Kansas City's West Bottoms Walking Tour:

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1. The "French Bottoms" - Early Day Kansas City Historical Marker

Commonly referred to as the West Bottoms, the French Bottoms was the general location of the French speaking village of Chez les Canses, the first permanent White settlement in the modern day Kansas City. First settled in 1799, the village only stood for a few decades before being washed away by a flood in 1844. Into the late 1800s, this area became a commercial hub with the newly built Union Depot and stockyards. This historical marker was removed in 2018 for new construction at this location and is awaiting a permanent home.

2. Kansas City Live Stock Exchange

This historic Kansas City landmark was constructed between 1909 and 1911. The building serves as the headquarters of the Kansas City Stockyards which was once the second-biggest stockyard in the United States, trailing only behind the Union Stock Yards in Chicago. Founded in 1870, and operating until it closed in 1991, the Kansas City stockyards and its Live Stock Exchange Building were essential to the economic growth of the city, providing livestock owners with the best prices for their cattle. Beginning in 1899, the stockyards began what is known today as the American Royal Livestock and Horse Show. At the height of its operations, between 1911 and the devastating flood of 1951, the stockyards sold millions of cattle, including cows, hogs, sheep, horses, and many other animals. The Livestock Exchange, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, stands as a monument of the growth, development, and decline of Kansas City and its livestock industry. The building has been home to the Golden Ox steakhouse, an iconic Kansas City establishment, since 1949.

3. Albert Marty Building

Constructed in the Romanesque Revival tradition in 1886, the Albert Marty Building is one of the oldest remaining structures in Kansas City's West Bottoms. The building represents a period of rapid growth that followed the construction of Union Depot in 1877. The building's history also reflects the larger history of the West Bottoms, serving as warehousing space for farm implement suppliers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when this was the epicenter of rail traffic. The building was later utilized for manufacturing, including the Columbia Burlap Bag Company whose name remains on the structure. The building survived the shift away from warehousing and the closure of the stockyards and numerous Missouri River floods, and serves as a reminder of the late nineteenth-century architecture.

4. Abernathy Furniture Company Building

Established in 1856, Leavenworth-based Abernathy Furniture Company is "one of Kansas' earliest and most successful businesses." It was founded by brothers James, William, and John Abernathy. As their business grew, they expanded to Kansas City, opening their new plant in the West Bottoms in the following decades, likely circa 1880. The company remained successful for nearly a century, with its furniture gaining a reputation for being "of good quality and servicable." Ultimately, Abernathy was bought out by another company in the 1950s. After an expensive restoration project in 2016, the building was converted into apartments.

5. Ridenour-Baker Grocery Company Building

Consisting of four blocks, constructed between 1910 and 1919, the Ridenour-Baker Grocery Company Building is a great example of West Bottoms commercial architecture after the catastrophic floods and fires of the previous decades. It was home to a flourishing grocery company throughout the 1920s. They, like other area businesses, worked with the building's advantageous location near the railroad tracks to make money shipping goods around the country. In the 1930s, the business closed in the wake of the Great Depression, and the building was leased by a series of smaller businesses who, like Ridenour-Baker, made their living transporting goods. However, after its last owner moved out in 2003, it sadly remained vacant and fell into disrepair.

6. Perfection Stove Company Building

After the Hannibal Bridge was built across the Missouri River, the West Bottoms became a hub of transport thanks to the railroads passing through the area. Much of the neighborhood's economy was based on meatpacking and warehouses. This building was constructed in 1919 for the Cleveland-based Perfection Stove Company and provided both office and warehouse space. The building changed hands several times over the decades, first housing a paper company and then serving as the home of a manufacturer of race car wheels. This building is one of several that were built after the floods of 1903 and 1908, as well as area fires. These disasters led to the West Bottoms Union Depot being replaced by Union Station further South. In response, many of the buildings constructed in the West Bottoms were smaller and designed to be less susceptible to flood damage by not including basements. Similar to other structures that followed a series of fires, the Perfection Stove Company utilized more stone and masonry and less wood to reduce susceptibility to fire damage.

7. Union Depot (1878-1915)

After Hannibal Bridge was built in 1869, Kansas City needed a larger train station to manage growing railroad traffic while supporting passengers travel. City leaders saw this project as an opportunity to impress travelers and sought out several land developers, architects, and others in the construction trades to help create a grand new depot. The city purchased a piece of land on Union Avenue across from the bridge for this purpose and invested so heavily in the project that some doubted whether the new Union Depot, which was completed in 1878, would ever reach capacity. The project was a success and supported Kansas City's claim to being a center of commerce until it was replaced by Union Station.

8. West Bottoms: Hell's Half Acre

People referred to Kansas City's West Bottoms neighborhood as "Hell's Half Acre" around the turn of the twentieth century because of its crime, bars, brothels, and otherwise bad reputation. The community started as Kansas City's first African American enclave and later home to European immigrants. Both groups mainly worked as low-paid laborers. Many took part in constructing the Hannibal Bridge, the first railroad bridge across the Missouri River. The bridge opened on July 3, 1869, and became a critical component of the city's growth, especially its meatpacking industry. However, the neighborhood transformed into a place for outlaws, prostitutes, and gangs, eventually pushing out the African Americans and immigrants by the early twentieth century.

9. Faultless Starch Company/Bon Ami Building

Faultless Starch Company was founded in the late nineteenth century and continues to operate within this historic building the company has owned for more than a hundred years. Both the business and building are among the oldest in the West Bottoms, and this building has been the home to the company since its last building, located just a block away, was lost in the West Bottoms flood of 1903. Like other area businesses, Faultless Starch chose to operate out of the West Bottoms due to its proximity to the railroad which supported their need to sell and ship products all across the country. In 1971 Faultless Starch purchased the Bon Ami Company, merging to become Faultless Starch/Bon Ami Company, as the company is known today.

10. Frontier Railroads in Kansas City Historical Marker

This historical marker in Kansas City's West Bottoms district shares the history of the first railroads that transported goods and people through Kansas City in the 1860s and 1870s, culminating with the construction of Union Depot which operated from 1878 to 1915 and its replacement, Union Station. In 1863, Lawrence and Kansas City were connected by a new line operated by the Union Pacific. After the Civil War, this part of Kansas City was selected for the first railroad bridge to cross the Missouri River. Within just five years of the completion of the Hannibal Bridge, there were five railroad companies operating in the West Bottoms including the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, Missouri Pacific, St. Louis-San Francisco, and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. These railroads led to the rapid development of the West Bottoms area and connected Kansas City to markets across the country. As a result, Kansas City was able to "grow into more than just a way station for livestock" - it became a hub of transport for live cattle, meat, and other agricultural products by way of the railroads.

11. Ed Hogan Marker - The West Bottoms Incident

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This Tour is a Walking Tour.

Kansas City's West Bottoms Walking Tour:

Created by Clio Admin on November 6th 2023, 1:05:51 am.

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Description

This walk though the historic West Bottoms begins with a historical marker and the landmark Kansas City Live Stock Exchange Building which was the epicenter of the region's cattle industry. The tour includes several structures that were home to vast warehouses and factories along with additional historical markers and buildings, as well as the location of important landmarks that have been lost to time like Kansas City's Union Depot, the vast rail station that was abandoned owing to flooding and replaced by Union Station.

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Kansas City's West Bottoms Walking Tour:

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