Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society

Portals to the Past

by David W. Jackson

Gilliss House guest register provides snapshot of KC history

Recently, I collaborated with the Kansas City Museum for their new Community Curator project. They selected the Gillis House hotel guest register for me to examine, prepare a report, and develop a presentation around.

Maybe these details will pique your interest and desire to learn more at a behind-the-scenes tour and presentation at Union Station on Sunday, February 17, 2008 (2 p.m.). Meet at the information booth and we’ll get to go below the main hall into the collections storage areas of the Kansas City Museum!

Kansas City lost the famous Gilliss House hotel long ago, but its foundations are recoverable in the riverfront Town of Kansas archaeological park, slated as one of Kansas City’s future re-development attractions. The hotel faced Front Street (originally called Water Street) and stood for many years from the 1840s beyond 1911. Gilliss House Hotel was on lots 133 and the west half of 134, Block 13, a triangular block in the original Old Town of Kansas. On the 1886 atlas of Kansas City, it is shown as being in the C.G.Hopkins and W.A.Hopkins estate.

Another relevant, preserved artifact harkens to the Gilliss House’s past--a guest book that dates from Tuesday, September 7, 1869 through February 4, 1870, preserved at the Kansas City Museum.

Known at various times as the Claiborne House, the Western, the American, the Eldridge and the Union Hotel, Gilliss House stood majestically beside the Missouri River at Westport Landing since the origin of the Town of Kansas, and through the infancy of Kansas City.

William Gilliss, who for a number of years was its landlord, constructed the Gilliss House hotel or hostelry in 1846-47 as a two-story brick building of very modest dimensions. The fame of the cuisine and the good cheer of the bar traveled far up and down the River.

Gillis was assisted at times in the early days of his hotel career by his future brother-in-law, Dr. Benoist Troost. After striking it rich in the California Gold Rush, Troost returned about 1852 and married Gilliss’s niece. Gilliss House quickly showed the effect of Troost’s newly acquired wealth after the two became partners. The hotel property was greatly enlarged. Another story was added to it and its frontage extended until it became the finest building anywhere on the river west of St. Louis.

Gilliss House reached the zenith of its fame.

In 1854, Mr. Eldridge leased the House. Another floor was added, and the hostelry otherwise enlarged and improved. One of the most exciting and thrilling episodes of the Border War occurred at the Gilliss House when Kansas Governor Andrew Reeder, fleeing east for his safety, hid there for 24 hours from his hot-blooded enemies, who were clamoring for his life. Reeder narrowly escaped in a creative disguise with the help of the proprietors.

By 1860, Gilliss House was again undergoing renovations that included beautiful carpets and wallpapers, and new, elegant furniture for the ease and comfort guests of the Gilliss House who were passing through on their westward journey.

Who were those guests? Turn to this fascinating guest register, which was first discovered in 1891 by Fred Hacker, a plumber, who was doing some repair work and found it in a deserted closet of the old hostelry. The register was carelessly placed in Hacker’s shop at 400 Delaware (in the City Market) where it became buried beneath a clutter of pipe fittings and tools. He even took the liberty of using the register as his own personal scrapbook by pasting cancelled checks on a few pages.

In 1912, one of Hacker’s workers uncovered the guest book once again. It was donated to the Missouri Valley Historical Society and after that organization ceased operations, the book was donated to the Kansas City Museum between 1940 and 1942.

The oversized ledger contains autographs of hotel guests from near and far. While some signatures were penned in florid, Spencerian script, others were less elegant. Just image the conversations as guests signed in!

On the day this book was first opened, 64 guests registered. The following day 34 signed in. Some guests had their own rooms; up to four guests shared the same room on these first two days.

With more time and attention to additional names, it is quite likely that more this guest book will yield more fascinating details. Meanwhile, I’ll share some interesting facts and talk about some of the characters I found at the upcoming presentation.

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