The Victoria hotel at Ninth and McGee was a fine, substantial hotel when it opened in 1888. It was especially popular with cattlemen, here to transact business at the Kansas City stockyards. A REFERENCE found in “History of the American Hotel,” by Jefferson Williamson, gives the old hotel credit for a “first” in American hotel history: “The first hotel to make the boast of having a bath for every suite appears to have been the Victoria Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, built by George Holmes on Ninth street between McGee and Oak and opened on May 14, 1888. The Victoria had 240 rooms all parlor and bedroom suites, with a bath for each suite.” Many hotels of the time had bath facilities “down the hall,” but apparently the old Victoria was the first with privacy for all. ON February 12, 1960, a fire of unknown origin destroyed the building. Firemen and their equipment were covered with ice, and icicles hung everywhere, creating an eerie scene in the shadows of the high flames. Four nearby buildings were damaged, including the old Frederick hotel. Firemen evacuated 35 persons from the hotel as they sought in vain to prevent its destruction. The ruins were cleared away to make way for the parking lot that occupies the site today. Kansas City Star, September 13, 1969.
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