Herstory of the City, Part I
The Luzier Cosmetics Building, located at 3216 Gilham, is among the nearly 1000 buildings in Kansas City that Nelle Peters designed.
Published March 1, 2022
A NOTE FROM THE WRITER: When I started disKCovery, it was not only about sharing my own journey to discover Kansas City, but a way to push myself to continue being a tourist in this city that I am proud to call home. While that journey is largely about the Kansas City we know now, it can be difficult to understand and truly love a city without understanding the context of what we see today. So for this month, Women’s History Month, I am going to step away from my usual programming, look back at this city’s past, and post a series of essays that explore some of the kick-ass ladies who helped shape our city, our region, and the world.
There are a few reasons that writers write. As for me, this month, I am going to share the stories of some incredible Kansas City women. Whether or not you are entertained, persuaded, or informed; well my friend, that is up to you.
I still remember my first day of Social Studies in the 8th grade. The bell rang and as we all found our desks, our teacher, Mr. Darrach, walked up to the chalkboard and wrote in big letters, “HISTORY”. Without saying a word, he then drew a line through the S, separating it into its logical components.
HIS | STORY
Mr. Darrach, borrowing from Winston Churchill, explained that, “History is written by the victors.” While history is a record of fact and actual events, it is still heavily influenced by those who chose to tell the story. What events and people get remembered? Which stories survive for generations? What vantage points continue to persist? What people and events get cast away and forgotten altogether? These are all decisions, whether intentional or not, by history’s authors.
When I close my eyes, I can still vividly see that chalkboard. It’s an illustration that reminds me that those who won got to write the story. In reality, the word history is not a portmanteau of “his story” but is actually derived from the Greek “istoria”, a term that refers to the acquisition of knowledge. However, on that August day in Missouri in 1999, Mr. Darrach’s point rang true. And nearly 23 years later, it still does.
“Those in power write the history while those who suffer write the songs.”
I think about that chalkboard and I remember those who were in the classroom with me that day. I realize that as a society, our acquisition of knowledge is largely incomplete. I realize that the “his story” we were about to learn didn’t represent 57% of my classmates.
For almost all of history, the winners who wrote the stories have been male and it is that point of view that has shaped the history that have been passed on to us. As long as humanity has existed, logic would dictate that approximately half of the population has been women (right now that number sits at about 51%) and yet, the stories we tell often overlook their contributions and their impact.
I would take it a step further and tell you that when you go back and truly read the story of our species, women are largely nonexistent. It is baffling to believe that such a thing can even be possible, but that is the reality of things.
Frank Harte once quipped that, “Those in power write the history while those who suffer write the songs.” But what happens when history is made by the ones who also suffered? What happens when the contributions of the songwriters are lost in the wake of a slanted historical perspective? What happens when we’re taught all the lyrics, but never given the melody?
To know Kansas City’s story is to know our story. In order to know our story, we must know her story, in addition to his.
To love Kansas City is to know it completely. We cannot hope to know our city without a celebration of our heroes AND our sheroes.
In the coming pages, I tell the stories of just a handful of the women who helped make Kansas City what it is today. These essays are not intended to give our city’s entire herstory, but at least to get the ball rolling. You may read about women who you know but never realized their connection to this city. You may vaguely know some of the names and others may be entirely unfamiliar to you.
History erects monuments and throws its names on streets, parks, buildings, and institutions meant to stand the test of time. History tells the stories while the conquered, and those made to feel second-class, wrote the songs. Songs may be seen as fleeting and easily forgotten but they have an underrated strength and perseverance. Songs have a unique way of not only surviving but of finding new life. Songs have a way of uniting people and completing the picture.
Kansas City is littered with the notes, riffs, and rhythms of herstory. The tapestry of Kansas City’s story is woven together by the threads of those who were left to write songs because they did not have the societal power to write the story. And if you take a deep breath, open your eyes, perk up your ears, and push yourself out of the familiar comfort of a story you thought you knew, you might just be able to pick up that melody.
