The R.A. Long Building at the northwest corner of 10th and Grand was Kansas City's first skyscraper. The postcard pictures the building when completed in 1907. Built by Robert A. Long, lumberman, the 14-story structure contained 259 offices. Henry F. Hoit was the architect. The building construction cost was $1,250,000. In a chapter of History of Kansas City titled The Newer City, Carrie Whitney writes: With the beginning of the 20th Century Kansas City entered upon an era of remarkable growth. In five years the erection of new skyscrapers, bank buildings, theaters, store buildings and other edifices changed the appearance of the Downtown District.The transformation of 10th Street between Baltimore Avenue and Oak Street has been especially marked...the transformation on 10th Street began in 1905, when the First National Bank began the erection of its elegant new building at the northeast corner of 10th and Baltimore. Tenth Street, on which so many handsome buildings have been erected, is narrow and crooked... (By the end of 1907 Kansas Citians could boast of three skyscrapers, the R.A. Long, Commerce Trust and Scarritt buildings.)The postcard pictures street cars, a horse-drawn lumber wagon, a few early automobiles and pedestrians. There were no traffic lights or traffic patrolmen. The clang of street car gongs warned pedestrians to watch out. The United Missouri Bank, formerly the City National Bank, now occupies the building. Kansas City Times. April 13, 1984
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