Weaving Class

 Today I went to old people arts and crafts for the adventure.  I learned how to weave.  Our first task was to pick out the yarn.

We put our support yarn on the wood loom.

You create a base line then you may start weaving.

I made a bookmark.

Optum Community Center (Old Person Place) is closing early today for New Years Eve.  Crafts start at 2 and they were closing at 3.  The craft person tried to talk everyone out of weaving because there was not enough time.  I finished before 3.  The lady beside me and I were moving.  We took it as a challenge.  

I met 3 very nice women.  Maybe I will even remember their names.

Stay safe tonight!  Happy New Year!

Historic Theaters Main Street and Midland

I visited 2 historic theaters while walking in the rain on Saturday.

 

Main Street Theater

This theater opened in October, 1921.

The Mainstreet Theater, also commonly referred to as The Empire Theater, is a historic theater in downtown Kansas City, Missouri in the Power & Light District. The theater was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in February 2007.

The Mainstreet was the first theater in Kansas City to have a nursery for children whose parents were attending a show. Located in the basement and staffed by a trained nurse, it offered toys and games for older children and cribs for babies.

A tunnel connected the theater's lower level to the nearby President Hotel. Built to allow actors to enter the theater from their dressing rooms, it became infamous as a passage for bootleggers to escape police during Prohibition.

The theater also had space in the basement and sub-basement to keep animals for vaudeville shows. The space included an elephant cage, a pool for seals, and an elevator large and powerful enough to haul elephants to the stage.

The theater changed hands several times but finally reopened in the 1960s as the Empire.  The first film shown at the theater under the new name was Exodus.  In 1985 the theater was closed again.

Between 1985 and 2005, the Empire was often at risk for demolition. Numerous efforts took place to prevent each demolition attempt. In 1986, actor and comedian George Burns joined the effort and wrote a letter to have the theater declared a historic landmark. Since the theater was not listed as a local landmark or listed on the National Register of Historic Places, there was not much legal protection to prevent the deteriorating structure's demolition.

The City of Kansas City reached an agreement to purchase the theater in late 2004 while it was acquiring properties. In November 2005, the State of Missouri approved up to $938,538 in tax credits to help offset costs involved in the cleanup of asbestos at the theater. An estimated 200 dump-truck loads of asbestos and mold-covered debris were removed from the theater during the cleanup process. 

This theater has changed ownership so many times since it first opened with many names.  During covid,  the owners announced they would be closing the location permanently. In April 2021 (only a month later), B&B Theatres acquired the Mainstreet Theater, and it reopened at the end of September 2021.

Midland Theater

It was built by Marcus Loew, completed in 1927, at a cost of $4 million and was the largest historic theater within 250 miles of the city.

The theater is well known for its over 500,000 feet of gold leaf, five giant Czechoslovakian hand-cut crystal chandeliers, irreplaceable art objects and precious antiques, and spectacular wood and plaster work.

AMC Theatres (then a small Kansas City-area regional chain) purchased the Midland in 1966, and the theatre continued to operate as a movie house until 1981. In conjunction with the AMC Empire Theater, located two blocks south, the complex was known as the AMC Midland-Empire. Since then, it has become a performance hall, still used today for concerts, Broadway and stage shows, ballet and other events.  The theatre was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

The Midland's exterior marquee has been restored to its original 1927 appearance. The five level office portion of the theatre that faces Main Street was converted into a mix of bars, lounges, and administrative space. 

This building is huge and spans from one side of the block to the other.

At least half of the building has been developed into loft apartments.

Remember I was soaking wet after this walk.  

Until tomorrow.

 

Sunday Crafty Update Holiday Week 1

 For the first holiday week of 2024 I will make this show and tell very easy.

This is the only thing I finished.

This was only a 500 piece puzzle.

And it was missing a piece.

I will try to get more done this week but no guarantees. 

3 Historic Hotels

 While walking around in the rain the other day I got pictures of 3 historic hotels.

Hotel Kansas City (aka 1922 Kansas City Club Building)

Their website shows beautiful rooms, $179 - $280 for the same day I looked it up.  The hotel also has 2 bars, coffee cafe and a restaurant.  This is a Hyatt Hotel.