PART 1: We Built This City
No matter the medium, the characteristic that all artists share is their eye. They all possess this remarkable ability to look at a blank canvas, a sheet of paper, or a lump of clay and see something within it that nobody else could possibly ever see. Even more incredible, is that they find a way to, through patience, skill, and determination, bring their vision to life so others may enjoy what only the artist once saw.
Cities are very much the same way. In the grand scheme of things, it was not that long ago that Kansas City was a collection of rolling hills, vast plains, and one very muddy river. From that canvas, an outpost grew, and then a town, and all of a sudden between the late 1800s and early 1900s, a city sprung up in the heart of America.
Today, we possess a beautiful downtown skyline. We have a plethora of vibrant neighborhoods, iconic districts, and landmark buildings that were built upon what was once nothing more than a lump of clay. We share an identity as a people and as a city that has been pulled from what once were blank pages. We have the city we have today because a number of artists manifested what they believed Kansas City could be on their canvas at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers.
And when it comes to the physical city that sprung up here in the early 20th Century, which made way for the KC we know today, perhaps there was no artist more instrumental than Nelle Peters.
Kansas City’s Architect
Nelle Peters (1884 - 1974)
Nelle Peters designed nearly 1,000 Kansas City buildings during the first half of the 20th Century. PHOTO COURTESY OF: Missouri Valley Special Collections
Possibly the most prolific architect in the history of this city, Nelle Peters designed nearly 1,000 Kansas City buildings. This woman, who left her indelible mark on, and helped contribute so much beauty to, the city could not have come from more humble, or drab, beginnings.
Nelle Peters was born Nelle Nichols (don’t worry, not THAT Nichols) in Niagara, North Dakota in 1884. Her parents were farmers and raised Nelle and her three siblings in a sod home on their prairie farm. From a young age, Nelle showed an interest in mathematics and a flair for drawing. Eventually the family moved to Minnesota before settling in Storm Lake, Iowa.
It was while in Storm Lake that, at the age of fifteen, Nelle enrolled at Buena Vista College where she studied art, music, and math. After four years at Buena Vista, Nelle sought to utilize her penchant for design and drawing and her love of math. She quickly realized that architecture was at the crossroads of both disciplines and moved to nearby Sioux City, Iowa to find work in 1902.
Aside from a talent in math and design, architecture appealed to Nelle because it was largely unregulated at the time. Buena Vista College was not an accredited school nor did it confer degrees. Such credentials were not a barrier to entry into the world of architecture but, unfortunately, her sex was.
She struggled to find work in Sioux City as every firm was hesitant to hire a woman. Nevertheless, she persisted. In 1903, Nelle convinced Eisentrout, Colby, and Pottenger to take a chance on her when they hired her as a drafter for three dollars per week. After four years with the firm, they transferred her to their office in Kansas City, Missouri.
Even in a larger city, and gainfully employed, Nelle struggled to find work. Architecture was very much a male-dominated industry and many were resistant to the idea of a female architect. The firm she worked for was reluctant to commission her for any projects.
After two years with the Kansas City branch, she felt she had no choice but to leave the company and go off on her own in 1909. As an independent architect, she designed a few small houses at a fee of $15 each. In order to not appear as though she were a novice, she labeled her first commission as “No. 25”. In 1913, the Phillips Building Company decided to hire Nelle. Charles Phillips, the real estate developer who owned the company, was such a fan that he commissioned Nelle to design his personal home (5825 Overhill Road).
In 1925, 12 major hotels were constructed in Kansas City, Missouri. Nelle Peters designed four of them. Among those was the Ambassador Hotel at 35th and Broadway which contained 105 apartments, 108 hotel rooms, and a beautiful rooftop garden. PHOTO COURTESY OF: Missouri Valley Special Collections
In 1911, Nelle had married William H. Peters who was a design engineer with the Kansas City Terminal Railway. The couple divorced in 1923, but that did not prevent Nelle from keeping the Peters surname for the rest of her life. While her marriage had come to an end in the early 20s, Nelle Peters entered the peak of her career.
