Cable car tracks on 12th Street join Armourdale street car tracks in this horse-and-buggy scene looking west. The old Livestock Exchange Building of red brick with tower, pictured in the center background, stood on the state line, with part of the building in Kansas and the front section in Missouri. The three-story structure was erected in 1876 and cost $35,000. Its location was not far from earlier buildings, pens and chutes used by the first stockmen. Nearby was the city's first trading center at the willow flats on the east bank of the Kaw, where trappers, hunters, farmers, squatters and Indians came to trade in grain, furs, livestock and any other salable commodities. It was good camping ground with easy access to water. In 1887 the building, scarcely 10 years old, was doubled in size to accommodate the increased livestock business. Later, wings were added to the original building to the north, south, east and west, until the building finally occupied two and a half acres of ground. The great floods of 1903 and 1908, with waters sweeping the west bottoms bluff to bluff to a depth of 15 to 30 feet, brought water to the second floor of the building. The present nine-story Livestock Exchange Building was erected in 1909-11 to replace the old building. The site for the new structure was two blocks east of the building pictured. Kansas City Times. September 30, 1983
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