Eric Adler
The Kansas City Star
(TNS)
Often it’s not the architecture of a building that makes it historically special, but what happened inside a building’s walls.
Such is the case of Kansas City’s former Fire Station No. 11, a two-story limestone building — constructed of thick stone block with art deco columns — that in 1931 became the new home of what, for 51 years, had been the city’s first and only all-Black fire brigade.
Kansas City’s City Council now wants to see the building placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
On Thursday, it voted unanimously to accept a $75,000 grant from the National Park Service’s Underrepresented Communities Grant Program to hire a consultant to research and make a case for the building’s inclusion on the register. The station, at 2033 Vine St., is to be one of the three sites along Kansas City’s African American Heritage Trail that will be presented for possible inclusion. The other two sites have not yet been chosen.
In February, National Park Service Director Chuck Sams announced that the service was giving $1.25 million to projects in 19 states and Washington, D.C., in order to “ensure that the National Register better reflects the important places and significant stories of all Americans.”
The grants acknowledge that significant cultural sites reflecting Black Americans, Native Americans and other groups have, historically, been overlooked by the register. Grants in New York and Washington state were given to help bring LGBTQIA sites to the national register.
“The formal listing raises awareness of these significant sites,” Brad Wolf, Kansas City’s historic preservation officer, told The Star in an email.
Inclusion on the national register does not prevent a building from possible demolition, but it does help make sites eligible for preservation through historic tax credits.
Fire Station No. 11, which currently houses a recording studio, “is the last building associated with what was Kansas City’s all-African American fire station,” Wolf said, “This location was active until the integration of the fire department.”
Kansas City’s second all-Black fire station, No. 15, was established in 1946 in the West Bottoms. The fire department integrated in 1958.
“Unlike sites that are architecturally significant,” Wolf said, “ethnic and cultural sites can be in any type of building that many people might overlook.”
He noted that the Mutual Musicians Foundation building at 1821 Highland Ave. may not be architecturally important, but it played a significant role in helping jazz flourish in Kansas City. The foundation has been on the national register since 1979.
The African American Heritage Trail, created in 2019 with a website hosted by the Black Archives of Mid-America, includes a map of dozens of sites that highlight the history of Kansas City’s Black community — from the Freedom Trail Memorial, marking the escape route of enslaved Missourians into Kansas, to the burial place of Negro Leagues legend Satchel Paige.
A story in The Kansas City Journal-Post in 1932 extolled the skills of the all-Black crew at Fire Station No. 11. The crew received a call for a fire and was out the door within a record nine seconds.
Only 15 cities, including Kansas City, had all-Black fire crews in 1932, the story said.
Fire Station No. 11 was first formed as an all-Black brigade in 1890, beginning in a tent on Independence Avenue. As Kansas City became increasingly segregated, Station No. 11 opened in 1908 at 1812 Vine St. The company moved to 2033 Vine St. in 1931.
Wolf said that 52 other sites on the African American Heritage Trail are already on the national register. Most are in the 18th and Vine district.
“Many historic sites are lost because their history is not known,” Wolf said. “The African American Heritage Trail was a way to start identifying the sites that remain and those that have been lost.”
In 1980, Edward Wade Wilson became the Kansas City Fire Department’s first and only Black chief. Wilson, who served for nine years, had started in 1943 at Station No. 11.
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