USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > Kansas City, Missouri : its history and its people 1808-1908 > Part 39
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These are some of the foods subject to test in the federal laboratory : Milk and milk products, such as butter, cheese and ice creams; the vegetable and fruit products, which include flours, meals; dried and canned fruits and vegetables, pickles, sauerkraut and catsups; sugar and related substances, such as molasses, syrups, candy, honey and the glucose products; the condi- ments which mean the various peppers, spices and flavoring extracts and the edible vegetable oils and fats; tea, coffee and cocoa products, beverages and they include the fruit juices, fresh, sweet and fermented; vinegar and salt, and the preservatives and coloring matters.
The food and drug act was approved by Congress June 30, 1906. The laws were enacted for the purpose of "preventing the manufacture, sale or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines and liquors and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes."
The Kansas City weather bureau was established in 1888 in the old gov- ernment building at Ninth and Walnut streets. It was removed, in 1890, to the Rialto building, and to the Scarritt building in 1907. Patrick Connor
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was appointed forecaster in Kansas City in 1890, and was serving in 1908. These are the duties of Mr. Connor: "The issuing of storm warnings, the display of weather and flood signals for the benefit of agriculture, commerce and navigation : the gauging and reporting of rivers, the maintenance and operation of telegraphic lines, and the collection and transmission of marine intelligence for the benefit of commerce and navigation; the display of frost and, cold wave signals, the distribution of meteorological information in the interest of agriculture and commerce and the taking of such observations as may be necessary to establish and record the climatic conditions of the United States, or essential for the proper execution of the foregoing duties."
The bureau, however, is better known to the public through the medium of its daily forecasts and weather maps. These forecasts are based upon simultaneous observations of local weather conditions taken daily at 8 p. m. and 8 a. m. at about 200 regular stations scattered throughout the United States and the West Indies. Within two hours after the morning observations have been taken, the forecasts are telegraphed to about 1,000 distributing points, whence they are further disseminated, being delivered not later than 6 p. m. on the day of issue. This is at the expense of the government and is distinct from the distribution effected by the daily newspapers. The rural free de- livery makes it possible to reach a large number of farming communities heretofore impracticable to reach with the daily forecasts. The weather map is mailed immediately after the morning forecast is telegraphed. On this map the salient features of the weather over the country are graphically rep- resented, accompanied by a synopsis of the conditions.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE NEWER CITY.
With the beginning of the twentieth century, Kansas City entered upon an era of remarkable growth. In five years the erection of new skyscrapers, bank buildings, theatres, store buildings and other edifices changed the ap- pearance of the down-town district. The transformation of Tenth street be- tween Baltimore avenue and Oak street has been especially marked.
Three large office buildings were completed in 1907 at a combined cost of nearly four million dollars. They are the R. A. Long building costing $1,250,000; the Scarritt building costing $750,000; the National Bank of Commerce, building, built at a cost of $1,500,000. This building was the last of the three skyscrapers to be occupied. Its erection marked a new
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record in the construction of skyscrapers here, if not in other cities. The Commerce building has sixteen stories and the ground area is 106 by 115 feet, about twice the width of the Long building. The Commerce building is one story higher than the Long building and four stories higher than the Scarritt building.
The transformation on Tenth street began in 1906, when the First National bank began the erection of its elegant new building at the north- east corner of Tenth street and Baltimore avenue. The R. A. Long build- ing at Tenth street and Grand avenue and the, National Bank of Commerce building were built next. Tenth street, on which so many handsome build- ings have been erected, is narrow and crooked. The Vietor building at Tenth and Main streets is the most peculiar of all the new buildings on Tenth street. It is 100 feet high and is only 271/2 feet wide. It has a frontage of 130 feet on Tenth street and is eight stories and a basement. It was built by Victor H. Laederiek at a cost of $200,000. The main entrance is on Tenth street. The building is fireproof, built of steel and briek. The floor and walls are terra cotta and the first story is reinforced concrete. The cor- ridors have marble floors and marble wainscoting to the height of seven feet. The main lobby is entirely of marble. There are, seventy-five offices in the building. It is commonly known as the "toothpick" building, owing to its narrowness.
