Midtown Kansas City Walking Tour: Valentine to Hyde Park

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Kansas City's Kuehne-Schmidt Apartments were constructed in 1909 by area produce entrepreneur Charles Kuehne, and the twin apartment buildings remain today along a mostly commercially developed section of Main Street. Kuehne hired Architect Claude P. Schmidt, who designed the apartments using the square-brick column, colonnade style of apartment construction that was popular at that time. The style is defined as a multi-story, masonry buildings with one or more prominent multi-tiered porches. In addition to its unique design, the apartment speak to the socioeconomic changes occurring in Kansas City during the early twentieth century. The influx of middle-class residents to the city led investors to build several small- to medium-sized apartment buildings, usually outside the downtown area and near streetcar lines, allowing for easy access to and from the city's business center.

2. Goodenow Textiles Company Building

Constructed in 1930, the Goodenow Textiles Company Building represented the growth of a family business from a small operation in 1909 to one doing upwards of $100 million in business by 1945. The company focused on undergarments and hosiery, and its growth mirrored that of the garment industry in Kansas City. The company's growth also mirrored the mass adoption of standardized undergarments around the time of World War I when the mass-produced, one-piece, elastic-banded underwear commonly worn today regardless of social and financial status became more common. This production facility was designed with design ideas of the Progressive-Era; with a factory that allowed for plenty of light and offered workers a better environment with the goal of increasing production as a result of the better workspace.

3. William Baker and Mary Knight House

This Hyde Park home was completed in the summer of 1890 and home to the family of William Baker Knight, a civil engineer who died at age 42 just six months after this home's completion. In his short career, Knight established himself as one of the leaders of his field, designing canals, railways, bridges, sewer systems, and roads in New York, Washington D.C., and Kansas City. The house he built with his wife Mary was one of the first grand homes in Hyde Park, a neighborhood that catered to the upwardly mobile middle class and wealthy residents at the turn of the century.

4. The First Golf Course in Kansas City

Although golf dates back to middle of the 15th century in Scotland, the sport didn’t arrive in the United States until 1888. At the time, the first course rested in New York, but golf quickly drew traction as a popular sport and it soon spread west. Known as the third oldest golf course west of the Mississippi, the informal Kenwood Golf Links brought the sport to Kansas City. The course was built in Hyde Park by Scottish immigrants in 1894, and it stretched between 34th and 36th streets and from Gillham to Charlotte. According to the Historical Marker inscription, the ninth hole of this course ended in the backyard of the famous architect and writer, Henry Van Brunt. Two years after play began at the and with the popularity of the sport growing, the Kenwood Golf Links reorganized into the Kansas City Country Club.

5. Janssen Place Historic District Historical Marker

Janssen Place Historic District preserves what was once an upper class, privately owned neighborhood established in 1897 by prominent developer and railroad magnate Arthur Edward Stilwell (1859-1928). The neighborhood is an example of the landscape and community planning that occurred in Kansas City at the turn-of-the 20th century. The street is no longer private. Before the 1890s, development of Kansas City was rapid and mostly unplanned. This began to change in 1893 when the city devised a development plan consisting of parks and parkways following the city's unique topography. Before the plan could be fully implemented, however, Stilwell created Janssen Place. Instead of conforming to the topography, it consists of a straight boulevard street with homes on each side and a neoclassical style entrance gateway on the north end. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and this historical marker and stone wall mark the entrance to the historic community.

6. Locust Street Apartments (Modern: Cleopatra and Alexander)

The twin apartment buildings, historically known as the Locust Street Apartments, enjoyed a traditional Prairie School design but had few ornate detailing and offered few amenities to the residents. Now known as the Cleopatra and Alexander apartments, they have served the Hyde Park area of Kansas City as a multi-dwelling complex since its construction finished in 1926. Like the nearby Gillham Court (1925) and Windsor Hall (1923) apartments, Locust Street mainly catered to the working class and the lower end of the middle class, demonstrating a demographic shift for the Armour Boulevard area where grand mansions and luxurious apartment-hotels had previously been erected.

