http://www.historickansascity.org/, https://historickansascity.substack.com/

Historic Kansas City, 200 Westport Road, P. O. Box 5995, Kansas City, MO (2026)

10/12/2026

Southwest High School, a principal anchor of the Brookside/Waldo area, is being prepared to welcome students again after a decade in its current mothballed status. Located at 6512 Wornall Road, Southwest High School opened in the fall of 1925 to serve the rapidly developing neighborhoods of Kansas City's Country Club District. Real estate developer and school board member J.C. Nichols secured the site, and 951 students and 31 faculty members began classes that September, even before construction was complete. Southwest grew into one of city's largest high schools, with enrollment reaching nearly 2,500 students by the mid-1960s. The high school closed in 1998. The building subsequently housed a charter school and, later, Southwest Early College Campus prior to its closure in 2016.

Construction of the present Southwest High School began in 1924–1925, with the original building designed by prolific school district architect Charles A. Smith. The imposing four-story brick structure features a monumental Classical-inspired entrance facing Wornall Road, with six columns, decorative stonework and decorative urns atop the eastern elevation's parapet. Organized around interior courtyards, Southwest's construction began in 1924, with classrooms, domestic science facilities and a temporary gymnasium. A 1926 expansion added nineteen classrooms and a Public Library branch, an auditorium addition followed in 1931. Further additions came in 1938, 1962, and 1988 extending the complex southward.

Kansas City Public Schools is now finalizing plans to rehabilitate Southwest as a new middle school serving approximately 650–750 students in grades six through eight, supported by the $424 million general obligation bond approved by voters in April 2025. The project would renovate approximately 193,000 square feet of the historic building, remove the 1962 and 1988 additions to restore the original south courtyard, and build ~17,000 square feet of new space for a gymnasium and storm shelter. Conceptual designs by DLR Group show a new glass-fronted southern entrance, with additional proposals under consideration for athletic facilities and auditorium space.

KCPS estimates the total project cost at $76–80 million, including approximately $45 million in bond proceeds. The KCPS Foundation has engaged a fundraising consultant to help secure additional support. Construction is scheduled to begin in June 2027, with the school reopening in fall 2029. KCPS will hold a public meeting about the project tomorrow, October 12, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at HJ’s Youth & Community Center, 6425 Wornall Road, followed by another Design Advisory Team meeting on October 26. Read more via the Historic Kansas City substack news page: https://historickansascity.substack.com/p/southwest-high-school-rehabilitation

10/11/2026

How is the Liberty Memorial celebrating 100 years? This fall, the National WWI Museum and Memorial is marking the centennial of the Memorial's dedication with special exhibits and events. Called "Liberty's Beacon," a series of projection-mapping displays happening on weekends throughout the fall months illuminates the Memorial's tower, North Wall, and Great Frieze. This weekend, Barcelona-based audiovisual studio Onionlab brings its "Remember Forward" installation to Kansas City, with free presentations beginning at 7:30 p.m. and repeating throughout the evening. Additional installations will take place on successive weekends through Veterans Day.

Inside The Memorial's Memory Hall, the special exhibition "Story of the Museum and Memorial" explores the landmark's century-long history, from the extraordinary community fundraising campaign that made its construction possible to the restoration and preservation efforts that have sustained it. The Liberty Memorial was formally dedicated by President Calvin Coolidge in on November 11th 1926, and its centennial provides a fitting occasion to celebrate Kansas City's preservation achievements.

We're now just over a month away from Historic Kansas City 2026 Preservation Awards, taking place Thursday, November 12th, at the WWI Museum and Memorial. This year's event will recognize outstanding achievements in rehabilitation, adaptive reuse, craftsmanship, and innovative preservation projects across our region. Tickets include exclusive after-hours access to "Story of the Museum and Memorial" beginning at 5:00 p.m., followed by a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m. and the Awards program at 6:15 p.m.

Tickets are $50 for Historic KC members and $75 for non-members. Register today: https://www.historickansascity.org/2026-preservation-awards/

Corporate sponsorship opportunities remain available for this year's Preservation Awards. Interested businesses and organizations are encouraged to contact [email protected] for information on sponsorship packages.

