By Joe Jarosz
Northeast News
December 9, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — As buildings around the Northeast get torn down or sit un-repaired, one along the Avenue has reason to celebrate.

Last month during the celebration of a Sunday morning service, the Independence Boulevard Christian Church, 606 Gladstone Blvd., celebrated the storied church’s designation on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as the Kansas City Register of Historic Places. At the service, a bronze plaque was dedicated to the church and its parish. That plaque will be mounted on the Church’s exterior in the coming weeks.

According to an informational packet on the church, it was built in two phases between 1905 and 1910. With the addition of a 1919 bell tower, “the church’s symmetrical facade includes colonnaded pediments, an east dome and classical ornamentation. The interior is as exuberant as the exterior, with mosaic floors, stunning woodwork, fluid lines and sanctuary stained glass windows created by Tiffany studios. The church is one of Kansas City’s jewels, designed by prominent architect Henry Hoit.”

The church was an early local example of the Beaux-Arts style, and may well have influenced the form and ornament of later buildings in Kansas City. The church has changed little since its last addition in 1919, retaining its massive, well maintained presence in northeast Kansas City.

Elke Gonzales-Flaharty, ministry assistant for IBCC, said the process for both registrations started in 2013 and was a “long and tedious process” because of all the information that needed to be collected.

“We had to do a lot of legwork,” Gonzales-Flaharty said, adding church staff still haven’t located the original blue prints for the building. “That’s the last thing we’d need for our own personal archive.”

Now that the church is registered, Gonzales-Flaharty said they have to be careful with any exterior work on the building. The congregation has recently begun the restoration of the education wing as well as the bell tower. Gonzales-Flaharty said they’d like to repair some recent water damaged spots and make sure the bell tower is secure.

Congregation member Martha Dominick lent a hand during the research portion. There was a lot of fascinating tidbits she learned during her trips to the library and city records office. She said one of the most interesting things she learned about her church was how Robert Alexander Long and other founders established an endowment for the church to survive after they died.

“All these men were concerned about the community and its families and that really impressed me,” Dominick said.

Gonzales-Flaharty believes Long and the other founders would be proud to see how far the church has come since their day. Going forward, she’d like to see the church continue on the path that Long started a century ago.

“I feel like we can be a beacon of hope for the Northeast and Kansas City,” Gonzales-Flaharty said. “Everyone is welcome here.”

Church services take place at 10:45 a.m. every Sunday.