On Saturday,
May 17th, the Kansas City Driving Club opened its gate
to the public. It moved over to the area vacated by
the Horse Show, which had evolved into the American
Royal. $35,000 was spent on a rustic club house
with a white picket fence, half-mile track, and is now
Mayor R. J. Roper Stadium.
At 2:30 in the
afternoon 117 contestants, 50 married couples, 17
single women, 4 married women, 44 misters and two
doctors competed for a blue ribbon. Also new to
the park was an outdoor theater built on the high
ground with bench seating for 600 and plenty of
standing room under the big tree.
But Old Fairmount
Park was doomed. Electric Park opened in June
next to the Heim Brewery and began as a huge keg
party. Located in the East Bottoms (now Guinotte
and Chestnut).
Local commercial
production of beer began in the 1850s. In 1886,
Fred, Joe, and Mike Heim bought the Kumpf
brewery. After acquiring a few more and thinking
that the masses would want to visit the East Bottoms,
$96,000 was spent on the Heim Electric Line.
Finished in 1899, it wasn't very popular so they built
an amusement park with a dance pavilion, bandstand,
rides, fountains, and a German village beer
garden. Electric lights were strung throughout
the park allowing patrons to stroll late into the
evening, and sip ale.
The battle of the
parks had begun. While admission to Fairmount
Park was free, transportation wasn't. Electric
cost a dime at a time when a pair of calf shoes were
$1.48 or a round-trip to Chicago via the Chicago &
Alton Railway was $14.50.
Over the Fourth of
July holiday, the Democrats held their National
Convention in Kansas City. William Jennings
Bryant and Adlai E. Stevenson were nominated to run
against William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt.
Bryant would lose and McKinley soon would be shot.
KC's population had
grown to 215,000 with about 75,000 more in the
suburbs. Somehow everyone had a room, 100,000
visitors found a place to stay. All three parks,
Troost, Fairmount, and now Electric, competed for
their $ &
¢. Fairmount
spent $10,000 on fireworks, and Troost almost as
much. In addition to fireworks, Electric had
Vaudeville. A slack-wire walker was
featured. A description of the festivities from
the Kansas City Journal follows:
In the German Village,
five singers will render songs typical of the
Fatherland. In the theater, Melville &
Stetson, the well-know comedian, will be
featured. Buns & Nina did acts like
paper-tearing, monologues, juggling, singing and
dancing. Miss Nina will do a new spectacular
dance at the close of the program. Van
Brothers have a novel musical act and they have been
billed as the foremost exponents of music and
comedy. Kelly and Violet are well known in
this city. Miss Violet is one of the
handsomest women on the stage. Marie Rose, a
lyric soprano, has been engaged for the week.
She is one of the best singers in Vaudeville.
Lou Hawkins has a monologue that is a wonder, and he
writes his own songs.
And on it went until
1901, which would be the last year of the first Old
Fairmount Park.
Copyright © 2005 John M. Olinskey
