Editor’s Note: Past|Present is a video series from The Star that travels through time to show how scenes of Kansas City depicted in vintage postcards look today. Have a postcard you’d like to share with our team? Tell us about it here.

Before 1911, The Kansas City Star (founded in 1881) operated from a number of locations. Harry Truman even worked downtown briefly at one of them.

When The Star’s publisher, William Rockhill Nelson, decided to create a “permanent” base of operations at 1729 Grand, he chose to employ the architect who would later design Union Station, Jarvis Hunt.

According to accounts at the time, Hunt’s first plan was too fancy for Nelson’s tastes.

Given all the ink and industrial activity required to print papers, Nelson suggested emphatically that the young Chicagoan try again.

Which Hunt did in a striking but still functional way. Built in the Italianate style, the three-story brick structure featured numerous marble and terra cotta touches, with a 6,000 square foot skylight to help illuminate the interior.

This postcard’s exact publication date is unknown, but the presence of radio towers atop the building confirm that it’s 1922 or later. That’s the year The Star launched WDAF-- airing a mix of news, community events and musical programs like those featuring Kansas City’s Coon-Sanders Nighthawk Orchestra.

In 2017, The Star’s staff bade farewell to the landmark, which had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Now a project called Grand Place KC is crafting a multi-use mix of residential and retail to replace the rumble of presses and clamor of journalists that filled the complex for over a century.

Looking for more Kansas City history?

Jarvis Hunt also designed another prominent downtown Kansas City building besides Union Station

“What’s Your KCQ?” explains how William Rockhill Nelson left his mark on the unique homes of DeGroff Way (and more)

The name “McGee” pops up often in these parts. Here’s why!

Watch the video here.

Past|Present: Travel back in time to see how Kansas City has changed

The Kansas City Zoo started in this building in Swope Park. What’s it look like now?

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