The White hotel (later the Puritan hotel) at the northwest corner of Ninth and Wyandotte was built as an office building in 1880 and the Beal's bank quarters occupied most of the first floor. The building's hotel days came 1912, when, under the ownership of James H. White, three stories were added to make it a 100-room hostelry. West Ninth street was busy then. The old Orpheum theater flourished at Ninth and May and grain firms doing business at the Board of Trade lined Wyandotte street. More famous, perhaps, than the hotel itself was the Blue Goose Cafe, with its corner entrance in the cavern-like basement. At its debut the Blue Goose was one of the city's biggest and brassiest night clubs. Waters were dressed all in white with military collars. Big name in vaudeville performed nightly. With the advent of prohibition the character of the Blue Goose changed, bringing a new, less posh clientele. A speak-easy rode out the prohibition era and the bartender on duty often removed his shirt on a warm evening, revealing a shoulder holster with .38 revolver. In later years a Chicago syndicate owned the hotel. Fires plagued the hotel during its last days. Its demolition was begun in August, 1966, and the Blue Goose passed from the scene as a show place of Kansas City night life. The card pictured was published by Hall Brothers, a company of three brothers that preceded the present Hallmark Cards, Inc. Kansas City Star, December 28, 1968.
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