The ornate architecture of Louis Curtiss's Willis Wood Theatre, Kansas City's first and finest legitimate theater, is pictured at the northwest corner of 11th and Baltimore. The theater extended west on 11th to the alley. Curtiss departed from his usual plain line modern design, such as that of his Boley glass wall office building at 12th and Walnut. He was said to have been influenced by and followed the wishes and whims of the owner-builder, Col. Willis Wood, successful wholesale dry goods magnate of St. Joseph. Wood lived at the Baltimore Hotel, diagonally across the street, during the construction of the theater. Carrie Whitney in her 1909 history of Kansas City wrote: Kansas City is very proud of the Willis Wood Theatre, and justly so, for in point of sumptuous equipment and artistic beauty it stands to the front rank of American playhouses. The house opened Aug. 25, 1902, with Amelia Bingham as the attraction, and the occasion of the opening night will be remembered as one of the most brilliant society events in the history of Kansas City. Most patrons attended in full evening dress and arrived in their own horse-drawn carriage, by horse-drawn cab or horse-drawn street car. A tunnel underground from the theater led to a Baltimore Hotel bar, a convenience for patrons during the play's long intermission. The Willis Wood had the first class legitimate theater to itself, until 1906, when the Shubert Theater was built, one block north. After suffering a disastrous fire in January 1917, demolition was started in 1918 to make way for the 20-story Kansas City Athletic Club building. The Continental Hotel was the next occupant. Today the hotel has been converted into the modern office building Mark Twain Tower. The Kansas City Athletic Club still occupies four floors. The postcard was published in Germany for S.H. Knox & Co., It was mailed to Mrs. Norman Bryan in Chicago Aug. 20, 1909. Kansas City Times, July 4, 1986.
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