With its own fire department, its own water and sewerage systems. cleaning department, heat, lights and police force, the modern office build- ing is a condensed city. The elevators are its street cars. All day crowds come and go. In this unique establishment are found, on a small scale. almost every one of the systems employed in the management of a munici- pality. In many cases it is almost wholly independent of the outside for any of the forces used in operating its various departments. Persons who visit these buildings in the daytime imagine, perhaps, that they are closed at night, but they are open just as the city is open. Of course, not so many are abroad, but there are a few stragglers and a cleaning force that works from sundown until morning. For the convenience of the late, workers an owl elevator runs all night. Thousands of those who make up its popula- tion are not dependent upon the city for any of their office comforts.
The thousands of persons who go in and out of an office building dur- ing the day "track in" much dust, and there are those who scatter waste paper, children who drop peanut shells, and the men who "knock off" cigar ashes. There is a thorough housecleaning in the up-to-date office building every night in the week except Saturday night; not with mops and pails of water, brooms and "dusters," but with an improved vacuum cleaning sys- tem. The vacuum air-drawing machines, driven by electricity, are in the
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basement. All the pipes are concealed in the walls and follow the columns of the building's steel frame. There are two outlets on every floor for the attachment of the cleaning hose. The machines in the basement form a vacuum and the suction draws the dust and small particles through the pipes. To the end of the suction hose may be attached any one of several different cleaning implements. The device used for ordinary sweeping is about three and a half feet long. The attachment for cleaning furniture is smaller and has a soft brush protecting its open end so that the, metal will not scratch the woodwork. Another appliance, made in several sec- tions, is used for cleaning cornices near the ceiling, high picture frames and upper corners of the room. There is an attachment, also, for renovating the spaces under the furniture.
The particles of dust and the disease germs that floated in the air un- der the old system of eleaning with brooms are drawn into the tubes. The vacuum cleaning system has a hygienie as well as a time and labor saving value. From 800 to 1,000 pounds of dust, grit, pins and small particles of rubbish of different kind pass through the vacuum-cleaning plant every night. An average of about 400 pounds of waste paper is picked up in the building every night. This "by product" is sold to the paper mills and adds to the income of the building. The cleaning force that works all night in the Long building is composed of eighteen men. It requires eight men to run the vacuum sweepers. There are several men who follow after the vacuum sweepers. There are several men who follow after the vacnum cleaners and polish the furniture. One man polishes brass cuspidors all night. There are cleaners who work in the daytime, too, but not so many. Two men wash windows all day; they have no other employment. They clean 800 windows in the building three times in one month. One man does no other work than to polish the door knobs and other metal work. He makes the complete circuit of the building once a week. There is another man who spends the day polishing woodwork. It is all that he expected to do. Once every six weeks he finishes his rounds and starts over again.
The head janitor of the (Long) building is the chief of the private fire department. All the janitors employed by him are firemen. The men have been trained in the use of their fire equipment. They are always ready for active service and the pump in the basement has a constant steam pres- sure. On the roof of the building there is a reservoir of 8,000 gallons for emergency use in addition to the attachments to the city water mains. There are two service pipes connected with this pump with provisions for connecting with steam fire pumps in the street. Two lines of pipe, run to the top of the building, one four inches and the other six inches in diameter.
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The six-inch pipe extends through to the roof. A large street hydrant on top is for use in protecting the building from external fire. Each floor is equipped with two lines of regulation fire hose.
The fire escapes are an important part of the fire equipment of an office building. In the Long building all exposed windows on the north and the alley sides have metal frames and sash. The trimmings around the win- dows are steel, finished to match the woodwork. If it should be reported to the head janitor that some one had disovered smoke in the building he would order the janitors to hasten to the different floors and search for the possible fire. This trained force with the equipment at hand could control any ordinary blaze. Only in extreme cases would it be necessary to call the city fire department.
