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August 17, 2021

Walking Tour Initial Thoughts - Draft for Warrensburg Main Street

Initial Rough Draft – at the request of Sandra Irle.  Peggy Nuckles and I are starting a walking tour project.



Courtney at the CVB is also starting one. I think we could/should to make a great tour, together.


Some of the historical highlights along a Walking Tour of Warrensburg 2.0 miles long

Warrensburg was a rough, tough, bawdy Wild West town in the middle and late 1800’s.

Start by heading south on Holden street from the Train Station. Park behind the Train Station.
1.       Short discussion about the train station coming to Warrensburg on July 4, 1864.
a.       Prior to this it was a stagecoach from Sedalia, on to Holden, Independence and St. Joseph
b.      1884 Murder took place here just past the College street bridge on the tracks. Great story link
2.       Looking across the street was the Ming’s Hotel. Hotels caught fire frequently and this was no different. Expect that a man having survived another hotel fire jumped form the 3rd floor window with a very large umbrella and survived.
3.       Oh and just across in the middle of the hill, where the street is that’s where the famous Pertle Springs Trolley started next to the Hotel Estes.
Anyway there are about 25 great stories to tell along the way and they can also link up to my history blog for more of the details/stories and pictures. The grasshopper plague of 1875 is a great story. Cowboys riding their horses into the saloons on Pine/Holden St. Stagecoach office.
Truman, Eisenhower, Dewey came her by train..
Other stops, without details written today include…
The hangings the took place where City Hall is today, this was the site of the Commercial Hotel, Martin Hotel, YWCA etc and it was a good site for a hanging too.
Heading south on Holden we will see the some highlights such as…
Sigma Tau Gamma national offices, the founding members lived in house on the corner of Ming and Holden (NW Corner).
The Gelbach’ House – quick story of lady who owned and had many of her husband’s mysteriously died. Also that the actor in the Movies Charlie Chan had an association with the Bed and Breakfast today. Sidney Toler
We see the Achauer House, I keep up with Ann Achauer Maidment so we have some great information.  Her husband just passed 2 weeks ago in Ohio.  I had my engagement party in the backyard.
Looking down on Broad St. at 110 Broad St. now a vacant lot I think, was where Dr. Phog Allen, of Kansas Basketball Fame, Allen Fieldhouse etc. recruiter of Wilt Chamberlain to KU, etc. He lived here with his wife as the coach at State Normal of Warrensburg. “The people of Warrensburg loved Allen. They supported his side business as well. With his medical office in the basement of his three-room house on Broad Street, Allen helped anybody who needed treatment.” My grandfather was lifelong friends with Dr. Allen, they shared the same birthday.
At South and Holden we turn left.
We mention that the first-night football game under lights in Missouri was held on the university football field. In Oct. 11, 1929.
Walking East on South Street towards Maguire we talk about the University, famous people who attended. The great fire of 1915. Dockery Gymnasium, where Dr. Allen and Dr. Earl Keth Coached.  We mention the Pertle Springs Streetcar went right down that first street past today’s student union all the way out to the Pertle Springs Resort and Hotel. I have the route map on the blog, it went just past Panhellenic Hall and then went southwest from there past the Erisman’s home to Lions Lake etc.
At Maguire turn left.
We mention that Maguire was first an old Indian trail connecting the Ozarks up to the river at Lexington. Many of the old roads started as Indian Trails. The county was first settled about 12 miles NW of Warrensburg in Columbus. When Pleasant Rice the first white resident moved there he said he counted over 2,000 Indians living within a few miles of his cabin. Later Columbus was a hotbed of bushwhacker activity during the dark days of the civil war and there was where Quantrill organized and started his raid on Lawrence KS.  On the Capt. Purdee Family.
Now they cross over Grover at Maguire and turn left on Grover. But first there is a great stories about where Martin Warren School stands today.  First Martin Warren is the namesake of our city.  Warrens Burgh, the later Warrensburg.  There was an old school on that corner and it was also where UCM, State Normal of Warrensburg held their first classes, ever beginning in 1871. Warrensburg took the college away from Sedalia in some very backroom shenanigans.  It should have been in Sedalia. There is a great story of a hanging on the school grounds too, the criminal Jeff Collins was hung in a Black Jack Oak tree.
Walking west on Grover they pass through the beautiful Grover street historic district with a few houses and the famous Cumberland church.  Lots to write here.
At College Street (was Miller street before) they turn north and cross the bridge. The first bridge built here was the so called Whiskey Bridge. Great story on my blog about it. College street is also where the Pertle Springs trolley went south down towards the college. Under the bridge is where Carl Steidle was struck on the head and laid across the tracks to be run over by a steam engine coming from the station one night. This lead to the last double hanging in the area in 1884. My great great grandfather was the sheriff and hung the “Hamilton” brothers, well over 15,000 people attended the hanging, and special trains came in from KC and Sedalia for a picnic and a hanging. My great grandfather, 9 yrs. old witnessed the hanging just down on West Pine St., more, later on this great story.
We see the old Mule Barn, great stories about Mules supplied for World War 1 to France.
We see the old Post Office, beautiful building and Look West down East Pine and see the nice, old Stone House Pub building.
Continuing north on College we come to market Street. At 205 East Market is the Gen. & Senator Cockrell home, great, great stories about him.  My mom grew up at 200 E. Market.  The old hospital is West on Market, it had the first air-conditioned operating room west of the Mississippi so I’ve read.  The Presbyterian Church was once pastored by Rev. Hollyman, his son Tom became a very famous photographer and a benefactor to UCM.
