This Week in KC History
Wrong Way Corrigan
March 31, 1882: In an editorial, The Kansas City Star declared its opposition to the streetcar monopoly then held by Thomas Corrigan. Although William Rockhill Nelson, owner of The Star, generally preferred that…
Forgotten, But Not Gone
December 11, 1884: Nelle Nichols Peters, was born to a farming family in Niagara, North Dakota. She would become one of the most prolific architects in Kansas City during the 1920s and design nearly 1,000 local buildings. Despite…
We Play the Pallas
October 13, 1887: A new Kansas City tradition emerged with the first Priests of Pallas parade. President Grover Cleveland and his new bride, Frances, were on hand to witness the spectacle that would begin after nightfall. A crowd…
The Show Must Go On
October 26, 1887: The Warder Grand Theater prepared for its glorious debut. The product of George Woodward Warder’s ambition and financing, it was the third theater in Kansas City after the Coates Opera House and Gilliss Theater…
Drawn from the Heartland
April 15, 1889: Thomas Hart Benton, future painter and a leader of the regionalist movement in American art during the 1930s, was born in Neosho, Missouri. After showing a strong interest in art as a youth, he aggressively…
The "Godmother of Guadalupe"
January 8, 1894: Dorothy Gallagher was born to a wealthy Kansas City family. Not content to live quietly in affluence, Gallagher gained interest in a Catholic women’s group called the Agnes Ward Amberg Club, which carried out…
"Her inspiration certainly came from heaven"
May 1, 1894: Elizabeth Bruce Crogman, who in 1925 became founder of Kansas City’s Florence Home for Colored Girls to house unwed African American women who were pregnant, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The home functioned…
Cool Operator
August 27, 1896: Elmer F. Pierson, who, with brother John, would go on to found the Vendo company and dominate the world's soft drink vending machine industry, was born. In addition to its achievements in the vending industry,…
Prelude in KC
November 25, 1896: Virgil Thomson, a future composer and music critic, was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Although he would go on to live much of his life in New York and Paris, and brush elbows with world-renowned musicians and…
Mothers of Mercy
June 1, 1897: Dr. Alice Berry Graham discovered a young, ailing girl whose mother could no longer afford to care for her. She and her sister, Dr. Katharine Berry Richardson, rented a bed and supplies at a maternity hospital where…