The six elevators in this building occupy a space of 6,520 square feet, equal to one and one-third floors, or thirty rooms. They carry an average of about 13,000 persons every day. The six cars run during the day and one at night. Onee every twenty-four hours there is a careful inspection of the elevators. There is a system of local and express elevators, so that the occupants on the upper floors have as quick service as those on the lower. Three of the cars do not carry passengers higher than the eighth floor. Persons having offices on a floor higher than the eighth take one of the three "flyers." The plunger elevators, such as are used in this building, are not drawn by cables, but rest on steel pistons that run in cylinders sunk deep in the ground and operated by hydraulic pressure. There is no danger of a car dropping. It is impossible for an elevator to fall any faster than the water runs out of the cylinders. As a further precaution there are safety "buffers" that would break the force of the shock if the operator should lose control of the car.
The system for heating modern office buildings has been perfected so that it is possible for every tenant to have just the temperature that he de- sires. One may have his room heated to eighty degrees while the adjoining office may be kept at a temperature of seventy-two degrees to suit its occu- pant. Every room in the (Long) building has a thermostat, an instrument that automatically regulates the heat. The tenant indicates the temperature that he desires on the gauge in the thermostat. This instrument has a ther- mometer and is connected with the radiator. It turns the steam on or off as the temperature in the room goes below or above the desired number of degrees.
The thermostats are operated by compressed air. Steam that has first been used in operating machinery in the basement is turned into the radi- ators to heat the building. It is known as "exhaust" steam because it has 110 expansive power. But it has the same temperature as "live" steam. Ex-
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haust steam generally is a waste product that passes into the air through an "exhaust" pipe.
The modern office building has its own private electric light plant, complete in every detail. The electric generators in the basement are able to produce 20,000 sixteen-candle power lights. In the building there are. twenty-five miles of electric light wires, and 2,864 outlets for lights. All of the wires are placed in fireproof conduits. There is a meter room on every floor, and every office has its own switch and fuse plug. With this system it is easy to locate "trouble."
The generators and all other machinery in the building are duplicated, so that in case of a breakdown there need be no delay while repairs are. made. If by any mishap at the general electric light plant the city should be in darkness, the building would not be affected, but would be able to, furnish light to less fortunate tenants in other buildings. Cold water for drinking purposes is pumped through the building in a system of pipes concealed in the walls. It is kept in circulation constantly with an electric force pump. On warm days the tenants of the building drink about five gallons of cold water every minute.
The administration of a modern office building is complicated and re- quires systematic methods. It is by means of daily reports from each one of the different departments that the manager is able to keep close watch on the building. This system of daily reports is worked out by the men who have made a careful study of the management of office buildings, and is known only to them. The reports include complaints made by tenants; re- pairs needed and those made ; fuel and supplies used; the condition of elevators and all other machinery. The mangement of large office buildings has grown to be a profession in itself. There are men who are making a spe- cial study of this line of work. Hughes Bryant, manager of the Bryant, Long and several other buildings, is a member of this new profession. He has visited large office buildings in different cities of the United States and made a careful study of the subject for several years, that he may develop a system for managing economically the buildings under his care.
The finest exclusive bank building in the West is said to be that of the First National bank at Tenth street and Baltimore avenue. There are build- ings in Kansas City that are more elegant, but they are not used exclu- sively for bank purposes. The building was erected at a cost of $350,000. The property has a frontage of ninety feet on Tenth street and 114 feet on Baltimore avenue. It was purchased for $90,000. The main entrance is on Tenth street and a side entrance is on Baltimore avenue. The exterior of the building is of pure white selected Georgia stone and four magnificent stone columns stand on the Tenth street side. The interior is finished in
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SHUBERT THEATRE.
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white marble. The building is three stories high and is built on the steel skeleton plan. The columns and footings were so constructed as to carry eight additional stories, which would make it an eleven-story building. The banking room is 85 feet square, with a height of 24 feet. The lobby is 30 feet by 12 feet, and bronze doors 13 feet in height guard the entrance. The counters are made of marble and the cages of bronze. The president and directors' rooms are finished in mahogany, and a mantle of marble over the fireplace in the president's room denotes comfort. The draperies and carpets are in green. The building is fireproof and each desk is provided with a fireproof locker to protect important papers and letters.