We know the history of this building so I won't repeat.  If you don't please read the post on December 27, 2024 about the Kansas City Club.

The President

Built in 1925.  In 1928, it was the headquarters for the 1928 Republican National Convention, which nominated Herbert Hoover for President. 

The Drum Room was added to the hotel in 1941 and featured many well-known entertainers, including Sinatra and Patsy Cline.

When it opened, there were 453 rooms and now there are 213. The hotel closed in the 70s, it stayed vacant for 25 years. The city wanted to tear it down. A local owner, who was really passionate about the building, wanted to save it. The hotel was gutted to the bare walls, completely refurbished to the tune of $45 million dollars and reopened in 2006 as the Hilton President Kansas City. The 12,000-square-foot property kept many of the nuances of the old hotel.

At the beginning of 1935, a man using an assumed name at the time but later identified as Artemus Ogletree, was found severely assaulted in room 1046 after a two-day stay marked by odd behavior and interactions with a mysterious "Don"; he later died in the hospital. The case remains unsolved.

The Hotel President was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Also rooms ranged $160 - $280.

I copied this picture for the sign.

This sign was in the parking lot.

Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission

Began in 1949 to investigate corruption and in the 80s lead to Crime Stoppers.

The restaurant 

Distance picture with Hotel President and the Drum Room sign.

Last one - Hotel Muehlebach

When I went on the Roanoke Walking Tour the Muehlebachs once owned 2 homes there.  I have been interested in them since.

The Hotel Muehlebach is a historic hotel in downtown Kansas City that was visited by every President from Theodore Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan.  It is currently operated as one of the Kansas City Marriott Downtown wings.

A church was once built on this property.  Muehlebach bought the property in 1914, demolished the church and built a 12 story hotel at a cost of $2 million.  It opened in 1915.

 Barney Allis took over the hotel in 1931, and during his lengthy tenure, the hotel welcomed celebrities including Helen Keller, Ernest Hemingway, Babe Ruth, Jean Harlow (1931), Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Beatles

 Missouri-native Harry S. Truman stayed in the hotel’s Presidential Suite so frequently that the Muehlebach became known as White House West.

In 1952, a 17-story western annex, called the Muehlebach Tower (later torn down and then rebuilt), and a parking lot, were added to the hotel. Allis sold the hotel in the 1960s. The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States foreclosed on the hotel in the early 1970s. In 1974, they renovated the hotel, at a cost of $7 million, and contracted with Minneapolis-based Radisson Hotels to manage the hotel. The hotel served as the headquarters for the 1976 Republican National Convention. It closed permanently in 1986.

Marriott bought the hotel in 1996.  The original 1915 Muehlebach building's lobby and ballrooms were restored and are now used as banquet and convention facilities by the Marriott. The original hotel guest room floors above have been gutted and remain unused

At one time this hotel consisted on 4 buildings.

Today it is just the hotel and the new tower that was built.

This was the rest of my walk in the rain yesterday. All 3 of the hotels are within a block of each other.  In fact 2 of the hotels are on opposite ends of the same block with The President across the street from Hotel Kansas City.  It's just crazy.

Until tomorrow.  

Kansas City Club Story

It all started with this awning.  The Kansas City Club.  I started researching and fell down a rabbit hole.                  

                                        

The Kansas City Club, founded in 1882 and downtown Kansas City, was the oldest gentlemen's club in Missouri. The club began admitting women members in 1975.   Notable members have included Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, General Omar Bradley and political boss Tom Pendergast.  The club closed in 2015.  

In 1922, the Kansas City Club built a new clubhouse.

A beautiful 14 story building.

 The clubhouse included a large dining room, several bars, private meeting rooms, a banquet hall, athletic facilities, an indoor pool, six floors of guestrooms, and a rooftop terrace.

  It remained the clubhouse until 2001, when the club merged with a nearby smaller club. In 2002, a developer bought and renovated the building. The first six floors were a banquet facility called The Clubhouse on Baltimore. The remaining nine floors were converted to loft apartments

In 2020, the building was relaunched as Hotel Kansas City. The first five floors were preserved in original condition and are meeting and event spaces.

