The remaining building lobby and facade that was formerly the Waldo-Astoria Theater (aka Westmoreland) was destroyed by fire on Friday, February 16, 2007.
The building is a complete loss and will have to be demolished.
The auditorium space had previously been demolished for surface parking for area businesses, but the lobby and concession area had been converted into retail space.
KC firefighters injured as popular bar, bridal shop burn
By KEVIN HOFFMANN, JAMES HART and CHRISTINE VENDEL
The Kansas City Star
February 17, 2007
Five Kansas City firefighters suffered burns this morning during a fire that started about 10 a.m. in a two-story building at 75th and Washington Street.
After an apparent “flashover†engulfed the firefighters, battalion chiefs ordered all firefighters out of the building, sent in a rescue team, took a head count to make sure everyone was safe and called for a second alarm to get more fire equipment on the scene.
Multiple ambulances responded and transported six firefighters to area hospitals. One did not need treatment, one was treated and released and the other four have been admitted to the burn unit at the University of Kansas Hospital.
All are expected to recover.
“They (the injured firefighters) were able to find their way out of the room, which is good,†Battalion Chief Joe Vitale said. All five were wearing their breathing equipment, which prevented respiration injuries, he said.
The firefighters entered the smoke-filled building looking for the fire’s cause, Vitale said. The room suddenly exploded in flames from floor to ceiling, which is known as a flashover.
A flashover occurs when heat from a fire can’t escape and builds until all objects suddenly reach their ignition temperature, and flames suddenly ignite over all the surfaces and objects.
In this case, “there was nowhere else for the heat to go,†Vitale said.
Vitale didn’t know where the fire started or what caused it.
Fire officials initially reported that two firefighters had critical injuries and three suffered serious burns. By early afternoon, hospital officials had confirmed two patients in serious condition, one in good condition and one who had been treated and released. The condition of the fifth firefighter was unknown.
One bystander, Samatha Skaggs, said it appeared that the fire started inside Kennedy’s, 7428 Washington, and that flames spread rapidly after firefighters entered. One firefighter came back out covered in flames, she said.
“It started out small, just smoke,†said she. “Then it billowed into flaming disaster. … I just pray that everybody is OK.â€
Crews continued to battle the blaze from outside. Part of the roof collapsed before 11 a.m. as smoke and flames poured out of the building. Crews battling water pressure problems shut down water to one pumper to give other trucks more pressure. Vitale didn’t know to what extent the lack of water pressure affected operations, but he said the city water department was called to help boost pressure.
Additional fire crews were ordered about 11:10 a.m., and firefighters said they feared the building would collapse. Much of the roof did.
A co-owner of Kennedy’s said that employees usually arrive after 10 a.m., so no one would have been preparing food at the time the fire started.
Erica Titus, a former worker at Gown Gallery, had headed there to visit former co-workers before realizing the building was on fire.
“This is very, very emotional,†she said.
At 12:15 p.m., fire officials said their crews had gained control of the fire, and they weren’t afraid that it would spread further. Four trucks continued to pour water on the blaze.
George Throener, who was at a coffee shop about a block away when the first fire trucks first arrived, said he watched bakery workers knock on other doors to tell people to get out.
“I saw one (firefighter) come out, and his hands were burnt,†he said.
Paramedics wrapped his hands in gauze and put him in an ambulance, he said.
The Gillis Opera House seated up to 1,700 patrons when the theatre opened in 1883. Source: Mrs. Sam Ray Postcard Collection, Kansas City Public Library.
Troost is beginning to make a comeback. Some of the retail strip along Troost north of Linwood has slowly been cleaned up. There was a volunteer effort to plant tulips along Troost this past autumn to bring some landscaping and beauty back to the street. There appears to be an effort to build community support for restoring the Apollo Theater on Troost just south of Linwood as well.
The voters in Kansas City recently passed a light rail project as well, and it will run along some parts of Troost. Hopefully, this will help spur some development along parts of it.
Edward Tanner was employed by the Boller Brothers before he left to work for the J.C. Nichols Development Company, which built the Plaza Theater, and the Country Club Plaza District where the Plaza Theater is located. Tanner was working for J.C. Nichols as lead architect of the Plaza Theater, but the Boller Brothers were contributing designers.