Find more information on the "Story of the Museum and Memorial" exhibit at the following link: https://www.theworldwar.org/exhibitions/story-museum-and-memorial

10/10/2026

The long-vacant Englewood Theatre in Independence is moving closer to rehabilitation, with construction expected to begin in early 2027. On today's edition of KCUR's Up To Date, Brent Schondelmeyer, president of Friends of Englewood Theater-2025 discussed plans to restore the historic movie house at 10917 East Winner Road, which his nonprofit acquired in November 2025. The organization has partnered with Haren Companies and DRAW Architecture on the project, with initial work expected to include rehabilitation of the lobby, new office space on the mezzanine, and restoration of the theater's illuminated neon signage.

Completed in 1949, the Englewood Theatre is a locally significant example of International Style commercial architecture designed by Luther Orville Willis and Frank O. Brandt. Oriented toward motorists along Winner Road, the building is defined by its flat roofline, stucco and brick exterior walls, curved ticket booth, and prominent metal marquee. The theater opened on July 7, 1949, with the Warner Brothers film Colorado Territory, becoming an anchor of the Englewood Plaza commercial corridor. Beginning in 1978, the building also operated as the Kansas City Opry, hosting live performances by musicians including George Strait, Ricky Skaggs, Connie Smith, and Garth Brooks. The theater closed in 2007 and has remained vacant since.

Earlier this year, the Englewood Theatre was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its association with postwar commercial development in Independence and as a well-preserved example of International Style theater design. That recognition has also opened the door to historic preservation tax credits that Friends of Englewood Theater intends to use to finance the rehabilitation. As Schondelmeyer explained to KCUR, the availability of these incentives provides the financial foundation for the project's first phase. Missouri's recently expanded 35% historic tax credit for qualifying projects outside Kansas City and St. Louis presents a significant opportunity for leveraging this preservation tool in Independence and beyond.

Listen to the full KCUR Up To Date interview (https://www.kcur.org/podcast/up-to-date/2026-10-09/independence-englewood-theater-renovations) to learn more about ongoing rehabilitation efforts

10/08/2026

A historic Kansas City apartment building that had stood for approximately 140 years was destroyed by fire late Thursday night, October 1. The Italianate double townhouse at 611–613 Forest Avenue in the Paseo West neighborhood, just northeast of Downtown, was one of the city's few remaining examples of a once-common form of nineteenth-century working-class multifamily housing. Built circa 1885, the three-story double townhouse featured a particularly refined expression of the Italianate style, with a symmetrical façade featuring projecting bays, elaborate bracketed cornices, decorative brickwork, and stacked central porches. Its architectural ornamentation was especially elaborate for a working-class apartment building.

Historic Kansas City included the property on the 2021 Most Endangered Places List, identifying it among the city's deteriorating "nuisance" properties. Its condition worsened considerably in the years that followed. Doors and windows disappeared, the roof sustained extensive damage, and the building remained exposed to weather and unauthorized entry. Kansas City designated the property a Dangerous Building in 2023. A rehabilitation proposal emerged that same year, and some masonry repairs and interior framing work reportedly followed in 2024, but the building remained vacant and unsecured. Earlier this year, the Paseo West Neighborhood Association nominated 611–613 Forest for Historic KC's forthcoming Most Endangered Places list, seeking attention for a building with a future that seemed increasingly uncertain.

Shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday, Kansas City firefighters responded to a major fire at the property. Heavy flames forced crews to fight the blaze from outside the building, and several hours passed before the fire was brought under control. A firefighter was transported to the hospital with minor injuries and has since been released, according to the Kansas City Fire Department. A child from a neighboring residence was also transported as a precaution for possible smoke inhalation, while the neighboring property at 617 Forest sustained damage. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. With 611–613 Forest now a total loss, Kansas City has lost another of its increasingly rare nineteenth-century residential buildings. The fire demonstrates how the consequences of demolition by neglect extend beyond the fate of individual buildings, placing neighboring residents and first responders at risk. This tragic loss precedes the release of Historic KC's 2026 Most Endangered List, and it instead joins a group of properties to be featured in further posts under "What We've Lost," a reminder of why we advocate for quickly returning vacant and at-risk buildings to habitable and occupied status.

