Kansas City's Liberty Memorial and National World War I Museum (Independence: condos, neighborhood)

[kcmo]

I thought I would share some photos of the National WWI Museum and monument in Kansas City, MO.

The 217 foot tower was built in 1921 and is topped with an eternal flame. You can go up to the open air observation deck for breathtaking views of downtown Kansas City.

The tower was closed in the 1990’s as it was falling into disrepair. KCMO residents voted and passed a tax to renovate the tower and all the concrete decking as well as build a new state of the art museum under the tower and it re-opened in 2006.

The end result is one of the finest, most interesting and interactive museums in the country IMO and one of the best tourist attractions in the Midwest, also in my opinion.

This is a must see attraction if you are ever in Kansas City.

Here are some random photos of the Liberty Memorial tower as well as the “National” WWI Museum.

[kcmo]

[lifelongMOgal]

Nicely done kcmo. It is and under-rated gem in our city of which too few people visit or appreciate. The history behind the museum is a quite the impressive story in and of itself.

[TabulaRasa]

It's seriously a fantastic museum. I'm really not a military history person at all, and even I could spend hours and hours in there. It's really a top-notch place. People who don't know about it/haven't bothered to check it out are missing out.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal

Nicely done kcmo. It is and under-rated gem in our city of which too few people visit or appreciate. The history behind the museum is a quite the impressive story in and of itself.

Thanks. I was going to dig up the details on how the monument ended up in kc, I don't remember all the details off hand. I'm sure I have read it at least once though. There is that one photo of the dedication when like 45,000 people showed up, which is a lot for 1921. So feel free to post any history on it if you have it.

Most people I know in KC have never been to the WWI Museum and Libery Memorial and Penn Valley Park in general still has a somewhat negative image to most locals.

We go to the observation deck often for the views and have been to the museum 3-4 times and it's always out of town people there. Now with the Federal Reserve and Money Museum you have two really neat attrations that few in take advantage of. The Money Museum is free too.

The same can be said about the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. It too is a fantastic museum that tends to be pretty ignored by most of KC for whatever reason.

[cp1969]

Well done, kcmo.

I went to the museum last fall. As soon as I saw the school buses outside, I should have turned around and left, to return another day.

I still think that someday Christo is going to show up and wrap that thing in latex.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by cp1969

Well done, kcmo.

I went to the museum last fall. As soon as I saw the school buses outside, I should have turned around and left, to return another day.

I still think that someday Christo is going to show up and wrap that thing in latex.

haha, yea school days and museums don't mix and lets hope it doesn't get wrapped in latex on a day the school buses arrive.

[brewcrew1000]

Why does Penn valley have a negative impact on the metro?

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by brewcrew1000

Why does Penn valley have a negative impact on the metro?

It actually did get pretty bad for a while. For some reason, it became a huge gay hang out and a lot of crazy things took place in the park. It’s where people went for male prostitution and what not. You could go there any time and see cars with single guys just sitting there waiting to hook up with other single guys. They would cruise the streets picking each other up and do their thing right there in the park. I would drive or ride my bike through the area and would get looks or even propositioned! You could tell that most of the people there were suburbanites, many had JoCo plates etc. (DISCLAIMER before Samantha quotes; JoCo plates are easy to spot, but I'm sure they were also from the MO suburbs as well:END DISCLAIMER) Probably had wifes and kids at home. While mountain biking, I would find condoms and gay magazines. I have gay friends that wouldn't go there. It wasn’t' that kind of hang out. It was the equivalent of Independence Ave or 31st and Main (where the female prostitutes were). People looking for street sex and drugs, not relationships. Those areas are nowhere near as bad as they were either, although Indep Ave still has some street hookers.

The Liberty memorial tower was closed, Union Station was boarded up, what is now the IRS was a bunch of vacant buildings, what is now the Federal Reserve was a vacant hospital (which I snuck into once to take skyline shots of downtown, that was scary). There was no dog park and you just didn’t go there after dark, especially over by the Scout statue. The park even had some muggings and murders. A tourist was dumped there once. The park’s biggest problem was that it was never utilized as a park. Again, it’s just grass in the city and back in the 80’s and 90’s when downtown KC was really hitting bottom, the park was feeling the effects of that.

Today it’s fine. It’s safe and cleaned up. You have lots of security in the area with the WWI Museum, Federal Reserve, IRS and the Park Place Condos. Plus there are more people using it because more people live downtown and the dog park brings people in as well as the tourists, workers etc.

It’s nowhere near where it should be, but it’s not like what it was. People that never go there probably think it’s still like it was in the 90’s.

The city needs to do something with Penn Valley Park. It could easily be one of the country’s finest urban central city parks.

If you don't know the history of downtown kc, you wouldn't know why it has a bad image.

I guess this really makes me think about how bad the inner city of KCMO was in the 80's and 90's. Much of the city outside the plaza was hard core ghetto. I mean it was bad. The highrise projects that stood where the Midtown costco is now could have been any neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. Same with areas just east of Downtown, east of Columbus Park. The Crossroads looked worse than the West Bottoms, the River Market Mafia bombings, the X rated movie theaters, the gang wars, I could go on and on. But KC wasn’t alone. Most large urban cities hit rock bottom during that same time too and like KC, most are completely different cities today at least compared to what they were then.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by kcmo

You could tell that most of the people there were suburbanites, many had JoCo plates etc.

Oh for god's sake ... Well, at least this is new material! Aside from all of the other evil in JoCo, it's also where the metro has stored its closet gay hubbies and daddies who went looking for boy toys ...

I guess this really makes me think about how bad the inner city of KCMO was in the 80's and 90's. Much of the city outside the plaza was hard core ghetto. I mean it was bad. The highrise projects that stood where the Midtown costco is now could have been any neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. Same with areas just east of Downtown, east of Columbus Park. The Crossroads looked worse than the West Bottoms, the River Market Mafia bombings, the X rated movie theaters, the gang wars, I could go on and on.

And then because of the EVIL doings of those bloodsucking bastards, large chunks of corporate america decided to move to the burbs ... whodathunkit????