The message of the young woman who mailed this post card in July, 1907, reads: This is the swellest theater in K.C. It was the Willis Wood Theater located at the northeast corner of 11th and Baltimore. It extended half a block west to the alley on 11th. Architects of today label the structure as being deliberately embellished and with some baroque characteristics, probably designed to make it physically attractive. Louis Curtiss was the architect and it is believed he followed the wishes and whims of the owner-builder, Col. Willis Wood, who had made a fortune in wholesale dry goods and the manufacture of clothing in St. Joseph, Mo., before coming to Kansas City. Colonel Wood made his home at the Hotel Baltimore, diagonally across the street, while the theater was being built. The grand opening was Aug. 25, 1902. Curtiss' work included plain line modern structures such as the Boley glass wall office building at the northeast corner of 12th and Walnut. An amusing incident about the old Willis Wood was told by the late Margaret Holmes Richardson. She remembered attending the theater with her parents on an especially gala occasion. They were all in evening clothes, so were going by horse-car rather than in their own carriage. The horse-car's tracks lay along Broadway, and when they reached a corner saloon downtown, the driver pulled the horses to a stop, wrapped the lines around the whip, dismounted and entered the saloon. What was to have been a brief stop for the driver became a long wait.As the opening time for the theater performance approached, the exasperated Williard P. Holmes (bank president) stripped off his white kid gloves, threw back his black opera cape, moved to the driver's seat and took up the reins. With a curt command and touch of the whip, the team moved quickly the few remaining blocks to the theater just in time for the family to present the tickets and find seats before the curtain rose. How long it took for the driver to locate his car and animals at the Willis Wood curb is not known. The Willis Wood was the leading theater until 1906 when the Shubert Theater was built, one block north.In later years the Willis Wood was used for stock companies, burlesque and finally motion pictures. The theater burned in January, 1917. Today the site is that of the Continental Hotel. Kansas City Times, January 30, 1981.
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