While simply being a female architect made her stand out in the industry, it was her efficient and detailed building designs that earned her a local, and national, reputation. Peters specialized in apartment buildings, hotels, and office buildings. Her trademark was to place apartment buildings around a central courtyard. Within her buildings, the apartment units themselves were praised for their utilization of space. Peters had a way of creating functional areas with an open feel that took up very little space. A visionary when it came to kitchenettes, some of her apartments had kitchens that were smaller than 70 square feet but still felt larger than standard apartment kitchens of the time. In one interview with a local newspaper, Peters credited her “mechanical mind” for her architectural prowess.
While efficiency was Peters’ calling card, that does not mean she sacrificed architectural beauty. An artist in every sense of the word, Peters was known for her frequent utilization of terra cotta ornamentation in her building designs.
Among her most notable local buildings were the Luzier Cosmetics Building (3216 Gillham Plaza), the Ambassador Hotel (3560 Broadway), the Valentine Hotel (3724 Broadway), and the Literary Block, a group of apartment buildings on the west side of the Country Club Plaza named for famed writers. In fact, Peters designed much of what we now consider Midtown. Her portfolio extended beyond Kansas City to include a number of buildings across Missouri and Oklahoma, as well as buildings in New Jersey, North Carolina, and Ohio.
“I like to feel like I am doing something worthwhile, something fundamentally necessary.”
As the 1920s gave way to the 30s, the demand for apartments, hotels, and office buildings quelled due to the Great Depression and later on, the onset of the second World War. During the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, Peters was forced to work a second job as a seamstress to support herself while she continued to design buildings. While Peters would officially retire from architecture in 1964, she had not taken a commission for the decade prior. Nelle Peters passed away in Sedalia, Missouri ten years later.
Today, there are two local historic districts that bear Nelle Peters’ name. Even still, she is largely unknown in the city that she designed. Her name has been all but forgotten in the annals of history. And yet, much like the spirit of Nelle Peters herself, her artistry persists. Hundreds of buildings that she conceived continue to beautify the skyline of Kansas City. This city shines bright because Peters shared a vision for what Kansas City could be that has, by and large, stood the test of time.
So, What Do I Do Now? Nelle Peters was most famous for her innovative apartment designs. Sadly, housing in general rarely stands the test of time. Fortunately for all of us, one of her crown jewels of apartment design has been, at least partially, preserved with designation as a local historic district. The “Literary Block” on the west side of the Country Club Plaza was once comprised of thirteen builidings. Six of these buildings, named for famed writers, are still protected. The Literary Block at 48th and Roanoke in Kansas City, Missouri remains a marvel of design and efficiency.
Located west of the Country Club Plaza, every apartment building in Nelle Peters’ famed “Literary Block” is named for a famous writer. Pictured here are The Mark Twain (top left), The Robert Browning (top right), the Eugene Field (bottom left), and The James Russell Lowell (bottom right).
Kansas City’s Librarian
Carrie Westlake Whitney (1854? - 1934)
While Nelle Peters helped to mold the physical facade of Kansas City, Carrie Westlake Whitney went to work on molding the city’s people. She had a clear vision for what she believed the city could be but, unlike Peters, her vision did not involve brick and mortar. Well, at least initially. Whitney cared about the people of Kansas City and feeding their minds and spirits. Carrie Westlake Whitney understood that making education available to the masses was key to the overall progress of any city.
Though the exact year of her birth continues to be up for debate, Carrie Westlake was born in the early 1850s on a plantation in Fayette County, Virginia. In her youth, the family moved around quite a bit as they made their way west. As a teenager, Carrie stayed with a family member in St. Louis where she attended private school. The rest of her family settled in Sedalia, Missouri. Eventually, Carrie joined her family in Sedalia where she met and married her first husband, Dr. E.W. Judson in 1875. Within five years, she and Judson had divorced and her family had continued west. Carrie decided to stay in Missouri and made her way to Kansas City.
In 1874, James Greenwood became the superintendent of Kansas City schools. As part of his early initiatives, he bought a small collection of books that were kept in his office and became the foundation for Kansas City’s first library. In 1880, he hired Carrie Westlake to work as a bookkeeper and to assist with the library.
