One of Kansas City's first skyscrapers was the National Bank of Commerce Building, erected in 1907 at the northwest corner of 10th and Walnut. Kansas City's population at the time was about 240,000. About equal space was used in the 1907 directory to listings of automobile companies and carriage and wagon works. The Commerce Trust Company had its start as the Kansas City Savings Association in a period of optimism at the close of the Civil War in 1865. It was housed in a narrow, 3-story brick building at 2nd and Main, near the river. The bank occupied several different locations in downtown Kansas City before the year 1906, which saw the formation of the Commerce Trust Company, with a capital of $1 million. A committee in charge of the erection of the new building (as pictured) at 10th and Walnut consisted of W. T. Kemper, D. J. Dean (hotel man), J. J. Heim (brewery owner) and Dr. W. S. Woods (practicing physician). Today the bank headquarters are at the same location, but the old building now connects with the 1965 Commerce Tower at 911 Main. The group of modest 2-story buildings in the shadow of the impressive bank building bear street signs of the Sterling Dental Company and those of Niles-Moser Cigar Co. and Tom Moore, 10-cent cigars. The 1907 Hoye's city directory gives the names of F. C. Niles, president and treasurer and E. S. Moser, vice-president and secretary, 1004-06 Walnut. Cigars seem to have been a popular commodity of the day and Niles & Moser also had branch stores in the Baltimore Hotel, New York Life Building, Dwight Building and the Sexton and Midland Hotels.The post card was published by G. H. Lohman, Kansas City, and printed in color in Germany. Kansas City StarFebruary 5, 1977.
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