Kansas City Workhouse

The workhouse castle was built in 1897 on the corner of 21st and Vine St in Kansas City. There was an older, wooden workhouse (well it was three wooden buildings) built near the current site in 1879 at the corner of Flora and 20th. At the time the city's workhouse property extended west to east from Grove to Woodland, and north to south from 20th to 21st. In 1895 the city decided to condemn the wooden buildings as they were a fire hazard, too crowded, and unsanitary, and hired city architects A. Wallace Love, and James Oliver Hogg to design a new limestone workhouse. The Crenellated style (or: castles) were very much in vogue at the time, and since all the limestone was to be quarried on site by the workhouse prisoners, it was decided that it wasn't going to cost the city any more money to make the building a stylish castle. Work started in late 1896, and was completed and the building opened in December, 1897 for around $20,000-$30,000 (not adjusted for today's inflation).

It was the first building in Kansas City to have a steam-powered air ventilation system, you can still see some of the pipeworks in the building. The men's cellblock is the long section in the back, the middle section with the two towers had three floors, one floor for women, one for the guards, and one floor for boys. The towers were used by the guards as offices for the superintendent and as watchtowers. The shorter southern section of the L shape had two floors, the top floor was the dining hall, and the bottom was a basement storage area with a solitary confinement cell or two for unruly prisoners. There was also a few outbuildings on the property, including a laundry facility. The entire property had walls, a 4 foot stone wall along the front edge of Vine and 21st, then higher ones along 20th and Woodland. It was thought they were sufficient enough to keep in even the most dedicated escapees. Hint: they were not.

Men worked on the quarry wall, which if you walk out east around the property is the high wall with ramp. Women worked in the laundry and the kitchens, and the boys had school lessons and chores. The workhouse was very much run under the Victorian idea that work would reform bad citizens into model citizens. All of the prisoners kept at the workhouse were there for minor offenses such as public drunkeness, pickpocketing, petty theft, prostitution, fights, etc. There was a city jail for more violent prisoners such as murderers. Sentences in the workhouse were usually for no more than a year, oftentimes 3 or 6 months. There were many repeat offenders who used the workhouse as a warm place to stay. One of my favorite repeat offenders was "Stepladder" Wilson, who was a kleptomaniac with a fetish for stealing stepladders left untended, I have at least 5 articles about him being sentenced to the workhouse for his crimes over a period of 3-4 years.

The castle was used as a workhouse for both men and women (and unruly boys) up until 1911, when again, just like the former wooden workhouse, the castle became too crowded and unsanitary. The men were moved out to the new Municipal Farm at Leeds (on Ozark Rd near 435 and Raytown Rd), which was a better Victorian-era project as they could learn more useful life skills like farming instead of quarrying rocks. The Jackson County Historical Society has a great collection of photos from the farm. The women of the workhouse were moved to the farm in 1918 after the Women's Reformatory was opened. The Leeds Tuberculosis hospital was opened at the site as well in 1915. The farm was used as a workhouse for a very long time until a minor offense correctional facility was built out there in the 60s, the Municipal Corrections Facility. MCI closed in 2009 and the tuberculosis hospital building was torn down in 1971 (which makes me sad, it was a beautiful building). Plans are underway to turn the farm property into a community garden and other features.

After 1918 the historical info on the castle gets a little murky, the city used it as various city offices for several decades, including the transportation department (you can see on the south side of the main cellblock section where they cut garage doors into the side so they could use the cellblock as a maintenance bay). In approximately 1972, the city decided to abandon the building, and removed the floors and ceilings. The windows were cinderblocked in, and the building has been rotting away ever since. The city sold the property in 2006 to Ephram Taylor, but was able to get it registered on the city historical landmark list with a facade easement on it in October 2007, just before Taylor's company was to tear it down to build condos.

In 2014 the property was purchased by the non-profit 2ormore, who plans to turn it into a community center with gardens, wedding venue, and more. If you are interested in helping out with the project you should visit their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WorkhouseCastle

And there you have it, hopefully the castle is now headed for a beautiful new chapter in its 117 year old life!