The Palisades, a structure consisting of stairs, walls, cupolas and a spring house on the bluff on Kersey Coates Drive, resembled a medieval stronghold in this post card dated 1910. The large red brick residence behind the towers was the home of Walter Gallatin Mellier and his wife, Ella. The address given in the city directory of 1884 was 710 W. 10th. Mellier was listed as a clerk with the Traders Bank. He was the son of an early-day St. Louis merchant, who shipped goods to Westport Landing before Kansas City was in existence. The young bank clerk, a Princeton graduate, found the real estate business his chief interest and in the late 1880s and 1890s laid out many of Kansas City's early-day additions. Among them were Llewellyn Park, 127 acres, 1886; Kenwood and Kenwood Annex, 60 acres, 1886; Murray Hill, 10 acres, 1886; Mellier Place, 66 acres, 1887; Dickinson Place, 10 acres, 1887; Bonfil Heights, 10 acres, 1897; Mellier Park, 10 acres, 1900; and Corbin Place, 27 acres, 1902. Mellier became an investment banker with the firm of Mellier, Darragh and Bunton, 9 Gibraltor Building. By the year 1898 the Mellier residence was occupied by the Keeley Institute, one of a national chain where liquor, opium and tobacco habits were cured. (Leslie E. Keeley of Dwight, Ill., originated the treatment.) A large signboard advertising the facility was placed on the hillside, visible for miles around. It was one of many large signs on the cliff which were removed when Kersey Coates Drive and West Terrace Park were built. Kansas City Times, September 28, 1974.
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