This was one of the Boller Brothers first attempts at an atmospheric theater. It was one of four Kansas City-area atmospheric theaters. The other three are lobby area of the Plaza Theater (Edward Tanner with Boller Brothers); the Granada in Kansas City, KS [open] (Bollers); and the Uptown Theater [open] (John Eberson).
In addition to the Granada Theater in Kansas City, KS, only two other atmospheric theaters designed by the Boller Brothers remain open to the public in the USA. They are the Crown Uptown Theater in Wichita, KS; and the Poncan Theater in Ponca City, OK.
Only about 35 Boller theaters remain open to the public nationwide out of the more hundreds they designed. Four of these are in the Kansas City metro area: Granada, Benton. Rio, and Aztec/Fine Arts/Mission Theater. Of the four, three are still operating as theaters. The Benton Theater operates as a church.
There appears to be an effort to restore one other Boller Theater in the Kansas City area — the Apollo Theater on Troost. It is the oldest Boller Theater building remaining in the Kansas City area, but isn’t presently open or used.
The Plaza Theater still exists, but the lobby is now the site of Restoration Hardware. The theater is said to be intact, but the atmospheric elements of the lobby were reportedly lost in the renovation for the retail store.
Regarding the statement: “The Garden Theater opened on August 13, 1912 and was designed by Kansas City architect Carl Boller — as were the Empress, Gayety, and Midland theaters.”
Thomas Lamb was the primary architect of the Midland Theater, and the Boller Brothers were the supervising architects.
Correction. I stated that the former site of the first Globe Theater at 1112 Walnut is now occupied by Commerce Bank Arcade. That is incorrect. Town Pavilion tower nows sits on the site of the former theater.
The new Kansas City Repertory Theater will be opening on the former site of the Globe Theater in February of 2007. The new theater building, completed in 2006, is part of the new Power & Light entertainment district.
The second Globe Theater at 1300 Walnut (southwest corner of E. 13th and Walnut) has the distinction of screening the first talking movie in Kansas City. It was constructed in 1913, and demolished in 1932. The site remained a surface parking lot from 1932-2005.
The second Globe Theater was constructed after the first Globe Theater (1112 Walnut between E. 11th and 12th streets) was demolished in 1913 to make way for the Klein’s Department Store. Klein’s closed and was demolished. Commerce Bank Arcade sits on the property today.
The first Globe Theater was located in a building constructed in the 1880s as a firehouse. It was later converted into a cabaret; then the Majestic burlesque and vaudeville theater; was for a time a Pantages vaudeville house; and finally was called the Globe Theater, again a vaudeville venue.
Information and photos about the first Globe Theater can be found here:
While I’ve not been able to find a good photo of the second Globe Theater on the southwest corner of E. 13th and Walnut, I was able to find a photo of downtown Kansas City on the KC Public Library website, where one can see it in the photo.
Here is a photo from the early 1920s looking west along 13th Street. The roof and east facade of the second Globe Theater can be seen directly under the smokestack in the picture, and to the left of the low-rise white brick building with the big, dark windows (the former Jones department store).
Three other theaters are also apparent in the photo. In the lower left is the roof and back facade of the former Garden Theater (one of the Boller Brothers’s first atmospheric theaters); on the right mid-portion of the photo is the east and south facades of the B. Marcus Priteca-designed Pantages Tower Theater (right, below the skeleton of a skyscraper being built); on the middle left edge of the photo is the Rapp & Rapp-designed Mainstreet (Empire) Theater (small, light-colored, domed building). The Mainstreet (Empire) is the only theater in the photo remaining. It is currently undergoing restoration and will reopen as an AMC Theaters all-digital 6-screen boutique cinema.
Here are some references to the Globe Theater from the Kansas City Public Library’s local history database:
The “Vitaphone” Brings Another Important Screen Event Article about the presentation of the “first” talking movie in Kansas City, “Don Juan,” starring John Barrymore, on June 11, 1927, at the Globe Theater.
Source: Kansas City Star,
Date: June/12/1927
Page(s): 16D: 1
Article about the demolition of the theater whose “greatest claim to histrionic distinction here [Kansas City] is that the talking movie…was introduced within the Globe walls.”
Source: Kansas City Star,
Date: April/21/1932
Page(s): 3: 3
Here is a live webcam view of the ongoing construction of the new entertainment district, named the Power & Light District, around the existing Mainstreet (Empire) Theater. The theater is the domed structure near the top of the image.
