The 10-story Sharp Building, one of Kansas City's first fireproof buildings, was erected in 1905 at the northwest corner of Petticoat Lane and Walnut by Charles Henry Sharp, a wealthy railroad contractor. The ground on which the building stood was one of the many downtown properties acquired by the Irish-born contractor, Peter Soden, who came to Jackson County in 1852, was employed for about three years at the U.S. arsenal on the Missouri River near Liberty, served as a lieutenant with the home guards during the Civil War, built rip-rap along the Missouri River and finally extended his activities to the building of railroads. In the late 1870s when the city centered north of Independence Avenue, Soden moved south and acquired relatively undeveloped land on Main Street. He amassed a fortune in downtown real estate. In the 1880s he bought the Petticoat Lane site for $10,000. Later the plot and the building became the property of the Kansas City Boys' Orphan Home, administered through the Kansas City Catholic Diocese. It was renamed the Lillis Building in honor of the late Bishop Thomas F. Lillis. The Federman Drugstore was the first ground floor tenant at the corner. Next to occupy it was the Owl Drug Company. Later Woolf Bros. expanded its store to include the ground floor space of the building. Today the corner area is occupied by Jaccard's Jewelers. Kansas City Times, August 23, 1975.
Reproduction (printing, downloading, or copying) of images from Kansas City Public Library requires permission and payment for the following uses, whether digital or print: publication; reproduction of multiple copies; personal, non-educational purposes; and advertising or commercial purposes. Please order prints or digital files and pay use fees through this website. All images must be properly credited to: "Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri." Images and texts may be reproduced without prior permission only for purposes of temporary, private study, scholarship, or research. Those using these images and texts assume all responsibility for questions of copyright and privacy that may arise.