KCQ, a cooperation in between the Kansas City Public Library and The Kansas City Star responses readers’ concerns about Kansas City’s history and peculiarities.
A body in the old Waldo water tower?
The very first healthcare facility for Black clients west of the Mississippi River?
Before the Chiefs … the Blues?
What’s Your KCQ?, a collective job in between the Kansas City Public Library and The Kansas City Star that works to address reader-submitted concerns about regional history, peculiarities and interests, takes on a trio of current queries:
Question: As a kid, I keep in mind hearing a body was as soon as discovered inside the Waldo water tower. Did that truly occur?
Answer: In August 1962, a group of kids getting on the deserted, 134-foot-tall Frank T. Riley Memorial, much better called the Waldo water tower, made a gruesome discovery. Inside the water chamber was a severely disintegrated body. Fearing penalty for using the tower, the kids took numerous days to expose what they had actually discovered.
On August 30, cops and fire authorities started the hard procedure of obtaining the body. Hundreds of viewers crowded close by to view a hole being cut in the side of the tower. A wallet discovered on the dead guy assisted recognize him as James Everett Royse, a regional 19-year-old who had actually been missing out on considering that November 1961.
It was hard for private investigators to figure out the specific situations of Royce’s death. He had not sustained any damaged bones from a possible, maybe most likely fall. He was discovered in 2 feet of water. A plunge of more than 100 feet ought to have left him terribly hurt. Some hypothesized that the water level might have been high enough when he went missing out on to slow his body and avoid injury, however regrettably insufficient to conserve his life.
All cops needed to go on was a report that the boy had actually bought a pint of red wine from a Waldo pharmacy the night of his disappearance. With no suspicion of nasty play, the cause of death was eventually ruled “unidentified.”
The Waldo structure functioned as a water tower from 1920 to 1957. It is a popular early example of a strengthened concrete structure in the United States, and it is noted on the National Register of Historic Places.
Question: What’s the history of Douglass Hospital in KCK?
Answer: Before the turn of the 20th century, Black Kansas Citians had couple of choices for healthcare services and training. It remained in 1899 that pioneering Black doctors Solomon H. Thompson and Thomas Unthank proposed developing a brand-new healthcare facility and nurse training school particularly for African American clients and trainees. After effective fundraising drives, a structure at 312Washington Blvd was leased, and a charter was submitted on December 5, 1899.
The very first healthcare facility for Black clients west of the Mississippi River was called in honor of theRev Calvin Douglass of Western University, the very first Black college in the west (situated in the settlement of Quindaro, now a part of Kansas City, Kansas). At its starting, the healthcare facility had simply 10 beds.
While the center mainly served the Black neighborhood, its charter was developed to look after the “regrettable, ill and injured without regard to race, creed, color, or previous condition.”
With the opening of Douglass Hospital, not just did African Americans gain access to expert healthcare, however Black ladies likewise acquired a profession opportunity with its two-year nurse training program. The very first class of nurses finished on May 23, 1901, with start held at the Second Baptist Church at 10th and Charlotte streets.
Under the management of Bishop Abraham Grant, the African Methodist Episcopal Church accepted sponsorship of Douglass Hospital in 1905. A fundraising drive in 1924 enabled the healthcare facility to transfer to a bigger structure at 336 Quindaro Boulevard, and it broadened to 25 beds.
The nursing school ended up 43 graduates prior to it closed in 1937. After more fundraising and additional assistance from grants, the healthcare facility moved once again in 1945 to a 50-bed center at 3700 N. 27thSt However, it had a hard time in the following years. Medical services were combined after the integration of other area health care facilities, and the healthcare facility had a tough time keeping clients and staying up to date with advances in medical innovation.
By 1977, Douglass Hospital had actually closed its doors. The last structure it populated was taken down in June 1980.
Question: I heard Kansas City had a professional football group that dipped into Muehlebach Field prior to theChiefs Is that real?
Answer: While the Chiefs have actually kept Kansas City on the professional football map considering that moving from Texas in 1963, it holds true they weren’t the very first National Football League team to call Muehlebach Field (later Municipal Stadium) house– however, they didn’t play there extremely frequently.
In 1924, the NFL gave brand-new franchise rights to a group of financiers fromKansas City Since the brand-new group would share a playing field with the city’s professional baseball team, they obtained its name, the Blues.
The Blues played 4 house video games throughout the 1924 season and won 2 versus the Rock Island Independents and theMilwaukee Badgers But they went 0-5 on the roadway, ended up 15th in the 18-team league, and stopped working to construct much of a fan base in Kansas City.
For the 1925 season, the group made 2 huge modifications. Embracing the city’s Cowtown heritage, it relabelled itself theCowboys It likewise ended up being a taking a trip group, playing 17 successive video games on the roadway– as much as the last month of the 1926 season.
The Cowboys promoted their video games by parading around in 10-gallon hats and boots. In November 1925, prior to taking the field versus the Giants in New York (a 9-3 loss), they rode horseback down Broadway.
At Cleveland 4 days later on, they beat the Bulldogs 17-0, ending up a frustrating ’25 season with a 2-5-1 record.
Kansas City’s very first NFL group didn’t go back to Muehlebach Field till December 5, 1926, when the Cowboys bested the Los Angeles Buccaneers 7-3. On December 12, they beat the Duluth Eskimos 12-7 as back and kicker Elbert Bloodgood connected an NFL record (that likely will not be broken) with 4 dropkicked basket. It concluded an 8-3 season, helpful for 4th location amongst 22 groups.
The regional market mostly disregarded the rise. Kansas City simply wasn’t prepared to support football at the expert level. Satisfied with location high school groups and the yearly Thanksgiving video game in between the universities of Missouri and Kansas, residents simply didn’t end up enough to validate the expenditure for group financiers.
The franchise rights were offered to Cleveland, which restored the Bulldogs after they had actually folded following the 1925 season. Kansas City gamers’ agreements were offered to the New York Giants, and numerous previous Cowboys belonged to the group that caught the NFL’s 1927 champion.
It took the moving of the American Football League’s Dallas Texans to Kansas City and Municipal Stadium in 1963– due to competitors from the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys– to show that Kansas City was prepared to welcome professional football.
This story was initially released August 6, 2022 5:00 AM.