10/07/2026

A century-old Downtown office building has reopened with 44 residences and first-floor commercial units following an approximately $11 million adaptive reuse project by Exact Architects. Constructed in 1922 at the northeast corner of 10th and Walnut, the Kansas City Title and Trust Building was designed by the short-lived partnership Sunderland & Besecke and built by Mosby-Goodrich Construction Company. James C. Sunderland had previously worked as a draftsman for Kansas City architect Louis Curtiss and later practiced with Samuel E. Edwards, while Walter A. Besecke began his career with Smith, Rea & Lovitt. Kansas City Title and Trust commissioned the building specifically for its growing title-insurance business, including a 2,400-square-foot basement vault that was fireproof, burglar-proof and waterproof for the storage of real-estate records. The title company occupied the second floor and mezzanine, eight retail spaces lined the first floor, and upper floors were leased to other businesses.

The Commercial Style building is faced in red brick with cream-colored terra cotta ornament, including pilasters along Walnut Street, surrounds linking the second- and third-floor windows, and a cornice and parapet. Although designed as a seven-story structure, its tall second-floor mezzanine gives it the height of a conventional eight-story building. The Kansas City Title and Trust Building was individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 and later became a contributing resource in the East Ninth Street–Grand Boulevard Historic District, an area distinguished by its concentration of early skyscrapers, banks and office buildings from Downtown Kansas City’s turn-of-the-century growth in financial services industries.

Now open as 929 Residences, the rehabilitation has converted the former offices into 44 apartments while preserving historic interior features including marble stair walls, travertine floors, the stairwell and the open atrium between the second and third floors. A second-floor resident amenity space called The Vault recalls the building’s original record vault, while the new Remedy café occupies the ground floor with coffee, pastries and lunch during the day and w**e and cocktails in the evening. Exact Architects acquired the property in 2024 and began construction that December; the project utilized state and federal historic tax credits and an LCRA redevelopment agreement. Residents began moving in during September, and one week ago today, the completed rehabilitation was celebrated with a grand opening on September 29th.

10/06/2026

Constructed in 1925 for Ralph Hurst & Company, a poultry and egg wholesaler, 407 Grand Boulevard was designed by architect A. B. Anderson and built by George E. and H. W. King. Hurst chose the location for its proximity to the City Market across the street, and the building housed several food-related businesses through about 1985. The two-story commercial building has two storefront bays, four large upper-story window openings, stone beltcourses, and a stepped parapet. It is a contributing resource in the Old Town Historic District. Plywood and stucco later covered the storefronts and second-story windows, but the original masonry openings and simple exterior ornament remained intact.

Developer Kyle Fitzgerald of 407 Grand LLC rehabilitated the long-neglected building for new office and fitness uses. Workers found the original second-story steel windows intact behind the plywood and restored them rather than installing replacements. Missing storefronts were reconstructed using archival photographs, while the project also addressed masonry, roofing, interior finishes, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. The $1.5 million rehabilitation used State and Federal Historic Tax Credits. Congratulations to Fitzgerald and the project team, including H2B Architects and Heritage Consulting Group, for bringing the historic storefront back to Grand Boulevard.

The 407 Grand building received an award for Excellence in the category "Best Preservation Practices" at Historic Kansas City’s 2024–2025 Preservation Awards. Over the next several weeks, we are revisiting past recipients ahead of the 2026 Preservation Awards on Thursday, November 12th, at the National WWI Museum and Memorial. Special access to the museum’s centennial exhibition begins at 5:00 p.m., followed by a cocktail reception at 5:30 and the awards program at 6:15. Learn more and register at https://www.historickansascity.org/2026-preservation-awards/.

10/05/2026

Completed in 1911, the former Kansas City, Kansas City Hall at 805 N. 6th Street remains a proud landmark following its rehabilitation, one of several recent large-scale investments in Downtown KCK housing. Designed in the Renaissance Revival style by the local architectural firm of Rose and Peterson, the building's debut marked the city’s transition from a mayor-council system to a commission form of government. The original construction included the southern half of the present City Hall and its main Sixth Street entrance. Architect Charles E. Keyser completed the northern half in 1929 and designed the adjoining Fire Headquarters, which opened in 1930. These interconnected buildings housed municipal offices, public meeting spaces, police facilities, the city jail, and the main fire station. City Hall remained in use until 1973, while the Fire Headquarters continues to serve as Station #1 for the KCKFD.

