Kansas City's Garment District

 

Wholesale District (Garment District) Historic District includes 61 buildings in the vicinity of Broadway Boulevard at 7^th and 8^th Streets. It was a center of manufacturing for clothing, pharmaceuticals, furniture, printing, and hats between 1874 and 1931. After World War I, Kansas City became a national textile manufacturing center. The upper floors of buildings on Broadway were used for sewing space, with the garment industry centered on 8^th and Broadway. Buildings on 7^th, 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th Streets, Bank Street, Broadway Boulevard, Central Street, and May Street are in the historic district.

Buildings that may be observed on 7^th Street include McPike Drug Company Building at 306 and 312 West 7^th Street (West, 1904; East, 1917). The Kansas City Paper House at 318 West 7th Street is now the West 7th Street Lofts. At 7th Street and May adjacent to the historic district is the Roaster’s Block barking lot, a small off-leash area.

On 8^th Street are:

·         Phoenix Hotel, 300 West 8^th Street, dating to 1888, a Neo-Romanesque building, operating as the Phoenix Restaurant

·         Exchange Hotel, 301 West 8^th Street, dating to 1889

·         Armour and Volker Building, 306 West 8^th Street, dating to 1902, a Second Renaissance Revival building now operating as the Soho Lofts

·         Lewis Printing Company, 307 West 8^th Street, dating to 1930

·         Burnham-Hanna-Munger Manufacturing Company Building, 313 West 8^th Street, dating to 1903, which is a monumental Commercial/Second Renaissance Revival style building, now Lucas Place

·         Bond Shoe Company, 312 West 8^th Street at May Street, a Second Renaissance Revival building dating to 1899

·         Noyes-Norman Shoe Company, 412 West 8^th Street at Bank Street, dating to 1907

·         Barton Brothers Shoe Company, 423 West 8^th Street, dating to 1900

·         Garment District Place (N39⁰6’17” W94⁰35’24”) is a ¾-acre park on West 8^th Street between Washington Street and Broadway, within the boundaries of the historic district. The park contains benches, picnic tables, and bicycle rental, along with a grove of honey locust trees. The Needle Sculpture in the park is in memory of the wholesale textile and garment industry that flourished in this area. Just to the south of the park at the corner of Broadway and 8^th Street is a branch of the Kansas City Museum, and across Broadway at the corner of 8^th Street is the Historic Garment District Museum.

On 9^th Street are the building at 408 West 9^th Street, an Italianate Building dating to 1889, now the Los Corrals Restaurant; and Easter Brothers Restaurant, 418 West 9^th Street, dating to 1901, now the Peanut Downtown Restaurant. At the northeast corner of Broadway at 9^th Street is the Descent of Civilization sculpture (Bison Memorial). This serves as a memorial to the great herds of plains buffalo, a reminder of what was compromised in the development of our great nation and is now lost from the landscape, according to Marc Swanson, the artist. The memorial includes a quote from William T. Hornaday, zoologist (1854-1937), “the primary cause of the buffalo’s extermination, and the one which embraced all others, was the descent of civilization, with all its elements of destructiveness, upon the whole of the country inhabited by the animal.” The Riverfront Heritage Trail passes through the district along West 9^th Street.

On 10^th Street is the Adler Building, 314 West 10^th Street, a Neo-Classic Revival building dating to 1908; and the Missouri Interstate Paper Company Building, 412 West 10^th Street, dating to 1909.

On Broadway Boulevard are:

·         Montgomery Ward Company Building, 626 Broadway, dating to 1902, now the Mid-America Regional Council offices

·         Reicher and Sons, Robinson and Sons Building, 628 Broadway, dating to 1904, now Mid-Amerida Regional Council offices

·         Maxwell-McClure Notions Company, 704 Broadway, dating to 1900

·         E.J. Roe Hat Company, 708 Broadway, dating to 1902

·         Faxon, Horton, and Gallagher Company, 712 Broadway, dating to 1903, is a Second Renaissance Revival Style building, now the Popham Law Firm

·         Harvey-Dutton Dry Goods Company, 800 Broadway, dating to 1903, now the Kansas City Museum annex.

·         Burnham-Hanna-Munger Dry Goods Building, 801 Broadway, dating to 1901, which is a monumental Commercial/Second Renaissance Revival style building, now the Historic Garment District Museum

·         Butler Brothers Company, 804 Broadway, dating to 1909, now Butler Brothers Lofts

·         Goldstandt-Powell Hat Company, 806 Broadway, dating to 1902

·         Kansas City, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railroad Building, 816 Broadway, a Victorian Eclectic Style building dating to 1889

·         Gatlin Building, 819 Broadway, a Second Renaissance Revival style building dating to 1910

·         Thayer Building, 820 Broadway, a Victorian Eclectic Style Building dating to 1883, now the Crossroads Preparatory Academy

·         Liebstradter Millinery Company Building, 905 Broadway, dates to 1902 and is now the Mulberry Lofts

·         B. Adler and Company and Kelly-Williams Company Building, 908 Broadway, dates to 1903.

·         Jay and King Hat Company Building, 909 Broadway, dates to 1904

·         Hershberger and Rosenthal Company Building, 915 Broadway, dates to 1909.

·         George P. Ide and Company, Inc., 920 Broadway, is now the Jewell Lofts, named after the builder

·         Rothenberg and Schloss Building, 930 Broadway, dates to 1912 and is now the Opera House Lofts.

·         J. Fitzpatrick Saloon Building, 931 Broadway, dates to 1911 and operates as the Majestic Restaurant.

·         Frankel, Frank & Company Building, 1000 Broadway, dates to 1905. It contains the Garment House on Broadway and the Broadway Bistro.

·         Lorraine Apartments, 1012 Broadway, is a Georgian Revival building dating to 1901 (vacant, 2021).

·         Estill Hotel, 1018 Broadway, is a Georgian Revival building dating to 1897 (vacant, 2021).

On Central Street are:

·         Commercial Building, 600 Central, dating to 1909

·         Barton Brothers Shoe Company, 609 Central, dating to 1895, Second Renaissance Revival style

·         Burnham-Munger Manufacturing Company, 612 Central, dating to 1892

·         Builders and Traders Exchange, 616 Central, dating to 1889, a rare surviving example of High Victorian Italianate architecture

On May Street is Burd and Fletcher Company, 701 May Street, dating to 1916; Lechtman Printing Company, 715 May Street, dating to 1915.

Coates House Hotel, 1005 Broadway Boulevard at 10^th Street (N39^o6’8” W94^o35’17”), dates to 1886, is separately listed on the NRHP, and is adjacent to the Wholesale District. The hotel is an example of a late 19^th century luxurious urban hotel. The original hotel on the site was built in the 1860s, on the foundation of an 1861 federal fort. The hotel was named after Kersey Coates, a Pennsylvania quaker who moved to Kansas City in 1854. The 1886 hotel was an early project of the architect Henry Van Brunt, who moved to Kansas City from Boston to open a practice. The hotel was visited by President Grover Cleveland in 1887 and Benjamin Harrison in 1890. In 1912, the first meeting of the Sertoma International (Co-Operative Club) was held. It is now the Quality Hill leasing office.