This Odd Fellows Temple post card, a promotional card printed in black and white, was mailed from Kansas City Sept. 11, 1909, to Miss Gilla Robbins, Perry, Kan. The first Odd Fellows lodge was organized in Kansas City in 1857. Officers of the lodge and the women's auxiliary began planning for a building in 1904. A.G. Hartley was president, Dr. C.E. Bye, vice president, George Warneke (of the pioneer baking firm) treasurer, C.B. Chapin, secretary, and D.E. Bird, grand warden of the state and lodge attorney. The building shown in the picture was designed by architect Rudolph Markgrat. When erected in 1911, it was reduced in size to two stories, rather than the tree-story structure shown. It was located at the southwest corner of 13th and Troost. At the dedication of the finished building Nov. 5, 1911, the Kansas City Journal Post reported: The new temple, which is one of the finest in this section of the country, has been under construction since 1905. Realizing the financial difficulties to be encountered, the order took recourse to incorporation to raise funds for the edifice. Shares were sold at $5 each. No one was permitted to buy over 1,000 shares and every shareholder had to be an Odd Fellow. Ex-Governor A.M. Dockery, Gallatin, Mo., and A.G. Hartley of Kansas City, who had been on the original committee in 1905, presided.Today the building no longer stands. An auto salvage company operates across the street from the site of the old building, in a neighborhood of vacant lots. Kansas City Times, January 22, 1982.
Reproduction (printing, downloading, or copying) of images from Kansas City Public Library requires permission and payment for the following uses, whether digital or print: publication; reproduction of multiple copies; personal, non-educational purposes; and advertising or commercial purposes. Please order prints or digital files and pay use fees through this website. All images must be properly credited to: "Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri." Images and texts may be reproduced without prior permission only for purposes of temporary, private study, scholarship, or research. Those using these images and texts assume all responsibility for questions of copyright and privacy that may arise.
