Michael Bushnell
Publisher
In 1889, when cattle, pigs and all manner of livestock still roamed the streets of Kansas City, voters approved the then massive sum of $300,000 for the construction of a new City Hall in what was then a ravine between Fourth and Fifth streets, and Main and Market streets (now Grand Boulevard). This would be the city’s second City Hall, the first once located a block away at 4th and Main Street.
The surface of the ravine was some 50 feet below the street line, so city engineer G.B. Gunn, along with the City’s Buildings Superintendent S.E. Chamberlain and his assistant, a young architect named Louis S. Curtiss, designed a foundation for the 55-million-pound building that utilized 60 steel caissons filled with imported concrete and vitrified brick that rested on bedrock itself.
The architect who designed the building was Adraince Van Brunt, who called the foundation plan brilliant. Construction started on the six-story, Romanesque-Revival style building in 1888 and was completed in 1892 under the leadership of Mayor W. S. Cowherd.
The second floor of the building was used for public meetings and dances. On Sundays, churches often met in the space, given there were no other church buildings nearby. The “new” City Hall was the center of the city’s business for roughly 45 years, through 16 mayoral administrations.
The very last business conducted in the stately old building was at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 24, 1937, when a water customer paid a bill. It was razed in 1938 to create more space at the newly constructed City Market. No hint of the stately brick structure exists today.
Under the leadership of Mayor Bryce Smith, citing the need for a larger, more modern space, a new $5 million City Hall had been constructed at 12th and Oak streets, built of Indiana Limestone and towering 29 stories above the city below.
According to the official Kansas City Fire Department Historian Ray Elder, Fire Station 25, shown in the foreground of this card, went into service on July 1, 1909, and remained at that location until August 1930, when it moved to 611 Oak St. In 1957, the station was moved to its present location at 401 E. Missouri Ave., on the site of the old city cemetery that had been moved in the 1870’s.
The hand-colored postcard was published expressly for the S. H. Knox Company of Kansas City, Mo. The card was mailed from Sheffield Station in Kansas City on June 13, 1912, to Mr. T. L. Henderson of Miami, (pronounced My-ama) Okla.
The message on the back reads, “We are having lovely weather here. I am carrying cherries. I bought four trees and have to pick them ourselves. It is slow work, will be glad to get them done. Ed has been sick for several days but will go to work tomorrow again. I picked our first beans out of our garden today, they were fine. Love, Ella.”
