folks there, with different KC histories than my Dad's oft-repeated Hyde Park stories from the Depression. The tap room remained open for a couple years after his death, IIRC Pat Metheny was helpful in keeping it going during part of that time in the 1980s.

After the demolition, I scoured the rubble and was astonished to salvage two of the black-painted, wooden cut-outs (Milton had called them his "Arabesques") that lined the wall. The best of these had been sold (the ones that looked like stylized jazz players) but a few abstract shapes remained. Unfortunately, when I went back to college in January 1990 for my final semester, Dad decided to clean the garage and tossed them.

[FangKC]

HerrFrank, when I lived in New York, I salvaged a half-brick through a protective fence from the demolition of the Fillmore East nightclub's auditorium that was in the East Village of New York. The lobby of the building still exists and is a bank I think. It was called "The Church of Rock and Roll." Apartments were built in the former auditorium space. I still have the half-brick.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fillmore_East

[FangKC]

Here are some neat buildings from that neighborhood.



Below: An apartment building on the NE corner of 15th Street (Truman Road) and Harrison.



Below: An apartment building at 15th and Harrison.



Below: An apartment building on the block bounded by Campbell, Harrison, 13th and 14th streets.



Below: An apartment building at 613-23 E. 13th Street.



Below: An apartment building at 615-23 E. 14th Street.



Below: An apartment building on the SW corner of 13th and Charlotte.



Below: An apartment building on the SE corner of 14th and Harrison.



Below: An Apartment Building on the SW corner of 14th and Troost.



Below: A house on Charlotte south of 13th Street.



Below: A house at 1417 Locust.



Below: A house on Harrison between 14th and 15th (Truman).



Below: Wesley Hospital (later Kansas City College of Osteopathy and Surgery) on the NW corner of 11th and Harrison.

[FangKC]

Thank you FangKC for posting the Milton Morris quote about Harry Truman above (and for the linked blog). I saved, but have since lost, that Sunday KC Star special magazine section they ran when Milton's Tap Room was torn down in 1989 (it was torn down DURING the filming of Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. I remember that Paul Newman made it a minor cause celebre at the time). For those too young -- this was part of the ongoing urban scar known then as the Glover project and now as Home Depot/ Costco.
...

[FangKC]

Look at all the houses that used to exist on the bluffs over the West Bottoms in 1890.

https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2023-01- ... ?_amp=true

Looking towards the 9th Street Incline. Union Depot is to the left.



Looking towards 12th Street.

[moderne]

I guess those houses were all pretty much substandard shacks(even for that day). The creation of West Terrace(now Case) park was a slum clearance project. My long late grandmother always told a story of arriving in KC from Wichita as a child at the old Union Depot and looking up at the shack covered hill with half naked dirty urchins running about, and bursting into tears that KC was her new home.
Bring back the 9th St Incline. More fun and practical than a ferris wheel or aerial gondola.

[FangKC]

Yes, it looks like they were shacks. I wonder if they even owned the land they were built on, or if they were squatter shacks.

[KC1963]

Thank you FangKC for posting the Milton Morris quote about Harry Truman above (and for the linked blog). I saved, but have since lost, that Sunday KC Star special magazine section they ran when Milton's Tap Room was torn down in 1989 (it was torn down DURING the filming of Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. I remember that Paul Newman made it a minor cause celebre at the time). For those too young -- this was part of the ongoing urban scar known then as the Glover project and now as Home Depot/ Costco.

I was 15 or 16 when Milton died, but it didn't stop me from using a fake ID and going to Milton's on Main every weekend (usually with a crew of SME 83ers). They didn't really enforce the age rules there; this was during the 18-beer-exception period. I got to meet some fascinating folks there, with different KC histories than my Dad's oft-repeated Hyde Park stories from the Depression. The tap room remained open for a couple years after his death, IIRC Pat Metheny was helpful in keeping it going during part of that time in the 1980s.

After the demolition, I scoured the rubble and was astonished to salvage two of the black-painted, wooden cut-outs (Milton had called them his "Arabesques") that lined the wall. The best of these had been sold (the ones that looked like stylized jazz players) but a few abstract shapes remained. Unfortunately, when I went back to college in January 1990 for my final semester, Dad decided to clean the garage and tossed them.

"I ain't mad at nobody" - I turned 21 in 1984 - Milton's Jazz and Juice was a reliable place to get a drink before catching a punk band at the VFW hall.