One building with two towers helped shape the Kansas City skyline

In 1884, Kansas City didn’t have much of a skyline, but this three-story building, topped by two towers, was a good start..

The U.S. government built it on the southeast corner of 9th and Walnut Streets to serve as a Customs House and office space for public officials like the postmaster.

In 1887, the highest ranking official in the land, President Grover Cleveland, spoke from its balcony to a crowd of onlookers estimated at 5,000.

The building’s twin towers weren’t just decorative. One held a bell. The other contained a clock, said to be the largest one west of the Mississippi.

In 1900, the Fidelity Trust Company purchased the building and operated in it for the next thirty years. In 1931, the bank moved into a new art deco skyscraper erected on the same site — featuring a giant clock and two towers inspired by its predecessor.

At the time, the 35-story Fidelity National Bank Building was Kansas City’s second tallest.

But just two years later, the Great Depression forced the bank to close down.

In a full circle twist, the government stepped in after World War II, and reopened it as the Federal Office Building.

One of its most notable tenants was the Severe Local Storms Unit (later the National Severe Storms Forecast Center) which tracked the country’s worst weather until 1997.

Today, the two towers are still a prominent part of the downtown skyline, though since 2005, the building beneath them has taken on a completely different mission.

909 Walnut, as it’s called now, provides residents with deco-tinged luxury apartments and some of the city’s very best views.

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