As the collection grew from a handful of volumes to nearly 1,000 books, both Greenwood and the city saw the need for an actual library and a librarian to run it. Recognizing her talent and knowledge, Greenwood appointed Carrie Westlake as the first librarian in Kansas City history in 1881. Later, Greenwood would describe Westlake as, “the smartest woman I ever knew.”
Carrie Westlake Whitney, for all intents and purposes, was the Mother of the Kansas City Public Library system. PHOTO COURTESY OF: Missouri Valley Special Collections
In 1885, Carrie Westlake would marry Kansas City Star reporter James Whitney. When he passed away due to complications from tuberculosis in 1890, Carrie Westlake Whitney moved in with Frances Bishop, who she hired as the city’s first assistant librarian. Bishop was a woman that was later described as an “inseparable friend” to Carrie Westlake Whitney.
As Kansas City’s full-time librarian, Whitney spurred the growth of the library. In the library’s infancy, it was a subscription based service where patrons paid $2 per year for a membership to be able to utilize the library. Under Whitney’s leadership, she exponentially increased the library’s collection, which in turn led to rapid increases in the number of subscribers.
She made the library more accessible to children and expanded the library’s hours. While a staunch opponent of censorship, she was very particular about the books made available to children. She preferred to purchase nonfiction and biographies over novels and fiction, though the library had plenty of both. It was said that when a child asked for a book that she did not have, Westlake made it a point to order multiple copies. As the collection and subscriber base grew, Westlake lobbied and fundraised for a new library space.
“We need more room, more money, and more, many more books!”
In 1889, Whitney got her wish when the library moved into a $10,000 facility that was the first building ever built for the exclusive purpose of housing the Kansas City Public Library. Over the next nine years it continued to grow. By 1897, she had grown the library’s collection to over 50,000 books and documents. Whitney had terminated the subscription model that required paid memberships in order to borrow books. It was time for a new home.
A reading room inside of the 9th & Locust Kansas City Public Library circa 1897. PHOTO COURTESY OF: Missouri Valley Special Collections
In 1898, a beautiful new library was built at the corner of 9th Street and Locust Street with a price tag of $200,000! Always a believer in the importance of introducing children to books at a young age, Whitney made sure the new building contained a children’s library. Now available to all residents of Kansas City, it is estimated that one out of seven Kansas Citians visited the new library in the first two days after it opened.
In 1901, Whitney was elected as the first president of the Missouri Library Association. In 1908, she authored a three volume series titled Kansas City, Missouri: Its History and Its People which contained over 300 biographies of Kansas Citians within it’s 2000 plus pages. It is one of the rare instances in Kansas City’s past where a woman got to write the story. Today, many credit these volumes by Whitney with providing an in-depth history of Kansas City during the turn of the century that otherwise, would have likely been forgotten. It is hard to say whether Carrie Westlake Whitney’s name would be known at all without these efforts.
During a career of thirty years as this city’s librarian, Carrie Westlake Whitney had taken a meager stack of encyclopedias in the corner of the superintendent’s office and had grown them into a library that was the envy of many major cities nationwide. Her example and leadership led to the establishment of and improvement within libraries all across the State of Missouri. Yet, it wasn’t enough for some.
“Mrs. Whitney’s biography is the history of the Kansas City Public Library.”
In 1910, the Kansas City Board of Education completely disregarded three decades of accomplishment. By this time, the Kansas Public Library’s collection neared 100,000 books. Many members made it known that they believed her unfit for the position due to her being a woman. These board members believed that a man was needed to take the Kansas City Public Library system to new heights. When they asked Whitney for her resignation that year, she refused and continued her life’s work. Many within the community petitioned for the Board to keep Whitney as the head librarian to no avail.
In 1908, Whitney authored the most comprehensive history of the area’s first 100 years. Today, many credit her with preserving that chapter of KC history. PHOTO COURTESY OF: Buckingham Books
In 1911, the Kansas City Board of Education lured St. Joseph, Missouri native Purd Wright away from his job as Head Librarian in Los Angeles with a reported salary offer of $5,000.00 per year. This was more than double what Whitney was being paid. To appease dissidents in the community, the Board demoted Whitney to Assistant Librarian but continued to pay her the same salary she had made as Head Librarian.
