USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > Kansas City, Missouri : its history and its people 1808-1908 > Part 46
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"Adapting the ordinary street sprinkling cart for distributing oil on the street was a very simple matter, consisting of simply attaching a tin trough six inches in depth, and long enough to enclose the discharge valves, perforated with one-fourth inch holes about one and one-half inches apart. The oil allowed to come into this trough through the valves is then evenly distributed over the road. * *
"The best results were obtained when the road was absolutely dry and hot.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY
"After sweeping the road as clean as possible with a rotary street broom, leaving the sweepings along the edge of the gutter to prevent the. oil running on the cement work, the oil was applied over the entire surface and thoroughly spread with brooms, after which the sweepings from the gutter, with sufficient limestone screenings to form a light dress- ing were cast over the oiled surface and rolled down with a road roller. The object in using the sereenings is to absorb such oil as does not pene- trate into the road, and as soon as screenings are applied, the work is fin- ished, and no further inconvenience to the public is encountered.
"Cost of oiling. The first application made during May and June, 1907, cost as follows:
Square yards of pavement oiled .375,415
Gallons of oil used .120,477
Total cost on road $5,559.83
Average gallons per square yard 0.32 gal.
Average cost per square yard 1 48-100 cents. Second Application :
Square yards pavement oiled 635,145
Gallons oil used . 156,888
Total cost on road $5,559.83
Average gallons per square yard .0.247 Average cost per square yard $0.00805 Total operations for the Year.
Two applications on 375,415 square yards cost. $8,581.92
One application on 259,730 square yards cost. 2,089.52
Total cost for year $10,671.44 Total numbers of square yards oiled (two appli-
cations 'on most of it) 635,145
Equivalent to one application on 1,010,560 sq. yds. At an average cost per square yard for oiling of ... $0.01055
The quality of oil used was a residium of 20 to 21 gravity, Baume, obtained from the Independent Refinery companies. at Chanute, Kansas. Total amount of oil used, 33 ears. or 277,365 gallons.
Average amount of oil per square yard, .274 gallon.
Average price paid for oil on track, $0.0184 per gallon or 771/2 cents per barrel of 42 gallons.
"The above record covers all cost of labor, supplies and oil, but does not include the cost of the unloading plant."
No park system can be operated with economy unless provided with nurseries and propagating houses of suitable size to afford an abundant
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY
supply of trees, shrubs, flowers and plants. In 1906, to a well established nursery in Swope park, was added three large propagating houses and the following year two additional were built. The capacity is now sufficient to supply abundantly flowers and foliage plants for the entire system and permits the maintenance of a number of formal floral designs in the park system. The following statements show the extent of this branch of park work in the spring of 1908:
During the past year 150.000 new cuttings were planted and there are 128,000 trees and shrubs in healthy growing condition. The stock delivered during the fiscal year to the various park properties is as follows:
Delivered in City Parks
Trees 3,285
Shrubs 25,311
Value at Ruling Price $9,612.75 969.25
Planted in Swope Park
185
3,137
Total
3,470
28,448
10,582.00
Operating expense labor, 1907
1,152.00
Average value of, $1.00 each for trees.
Average value of, 25 cents each for shrubs.
Propagating House.
Number at 5c each
Average value of
Plants of all varieties delivered to city parks.
. 34,179
$1,708.95
Planted in Swope Park
86,662
4,333.10
Total
120,841
$6,042.05
Operating expense, labor and supplies, 1907,
$2,637.53
Number of plants now in pots, ready to be planted. . 110,000
These plants are grown in large pots, are finer plants and will cover a greater area than the 120,000 plants grown last year.
The piping of natural gas from the southern Kansas gas fields to Kansas City has been a source of great economy to the park department, as well as to the city generally. The low price of $12.00 per year for street lights has made it possible to place them with generous frequency upon the boulevards and park drives. In many localities where electric lights had been in use, the gas lights have been substituted, a lamp every seventy-five feet, and it has proven a decided improvement, the natural gas with Welsbach burners providing a strong, steady. white light and giving a uniform illumination along the roadways. Over two thousand
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY
lamps now furnish the lighting for the park drives and additions will be made before the close of the fiscal year.
