Say goodbye. KC’s oldest building on Main Street is weeks from being no more
One of the oldest buildings on Main Street, being demolished brick-by-brick, is well on its way to becoming history.
On Friday morning, the ornate Queen Ann tower of the Tower Building — built in 1888 and also known as Kansas City’s Jeserich building — was still standing. By late Friday afternoon, its top half was down, as was the name “Jeserich” that stood in masonry relief for 138 years along the top of the building.
“We’re being careful, taking it down by hand, the first two stories,” Chuck Cacioppo, Jr., president of Industrial Salvage & Wrecking said Wednesday. He anticipated that the entire building will be razed within a month.
The Jeserich building
The Jeserich building, while it still stands, is the oldest building on Kansas City downtown Main Street corridor, constructed just one year before the original City of Kansas changed its name in 1889 to Kansas City.
Slow deconstruction and demolition is ongoing. On Friday, the three-story building’s top floor was still largely intact. By Wednesday afternoon, it was mostly gone.
The building, located on the northeast corner of 31st and Main streets, is part of a connected four-building complex that also included the 1905 Ward building, which had already been demolished. Owned by Thirty-First and Main Properties LLC., the complex is being razed to make room for new development.
A principal in the company, Thomas Feyerabend Jr., is also an owner of the Union Hill Animal Hospital located next door at 3025 Main Street. Feyerabend said that once the buildings are razed, his plan is to send out a request for proposals for possible development. Whatever rises on the site, he said, will be required to include a new and larger animal hospital to replace Union Hill.
Efforts to save historic building
Neighborhood and preservationist groups had, for years, attempted to save the Jeserich Building from demolition and development.
In October 2022, the Kansas City Council, urged on by neighbors and the local preservationist group, Historic Kansas City, took the unusual step of going against the wishes of the then owners, an LLC connected to the PriceMgmt Co., and voted to place the Jeserich and other buildings on that corner on the Kansas City Register of Historic Places.
The buildings have sat unused since then. After taking ownership, Feyerabend said he consulted with engineers and other builders regarding what would be required to save the Jeserich, or perhaps incorporate its facade into a new development. He said he was told that the building was beyond repair.
In August, the city declared that the Jeserich building was structurally unsound and placed it on the city’s “dangerous buildings” list. Once a building is designated as dangerous, the owners are generally given 30 days to either make needed repairs or demolish the structure.
Feyerabend confirmed at the end of September that the buildings would be coming down. Industrial Wrecking & Salvage Co. of Kansas City began demolition in November.
This story was originally published January 15, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