7. Windsor Hall Apartments

Construction on the Windsor Hall Apartments Building finished in 1923, two years before the adjacent (and nearly identically designed) Gillham Court Apartments in 1925. Both apartment building arose a time when numerous apartment buildings in this area were designed to meet the budget and housing needs of an increasing working- and middle-class population of the city as it grew rapidly during the early twentieth century. In the 1920s, the Hyde Park area of Kansas City was in a period of transition from a place reserved for the affluent to a mixture of middle-class wage earners. Apartment buildings like this were part of that transition. Unlike luxury hotel-apartment buildings nearby, Windsor Hall Apartments had no formal entrance lobby and no amenities were offered to residents. Nevertheless, the well-constructed units were located along a streetcar line and offered comfortable and fairly spacious living for middle and working class residents.

8. Gillham Court Apartments Building

Construction on the Gillham Court Apartments Building was completed in 1925, a time when numerous apartment buildings in this area were designed to meet the budget and housing needs of an increasing working- and middle-class population of the city as it grew rapidly in the early twentieth century. The Gillham arose two years after the Windsor Hall Apartment Building was built, which is adjacent to the Gillham and enjoys almost an identical design. In the 1920s, the Hyde Park area of Kansas City was in a period of transition from a place reserved for the affluent to a mixture of middle-class wage earners. Apartments building like this were part of that transition. The Gillham Court Apartments Building was similar to other "walk up" apartments that were constructed in the area at this time. Unlike luxury hotel-apartment buildings nearby, Gillham had no formal entrance lobby and no amenities were offered to residents. Nevertheless, the well-constructed units were located along a streetcar line and offered comfortable and fairly spacious living for middle and working class residents.

9. Bellerive Hotel (Bellerive Apartments)

Investors built several luxury hotel-apartments in the area around Kanas City's Hyde Park in the 1920s, and the Bellerive stood as one of the largest and most luxurious of these. Located among mansions on Armour Boulevard, the Bellerive was a desired address for people on the make and numerous celebrities and dignitaries stayed at the Bellerive in the early 20th century. Guests were attracted to the hotel for its luxuriant decor and first-class service, with cooks, servers, maids, doormen, and bellmen on call twenty-four hours a day. The hotel also had six dining rooms, and an indoor automobile garage, which was a unique feature in the early 1920s. Leading musicians of the era performed at the hotel's Casbah Lounge, including Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Bob Hope. Thanks to a renovation project in 2013, the building which mixes limestone with brick and terra cotta continues to operate today as the Bellerive Apartments.

10. Alfred and Mary Toll Residence

Alfred Toll operated a lumber business in Hannibal, Missouri for twenty years before moving to Kansas City in 1886 and, as President of the Badger Lumber Company, earned a fortune. As a result, the Toll family built one of the largest mansions on Armour Boulevard, a street lined with grand homes built by Kansas City's wealthiest residents.

11. Jacob and Ella Loose House (Loose Mansion)

Jacob Loose founded the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company in 1902 and its massive success earned Jacob and Ella Loose a fortune, demonstrated by this four-story mansion that was built for the Loose family in 1911. Known eventually for its Sunshine Cracker products, the company introduced America to the Hydrox cookie, a chocolate and cream-filled sandwich cookie that predated the Oreo by roughly four years. The mansion cost several million dollars to build (2021 value) and included numerous elegant features, suitable for hosting hundreds of social elites and dignitaries at parties. The couple engaged in philanthropy including Ella's donation of nearly eighty acres to create Loose Park. Loose Mansion serves as an event space and bed and breakfast.

12. Interstate Bakeries Corporation Headquarters (1952-2009)

Ralph Leroy Nafziger founded Interstate Baking in 1930, although the business ultimately started in 1910 when he started a baking operation in a church basement. Nafziger came from a family of bakers, a common occupation in Kansas City around the turn of the century as the city enjoyed a reputation as a wheat hub. As well, Kansas City had a well-established distribution network (notably railways) due to its central location and manufacturing success. By the 1990s, the company grew into the largest baking company in the U.S. and owned such iconic brands as Hostess and Wonder Bread. The company built its Kansas City headquarters in two stages, in 1952 and 1961. Following two bankruptcies, the company relocated to Texas and its former headquarters building is now home to the Interstate Flats apartments.

13. William Francis Shelley House

Built from 1887 to 1889, this historic home is one of the oldest in the area and predates Kansas City's annexation of Hyde Park. When the home was constructed, the planning of the Hyde Park neighborhood included stipulations that no businesses were to operate in the neighborhood and homes must exceed $15,000 (equal to more than $400,000 in 2021). While the neighborhood was only open to residents with healthy financial means, it has changed over time similar to other neighborhoods that were once on the periphery of a city center. The home's first owner William Shelley held many jobs in the city and his family was close to many of the era's most influential people, including Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman. George Shelley, the brother of William, twice served as the city mayor during the late 1880s.

