Horse and buggy traffic, pedestrians and two street cars make up a busy 1910 post card scene at 12th and Walnut. The Boley Clothing Company store of Charles N. Boley is pictured in the foreground, with sunlight reflecting on the outside window walls that were constructed entirely of glass and steel, an innovation of the day. The 6-story Boley Building (now known as the Katz Building) was commonly referred to as the glass building, in a day when heavily ornate structures of masonry were the rule. In the spring of 1971 the building, designed by the internationally known Kansas City architect, Louis Curtiss, was placed on the National Register of Historical Places, Department of the Interior, Washington. This qualifies the building for federal grants and funding for rehabilitation under urban renewal, and those interested hope for an unchanged preservation of the structure, since urban renewal is no longer synonymous with destruction. The American Institute of Architects, the Kansas City Landmarks Commission and other organizations encouraged the registration. The building, constructed in 1908, is considered of great architectural significance since it is considered by many historians to be one of the first curtain wall (thin, nonstructural exterior) buildings in the world. Kansas City Times, March 11, 1972. Speaking the Public Mind - Mrs. Sam Ray's Post Card From Old Kansas City on the Boley Building took me back to 1919 when I was a stenographer for a film exchange that occupied most of the fourth floor. A small concession stand that sold popcorn, candy bars and gum had space on the alley corner of the building. In 1919 we had not yet heard of coffee breaks. So one of the men in our office rigged up a pasteboard box with string long enough to be lowered from the window to the concession stand. The attendant obligingly filled our orders for snacks and we ate them at our desks without work interruption. -Gretchen Brown, Brunswick, Mo. Kansas City Star, April 7, 1972.
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