Within a year, friction between Wright and Whitney created a toxic working environment and the Board forced Whitney to retire in 1912 in order to maintain Wright as Head Librarian. In the years that followed, Whitney continued to live with her friend Frances Bishop but she became rather reclusive. She rarely made appearances at library conventions and Library Association meetings even though she was often invited and still was largely respected among those in the library community.
Carrie Westlake Whitney passed away from pneumonia-related complications at Saint Luke’s Hospital in 1934 and was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery.
So, What Do I Do Now? Do what Carrie would have wanted you to do and get to the library and check out a book! Maybe you could even peruse a copy of her own, Kansas City, Missouri: Its History and Its People. Or perhaps while visiting Nelle Peters’ Literary Block, you can add another literary block to the list by paying a visit to the “Community Bookshelf” in Kansas City’s Library District. This facade of 22 gigantic library books spans an entire city block on 10th Street at the Central Library’s parking garage. Just blocks away from where Whitney built her $200,000 library in 1898, one of the books included in the facade is Whitney’s famous telling of Kansas City’s history.
Today, the Community Bookshelf, at the Library District’s parking garage, is a favorite site for photos. Included among these books is Carrie Westlake Whitney’s own history of Kansas City.
Notes take shape and form themselves into bars we can easily hum. Soon enough, we realize that Kansas City truly was built not only by the men whose names we remember, but also by the women whose names history has demanded that we forget. A song gets stuck in our heads and suddenly, I cannot drive by a library without thinking of Whitney. I cannot help but notice the terra cotta ornamentation that Peters has littered throughout KC.
And yet, despite their undeniable influence on this city becoming what it is today, by and large, we have been asked to forget Nelle Peters and Carrie Westlake Whitney. History attempts to drown out that song.
To Kansas City’s credit, two historic districts in this city have been named for Peters and a number of her building have been preserved, but even more have been lost. In recent years, buildings and blocks that should have been protected have fallen into disrepair. The vast majority of Peters’ famed Literary Block has been left unprotected. Even though she was a driving force in transforming the Town of Kansas into Kansas City, more of Peters’ work is lost every year. Her name remains largely unknown outside of architecture aficionados.
“Kansas City truly was built not only by the men whose names we remember, but also by the women whose names history has demanded that we forget.”
As for Carrie Westlake Whitney, hers is similarly a story that the Kansas City Public Library seems to want us to forget. When she wrote Kansas City, Missouri: Its History and Its People, she rightfully chose to include herself within the historical tome. She wrote about herself that her “biography is the history of the Kansas City Public Library”. And while she could not be more correct, not a single branch, building, or even reading room within the Kansas City Public Library system bears her name. Despite preserving this city’s history and making education accessible to the people of this city, the local institution that she built cannot be bothered to celebrate her accomplishments.
I cannot imagine this city being nearly as beautiful without Nelle Peters. I cannot imagine even attempting to recount the herstory of Kansas City without Carrie Westlake Whitney’s efforts to establish a library system. Kansas City would not be Kansas City without them.
Yet, when the institutions in this city that Peters and Whitney helped shape refuse to remember them, it is no wonder that sadly, Nelle Peters and Carrie Westlake Whitney are women whose names have largely been buried beneath the weight of Kansas City’s history.
Nevertheless, their contributions, and that melody, persists.
Join me next week, as we continue of exploration of Kansas City’s herstory and the amazing women who made our city what it is today.
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Have a favorite icon of Kansas City herstory? Or maybe a fun tidbit about Peters or Whitney? Let me hear it in the comments!
Many thanks to my mother, Janell Dignan, for proofreading and editing these stories. I would not have pulled off finishing this series without you!
And a very special thank you to Scott Darrach for fostering within me a love of history, that in turn drove me to learn more about Kansas City’s herstory.