The view will not be as good at night obviously, and also will be affected by weather. It may take a few seconds for the screen to appear on slower computers, or those using dial-up service.
The district will be anchored by the Midland and restored Mainstreet (Empire) theaters, the new Sprint Arena, and the newly restored Hilton President Hotel.
Another theater is being constructed across the street from the Mainstreet (Empire) Theater that will be an additional performance venue for the Kansas City Repertory Theatre. It is the building extending into the right center next to the parking garage in the lower right corner of the image. When viewing at night, it’s the building with the upturned floodlights on the sides of the structure.
Here’s a bit of interesting history. The new KC Rep. performance space sits on the former site of the Globe Theater, which was demolished in 1932. According to an article in the Kansas City Star reporting the demolition, the Globe’s “greatest claim to histrionic distinction here [Kansas City] is that the talking movie. ..was introduced within the Globe walls.”
The theater introduced Vitaphone to Kansas City with the screening of “Don Juan,” starring John Barrymore, on June 11, 1927.
Here are links to renderings of how the theater will appear after the renovation is completed. The name will change back to the original name, the Mainstreet Theater.
The former Oak Park Theater remains in use as a commercial building.
The Kansas City Public Library local history database lists Kansas City architect Frederick E. McIlvain, 1873-1927, as the designer of the Liberty.
View link
Here are May 2007 photos of the former Benton Theater, now used as a church facility.
The source of the photos are Eric Bowers of http://www.valdorephoto.com . Please do not duplicate or sell. Photos can be purchased at Web site.
The source of the photos are Eric Bowers of http://www.valdorephoto.com . Please do not duplicate or sell. Photos can be purchased at Web site.
Here are some May 2007 photos of the former Vista Theater building. The building now houses the Hamar Fresh Market and El Vaquero Imports stores.
The Regent Theater was demolished prior to construction of the 1201 Walnut office tower.
Yes Claydoh, the Silo/Gourmet Coffee building is the former Alamo Theater.
The remaining building lobby and facade that was formerly the Waldo-Astoria Theater (aka Westmoreland) was destroyed by fire on Friday, February 16, 2007.
The building is a complete loss and will have to be demolished.
The auditorium space had previously been demolished for surface parking for area businesses, but the lobby and concession area had been converted into retail space.
View link
The link may go dead at some point.
Here is the story from the Kansas City Star:
KC firefighters injured as popular bar, bridal shop burn
By KEVIN HOFFMANN, JAMES HART and CHRISTINE VENDEL
The Kansas City Star
February 17, 2007
Five Kansas City firefighters suffered burns this morning during a fire that started about 10 a.m. in a two-story building at 75th and Washington Street.
After an apparent “flashover†engulfed the firefighters, battalion chiefs ordered all firefighters out of the building, sent in a rescue team, took a head count to make sure everyone was safe and called for a second alarm to get more fire equipment on the scene.
Multiple ambulances responded and transported six firefighters to area hospitals. One did not need treatment, one was treated and released and the other four have been admitted to the burn unit at the University of Kansas Hospital.
All are expected to recover.
“They (the injured firefighters) were able to find their way out of the room, which is good,†Battalion Chief Joe Vitale said. All five were wearing their breathing equipment, which prevented respiration injuries, he said.
The firefighters entered the smoke-filled building looking for the fire’s cause, Vitale said. The room suddenly exploded in flames from floor to ceiling, which is known as a flashover.
A flashover occurs when heat from a fire can’t escape and builds until all objects suddenly reach their ignition temperature, and flames suddenly ignite over all the surfaces and objects.
In this case, “there was nowhere else for the heat to go,†Vitale said.
Vitale didn’t know where the fire started or what caused it.
Fire officials initially reported that two firefighters had critical injuries and three suffered serious burns. By early afternoon, hospital officials had confirmed two patients in serious condition, one in good condition and one who had been treated and released. The condition of the fifth firefighter was unknown.
Once the site of the Waldo Astoria dinner theater, the building that burned contained Kennedy’s Bar & Grill, Café Apanaire, the Frankly Basic clothing store and the Gown Gallery.
One bystander, Samatha Skaggs, said it appeared that the fire started inside Kennedy’s, 7428 Washington, and that flames spread rapidly after firefighters entered. One firefighter came back out covered in flames, she said.