Walking up to Gay St. at College we look across at the post office as this is site of Martin Warren’s cabin.  In fact, if you look west on Gay Street you will notice the street is angled there and turns to the south at Holden heading east.  This is because the group platting new town did not want Gay St. to go right through the cabin, so they angled the street, and all streets south to the RR tracks. Great story on the blog. Gay St. was also the old Capitol Highway and the stagecoaches went to Knob Noster and Sedalia to the east on it.
When we get to North at College, the NW corner is where the famous saloon smasher Carrie A. Nation lived for a while. Great stories about her, the house is a junkyard but should have a designation.
Walking the hill to Shepard Park we turn left, west, into it and mention the swimming pool that was here, history of the park, history of the stonework from the old Brewery on West. Pine St. and the as we get over to Holden street we mention that there was hanging right about here at the bottom of the hill. Great story again. Holden Street at the hanging time was just stumps and brush, not easy to traverse, not road really.
Warrensburg actually was the first city to make production of Corn Cob pipes too. Nice trivia.
Turning south on Holden we walk up to see the new murals, so wonderful. Can describe what they see here.
Get to Holden at Gay St. to west just over a half mile is old town, site of the Old Drum trial, etc etc. hangings, shooting, possible unofficial start of the American Civil war was there, Lisa Irle knows this better than I.
We see another mural at Gay/Holden. 
The Cord Building. Incredible family history of E. L. Cord, born in Warrensburg. On my blog.
Masonic Temple building, Peggy Nuckles is actually writing a story for my blog this week about it.
The old courthouse, a lot to write here. The statue of Old Drum, The statue on top of the courthouse has a great story, etc. you know all this stuff, lots to share or link too. 
200 block of Holden, Empire Hall, above Harris Attorney’s great stories, it seated 600 people, My mother owned this building many years and I used to play upstairs where the actors makeup and costume house was up there and the stage area. 
Lots of old pictures to share of Holden Street…
Culton at Holden. Your building. Was built for the Presbyterian’s then changed to the Eads Hotel, then St. Cloud hotel. Great rumor story of Jesse James recuperating there for 3 days…fact or fiction? Great story nonetheless.
In the alley way behind West Pine Street this is where you could buy back alley whiskey, moonshine etc. during times that the town was dry.  The mayor strong-armed the proprietors to donate to his bridge fund, and that’s how Whiskey Bridge was built, a wooden, walking bridge over the tracks at College /Miller Street.
Turning down west pine St. on the north side lots to share, etc. Old pictures of horse and buggies, etc. etc.
At the corner of West Pine and Washington cross over the south side, look back at the Magnolia Opera House. Quite a place in its time. It was also the morgue for the 29 people killed in 1904 just 2 ½ miles east of town, the World’s Fair Train wreck. The flat car with the bodies was pulled up right there at Washington and the bodies carried in through the side door on the West Side.  Looking down West Pine past the old Magnolia Mills / Innes mills building down there at Warren and West Pine, just 50-75 yards on the south side was the favorite hanging spot. The double hanging was here and 15,000 people were sitting all round on the “natural bowl” shape of the terrain. The old jail is just one block north, my g g grandfather lived there, from where you stand here at W. Pine and Washington. Lots of mysterious deaths and a great story of an escapee, who ran down the tracks to Centerview, shot, killed by a posse and returned in rumble seat. I think there must be a potter’s field down there on the north side of W. Pine, just west of Warren.  Unmarked graves of the hanging victims.  We hung quite a few people, some by the law and 8 I believe by vigilantes. Down on west pine was the old brewery too. According to Mike Shaw and others the brewery was torched, set on fire by Carrie Nation!!!
Walking up W. Pine Street towards Holden now on the Southside of the street the first building was an old market, grocery store, the next buildings were the original fire stations, 2 great old photos.
Then you get to the old standard herald newspaper offices. The 130 West Pine building is where Hymen Neill ran out the back, jumped a freight train, went to Dodge City KS and started the Dodge City gang, lately moving to Las Vegas, New Mexico where he and his minions terrorized and ran the town, Hymen was known as Hoodoo Brown. Great story on the blog.  In this same building was a barbershop during the dry years in town and prohibition.  A friend and I owned this building a few years, just after college. Bought it from Dr. Frank Moriarity, when he was 85. His family owned the building from about the time was built. Probably after the huge downtown fires in the 1870s, 60s.  Anyway he told a great story of Carrie Nation coming into the barbershop to smash it up because she knew the men folk were getting hair tonic there every day and drinking it (whiskey of course). She did not smash it up however. Great story.  Bodies’ is a nice story of the bands that have played. Then the old star theatre. Great fire story that occurred on this block in 1867.

Taking right on Holden we find the train station again end of the walking/driving potion for central/downtown but then you can now start to make a driving tour of Wbg. Up to old town, out to pertle springs, even out to Columbus and the site out past Kingsville where old drum was shot, been there. There’s a monument out there. I think Warrensburg is a great place to create a walking/driving weekend adventure for KC people and other history people. It’s all about making the experience a great one.  There is a lot more to tell and so the challenge is to make the tour work, without being too much information or overwhelming. I only share what I think is interesting. There is still more. 

Incorporating smart phone technology, links to pictures, stories, QR codes etc could make this a very exciting, weekend or day trip adventure. 

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