After three decades of vacancy, the City Hall portion had previously been converted to apartments through a Historic Tax Credit-funded project completed in 2006. Owner and developer Eagle Point Companies undertook a comprehensive rehabilitation in recent years, pairing use of Historic Tax Credits with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. This project ensured preservation of 44 affordable apartments, upgraded aging building systems, and retained the broad corridors, marble-lined entrance, stairways, vaults, tile floors, wood trim, marble wainscoting, and remnants of the former city jail (which remain visible in some fifth-floor units). An experienced project team, including SWD Architects , Hoss & Brown Engineers, Rau Construction, and Heritage Consulting Group, ensured that extensive work required to renew this affordable housing resource saw the building retain its historic character and integrity.

City Hall Lofts received an award for Excellence in the category "Best Contribution to Affordable Housing Through Preservation" at Historic Kansas City’s 2024–2025 Preservation Awards. Over the next several weeks, we will revisit several past award recipients ahead of the 2026 Preservation Awards on Thursday, November 12th, taking place at the National WWI Museum and Memorial. Special access to the museum’s centennial exhibition begins at 5:00 p.m., followed by a cocktail reception at 5:30 and the awards program at 6:15. Learn more and register at the following link: https://www.historickansascity.org/2026-preservation-awards/

Image credits: Final project photos captured by Eric Bowers for SWD Architects, while construction images are courtesy of Heritage Consulting

10/04/2026

Across thirty acres of Jackson County Parks land near Lake Jacomo, Missouri Town Living History Museum includes an assemblage of over 25 historic buildings and structures from the nineteenth century to recreate a western Missouri community of the 1850s. Developed beginning in the 1960s, the living history museum assembled historic houses, barns, outbuildings, a church, schoolhouse, workshops, and other buildings relocated from Jackson County and other nearby communities from eight Missouri counties: Jackson, Clay, Platte, Lafayette, Johnson, Saline, DeKalb, and Moniteau. Moving a historic building is generally a preservation measure of last resort, given that relocation alienates a building from its historic context. Destinations like Missouri Town, however, help accommodate buildings that might otherwise have been lost to contribute as part of a living-history museum, where historic furnishings, livestock, agriculture, trades, and interpreters help tell the story of life in our region during the nineteenth-century.

Among the sveral homes located on site is the Withers House, built in 1842 by cabinetmaker Abijah Withers near Liberty. Withers and his wife Prudence raised nine children on a large farm, where enslaved domestic and agricultural workers also lived and labored. Family descendants donated the house, which was reassembled at Missouri Town in 1965. The Sandidge-Craddock-Marsh House was built in 1845 by John W. and Mariah Sandidge on their Saline County farmstead, where the 1850 census recorded the couple, their seven children, and eleven enslaved people. A log building now interpreted as a summer kitchen was originally built around 1840 as the home of Joshua and Susan Dillingham near present-day Blue Springs; it was moved to Missouri Town in 1964. The Luttrell House, built in 1860 by Samuel Luttrell for his wife Armilda Dalton, once stood near 39th Street and Lee's Summit Road in Independence. Other structures include the Flintlock Church from rural Platte County, the West Deister Barn built after 1848 near Riverside, and the Cummins Office, a nineteenth-century real estate and loan office moved from downtown Blue Springs in 1965.

This weekend is Missouri Town’s 50th Annual Fall Festival of Arts, Crafts & Music, and the festival continues through tomorrow, Sunday, October 4. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the museum property features historic cooking, blacksmithing, plowing and other demonstrations, alongside traditional crafts, music, historical exhibits, games, wagon rides, and other activities throughout the heritage village. Admission is $15 per vehicle or $25 per van or bus at Missouri Town, 8010 E. Park Road in Lee’s Summit.
Learn more about the event at the following link: https://www.makeyourdayhere.com/Event-Calendar/50th-Annual-Fall-Festival-of-Arts-Crafts-Music
And see FOX4 News coverage of the festival's first day here: https://fox4kc.com/news/missouri-town-1855-celebrates-its-50th-fall-festival/

10/01/2026

Join Historic Kansas City and the Urban Core Group on Wednesday, October 28, from 5:30–7:00 p.m. at the historic George B. Peck Dry Goods Building at 1044 Main Street. Guests will have a chance to see the building's impressive interior lobby and atrium, including its ornamental plaster details, and tour some of the progress underway on Exact Architects' rehabilitation of the long-vacant Downtown landmark. Constructed in 1914, the twelve-story building served as the headquarters, retail store, warehouse, and offices of the George B. Peck Dry Goods Company, one of Kansas City's leading dry goods merchants.

