Sunset, Scarritt Point

A Grand Demise

High water marks aren't the only things we erase in KC.... more often it's whole buildings. The Grand Opera House (ironically on Walnut) is now being rubblelized. Built in 1881 it entertained audiences for 40 years.... it was closed in 1921, gutted, and reopened in 1926 as a parking garage.

That reconstruction rendered it basically unusable in any other way and made it ineligible for any National Register nominating. I would ask though why the facade could not have been saved.... it wouldn't have cost that much and you could still have your surface parking lot... which is what it is destined to be. Many thanks to Kent Dicus who sent me the picture of this wonderful building in its heyday.

Can't Quite Reach

One of the taller self-supporting broadcast towers in the world, KCTV's red giant looms over 31st and Grand. Many folks think it's the KCPT tower since their studios are right next door but the building used to house channel five before it bolted for the burbs. Often times in winter huge chunks of ice rain down from above and necessitate closing the surrounding streets until the danger is passed.

Speaking of Floods

The plaques are on a wall of the observation tower by the river at the foot of Main Street in the River Market and show the levels of three of our floods. In 1993, thank goodness, the levees held and there was no flooding in the bottoms. Notice how similar the dates are.

Lost Inscription

One of my posts below was of a building which had the high water mark written on it from the flood of 1951. Well the people that are "renovating" the building apparently decided that history is irrelevant to the future (unless they are going to put up some plaque in its place... right). So... at least I have a photo of it... and now you will too. I want to make it harder to stamp out the past. Here it is... the location in the first photo and a crop in the second.

Finally Crocus Amongus

This pair has bloomed, usually, in February for decades. This year they waited until March 14th. I think daylight savings threw them off.

But, worth the wait. Taken today.

Going Green in the West Bottoms

Continuing the brief color theme of the blog are these doors on buildings in the West Bottoms. Some Photoshop manipulation of photos 1 and 3. The middle one truly is that bright. In the bottom photo about 4 feet above the "1011" a note is written on the bricks, in white paint. It says: "Friday, July 13th, 1951" with a line. That denotes the high water mark when the levee gave way and the Bottoms quickly flooded. The green doors in that pix open onto a dock which is four feet above the street level where I was standing. That's deep water.