This Week in KC History
Conventional Wisdom
February 22, 1899: In the 1890s the Kansas City Star campaigned vigorously for the construction of an impressive convention hall that could draw important political events, business conferences, or entertainment to the…
Ringing in the New
December 31, 1900: With the temperature hovering near zero degrees, some 15,000 people gathered in Kansas City's Convention Hall to welcome the beginning of the 20th century. The revelers were in an optimistic, even jubilant mood…
Last Night at the Opera House
January 31, 1901: The Coates Opera House, which was Kansas City’s original first-class theater, met a fate common among nineteenth-century theaters when it burned to the ground. Boiler rooms for heating, hot gas or electric stage…
Whittaker's Chambers
February 22, 1901: Future Supreme Court justice Charles Evans Whittaker was born near Troy, Kansas. As a young adult, he moved to Kansas City, where he earned a degree from the Kansas City School of Law and then went on to…
Burnt End
August 5, 1901: In 1887, a new main pavilion for Kansas City's annual industrial exposition opened to throngs of visitors, including President Grover Cleveland. Dubbed "the Crystal Palace" the building enclosed more than 740,000…
Beautiful Dreamer
December 2, 1905: Kansas City lost its lead proponent of the park and boulevard movement with the death of August Meyer. Meyer was born in St. Louis in 1851 to German immigrant parents. As a young adult, he studied engineering in…
The Greatest Pitcher Ever
July 7, 1906: Leroy "Satchel" Paige, one of baseball's finest pitchers, was most likely born on July 7, 1906. While Paige believed this date to be correct, poorly kept records left his exact birth year and date unclear. By…
Tripping the Light Fantastic...and Then Some!
May 19, 1907: 53,000 people attended the opening day of the new Electric Park. Originally conceived as a ploy to bring customers to visit the Heim Brewing Company in 1899, the park had grown into an attraction in its own right.…
To Promote the General Welfare
April 14, 1910: The City Council approved the creation of the Board of Public Welfare to provide aid to the city’s poor. As the brainchild of Kansas City philanthropist William Volker, the Board of Public Welfare was the first…
Dr. Hyde and Mr. Swope
May 16, 1910: In one of the most notorious trials in Kansas City's history, a jury found Doctor Bennett Clark Hyde guilty of murdering Kansas City real estate developer and philanthropist "Colonel" Thomas H. Swope. Despite strong…