What Happened to the Old Main Library Downtown Kcmo
by SUSAN RICHARDS JOHNSON | photos courtesty of KC LIBRARY ARCHIVES
I had the fortunate opportunity to get involved with one of my favorite celebrated buildings while practicing as an intern architect at the house of Solomon, Claybaugh, and Immature Architects in the early 1980s. I was assigned the honorable task of working with the one and only Charles Northward. Sharpe, the founder and owner of a highly successful life insurance business: Ozark National Life Insurance Visitor. As insurance sales prospered, the need for a larger building to accommodate the visitor's growth became a necessity.
Mr. Sharpe was peculiarly fond of beautiful historic buildings. An opportunity came up to explore the vacant Old Public Library in downtown Kansas City for a potential new home. The library had undergone several adaptive reuses upon closing in 1959. The original facility airtight to the full general public when a more mod facility was constructed at twelfth and McGee streets. The historic library sat vacant for many years before becoming the unique home for the U.S. Trade Schools, a business model not particularly suited for this remarkable tribute to beautifully designed architecture. If it had not been for the Merchandise Schools' president, Ms. Ilene Latrell, a much different upshot for the building would have taken place. She demanded that her students be extremely protective of the existing building.
My first visit to the Quondam Public Library was on a cold wintertime day in December 1981. This forgotten building was for sale on the "courthouse steps" due to unpaid taxes. Ozark National Life had retained the services of a general contractor, Thomas Dunn, of M.C. Heritage Construction Company. Mr. Dunn institute the building during an exhaustive search for a new dwelling for the insurance company. His construction company was responsible for the boggling rehabilitation work required by the edifice'southward new possessor.
Our host for the building tour (the-then owner of the building) led the interested party down a narrow flight of basement stairs, into the everyman depth of the building. There, we were introduced to the original boilers and an antiquated, enormous electrical console. It was night and clammy, non a good way to begin our trek to find a new home for Mr. Sharpe's insurance visitor. Later on several hours of trudging around in the poorly lit and unheated edifice, we left with Mr. Sharpe stating, "This is one building I am definitely non interested in pursuing." I was crushed. Several hours later, though, I received a call from Mr. Sharpe stating that he had idea again about the building and fallen in love with it. He decided to buy it that very afternoon.
The Old Public Library building is sited on the northeast corner of ninth and Locust streets, a once fated area of northeastern downtown Kansas City, Missouri. It has been occupied past its newest tenant as of 1984, Ozark National Life Insurance Visitor. The building is enormous. It occupies 1 unabridged city block in length and half urban center block in width. The original architects for the building were William F. Hackney, with assistance from Adriance Van Brunt Architects. The structure was constructed in two phases: the original due south portion was built between 1895–'97, and the n improver in 1917–'18. The electric current building is filled with original plaster moldings, ornate plaster ceilings, and column capitals (column heads). The majority of the millwork is comprised of circa 1890s quarter-sawn white oak that presents itself in elaborate paneled doors, wainscoting, and entrances. At that place is an affluence of beautiful marble and granite detailing, a total of vii different varieties equally found in marble wainscoting, columns, and flooring. There is an original terrazzo flooring in the main entry rotunda on the starting time floor, edged with pocket-sized ceramic tile mosaic banding. The existing brass door and window hardware are original and quite decorative. There are 5 fireplaces, ii of which are constructed of highly detailed marble mosaic and granite. The other three fireplaces are constructed of white oak and display ornate, hand-carved details in a higher place the original firebox, hand carved from a single slice of woods. At that place remain seven original skylights, with ane above the library'southward original checkout counter.
Over the years, the insurance company has chugged forth as a highly successful business. Another preeminent tenant was added to the edifice in the later on '80s, the Fairbanks Morse Calibration Visitor. This tenant took over the original Western Gallery of Art surface area, which was located on the second floor. This employ represented an art gallery that housed the private collection of William Rockhill Nelson,prior to his involvement with the development and construction of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the museum we all know and love today. Based upon this original use of the second floor, Mr. Sharpe began collecting large, original pieces of artwork, which he had placed throughout the building. The Kansas City, Missouri, school board also had its offices within the building from 1897 through 1959, when the school board also moved its offices to the new library.
The history of the Old Public Library remains 1 of the nigh interesting stories Kansas Urban center has to offer. My memories run deep equally I remember the myriad of decisions that had to be made in order to retrofit the building for an adaptive reuse from a public library into an insurance visitor. Revitalizing older celebrated properties is one of my favorite roles I have taken on as a practicing architect these past forty years. I beloved my job, and I am proud to accept been an integral part of this truly important and engaging rehabilitation project. Congratulations and thanks are due to Mr. Sharpe for having the foresight to sympathise the potential opportunity the Old Public Library had to offer.
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