“It started out small, just smoke,†said she. “Then it billowed into flaming disaster. … I just pray that everybody is OK.â€
Crews continued to battle the blaze from outside. Part of the roof collapsed before 11 a.m. as smoke and flames poured out of the building. Crews battling water pressure problems shut down water to one pumper to give other trucks more pressure. Vitale didn’t know to what extent the lack of water pressure affected operations, but he said the city water department was called to help boost pressure.
Additional fire crews were ordered about 11:10 a.m., and firefighters said they feared the building would collapse. Much of the roof did.
A co-owner of Kennedy’s said that employees usually arrive after 10 a.m., so no one would have been preparing food at the time the fire started.
Erica Titus, a former worker at Gown Gallery, had headed there to visit former co-workers before realizing the building was on fire.
“This is very, very emotional,†she said.
At 12:15 p.m., fire officials said their crews had gained control of the fire, and they weren’t afraid that it would spread further. Four trucks continued to pour water on the blaze.
George Throener, who was at a coffee shop about a block away when the first fire trucks first arrived, said he watched bakery workers knock on other doors to tell people to get out.
“I saw one (firefighter) come out, and his hands were burnt,†he said.
Paramedics wrapped his hands in gauze and put him in an ambulance, he said.
This theater building remains, and is used by a retail store.
Re: Here is a thread on the possible renovation of this theatre along with pictures; old, new, and proposed:
View link
posted by Claydoh77 on Dec 26, 2006 at 6:48am
Here is the more specific link:
http://forum.kcrag.com/index.php?topic=10835.0
The Gillis Opera House seated up to 1,700 patrons when the theatre opened in 1883. Source: Mrs. Sam Ray Postcard Collection, Kansas City Public Library.
The correct address for the Lindbergh Theater was 4011 Troost Ave, not 3036 Prospect. That was the address of the Linwood Theater.
I have found references to the Bagdad Theater being at 27th and Troost on the KC Library Web site.
Troost is beginning to make a comeback. Some of the retail strip along Troost north of Linwood has slowly been cleaned up. There was a volunteer effort to plant tulips along Troost this past autumn to bring some landscaping and beauty back to the street. There appears to be an effort to build community support for restoring the Apollo Theater on Troost just south of Linwood as well.
The voters in Kansas City recently passed a light rail project as well, and it will run along some parts of Troost. Hopefully, this will help spur some development along parts of it.
The renovation of the Paradise Theater has begun. The marquee has been removed so far as well.
Edward Tanner was employed by the Boller Brothers before he left to work for the J.C. Nichols Development Company, which built the Plaza Theater, and the Country Club Plaza District where the Plaza Theater is located. Tanner was working for J.C. Nichols as lead architect of the Plaza Theater, but the Boller Brothers were contributing designers.
This was one of the Boller Brothers first attempts at an atmospheric theater. It was one of four Kansas City-area atmospheric theaters. The other three are lobby area of the Plaza Theater (Edward Tanner with Boller Brothers); the Granada in Kansas City, KS [open] (Bollers); and the Uptown Theater [open] (John Eberson).
In addition to the Granada Theater in Kansas City, KS, only two other atmospheric theaters designed by the Boller Brothers remain open to the public in the USA. They are the Crown Uptown Theater in Wichita, KS; and the Poncan Theater in Ponca City, OK.
Only about 35 Boller theaters remain open to the public nationwide out of the more hundreds they designed. Four of these are in the Kansas City metro area: Granada, Benton. Rio, and Aztec/Fine Arts/Mission Theater. Of the four, three are still operating as theaters. The Benton Theater operates as a church.
There appears to be an effort to restore one other Boller Theater in the Kansas City area — the Apollo Theater on Troost. It is the oldest Boller Theater building remaining in the Kansas City area, but isn’t presently open or used.
The Plaza Theater still exists, but the lobby is now the site of Restoration Hardware. The theater is said to be intact, but the atmospheric elements of the lobby were reportedly lost in the renovation for the retail store.
Was this theater ever called the St. John Theater?
The Gem Theater was designed by local Kansas City architect George Carman.
Leo A. Desjardins was the architect of the Denver Oriental.
Regarding the statement: “The Garden Theater opened on August 13, 1912 and was designed by Kansas City architect Carl Boller — as were the Empress, Gayety, and Midland theaters.”
Thomas Lamb was the primary architect of the Midland Theater, and the Boller Brothers were the supervising architects.