Designed by the Kansas City firm of Root and Siemens in the "Commercial Style" with Classical decorative elements, the Peck Building combines polished marble, black structural glass tile, and reinforced concrete on the first floor with Indiana limestone and granite on the second and third stories, while the upper floors are clad in ivory and red brick accented with enameled terra cotta. Its Main and south façades feature recessed windows separated by paneled brick spandrels, culminating at the tenth and eleventh floors with segmental arches, decorative cartouches, terra cotta foliage swags, and keystones. The rear façade retains a painted wall sign for the George B. Peck Dry Goods Company. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, the building is recognized as one of the finest early twentieth-century commercial buildings designed by Root and Siemens.

Exact Architects is now advancing a mixed-use rehabilitation that would convert the historic property into 74 apartments and 13,134 square feet of commercial space, restore previously altered exterior features, rehabilitate the adjacent parking garage, and add rooftop amenities. The October 28 event is hosted by the Urban Core Group in collaboration with Historic Kansas City and will offer a chance to see firsthand the building's distinctive interior spaces, exterior terra cotta, and rehabilitation work now underway. Food and beverages will be provided. Admission is $20, and tickets can be purchased online at the following link: https://gecko-jaguar-52l2.squarespace.com/events

10/01/2026

Alongside the newly constructed Union Station, north of Penn Valley Park, and south of what we now know as the Crossroads, manufacturers, warehouses and building-supply companies found a home at the turn of the century that provided easy access to rail transport. Along West Pennway, Jefferson and 26th Street were manufacturers, equipment companies, construction-material suppliers and related businesses. The Carnie-Goudie Manufacturing Company occupied a distinctive four-story building at 514 W. 26th Street in 1925 for the production of tents, flags and awnings, designed by Shepard & Wiser. The Kansas City Coca-Cola Bottling Company began construction of its plant at 2520–42 West Pennway in 1928 and expanded the complex in 1938, 1946 and 1948. At 2440 West Pennway, Carter-Waters Corporation constructed a four-story warehouse and office building in 1930, designed by Archer & Gloyd, and expanded it with a 24,000-square-foot addition in 1956.

The Carter-Waters building and the rest of its block (northwest of 26th and Pennway) have been in the news in recent years as part of a planned entertainment district marketed as "Pennway Point." This block includes multiple buildings that formerly housed the Funkhouser Machinery Company along Jefferson Street, including a garage constructed at 2435 Jefferson in 1929 and an implement-storage building at 2429 Jefferson in 1948. The latter is a one-story concrete-block building with a curved, metal-covered parapet, a central overhead door and multipaned windows. Nearby, the former Pennway Oil Company building is recognizable for its large barrel-vaulted roof. The east side of the block is dominated by the four-story Carter-Waters building at 2440 West Pennway, following the steep grade change between the street and lower ground contiguous with rail lines.

The proposal for rehabilitation of these buildings for the Pennway Point development dates back several years, debuting with fanfare surrounding the KC Wheel in late 2023. Those plans described anticipated conversion of the Pennway Oil building into “Barrel Hall” and reuse of a Funkhouser building for an approximately 30,000-square-foot “TaleGate” entertainment venue. The venue was also the intended home of The Lumi Neon Museum, a monumental endeavor to restore dozens of historic Kansas City neon signs. The KC Wheel opened in December 2023, but no rehabilitation activity has taken place in the years since. Essential Properties Realty Trust acquired the property in June and submitted a a proposal that would see demolition of four vacant industrial buildings and clearance of approximately 2.7 acres. The property has also been subject to a Missouri Department of Natural Resources environmental covenant since 2012 because of contamination associated with past concrete chemical and asphalt production, which governs soil disturbance and permitted uses. Neither the buildings proposed for demolition, nor the adjacent properties profiled here, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Read more from today's coverage in The Kansas City Star at the following link: https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article317428203.html

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