Corinthian Hall has been restored and renovated to create a 21st-century city museum that explores Kansas City’s history and cultural heritage. There will be history- and humanities-based exhibitions, programs, events, experiences, and amenities such as a cafe, soda fountain, retail store, and theater.
The restoration and renovation of the Kansas City Museum property (all five existing, original buildings and grounds on 3.5 acres) is a multi-year, multi-staged endeavor.
Stage I is the restoration and renovation of Corinthian Hall (the mansion). Construction is complete, and exhibits are being finalized with fabrication and installation scheduled to begin in July 2020. Corinthian Hall is planned to reopen to the public in 2021.
Stages II & III (timeline to be determined) will include the future restoration and renovation of the remaining buildings and grounds on the property. Each stage will open to the public upon completion. Remaining buildings include the Carriage House, Horse Trainer’s Home, Carpenter’s Shed, and Conservatory (became a planetarium in the early 1950s). The grounds include the Pergola, Paddock Area, and Perimeter Fence and Gates.
For Stage I, International Architects Atelier (IAA) is the lead, primary architectural design and planning firm, and JE Dunn Construction Co. (JE Dunn) is the Construction Manager.
Gallagher & Associates, an internationally recognized museum planning and design firm, is working with International Architects Atelier and the Museum design team (including staff, historians, curators, artists, and educators) to create the exhibitions and media for Corinthian Hall.
The mission of the Kansas City Museum is to preserve, interpret, and celebrate Kansas City through collections, exhibitions, and bold programs that reflect the City’s evolution and spirit, and engage visitors in unfolding stories about Kansas City’s vibrant history, cultural heritage, and pride.
The Museum is developing print and digital content for exhibitions and programs that focus on these unfolding stories of Kansas City and its people, and in particular, the often untold stories of our City. Content will be rich in its interpretation of the City’s past, as well as relevant and responsive to contemporary interests, issues, and viewpoints.
Artifacts and archival materials from the Museum’s historical collections will be featured in the exhibition galleries. Visitors will also experience digital media (video, film, soundscapes, oral histories, interactives) and visual art. The Museum will create print and digital content in collaboration with organizational partners and the community. Robust and inclusive education and public programs and events—for a multicultural, intergenerational audience—will enhance and advance exhibit content, further exploring themes, topics, issues, perspectives, and relationships. Corinthian Hall has been intentionally designed to include opportunities for performing arts programming such as music, dance, and theater performances.
The front doors of Corinthian Hall are the main entrance to the Museum. Content will introduce R.A. Long and Corinthian Hall as well as the new Kansas City Museum. There will be an admissions desk in the Grand Hall. The Gand Hall will also be used for programs and events.
Topics include: 1934 Corinthian Hall auction, travel, art, and decor, Corinthian Hall interior design by William Baumgarten & Company, and Corinthian Hall architect Henry Hoit. Linda Lighton's "Luminous" light sculpture and chandelier is the centerpiece of the Salon.
Topics include: George Kessler and the parks system, Mr. Long's civic leadership and philantrhopy, Long-Bell Lumber Company, and Mr. Long's partnership with architect Henry Hoit. The perimeter cabinets will be used for rotating displays of contemporary ceramics and historical materials from the Museum's collections.
Topics include: family life and formality, family dining, Sally America Long Ellis, Admiral Hayne Ellis, and the Liberty Memorial dedication and consecration.
Topics include: work and leisure, Ella Long as wife and matriarch, Longview Farm, American Royal, Loula Long Combs, and the transition from private estate to public museum. An interactive will explore the restorataion and renovation process through historical photographs, original architectural drawings and blueprints, models, and construction documentation.
A Letter of Interest and Request for Qualifications will be released in May to select a culinary professional to lease the cafe space to create a unique desintation food experience. The cafe has been designed for culinary programs and cooking classes in addition to food service. The adjacent original Breafast Room will have seating for the cafe.
Topics include: early Museum auxiliaries, John Ripley Forbes (Museum's first director), original floor plans, and the One Percent for Art Program. Artworks by Marv Graff (landing platform) and Zac Laman (three murals in the west staircase; one mural per floor) will be visible from the landing.