Correction. I stated that the former site of the first Globe Theater at 1112 Walnut is now occupied by Commerce Bank Arcade. That is incorrect. Town Pavilion tower nows sits on the site of the former theater.
The new Kansas City Repertory Theater will be opening on the former site of the Globe Theater in February of 2007. The new theater building, completed in 2006, is part of the new Power & Light entertainment district.
The second Globe Theater at 1300 Walnut (southwest corner of E. 13th and Walnut) has the distinction of screening the first talking movie in Kansas City. It was constructed in 1913, and demolished in 1932. The site remained a surface parking lot from 1932-2005.
The second Globe Theater was constructed after the first Globe Theater (1112 Walnut between E. 11th and 12th streets) was demolished in 1913 to make way for the Klein’s Department Store. Klein’s closed and was demolished. Commerce Bank Arcade sits on the property today.
The first Globe Theater was located in a building constructed in the 1880s as a firehouse. It was later converted into a cabaret; then the Majestic burlesque and vaudeville theater; was for a time a Pantages vaudeville house; and finally was called the Globe Theater, again a vaudeville venue.
Information and photos about the first Globe Theater can be found here:
View link
View link
View link
View link
While I’ve not been able to find a good photo of the second Globe Theater on the southwest corner of E. 13th and Walnut, I was able to find a photo of downtown Kansas City on the KC Public Library website, where one can see it in the photo.
Here is a photo from the early 1920s looking west along 13th Street. The roof and east facade of the second Globe Theater can be seen directly under the smokestack in the picture, and to the left of the low-rise white brick building with the big, dark windows (the former Jones department store).
Three other theaters are also apparent in the photo. In the lower left is the roof and back facade of the former Garden Theater (one of the Boller Brothers’s first atmospheric theaters); on the right mid-portion of the photo is the east and south facades of the B. Marcus Priteca-designed Pantages Tower Theater (right, below the skeleton of a skyscraper being built); on the middle left edge of the photo is the Rapp & Rapp-designed Mainstreet (Empire) Theater (small, light-colored, domed building). The Mainstreet (Empire) is the only theater in the photo remaining. It is currently undergoing restoration and will reopen as an AMC Theaters all-digital 6-screen boutique cinema.
View link
Here are some references to the Globe Theater from the Kansas City Public Library’s local history database:
The “Vitaphone” Brings Another Important Screen Event Article about the presentation of the “first” talking movie in Kansas City, “Don Juan,” starring John Barrymore, on June 11, 1927, at the Globe Theater.
Source: Kansas City Star,
Date: June/12/1927
Page(s): 16D: 1
View link
Article about the demolition of the theater whose “greatest claim to histrionic distinction here [Kansas City] is that the talking movie…was introduced within the Globe walls.”
Source: Kansas City Star,
Date: April/21/1932
Page(s): 3: 3
View link
It is reported that the second Globe Theater did better as a vaudeville house than a movie theater.
Here is a live webcam view of the ongoing construction of the new entertainment district, named the Power & Light District, around the existing Mainstreet (Empire) Theater. The theater is the domed structure near the top of the image.
http://www.kcmo.org/cimo/webcam2.htm
The view will not be as good at night obviously, and also will be affected by weather. It may take a few seconds for the screen to appear on slower computers, or those using dial-up service.
The district will be anchored by the Midland and restored Mainstreet (Empire) theaters, the new Sprint Arena, and the newly restored Hilton President Hotel.
Another theater is being constructed across the street from the Mainstreet (Empire) Theater that will be an additional performance venue for the Kansas City Repertory Theatre. It is the building extending into the right center next to the parking garage in the lower right corner of the image. When viewing at night, it’s the building with the upturned floodlights on the sides of the structure.
Here’s a bit of interesting history. The new KC Rep. performance space sits on the former site of the Globe Theater, which was demolished in 1932. According to an article in the Kansas City Star reporting the demolition, the Globe’s “greatest claim to histrionic distinction here [Kansas City] is that the talking movie. ..was introduced within the Globe walls.”
The theater introduced Vitaphone to Kansas City with the screening of “Don Juan,” starring John Barrymore, on June 11, 1927.
Here are links to renderings of how the theater will appear after the renovation is completed. The name will change back to the original name, the Mainstreet Theater.
View link
These renderings show how the theater will fit into the surrounding entertainment district that is being constructed around it.
View link
View link