Lighting the North Cliff Drive has been a specially noticeable fea- ture, the continuous, closely placed lights upon the sides of the bluffs sharply defining the three miles of this winding roadway. They produce a decidedly scenic effect plainly visible to the many out-going and in- coming trains upon both sides of the Missouri river valley.
Swope Park has a fine shelter building of a size in keeping with the park, built of native stone, with broad verandas on all sides. The outlook from the east is especially attractive in a broad meadow expanse upon which a public golf course has been made, the valley of the Blue river and the wooded hills on the eastern limits of the park, two miles distant. In the immediate foreground is the sunken garden with a flower display of exceptional beauty each season. In this park there are also a restaurant building, a large storehouse and barn, a fine residence for the foreman, large green houses and two additional shelter buildings.
During the present year (1908) the work on two fine lakes has been rapidly carried forward and the first now contains about fourteen acres of water and when filled to the overflow will cover some twenty acres. The second and main lake, to be fed from this first, is adjacent to the extensive athletic grounds to be established in the coming year. The larger lake will cover some forty acres and will no doubt become a popular resort for boating, and with the athletic grounds form a most attractive section of this large and beautiful park.
The North Terrace Park has a foreman's residence, storehouse and a beautiful shelter building and grand stand known as the The Colonnade just completed in the present fiscal year at a cost of $32,000. It is built on the side of the bluffs in a most sightly location overlooking the North Cliff Drive and the valley of the Missouri river. It is connected by a broad flight of stone steps with the driveway some forty feet below the building. The outlook from The Colonnade embraces one of the finest landscape views about the city, north, east, and west portions of the city the valley of the Missouri river and the hills of Clay county to the north, make it an exceedingly picturesque and attractive location.
The Paseo, with a fine fountain at Tenth street and adjacent to it the Pergola and the more pretentious fountain at Fifteenth street, is the better finished of all Park properties. The rest place at Twelfth street and the Paseo, the public bath with swimming pool on the parade, the reproduc- tion of the Kansas City Casino, from the St. Louis World's fair, on the
THE PARADE, THE PUBLIC PLAYGROUND AT 15TH STREET AND THE PASEO.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY
southern boundary of the parade, for the home of Battery B of the Mis- souri National Guard, the foreman's residence in Troost Park overlooking the fine lake in that property, are all features of The Pasco.
The observation towers, massive stone walls and stone stairway at Tenth street and Kersey Coates Terrace, have completely changed the char- acter of this location and make it an unusual point of interest, as it over- looks the jobbing, packing and railroad properties located in the valley at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers.
Upon Gillham Parkway is located a fine storehouse and yard for the Westport Park district.
At Twenty-third street and Gillham Roadway, directly facing upon the park land is the magnificent new City hospital which has cost the city upwards of half a million dollars. On its high and sightly location it is a distinctive feature of this portion of the city.
Plans are now drawn and during the coming fiscal year a general cen- tral storehouse of large proportions constructed of native stone will be built on The Paseo at the crossing of the Belt Line tracks and Twentieth street where switching facilities can be obtained for handling all supplies in car load lots.
For more than two years there has been talk of a zoological garden in Kansas City. Some good natured ridicule greeted the first talk of this im- provement, but as the efforts became more determined and the public were made to realize that the movement was an earnest one, opposition disap- peared and gradually came general approval of the plan. In the appor- tionment of the general funds of the city for 1908, the park commission requested the Common council to set aside $15,000.00 for the construction of the first bird and animal building. Plans were drawn and the estimates received upon the same showed that an additional sum must be provided. The City Comptroller, Mr. Gus Pearson, who has from the inception of this idea, being the pronounced champion of this splendid improvement of the general public, placed before the City council the necessity of a further appropriation and urged that it be made. Appreciating that a proper beginning should be made, the additional money was promptly voted and the work is now under way, and before the opening of the next fiscal year the zoological gardens of Kansas City will be an established fact. Ample grounds for a large collection of buildings has been set aside in Swope Park and the location is admirably adapted for the purpose.
The Kansas City Spirit will not falter in this desirable work, and other suitable buildings will be rapidly constructed until the plans of the zoological association are fully realized.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY
CHAPTER XXVII.
ART MOVEMENTS IN KANSAS CITY.
