The former clubhouse is a neoclassical masonry and reinforced concrete building at 918 Baltimore Avenue, which was designed by John McKecknie and built in 1922.[1] It is at the corner of Ninth Street across Baltimore Avenue from the Central Library and across Ninth Street from the New York Life Building. The clubhouse was home to the University Club of Kansas City from 1922 to 2001.
The four-story clubhouse contained a dining room, a pub, a library, a cigar stand, full-service athletic facilities, and banquet and meeting facilities including a lounge, a ballroom, and private conference rooms. Two inner clubs had their own private lounge and bar spaces for their own members. The athletic facilities included cardio, weight, and strength training equipment, a trainer, a masseuse, hot tubs, steam rooms, saunas, a racquetball court, and two squash courts.[2] Along with the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the Pembroke Hill School, the Kansas City Club was one of only three locations in Kansas City with squash facilities.[3]
In 1922, having absorbed several other clubs, and with a membership of more than 600, the club built a 14-story beaux arts clubhouse (the Kansas City Club Building) at the corner of Thirteenth Street and Baltimore Avenue, designed by local architect, Charles A. Smith. The clubhouse included a large dining room, several bars, private meeting rooms, a banquet hall, athletic facilities, an indoor pool, six floors of guestrooms, and a rooftop terrace. The club quickly grew and entered into reciprocal arrangements with many other prominent clubs worldwide. Membership was opened to women in 1975.[4]
In 1987, the club had 2,180 members. By 2001, membership had dwindled to less than 900.[5] The club attributed this to the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which made private club dues non-deductible, and to cultural shifts of young professionals away from joining clubs.[6] The clubhouse also needed upgrades to its facilities that would have cost between $5 million and $10 million.[5]
Finally, effective July 31, 2001, the club agreed to merge with the University Club, a 100-year-old men's social club with 200 members at the corner of Ninth Street and Baltimore Avenue, and purchase the University Club's facilities, which were smaller and cost only $1 million to upgrade.[5] In 2002, a developer bought the Kansas City Club's 1922 building and turned it into loft apartments and a banquet hall, renaming it the Clubhouse on Baltimore.[7]
After 133 years, the Kansas City Club closed on Saturday, May 23, 2015.[11] Epoch Developments, from Denver, bought the facility out of bankruptcy in mid-2015 and spent millions of dollars renovating, improving, upgrading the systems, and returning the facility to use as a private venue for corporate gatherings, weddings, and still squash or basketball plus a unique golf simulator.
In 2020, the building was relaunched as Hotel Kansas City. The first five floors were preserved in original condition and are meeting and event spaces.
