Kansas City Photos

Kansas City: Before and After the TCU-Kansas Game

Photos by Tom C. "Midnite" Burke

Arthur Bryant's BBQ Restaurant has for decades been serving smoked meats with Wonder bread and fries in Kansas City. Its original location, still at 18th and Brooklyn, used to be just four blocks away from Municipal Stadium, home of the Kansas City Blues and then the Kansas City Athletics. It was also the first home to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Kansas City-style barbecue refers to the specific regional barbecue style of slowly smoked meat that originated from the pit of Henry Perry in the early 1900s in Kansas City. Kansas City barbecue is characterized by its use of a wide variety of meats: pork, beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, sausage, and sometimes even fish. Burnt ends, the crusty, fatty, flavorful meat cut from the point of a smoked beef brisket, are much in demand. Kansas City barbecue is rubbed with spices, slow-smoked over a variety of woods and served with a thick tomato-based barbecue sauce, which is an integral part of KC-style barbecue. The Kansas City metropolitan area has more has more than 100 barbecue restaurants.

The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City opened in 1994. With more than 100,000 visitors each year, it is Missouri's largest contemporary museum.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, known for its neoclassical architecture and extensive collection of Asian art, opened on December 11, 1933. The museum maintains collections of more than 35,000 works of art and welcomes 500,000 visitors a year.

(photos above and below) A special exhibit, "Napoleon: Power and Splendor", is at the Nelson-Atkins Museum until March 10, 2019. The exhibit marks the first exploration of the majesty, and the artistic, political and ideological significance of Napoleon's Imperial Court, from his coronation in 1804 to his final exile in 1815. The exhibit exists of more than 200 works, most of which have never been exhibited in North America. The exhibit is organized, produced and circulated by The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. After its appearance in Kansas City, the exhibit can be seen at Musée national du Château de Fontainebleau in France, from April 13 to July 15, 2019.

Kansas City Union Station opened in 1914. Union Station served a peak annual passenger traffic of over 670,000 in 1945 at the end of World War II, quickly declining in the 1950s and being closed in 1985. In 1996, a public/private partnership began funding Union Station's $250-million restoration. By 1999, the station reopened as a series of museums and other public attractions. In 2002, Union Station saw its return as a train station when Amtak began providing public transportation services and has since become Missouri's second-busiest train station. As of 2010, the refurbished station boasts theaters, ongoing museum exhibits, and attractions.

The Union Station building was designed by Jarvis Hunt, a proponent of the City Beautiful movement. The design was a main hall for ticketing, and a perpendicular hall extending out over the tracks for passenger waiting. The Beaux-Arts station opened on October 30, 1914, as the second-largest train station in the country. The building encompassed 850,000 square feet. The ceiling in the Grand Hall is 95 feet high. Three chandeliers weigh 3,500 pounds each. The Grand Hall clock has a six-foot diameter face. Due to its central location, Kansas City was a hub for passenger and freight rail traffic.

Trivia question: How is the number "4" depicted in Roman Numerals on clocks, such as the grand clock in Kansas City's Union Station?

Years ago, Kansas City's Union Station was the location of a large Fred Harvey Company operation. The Fred Harvey Company, founded in 1876, was the owner of the Harvey House chain of restaurants, hotels and other hospitality industry businesses alongside railroads in the western United States. Fred Harvey is credited with creating the first restaurant chain in the U.S. The company and its employees, including the famous waitresses who came to be known as Harvey Girls, successfully brought new higher standards of both civility and dining to a region widely regarded in the era as "the Wild West".

A tour guide at Kansas City's Union Station points out "bullet holes" as he talks about the "Kansas City Massacre." Union Station made headlines on June 17, 1933. Four law enforcement officers were gunned down by gang members attempting to free captured fugitive Frank Nash, who also was killed in the gun battle. As result of the massacre, Congress strengthened the power of the FBI, including arming all FBI agents

A Model Rail exhibit occupies 8,000 square feet in Union Station. The exhibit features a variety of toy trains, from toy Z-scale model trains to the big G-scale giants of the model train world. The exhibit is designed, built and maintained by volunteers.

Union Station's Model Rail exhibit introduces youngsters from around the world to trains.

Western Auto Supply Company, known more widely as Western Auto, was a specialty retail chain of stores that supplied automotive parts and accessories. It operated approximately 1,200 stores across the United States and in Puerto Rico. It was started in 1909 in Kansas City. Western Auto was bought by Beneficial Corporation in 1961. Western Auto's management led a leveraged buyout in 1985, leading three years later to a sale to Sears. Sears sold most of the company to Advance Auto Parts in 1998. By 2003, the resulting merger had led to the end of the Western Auto brand and its product distribution network.

In 1921, all five World War I allied commanders arrive by train at Kansas City's Union Station for groundbreaking ceremonies for the Liberty Memorial. Located across the street from Union Station, the Liberty Memorial is a monument dedicated to the men and women who served and died in World War I. The memorial was officially dedicated in 1926.The National WW1 Museum and Memorial attracts 500,000 visitors a year.

Busy River Market in Kansas City centers on City Market, dating to 1857, where casual global eateries, gourmet grocery stores and indie boutiques surround pavilions that offer a diverse blend of readily available spices, products, produce and groceries, everyday, year-round.

The people (photos above and below) in River Market are as diverse as the market offerings.

The KC Streetcar, formally branded as the RideKC Streetcar, is a streetcar system in downtown Kansas City. Construction began in May 2014. The system opened for service on May 6, 2016. The KC Streetcar is free to ride. There is one Streetcar line, with 16 stations.