The varied and far reaching effects of the English Exposition of 1851 would be most difficult to estimate, but one result is easily determined by the sudden illumination experienced in all foreign countries where manufactures are important industries. Almost overnight nations awakened to the fact that art is not a mere fantasy without consequence, a sort of recreation of the bon ton which interests only people of fashion and amateurs who make col- lections; men began to see in art not the privilege of a class, but something human, universal, practical, concerning the pleasure, well-being and advance- ment of the whole people. The relation of art to industry was the prime les- son of England's first exposition. It gave vital force to the fact that when- ever art is applied to the simplest, commonest product of labor, then will come, order, intelligence, grace and increased value. A knowledge of draw- ing, perspective, projection color, design, composition, modelling, mechanical drawing and architecture are needed in degree by woodworkers of all kinds, masons, painters, engravers, printers, carriage makers, tinners, molders and workmen in a host of other trades and occupations. To the capitalist, em- ployer and merchant, and to their employees, this knowledge is of the greatest importance if their product is to find ready sale.
Foreign countries immediately took the initiative in attempts to trans- form workmen into skilled craftsmen whose products could compete with the artistic creations of the French factories. Under government patronage, schools of design, such as the Kensington art school, and technical institutions of all sorts were established abroad. But the United States was in the birth throes of its great inventions, and art was hampered by our frenzied zeal to put the machine in place of the man. It was left for the Centennial of 1876 to rouse the people at large to the lesson which England learned in 1851. No governmental fostering assisted the gropers after artistic culture in this land. The movement was left to private initiative and, as a result, small art schools sprang up all over the country.
Kansas City felt the influence and fortunately learned the lesson on its broad lines, as is clearly shown, not only by the character of its first art asso- ciation, but by the early introduction of drawing into our public schools. Its cosmopolitan population embraced many who had brought with them from older centers, the traditions of the cultural and practical value of art training, and needed only to be aroused by some definite plan.
About 1885, a group of artists who had rooms in the Deardorf building on the southeast corner of Eleventh and Main streets, at that time the studio
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY
quarters for the city, furnished the impulse which led to the earliest art or- ganization. Mr. Fred Richardson, long connected with the Fine Arts Insti- tute of Chicago, suggested the formation of a sketch club to consist of laymen and artists, meeting from house to house, to talk over art matters in general, and to judge pictures made by the members in illustration of a subject pre- viously given out. The first available roll of membership is for May, 1886, and includes Lawrence S. Brumidi, Lillian Crawford, J. L. Fitzgibbons, Emma Richardson (later Mrs. Cherry of Denver), Luella Sims, Fred Richardson, Miss Nellie Mccrary (now Mrs. Henry McCune), artists; Misses Ada Pratt and Mamie Woods, Messrs. C. E. Hasbrook, J. V. C. Karnes, S. B. Ladd, Morrison Mumford, D. R. Porter, Homer Reed, C. C. Ripley, W. M. Smith, W. H. Winants, M. B. Wright, with their wives and Mr. John Van Brunt and Mr. Tauchen. An exhibition of the work of the artist members was given in the Deardorf building in the spring of 1887, the first of its kind in Kansas City. While it contained no works of great merit, it was largely attended and served to crystallize public interest.
Mr. C. C. Ripley immediately suggested that the time was ripe for a Kansas City school of design, with its necessary accompaniment of an art collection. Men of means and influence were willing to entertain the idea though it seemed almost a dream at that time when the city was in the rough; when the winning of fortunes, not their spending, was engaging the attention and employing the energies of the men who best appreciated the value of artistic culture. But it has been characteristic of Kansas City from the beginning that its men of action have been dreamers of dreams that come true; and in the fall of 1887. after a vigorous canvass by E. H. Allen, C. C. Ripley and Edwin R. Weeks, twelve men had each agreed to pay one hundred dollars for each of the three succeeding years, as a maintenance fund for the school, and a purchasing sum of $2,065.00 had been raised for equipment. The twelve men were Charles L. Dobson, Homer Reed, Charles C. Ripley, Geo. F. Winter, M. B. Wright, Edward H. Allen, William M. Smith, Jef- ferson Brumback, Charles F. Morse, Edwin R. Weeks, Charles O. Tichenor and W. A. M. Vaughn.
