Michael Bushnell
Publisher

In keeping with our “Remember This” column, this week we bring you this wonderful color Hall Bros. postcard published in 1929, featuring the Hotel President located at 1329 Baltimore.

Designed by the architectural firm of Shepard & Wiser and constructed at a cost of roughly $3 million, the Hotel President was one of many prominent hotels in downtown Kansas City, sharing the stage with The Baltimore, The Midland, The Kupper, The Aladdin and The Muehlebach. The Hotel President was built in 1926 by Niagara Falls businessman Frank Dudley, and was operated by the United Hotels Company. During its heyday the Hotel President was the headquarters for the Republican National Convention in 1928, where Herbert Hoover was that party’s presidential nominee.

The description on the back of the postcard reads: “The hotel contains 450 rooms and 450 baths, is beautifully furnished and is complete in every detail. The Congress and Junior Assembly rooms on the fourteenth floor have a seating capacity of 1,000. The Aztec room on the second floor is one of the most unique in the country and the first to exemplify the craft of America’s earliest aboriginal artworks.”

Also a huge drawing factor was a two-story Presidential Suite, a central public address system and its own ice producing plant, the first in any Kansas City hotel.

The Drum Room, one of the hotel’s signature lounges, was an integral part of a 1941 remodel of the hotel. It was designed by the architectural firm of Neville and Sharp, who gave it a South Sea Island theme. The bar in the center of the room resembled a huge snare drum, complete with “adjustment” ropes and a chrome rim. The themed murals were painted by New York artist Winold Reiss.

The Drum Room drew national entertainment names such as Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, and nationally recognized local talent Marilyn Maye. Maye, a Kansas City treasure who recently turned 92 years old, is still performing today.

The President closed in 1980 as downtown spiraled into decay, ultimately bottoming out around 1987.

The Hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, which miraculously kept it from the wrecking ball that befell so many other downtown structures. A public sale of the property in the early 1990’s allowed the artifact seekers into the dusty hallways and stairwells of the hotel to purchase anything that wasn’t nailed down like plates, bowls, silverware, promotional pamphlets, even the original watercolor paintings off the walls of the guest rooms – sans frames, of course.

The hotel stood vacant for almost 15 years, but in 2003 was purchased by an investment group with a keen eye on where downtown was headed. In 2006 it reopened after an almost $50 million dollar restoration and renovation by local hotelier Ron Jury. Today the Hotel President operates as part of the Hilton brand and remains one of downtown Kansas City’s premier lodging and entertainment spots.