10th Street, East from Baltimore

The First National Bank at 10th and Baltimore looks very much as it did when erected in 1906. Then Edward F. Swinney occupied the president's room on the corner, a pleasant room with tall stately windows and a cheerful wood fire kept burning on cold winter days. Since then the room has been occupied by Taylor S. Abernathy and currently by Gordon E. Wells, chairman of the board. Carrie Whitney's Kansas City history of 1909 tells of the remarkable growth of Kansas City at the beginning of the 20th century. She states: In five years the erection of new skyscrapers, bank buildings, theaters, store buildings and other edifices, has changed the appearance of the Downtown District. The transformation on 10th Street began in 1906, when the First National Bank began erection of its elegant new building at the northeast corner of 10th and Baltimore. Erected at a cost of $350,000, the exterior of the building is of pure white selected Georgia stone and four magnificent stone columns stand on the 10th Street side. The interior is finished in white marble...bronze doors 13 feet high guard the entrance. The counters are made of marble and the cages of bronze. Pictured in the background of the postcard, the 15-story Commerce Trust Bank at the northwest corner of 10th and Walnut is seen. Built in 1907 it was one of Kansas City's first and finest skyscrapers. Today it and the First National (now Boatmen's First National) have been expanded all the way to Main Street. With the exception of these two banks all other buildings shown on the old postcard are now gone, some replaced. The card was published in color and was mailed Oct. 4, 1909, to Miss Nelle Phillips, Clemont, Iowa, R.F.D. Kansas City Times, December 6, 1985.