14. Barclay Building

The Barclay Building's completion in 1924 occurred during an era of transition in this neighborhood. The area around 36th and Broadway had been home to some of the city's more wealthy residents, but the early decades of the 20th century saw new suburban neighborhoods further away from the city core. This area of Broadway was home to mixed-use structures with retail on the first floor and apartments on the second floor, often occupied by store owners and artisans who lived above their shops and studios. As shopping became more prevalent among the middle class, retail operations in some of these buildings expanded and stores occupied two floors. By the 1920s, shopping for pleasure was becoming a mark of the middle class. The increasingly middle-class residents of the area led to an increase in retailers and specialty shops. Recognizing the value of this location for their business, brothers John W. and Wilbur J. Barclay decided to move and expand their upholstery and furniture repair shop from the 3400 block of Main to this location. They opened their furniture store at this location in 1924, offering a variety of home furnishings including antique furniture. The Barclay name remains present on the building.

15. Uptown Building and Theatre

This Kansas City landmark was constructed in two stages, with the Uptown Building being completed in 1926 while the Uptown Theatre opened in 1928. In its early years, the theater operated as a movie house as well as a live entertainment venue. Several stars made appearances during the early and mid-20th century, including Shirley Temple, Roy Rodgers, and Bob Hope. In 1939, the theater deployed one of the most unique innovations in cinema history, the Fragratone system, which funneled various scents through ventilation systems to enhance the movie-viewing experience.As the name connotes, the Uptown was the first grand theater beyond the downtown area, and it included a parking lot across the street to accommodate the increasing number of automobile owners. The rise of the automobile also led to rapid suburbanization in the decades to come, and while theater continued to show movies and live performances through the early 1970s, the business was in decline by the end of the 1960s owing to the rise of the suburban multiplex. In response, a new owner added tables and opened the Lyric Opera and the Palace Dinner Theatre in 1973. The theater closed its doors in 1989 and would have been demolished had it not been for the work of community leaders and preservationists who restored the building as one of the city's leading live entertainment venues.

16. Valentine on Broadway Hotel

When this historic Kansas City building was completed in 1927, it operated as the Valentine on Broadway, one of many hotel-apartment buildings that catered to middle-class professionals during the 1920s. The building was designed by Nelle E. Peters, a successful female architect in an era when men dominated the field. Nelle Peters left an indelible mark in Kansas City, designing an estimated 1,000 homes and buildings, the majority of which were constructed in the city including several other hotel-apartment buildings.

17. Chatham Hotel (Senior Center of the Chathams)

When the Chatham Hotel opened in 1923, it was part of a larger trend of apartment hotels that catered to upwardly mobile middle-class professionals in up-and-coming urban neighborhoods that had easy access to streetcars. Guests of these hotels were often bachelors at the start of their careers who valued mobility and sought amenities such as fully-furnished rooms with kitchenettes. Without having to sign a lease, professionals enjoyed the flexibility of living in a hotel as they could move if their career path changed. By the 1940s, suburbs and automobiles profoundly changed how these hotels operated. The Chatham transitioned into a more traditional hotel and then, by the 1960s, converted into a dormitory that served women training to become flight attendants at the Weaver Airline Personnel School. The school operated until 1973, and its graduates usually secured employment with Trans-World Airlines which had its headquarters in Kansas City. After a period of low investment in this neighborhood during the 1970s and 1980s, the Chatham transitioned into a senior center and is now known as the Senior Center of the Chathams.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

Midtown Kansas City Walking Tour: Valentine to Hyde Park

Created by Clio Admin on August 17th 2021, 1:07:43 pm.

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Description

This walk or short drive makes a loop through some of Kansas City's most historic residential and commercial areas, including several historic hotels, mansions, and theaters. The tour starts at the former Chatham Hotel and the Valentine and then moves on to a variety of KC landmarks such as the Uptown Theatre and Loose Mansion. Stops on the tour usually start with the history of a building and its connection to the city before moving on to share stories of influential people and events related to each location.

Entries on This Tour

Midtown Kansas City Walking Tour: Valentine to Hyde Park

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