Now back to the club.

The 1922 building remained the club house until the club agreed to merge with the University Club, a 100-year-old men's social club.

They moved to the University Club building.

I'm trying to show the U and C.

Ten alumni of six colleges and universities met in November of 1900 to form the University Club. . After the building they were meeting in was destroyed by fire in 1923, construction of a building was begun and was completed the following year.

After 133 years, the Kansas City Club closed on Saturday, May 23, 2015.  Epoch Developments, from Denver, bought the facility out of bankruptcy in mid-2015 and spent millions of dollars renovating, improving, upgrading the systems, and returning the facility to use as a private venue.

While doing research for this post I found that one of the TV stations did a story in May 2024 about the building being for sale.  It is not listed on realtor or zillow so I can not confirm that or get a price.

This twisted story should be over but it continues.

The 822 Club was founded in room 822 of the Kansas City Club in about 1927. Its main purpose was probably to provide its members an opportunity to evade the prohibition laws in congenial surroundings. Truman was often invited and was given honorary life memberships in both the Kansas City Club and the 822 Club shortly after he became President. 

The 822 Club apparently meant quite a lot to Truman. He invited club members to come to the Truman Library on April 9, 1957 for a tour of the almost completed building, and he invited them to a dinner held in the Library's research room on April 18, 1959.

That is almost the end of the story.

I needed shots of the 1922 building for this post.

It was raining today and this is me.

During the winter especially I try to keep one post ready to go in case of ice or snow.  I did walk around a get more than just pictures of the 1922 building.

I hope you enjoyed the story of The Kansas City Club.

Historic Theaters - Uptown, Warwick and Unicorn

I have been working on this post since last weekend.  Holiday weeks are more difficult to get the posts and pictures ready.  Today we are looking at 3 historic theaters.  I have a list of historic theaters and this is second adventure. 

Uptown Theater

Completed in 1928,

The Uptown Theater was Kansas City’s premier entertainment spot showcasing first-run movies, 1928.

The theater was designed to replicate a romantic, outdoor Mediterranean courtyard. The most prominent feature was the nighttime-sky ceiling – complete with twinkling stars, clouds and mechanical flying birds.

In 1928, an unknown comedian in his early twenties named Bob Hope performed his comedy act for a week long run of shows.

In 1939 the Uptown copyrighted “fragratone” in which fragrances would be funneled through the ventilation system, adding olfactory pleasure to the entertainment experience.

In the 1980s the theater fell into disrepair.  The theater has had a $15 million renovation.  In 2022, a new company bought the theater.  They are building on the legacy while preserving the history.

A huge Salvation Army kettle at the headquarters.

I have never seen such a big kettle so I had to take a picture.

Warwick Theater

The Warwick Theatre opened in 1912 in Colonial Revival style. Originally, it seated 1,022 on two floors. One of the noted aspects in its decoration was the rich red velvet draperies that adorned the stage and the matching seating material. The Warwick closed in 1953.

Since then, the original decor has been lost, the seats have been removed and this former icon to the arts in KC took on a restructured life as a retail furniture store.

 

Now, it is being restored to its beautiful finishes hoping make this distinctive building a vital part of the KC artistic landscape for years to come. ​

There was a fire at the Warwick in February, 2024.  The building was saved and is still being restored.

Unicorn Theatre

In 1974, three UMKC Theatre graduates turned a rented warehouse in Kansas City's River Market area into a locally based theatre company named "Theatre Warehouse." The group's name was changed to the Unicorn Theatre in 1981, after letterhead paper was donated to the company with a unicorn printed at the top

The Unicorn moved to its current location on Main Street in 1986, when it transformed an 80-year-old parking garage into a functional, intimate theatre space with a stage.   The space underwent renovations in 1996 to include a new box office, lobby, rehearsal space, administrative office, and a Main Street entrance.

These 3 theaters are in the area on/near Main Street where we have be exploring.  All of the adventure emails have been looking at the historic theaters.  Tomorrow I'm going out for pictures.  I have been researching an adventure and think we have a plan.