Muehlebach Hotel

Hotel Muehlebach landmark sign looking down Baltimore Ave. toward theKansas City Power and Light Buildingand theLiberty Memorial.The windowless structure is an addition to the original hotel. It contains ballrooms, meeting and conference rooms, added in the early 1950s.

TheHotel Muehlebach(/ˈmjuːlbɑːk/) is a historic hotel building inDowntown Kansas Citythat was visited by every President fromTheodore RoosevelttoRonald Reagan.It is currently operated as one of three wings of theKansas City Marriott Downtownhotel.

History

The property, then the site of the First Baptist Church, was acquired in 1914 by the Muehlebach Estate Co., owned by George E. Muehlebach, whose father, George E. Muehlebach Sr., founded theMuehlebach BeerCompany.Muehlebach demolished the church and built a 12-story, 144 foot (44m) high brown brick hotel building designed byHolabird & Rocheat a cost of $2 million. It opened as theHotel Muehlebachin May, 1915. The younger Muehlebach also builtMuehlebach Field.

On December 5, 1922, the hotel was the location of the first regular radio program broadcast by a band, when Carleton Coon andJoe Sandersbegan broadcasting the performances of theirCoon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestranationwide.

Manager Barney Allis took over the hotel in 1931, and during his lengthy tenure, the hotel welcomed celebrities includingHelen Keller,Ernest Hemingway,Babe Ruth,Jean Harlow(1931),Frank Sinatra,Bob Hope,Elvis Presley,Jimi Hendrix Experience andThe Beatles.The hotel also hosted Presidents includingTheodore Roosevelt,Woodrow Wilson,Calvin CoolidgeandHerbert Hoover,while Missouri-nativeHarry S. Trumanstayed in the hotel’s Presidential Suite so frequently that the Muehlebach became known asWhite House West.

In 1952, a 17-story western annex, called the Muehlebach Tower, and a parking lot, were added to the hotel. Allis sold the hotel in the 1960s.The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United Statesforeclosed on the hotel in the early 1970s. In 1974, they renovated the hotel, at a cost of $7 million, and contracted with Minneapolis-basedRadisson Hotelsto manage the hotel, as theRadisson Muehlebach Hotel.The hotel served as the headquarters for the1976 Republican National Convention.It closed permanently in 1986.

In 1996Marriott Hotelsbought the Muehlebach and made it into an extension of theKansas City Marriott Downtown,a huge adjacent hotel originally built in 1985 as theVista International Hotel.Theyimplodedthe 1952 Muehlebach Tower annex building and in 1998 built a new, modern Muehlebach tower in its place. A "skybridge" was also built that connects both hotel buildings on their second floors. The original 1915 Muehlebach building's lobby and ballrooms were restored and are now used as banquet and convention facilities by the Marriott. The original hotel guest room floors above have been gutted and remain unused.A cocktail lounge, Voo Lounge, opened in the structure's ground floor in 2023.

Crowd watching the 1996 implosion of the Muehlebach Towers.

Barbershop Harmony Society

TheBarbershop Harmony Society(SPEBSQSA, Inc.) traces its beginnings to a chance meeting in 1938 in the Muehlebach's lobby between two businessmen from Tulsa, Oklahoma. The two found two other men and sang their way through a snowstorm that had marooned all four at the hotel. A few weeks later, they convened several like-minded singers at a meeting in Tulsa, and from that the 25,000 member international organization was founded. The two businessmen's original meeting is now commemorated on a plaque in the restored original lobby of the hotel.

Famous guests

During the1928 Republican National Convention,held across the street atConvention Hall,Herbert Hooverfrequented the hotel.

Howard Hugheshad thepresidential suiteduring his 1945 stay.

The Muehlebach was theWhite Househeadquarters forHarry S. Trumanduring his frequent visits to his home in nearbyIndependence, Missouri.Truman stayed in Independence but conducted business in the Presidential Suite in the hotel's penthouse.Truman signed theTruman Doctrinelegislation aid forTurkeyandGreeceat the hotel on May 22, 1947. In thetrue crimenovelIn Cold BloodbyTruman Capote,killerDick Hickockclaims to have shaken hands with Truman in the lobby during one of his visits.

Truman predicted his upset victory to staffers at the hotel during election night 1948 (although he spent the night out of the media spotlight at theElms HotelinExcelsior Springs, Missouri). The Presidential Suite was later renamed the Harry S. Truman Presidential Suite following his terms of office.

Roy O. Disneyspent the night in July 1956 before spending the Fourth of July inMarceline, Missouriwith his brother,Walt Disney.

In 1959 the Society of American Registered Architects (SARA), founded by architectWilfred Gregsonin 1956 with the mission of "Architect Helping Architect", held its first national conference at the Hotel Muehlebach. Gregson reported to those assembled: "You are the ones who have made the first great step toward a unified profession of architects. You are a living report that will go to every part of these fifty United States".

In the fall of 1974, PresidentGerald Fordstayed at the Muehlebach when he was in town as the keynote speaker for the National FFA Convention. He shook hands with many of the FFA band members that were standing in a rope line in the lobby. The band members were also staying at the hotel the same week.

During the1976 Republican National ConventionbothGerald FordandRonald Reaganmade pitches for delegates at the Radisson Muehlebach.

Immediately following the 1976 Republican Convention,Robert A. Heinleinwas the Guest of Honor at the34th World Science Fiction Conventionheld at the Radisson Muehlebach and theHotel Phillips,directly across the street. He was booked into the Muehlebach's Harry S. Truman Presidential Suite for the 5-day convention held during the 1976Labor Dayweekend.

Among the other celebrity guests that stayed at the Muehlebach wereBabe Ruth,theBeatles,Jimi Hendrix Experience andElvis Presley.

External links

• Kansas City Marriott Downtown official website
• Truman Library history
• Emporis History^[usurped]
• Kansas City Public Library resources