Introduction
Hello! If you’ve visited my old site, welcome to the new one, and if you’re new here, welcome too! This is an ongoing research project about the Kansas City Workhouse, and I’m always adding new stuff (aka constantly under construction), so feel free to explore, and subscribe to the rss feed or leave me a comment!
A brief history of the workhouse:
In 1895, the old wooden workhouse of Kansas City was condemned, and city officials decided to build a newer, better stone building on the same location. City architects A. Wallace Love and Oliver James Hogg designed the new building, and because the limestone for the building was to be quarried on site by the workhouse prisoners, it was decided that it would cost the city no more money to make it look like a castle than to not, and would keep with the current castellated fashion in civil buildings throughout the country. Completed in December 1897, and despite its medieval looks, the building was actually very modern for the Victorian era, including the best in sanitary plumbing of the time, the city’s first steam-powered forced air ventilation system, and improved safety procedures in case of fires.
It would see use as a workhouse up until 1911, when the city decided to move the prisoners out to the new Kansas City Municipal Farm out at Leeds (Eastern Ave and Ozark Rd, near the National Guard Armory), mainly due to chronic overcrowding, and despite the apparent modernity of the building, sanitation problems. After ceasing use as a workhouse, the building was used for several city offices and departments throughout the years, including the road maintenance department (hence the large garage doors cut into the cell block portion) and offices for the waterworks department (the old main building for that department is abandoned across Vine St from the Workhouse). In the 1970s, the city decided to sell off the property, and removed the floors and ceilings and bricked up the windows, leaving it in the abandoned state that you can find it today.
In 2008, the city was notified that the building was to be torn down to make room for new condos by the current owner, and moved quickly to get the building on the local historical register in October 2008, saving it from destruction with a facade easement stating that whomever owns the building may not make changes to the facade unless it is for repairs. The property is currently up for sale, if you would like to know more I have the contact information for the current owners, please email me.
-Katy Osterwald