900 East Linwood Boulevard - Kansas City, Missouri 64109 - Telephone (816) 561-3525
900 East Linwood Boulevard - Kansas City, Missouri 64109 - Telephone (816) 561-3525
The Kansas City Athenaeum, the city's oldest existing women's club, organized in 1894 around the twin principles of study and service, takes pleasure in presenting the Athenaeum Club House.
The Club House has been the home of the Kansas City Athenaeum since its dedication in 1914. It was constructed at a cost of $33,000, a sum raised by its five hundred enterprising members. One woman charged her husband ten cents to iron his shirts, and another charged her grown sons twenty cents to eat lunch at her house. Some members washed and ironed lace curtains for their neighbors, while others sold baked goods, eggs, canned goods, handmade garments and bedspreads. The women celebrated paying off the mortgage in 1922.
Two prominent founders were Zerelda Woodstock and Phoebe Jane Ess. Mrs. Woodstock was a dedicated fund-raiser for the Club House and served as president during its first twelve years. Mrs. Ess was a distinguished civic leader and responsible for leading many social causes. She was named "Mother of Kansas City" by the Kansas City Star in 1932.
Through the years, many activities have occurred in the Athenaeum Club House in addition to its primary use as a club house, including theatrical productions, dances, weddings, and receptions. The building was even used as a Red Cross work station during World War 1. The Club House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The Kansas City Athenaeum was founded in 1894, and soon after joined the General Federation of Women's Clubs, which continues to be the largest international volunteer organization. Athenaeum members met in various churches and buildings during the first twenty years. The inspiration to build the Club House came in 1907 when fire broke out in the Pepper Building as one hundred members were gathered on the fifth floor for their annual business meeting. The secretary gathered up the club's books and records in a tablecloth and carried them down the fire escape; the president and treasurer waited until all the others had been rescued before leaving the balcony. One member suffered burns on her ears by steam from waiter poured on the flames.
Designing the Club House was carefully pursued, and Grecian architecture was chosen in keeping with the Athenaeum's name. Having an auditorium for large gatherings was a compelling feature in the building's design. Clear glass windows were indicated in the building's original design, but when the interior decorator suggested that stained glass windows could be installed for an additional $300, the recommendation was met with enthusiasm.
The Auditorium is renowned for its acoustical quality and its stage has served many theatrical and musical purposes. The room has also been host to many prominent speakers, including William Allen White, William Jennings Bryan, and Count Ilya Tolstoy who related the trials and misfortunes of his father. A radio was installed in 1937 so that a large assembly could hear the broadcast of the coronation of England's King George VI.
The Auditorium can be rented for weddings, receptions, parties, dances, and family reunions. Its historic elegance offers a beautiful ambiance for daytime and evening events.
The East Parlor, outside the Auditorium off the Grand Foyer, was the original office of the Athenaeum. As the Athenaeum membership rapidly grew toward its peak of more than nine hundred in 1926, it was changed to a classroom and office activities were moved downstairs. Small departments held meetings in the West Parlor off the Grand Foyer.
The Kansas City Musical Club presented a rental proposal to the Athenaeum for use of the balcony overlooking the Auditorium before the construction of the Club House was completed. The architect honored their request for a platform for two pianos, and it became known as the Music Room because of the many recitals and musical programs presented there through the years by dozens of local music teachers. The room overlooks the Auditorium, providing a variety of ways to enhance theatrical events and musical balls. A wall of leaded glass panes can be lowered to separate the Music Room acoustically from the Auditorium.
The Athenaeum was formed as a departmental club where members could choose an area of study such as Art, Literature, Music, or Philosophy. That educational structure gave the Athenaeum the reputation as a women's university of study at a time in history when many women did not easily attain a higher education. The Music Room was always used by the department with the largest participation.
The Dining Room, with its street-level entrance, has been the most used room in the Club House. Not only convenient for meetings, luncheons, and dinners, this room has been utilized for numerous fund-raisers and projects. Its stone fireplace, installed on the south wall in 1920, is the focal point of the alcove furnished as a conversation area, and has often been the backdrop for intimate weddings and family portraits.
The Tea Room, located within the Dining Room, is a setting for smaller gatherings and meetings. It is used by the members of the Athenaeum for the business meetings that precede their semimonthly study programs and luncheons.
The Kansas City Athenaeum has always been active in philanthropic and civic concerns for Kansas City. Since 1894, when the members of the newly-formed organization first introduced the idea of an official milk inspector to the city council, the Athenaeum has been active in civic concerns ranging from prison reform through improvements at the County Poor Farm to enlisting the city's children to help with an annual citywide spring cleaning. For its first twenty years the Club House hummed with sewing machines as members created over 4,000 garments for Children's Mercy Hospital and 7,000 articles of clothing for disadvantaged children. Distribution of these articles was coordinated with the Social Service Bureau of Kansas City.
The Athenaeum has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for 146 different civic and charitable concerns. In its early years, members petitioned for city parks and helped establish kindergarten and Parent-Teacher Associations in public schools. Athenaeum members persuaded Jackson County to improve living conditions in crowded tenements and influenced the establishment of a juvenile court system in Kansas City.
The Golden Age Club, which evolved into the current Shepherd's Center, was started by Athenaeum members in the 1950s. Truman Hospital has a fund started by the Athenaeum to help destitute persons receive eyeglasses, back braces, corrective shoes, and artificial limbs. The Athenaeum was involved in founding Missouri Girls Town, a residential care facility for abused and neglected girls, in 1953; today Missouri Girls Town continues as the Athenaeum's primary philanthropic concern.
On October 28, 1998, the Dining Room was filled with members and guests as the Athenaeum celebrated its 96th Annual Philanthropy Day with fund-raising events.