This KC-area town was once a destination for those seeking relief from aches and pains
A picture postcard can be both charming and misleading.
This one, for example--which features Broadway Avenue in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, on a sunny day in the mid-1950s.
The image is brimming with small town postwar positivity. Signs point people to Jack’s Bar and Grill and Stella’s Cafe. The Clay County Bank keeps watch on the corner. And large American-made cars line both sides of the road.
What we can’t see is how dramatically the tourist trade which made Excelsior Springs famous had already begun to decline. An economic engine running since 1880 on the presence of mineral waters.
In fact, the town was originally named Viginti. That’s Latin for “twenty,” a reference to the number of mineral springs that had been discovered in and around it.
Those springs, and the good health they promised, brought huge numbers of people to the Excelsior Springs’ bathouses and hotels. The best known of course, was The Elms Hotel, where Harry Truman stayed on Election Night 1948.
But by mid-century, Americans were far less inclined to value “the waters.” And the rich and famous were finding trendier places to “get away from it all.”
Within a decade or so, the Elms would be converted to a Sheraton Motor Inn, then closed in 1970. Just as importantly, many of the shops on Broadway that thrived on tourist traffic, began to shut their doors too.
The Elms did reopen (and close) several more times, but thanks to the city’s efforts, survived. In 2019, the newly renovated complex joined the Hyatt hotel chain.
Meanwhile, the city’s art deco-styled Hall of Waters continues to welcome visitors. And a new wave of breweries, coffee shops and spas are hoping to bring traffic back to the storefronts on Broadway.
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This story was originally published February 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM.