Hearing that Royals’ stadium is heading for Crown Center evokes fond KC memories | Opinion
The Kansas City Royals announced plans to put a new downtown stadium at Crown Center on Wednesday and area residents, myself included, became nostalgic, thinking about memories made over the years at the historic entertainment center.
As renderings of the proposed stadium began to circulate online and through social media, the initial plans appear to preserve the Crown Center plaza area along Grand Boulevard and the shops connected to the Westin Hotel across the street.
It looks like the Hallmark headquarters, which peeks up from behind the building that houses Legoland, will disappear. It’s not in the rendering. But of course, renderings change; they aren’t blueprints. What will happen to the other buildings surrounding Crown Center is not clear.
The Star’s offices are located in the Crown Center complex, but when I heard the news, I didn’t think of that. My first thought was prom — not mine, my son’s. I just pictured him and about 20 of his Truman High School classmates dressed to the nines — gowns and tuxedos — standing in front of the fountain on Grand Boulevard at the Crown Center Shops, as we parents gathered around them snapping photos for posterity.
I also remember the Kabuki Japanese Restaurant that used to be located at Crown Center. My late husband and I took the boys there many times for sushi when they were kids.
For a lot of us, Crown Center is and always has been a great place for creating family memories.
I reached out to people I’ve known over the years for their memories and then stopped people randomly on the street around Crown Center on Wednesday afternoon. The folks I spoke to, while excited about the idea of having a downtown stadium in the area, said they just want the center’s fountains, the plaza, skating rink and shopping area to be off limits, because those are the parts of the area they enjoy.
Willie and Kim, Kansas City natives and longtime friends who didn’t want to share their last names, were having lunch inside Crown Center near the Coterie Theater.
Willie said he remembers sitting outside of Crown Center the day the Hyatt Regency Hotel walkway collapsed — July 17, 1981. He recalled that he had friends who worked in the hotel. None of them were hurt that day, but more than 200 others were injured, and 114 people were killed.
Kim recalled how much she loved bringing her children to Crown Center to the movies and then going for ice cream “It was always fun,” Kim said. “I loved coming here. My kids are grown now, though.”
Signboard Hill to hotel, shopping
Crown Center was built in the late 1960s to transform what was known as Signboard Hill and other blighted property in the area. It was the vision of Hallmark founder Joyce C. Hall, who decided that redevelopment would spruce up the area surrounding the Hallmark headquarters, which has remained at Crown Center ever since.
It worked and here we are nearly 60 years later looking towards another big change for the Crown Center area.
“For me, Crown Center has always been a place to hang out, be with family, and enjoy some of the best things Kansas City has to offer,” said Edgar Palacios, founder of Latinx Education Collaborative.
“I’ve had a lot of great memories at Crown Center,” Palacios said. “I actually used to work there. My first nonprofit job was with Smiles Change Lives, and we were in the 2405 building.“
“I spent a lot of time there back then. Grabbing food at the Chinese spot, catching movies, just being around friends and coworkers. Over the years, it’s also become a place tied to family memories. Taking my kids to Sheridan’s for ice cream, usually strawberry wedding cake custards, one of my favorites.”
Kansas City businessman and arts supporter Benny Lee recalled staying at the hotel at Crown Center the first time he visited the United States. “I remembered it was in the wintertime,” Lee said. “I looked out the window and I saw snow covering the city. This was in 1974.”
Ice skating, Christmas carols
Dianne Brewington, an adult literacy instructor, said one of her “fondest memories at Crown Center was the Friday night concert series … when Little Anthony performed.”
It was in the 1980s — that’s when the outside summer concert series started — and Brewington said she was so enamored with Little Anthony that she couldn’t remember if the Imperials were singing with him that night. But seeing Little Anthony and singing along — “Goin’ outta my head over you” — was “a piece of history I will never forget,” she said. Little Anthony and the Imperials were a R&B and doo-wop singing group.
Abigail Schifs was walking her dog along Grand Boulevard through Crown Center on Wednesday afternoon after the stadium announcement had been made. Schifs said she has “great memories of Crown Center,” including visiting with her family when she was a child, singing holiday carols with classmates performing Christmas concerts inside the center, and ice skating all winter at the rink above the Crown Center plaza.
Kathleen Leighton, the former manager of media relations at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, said today’s Crown Center announcement resurrected pleasant moments she and her daughter shared when her daughter — now 35 — was a kid.
“I have wonderful memories of taking my daughter to the Crayola Café when she was small,” Leighton said. “It was the perfect mommy-daughter date, and she felt very grown up. Afterward, we would look through the shops and then go sit by the fountains outside. Really, those were perfect afternoons.”
Everyone who shared a memory of the shopping and entertainment district had a pleasant one. I certainly hope that bringing the stadium into the neighborhood will only make it better.
