This old promotional post card, printed in Milwaukee, shows the Muehlebach hotel in Kansas City, as it looked when it opened in 1915. The site used for the hotel was one formerly occupied by the old First Baptist church, a frame building built in 1880, the gift of Col. And Mrs. W. H. Harris. Land and church cost $30,000. Services were held there until 1908, when the congregation sold the church and site for $150,000, took their pipe-organ and moved temporarily to Thirteenth and Broadway. They later built a new stone church at Linwood avenue and Park street at a cost of $100,000. For five years the old Twelfth street church stood empty, used only for ballyhoo, annual shows, an occasional menagerie and whisky advertisements. The Muehlebachs started tearing down the old landmark in June, 1913, and financing their plans for a big hotel. The hotel was extended west to Wyandotte street in 1952 and four years later the 17-story Muehlebach Towers was added on Wyandotte. The Orpheum theater is pictured just south of the hotel. It was razed to make room for the Muehlebach convention center, with a ballroom seating 2,200 persons, exhibition space for display booths and three meeting rooms seating 500, 120 and 85. The rooftop has a large patio with a swimming pool. Airline offices occupy ground-floor space on three sides of the hotel: Baltimore avenue, Wyandotte and Twelfth streets. Kansas City Times, February 6, 1971.
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