On the 18th day of July, 1887, the Kansas City Art Association and School of Design was incorporated, the articles of association being signed by Jefferson Brumback, Edward H. Allen, Theodore S. Case, Charles L. Dobson, Homer Reed, C. C. Ripley, Wm. M. Smith, Edwin R. Weeks, Wm. H. Winants, T. V. Bryant, Thos. B. Bullene, C. F. Morse and Henry D. Ashley. The arti- cles state that the purpose of the association "is to conduct a school for instruc- tion in drawing, painting, modelling and designing, and the construction and maintenance of buildings suitable for such purposes." The first officers were President, E. H. Allen; Vice president, Mrs. M. B. Wright; Secretary, C. C.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY
Ripley, and Treasurer, Homer Reed. "A complete set of models and casts consisting of statuary, reliefs, architectural and anatomical fragments and drawing solids," one hundred and sixty-four in all, was purchased from the government agencies of Great Britain, together with one hundred and eighty- five fine autotypes and photographs of noted statuary and paintings. Under the direction of Mr. Ripley, these were installed in five rooms on the fourth floor of the Bayard building, 1214 Main street. They formed an unusual col- lection for an initiatory effort, and the surprise and satisfaction of the pub- lic, when the rooms were thrown open for inspection, constituted an asset which carried the undertaking through many troublous times. People seemed to feel that the Art Association had proved itself and was worthy of support.
The School of Fine Arts and a free night school for instruction in me- chanical and architectural drawing, modelling and the elements of design were opened on January 2, 1888. The director of the school was Lawrence S. Brumidi of the National Academy of Rome, and the faculty consisted of Miss Lillian Crawford of the Cincinnati school of design, F. L. Fitzgibbon of the National Academy of New York and Miss M. R. Griffin of Spread's academy of Chicago. Thereafter the directors were successively: Elmer Boyd Smith who had studied in Paris; J. Franklin Steacy who had spent three years in Paris under Gerome and Bougereau, and had been supervisor of the art schools of western Massachusetts; and Alfred Houghton Clark of the Boston school. In the spring of 1892, the school had grown both in attendance and scope to such an extent that a curator was necessary, and Mrs. Helen Parsons was appointed in this capacity. The year closed with one hundred and fourteen pupils in attendance. The academic work in drawing and color had been varied by the costume sketching, composition, pen and ink, wash, still life in oil, pastel and water color, and outdoor sketching from nature. Interest in the classes was so great that a summer session of six weeks was opened.
The list of members of the association now numbered two hundred and forty-four. As a result of a new canvass for a maintenance fund, made by E. H. Allen, C. C. Ripley, E. R. Weeks and Henry Van Brunt, fifty dollars was pledged for each of the next three years by each of the following gentle- men: K. B. Armour, J. V. C. Karnes, W. R. Nelson, E R. Weeks, C. F. Morse, E. H. Allen, C. L. Dobson, C. O. Tichenor, T. B. Bullene, L. R. Moore, L. T. Moore, W. E. Emery, Jefferson Brumback, Thos. H. Swope, August R. Meyer, W. B. Clarke, Witten McDonald, James L. Lombard, George Net- tleton, Lindley Coates, Robert Keith, Keith and Perry, W. B. Thayer, B. F. Jones, E. L. Martin, John C. Gage, Nathan Scarritt estate, Edward H. Webster, Tiernan and Havens, and Wm. M. Smith.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY
In the spring of 1892, G. Van Millett, Wm. Weber and Adolf Döring, all recently returned from their studies in Europe, formed the Western Art League. Their rooms were equipped with some casts and many of the draw- ings and copies made by the teachers while abroad. In a brief period, this school was absorbed by the Art Association, which moved its equipment to the upper story of 1012-1014 Walnut street. Mr. Alfred Houghton Clark con- tinued as director and Mr. Weber, Mr. Millet, Mrs. Louis Koehler, who now has an international reputation as a worker in the applied arts, and Mrs. Edith Whitehead Sheridan, now carrying on a highly successful business in interior decoration, in Chicago, were added to the faculty. The school was becoming widely known as offering facilities for good preparatory work. Patronage came from every neighboring state, and matters began to assume an air of order and permanence. The association now possessed several good oil paint- ings, one given by the artist Bierstadt. The Daphne club. composed of young women who, under the guidance of Mrs. Flavel B. Tiffany, had long studied the history of art, gave a good copy of del Sarto's St. John, and the people began to be willing to loan to the school really worthy material. The George C. Bingham collection of pictures was hung in its studio.