The Commerce building on Tenth and Walnut streets is 213 feet high. It has fifteen floors, including the basement and sub-basement. It is fire- proof, constructed of steel, terra cotta and stone. The first two stories are of glazed marble and the remaining stories are of white stone. It is equipped with its own water and electric light plant. The halls and corridors are finished in white marble and all offices are of mahogany. The Long build- ing comes second to the Commerce building in height. It was built by Robert A. Long. It is fireproof, built of steel, terra cotta and brick. The first two stories are of glazed stone. It is fourteen stories, or 203 feet high, and has 259 offices above the first floor. Like the Commerce building, it is equipped with its own water, lighting and heating system.
Another building which is an ornament to little Tenth street is the new building occupied by the United States & Mexican Trust company at the northwest corner of Tenth street and Baltimore avenue. It is four stories high and cost approximately $200,000. It was built by the United States & Mexican Office Building company. It has a frontage of 142 feet on Baltimore avenue and 58 feet on Tenth street. The Shubert theatre is owned by the same company and the two buildings together have a dimen- sion of 140 by 142 feet. The first floor of the building is rented out as offices while the United States & Mexican Trust company occupies the second floor. The officers and employes of the Kansas City, Mexican & Orient railway occupy the third and fourth floors. The building is of brick, while the in- terior is finished in oak and mahogany. The floors are of marble and the corridors are finished in the same material. The directors' room is finished in mahogany and is one of the finest directors' rooms in the city.
Across the street from the First National bank building is the New England National bank building. It is a one-story building and cost $150,- 000. It is 59 by 79 feet in dimensions and the bank is lighted exclusively by skylights. The New England National bank building is built of steel en masonry walls. The exterior is of granite, and bronze doors 13 feet high are used at the entrance. These doors were made at one casting, and resem-
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ble those of the First National bank. The lobby of the bank is finished in marble and the window frames are, of bronze. These are said to be the only bronze window frames in use in the eity. The president's room is in oak with panels to the ceiling, and the directors' room is in English oak with an Italian mantlepieee.
Other new structures on Tenth street are the Young Men's Christian Association building at Tenth and Oak streets, and two new buildings at Tenth and MeGee streets. The new Y. M. C. A. building is one of the most complete buildings of its kind in the United States. The people of Kansas City have realized that the Young Men's Christian Association is a magnificent organization. It stands for sanity, temperance and good will in all things. Its motto is "Spirit, Mind and Body." Its work is to build up the "young man trust," and it plods along day by day accomplishing this one objeet. The local association has fared well with the residents of this city. In two years they gave $330,000 for the erection of its new home. The basement contains a café open to the public, a barber shop, bowling alley and industrial elass rooms. The first floor has the main lobby, the bil- liard room, the assembly, recreation, reading and writing rooms. The sec- and floor consists mostly of a library, boys' lobby and class rooms. There are more than ninety-eight rooms which are occupied by members as dor- mitories. They are on the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh floors. The swimming pool is on the fifth floor and the gymnasium on the sixth floor. A running track with twenty-three laps to the mile is on the seventh floor. The shower baths are on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors.
Kansas City spent more than half a million dollars for new church buildings during 1907. The principal structures erected have been the mag- nificent Congregational church, Admiral boulevard and Highland; Jewish Temple, at Linwood and Flora; and the Central M. E. Church (South) at Eleventh street and the Paseo. each of them costing at least $125,000. The Redemptorists fathers finished a $150,000 church at Thirty-third and Broad- way.
Kansas City is very proud of the Willis Wood theatre, and justly so, for in point of sumptuous equipment and artistic beauty it stands to the front rank of the American playhouses. The house was opened August 25, 1902, with Amelia Bingham as the attraction, and the occasion of the open- ing night will be remembered as one of the most brilliant society events in the history of Kansas City. The Sam S. Shubert, Kansas City's newest the- atre, is one of the most modern theatres in the West. It was built in 1906 by Sam S. and Lee Shubert.
