By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the construction of two of his best known, most historic buildings.
City Hall and the Missouri Theatre celebrate their centennials in 2027.
Two talks this week will discuss how those buildings came about.
Lori McAlister, chair of the Centennial Celebration Series, says local architect, Max Guenther, will place the buildings in the context of St. Joseph history during separate talks on each structure.
“Nineteen 27 is an interesting year and I’m eager to hear what he has to say about it,” McAlister tells KFEQmmunity. “After we started this project with Missouri Theater and City Hall one of our committee members said, ‘Well, do you realize that our parkway opened in 1927 also?’ And the parkway, I think, certainly is part of that city beautiful movement.”
The city beautiful movement began in Chicago in the 20s and carried throughout the country as cities attempted to display the promise of a bright future.
The first presentation by Guenther will be held at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art Tuesday evening. It concentrates on the Missouri Theater. A talk Saturday afternoon at the Downtown Library will discuss City Hall.
McAlister says Guenther will concentrate heavily on the work of 22-year-old Waylande Gregory who was in charge of the ornate art that graces the walls of the Missouri Theater.
“What you can think about, too, when you walk in any of these buildings, the Missouri Theater, everything you see he carved in wood first,” McAlister says. “And then he made a mold and then the molds were filled with plaster. And it’s the plaster that is up on the walls and the ceiling, but it’s painted in such a way that it looks like stone.”
Or, in the case of the ceiling, it looks like canvas.
McAlister says it is amazing the work Gregory did inside the Missouri Theater when he was just 22 years old.
“And of course, I’m biased, but in my opinion, we have the absolute best, extant example of his work in the building of the Missouri Theater,” McAlister says. “It’s just transporting when you walk in there, still, even if you’ve spent a lot of time in the building. You walk in and you know that you’re in a very special, unique place.”
Guenther will speak on the Missouri Theater at Albrecht Kemper, beginning at five o’clock Tuesday evening. He will give a talk on City Hall at the Downtown Library Saturday afternoon, beginning at one o’clock.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