From the first, the intention of the school's promoters had been to make it appeal to all classes of people, and the sketch club plan of meeting from house to house for talks on art was followed in a modified form in order to interest a large number of citizens. The exhibitions both of school work and of collections brought from other cities, were well attended. Indeed, in these early years, there were a number of exhibitions far excelling any since given. A very large and excellent collection was shown at the first exposition of the National Exposition Company at Thirteenth street and Kansas avenue. Unfortunately the financial embarrassment of the exposition management caused much delay in returning the pictures, some of them being held here for months. This gave our city so bad a reputation among artists that it was thereafter almost impossible to persuade painters to exhibit here. The grow- ing demand for fire proof exhibition rooms also hindered the securing of pic- tures to such an extent that the association finally gave up efforts in this direction.
Kansas City had a practical demonstration of the need of a fire proof art building on the night of January 12, 1893, when the entire equipment of the association was destroyed by fire. The year of 1893 was one of financial depression, and many who were willing were not able to contribute toward the replacement of the loss. The treasury was not empty, however, and for two years the school was continued in a limited way in the Baird building at Sixth and Wyandotte, and the Pepper building, on the northwest corner of Ninth and Locust streets, in the hope that, with better times, money might
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY
be forthcoming for the old basis of work. In 1894 the school was abandoned for the time being and the treasurer, J. S. Downing, was instructed by the board of directors to put the money on hand at interest.
Many of those who worked so strenuously in those early years, giving not only money but valuable time in a unique effort to raise the standard of culture, have passed over the border, but the good they accomplished is ap- parent in many directions. No painters of world wide note received inspira- tion in the school. Bingham and Barse studied elsewhere before its time. But all trades requiring a knowledge of the graphic arts have able representa- tives from its lists of pupils, men and women who have distinguished them- selves in their particular line of work, and this was distinctly the purpose of its founders. Among the school's Kansas City pupils are the teachers of free-hand drawing in our high schools, Miss Floy Campbell, Miss Alice Mur- phy and Miss Sarah Heyl; and the director of domestic art in the Manual Training High School, Miss Josephine Casey. In the applied arts, Mrs. Lora Dickenson Jones does designing and book binding, and Mrs. Lura Ward Fuller's ceramic work is beginning to have national notice. Mrs. Eugenia Fish Glaman, the well known painter of Chicago, and Frederic J. Mulhaupt of New York, both studied in the old Kansas City school of design. Many of its pupils have won distinction as illustrators. Among these are T. K. Hanna and Bayard Jones of New York, George Walters of Chicago, Gus O. Shaughnessy and Mrs. Maud McNitt Walker, whose husband, Ryan Walker, formerly a reporter on the Kansas City Times, is also an illustrator. One of the best known scenic painters of the United States, Kelley Hann, was a pupil in 1892.
Mr. E. A. Huppert opened a private school in the Bayard building, 1214 Main street, which was later incorporated and was carried on for several years with Mr. Huppert as director. He resigned this position to become super- visor of art in the public schools.
Mr. William R. Nelson, one of the supporters of the Art Association, early conceived the idea of establishing in the city a collection of reproduc- tions of the old masters, for purposes of study. During an extended trip abroad, he engaged the services of the best copyists, many of them painters of distinction, for the reproduction of the greatest pictures of the old masters of the Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Flemish schools. Even the frames, when original, were reproduced. These paintings, together with an extensive col- lection of large carbon prints and a number of well selected casts, he presented as a gift to the people of Kansas City in 1896.
Under the direction of C. C. Ripley, as president of the Art association, these works were placed in a gallery on West Ninth street, provided by the as- sociation. The collection was opened to the public on February 28, 1897,
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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY
as the "Western Gallery of Art," a name chosen by the donor. The following year it was moved to the new Public library building. Later it was thought advisable to transfer the collection to the school district of Kansas City and in January, 1902, this was done, the entire control being vested in the Board of Education. From time to time Mr. Nelson has added to the gallery, and it now contains sixty paintings, and forty-seven objects in terra cotta, bronze or marble.
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