The warehousing district of Kansas City has kept pace with the rapid and substantial growth of the general wholesale district of the city, begin-
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ning in a small weather board shanty on the levee, in the days of the Santa Fe trail, growing yearly with the demand, increasing in capacity, improving in construction, through the line of corrugated iron, ordinary brick, slow burning mill construction, up to the most up-to-date absolutely fireproof re- inforced concrete building, without a stick of wood in the construction, electric elevators, fireproof rooms for furniture, full sprinkler system, assuring a max- imum of safety, with a corresponding low insurance rate. In value, the business has grown from the storage of $200 or $300 worth of Indian sup- plies to millions of dollars' worth of merchandise, of every class, a list of which would be merely a list of everything sold in implement houses, packing houses, department stores, drug stores, shoe factories, foundries, machine shops, produce merchants, furniture stores and factories.
System has been introduced into the business in the largest and best warehouses, so that it is easy to locate even the smallest package. Such sci- entific methods are in use that many large establishments prefer using the fully equipped building and thoroughly organized forces of warehouses to putting up expensive buildings of their own, which in the nature of things demand a larger force of men, and are, often more expensive than the ware- house. In 1908 there was invested in public warehouses in Kansas City about one million dollars.
These are the more important buildings with the cost, that were erected in Kansas City between 1900 and 1908: Montgomery Ward & Co., Nine- teenth and Campbell streets; 9 stories, $40,000; New Y. M. C. A., Tenth and Oak, 7 stories, $300,000; New England National bank, Eleventh and Baltimore, $250,000; Baltimore annex, Twelfth and Baltimore, 12 stories, $400,000; United States & Mexican Trust Co., Tenth and Baltimore, 4 stor- ies, $125,000; First National bank, Tenth and Baltimore, 3 stories, $450,- 000; Victor building, Tenth and Main, 8 stories, $250,000; Gates building, 916-22 Grand avenue, 5 stories, $75,000; Beckman building, 908-10 Grand avenue, 5 stories, $50,000; De Puy building, 912-14 Grand avenue, 4 stories, $40,000; Halpin building, 909-11 Grand avenue, 2 stories, $25,000; Spald- ing's Commercial college, Tenth and Oak, 5 stories, $40,000; Sexton Hotel, Twelfth and Baltimore, 5 stories, $85,000; stores and lodges, Tenth and Wyandotte, 3 stories, $25,000; Jones Bros., D. G. Co., Thirteenth and Main, 4 stories, $300,000; stores at Eleventh and Baltimore 2 stories, $40,000; Curtice building, Tenth and Baltimore, $150,000; stores at 1025-27 Main, 5 stories, $40,000; stores at 1108-10 Grand, 4 stories, $40,000; stores at 1105- 07 McGee, 4 stories, $40,000; Ealy building, 1224 Main, 6 stories, $35,000; Lillis building, Eleventh and Walnut 6 stories, $150,000; stores at Eighth and Walnut, 3 stories, $65,000; Dean building, 1016-22 McGee, 4 stories,
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$110,000; Boley building, Twelfth and Walnut $150,000; Sharp building, Eleventh and Walnut, $350,000.
This list makes a splendid showing of more than six million dollars. and this does not include scores of smaller buildings. In the suburban dis- tricts there have been many handsome new apartment houses and private residences built, one of the handsomest being a private hotel on south Broad- way near Armour boulevard, costing $100,000, and another opposite, costing nearly as much. A handsome apartment house at Fortieth and McGee streets cost $35,000. At Ninth street and Troost avenue is one of the largest apartment houses in the city, which cost nearly $100,000.
In the fiscal year, ending in 1907, Kansas City spent more than one- half a million dollars for new asphalt paving, an increase of more than $75,000 as compared with the previous fiscal year. The city spent $634,000 for new pavements, as compared with $568,000 in 1906. It spent $132,000 for street repairs, $50,000 more than in 1906. In street and alley repairs it spent $173,000, as compared with $108,000 in 1903. It spent $260,000 in grading streets, which is over $150,000 more than the amount for 1906, and in laying new sidewalks the city spent $140,000, as against $60,000 in 1906. In sewers it has spent $662,000 as against $425,000 in 1906, a gain of $237,000. The same record was maintained in other departments of municipal improvement. Kansas City spent, during the current fiscal year, nearly $2,000,000 in improvements, a gain of more than one-half million dollars, the figures showing a total of $1,958,278.82 as against $1,363,346.19 in 1906, a gain of $595,132.63.
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