The 400-room Hotel Commonwealth at 1216 Broadway was built in 1925 and newspapers at the time of its opening in October of that year called it the city's largest apartment hotel. When the $5-million Municipal Auditorium was built in 1936 the Commonwealth was one of the many downtown hotels advertising their proximity. On the old promotional post card is the printed information, Only a block from Municipal Auditorium.City Directories of 1936 list 369 hotels in Kansas City, downtown and as far south as Linwood and Armour Boulevards. Inserted in the hotel classification of the directory that year were six full-page advertisements, printed on heavy yellow cardboard. They tell the story of downtown hotels the year the Municipal Auditorium was erected: The Baltimore Hotel, 12th and Baltimore, Room with bath $2.00 and up. The Hotel Kansas Citian at 11th and Baltimore, 22 stories. Room and bath from $2.50. Roof garden swimming pool, Turkish baths. Robert E. Lee Hotel, 200 Rooms all with bath, from $1.50 a day. An official A.A.A. Hotel, 13th and Wyandotte. All outside rooms, coffee shop, garage and ceiling fans. Hotel Muehlebach, Dominant in Luxury, rates from $3.00. Three famous dining rooms. Air-cooled and sound-proof sleeping rooms. Hotel Phillips, Kansas City's newest and largest downtown Hotel. 500 outside rooms, Circulating ice water, Radio and electric fans $2.50 to $4.00. Hotel Stats, 12th and Wyandotte, In the center of everything - 250 rooms, 250 baths, all with outside exposure, ice water and electric fans, $1.50 to $3.50 single. The name of the old Commonwealth Hotel was changed during the 1950s to the Kansas Citian. For the last three years it has been out of use and today stands empty with its windows boarded up. Kansas City Star, September 20, 1975.
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