Topics include: American Indians in the region, Osage tribe, French, Spanish, and American settlers, York and the Lewis & Clark expedition, railroad transportation, Hannibal Bridge, slavery, Civil War, and Order No. 11. An animated map will cover shifting populations, migration patterns, and the effects of industrialization on the region including expansions west, American Indian displacement, the trails system, Civil War, abolition of slavery, development of railroads, and waterway engineering innovations.
Topics include: innovations in urban planning, City of Fountains, parks system and recreation, police and fire departments, communities and culture, segregation, and the legacy of Jim Crow. An interactive will focus on who is left out of the newly built-up City. As the City grows and prospers, African Americans are consistently shut out of its new institutions. Five such institutions will be explored: housing, education, leisure, healthcare, and employment. First-hand accounts will offer a sense of how African Americans were systematically excluded from these institutions, and the opportunities and services that developed within the community to combat this exclusion.
Topics include: Kansas City jazz, clubs and culture, prohibition, politics, growing industries and work forces, stockyard and railroads, unions and reform, and suffrage. A linear media piece will focus on the lives of new immigrants and migrants who contributed to the character and landscape of Kansas City. The stories will be oriented around objects they owned.
Topics include: rebuilding the City, American Housing Act of 1949, Great Flood of 1951, rise of new industries, building boom, culture, sports, and leisure, Sister Cities, entrepreneurship, segregation and racial tensions, suburbs, schools, Civil Rights, Freedom Inc., and Phoenix Society for Individual Freedom. A film will explore Kansas City’s history, from the 1940s to the 1980s, by showcasing different perspectives on major transformations to the City’s DNA. Conversations will also examine the entrepreneurial spirit and unpack the term urban renewal. The film will put the City’s defining moments into dialogue with the City’s current climate to provide historical and contemporary perspectives.
This special exhibitions gallery will showcase the breadth and depth of the Museum’s permanent collections with limited-run exhibits using curated materials from one of the Museum's collection groups (i.e. the Archives, the Medical Collection, the Dyer Collection of Native American Culture, and the Clothing & Textiles Collection).
This gallery will feature a timeline of defining events around the perimeter of the room and an interior structure for limited-run exhibits about neighborhoods (focusing on one or two neighborhoods per year). These exhibits will be developed in collaboration with neighborhood residents and leaders, and in partnership with UMKC’s Center for Neighborhoods. Content will explore neighborhood history, personal stories of residents, collective memory, neighborhood identity, cultural equity, historic preservation, cultural and educational assets, sustainability, current issues, challenges, and opportunities, hopes and dreams for the future, etc. Videos will spotlight everyday snapshots of life as it is lived in different neighborhoods and by different people in Kansas City to share the vibrancy, heritage, and vitality of the neighborhoods. A soundscape will capture the sound of the featured neighborhood.
This 42-seat multipurpose theater will be used for specific programming needs including: films, videos, music or performing arts events, lectures and workshops, and community gatherings.
This story sharing space will be used for storytelling programs, and collecting and experiencing oral histories and other media-based platforms inlcuding podcasts and radio.
This changing gallery will be used for limited-run history, art, and culture exhibitions using objects from the Museum's collection and items on loan. Exhibits will provide visitors with a behind-the-scenes experience of how and why the Museum collects, conservation practices, and how one object can lead to a multiplicity of stories. A video installation on loop will show the collection storage areas filmed row by row and with a focus on specific items from each collection group. Near the entrance of the changing galleries, visitors will experience a new artwork by Stephen Proski.
This lower level will have a Billiard Room to play billiards and other games, a Soda Fountain for a unique and nostaglic food and beverage experience, and interpretive content. Topics include: Corinthian Hall mansion staff, the technological and environmental environment and innovations of the mansion, recreation in the early 1900s including games, bowling, and billiards, and the history of the soda fountains.
LOWER LEVEL
SECOND FLOOR
FIRST FLOOR
THIRD FLOOR
