The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Mineral Hall

Click on image titles for larger views.

Admissions Office, Kansas City Art Institute

Institution Name: Kansas City Art Institute
Original/Historic Place Name: Mineral Hall
Location on Campus: 4340 Oak St.
Date(s) of Construction:

1903-1904

original construction Curtiss, Louis S.

Designer: Louis S. Curtiss
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Romanesque revival, Other (Glossary)
Significance: architecture, culture, education, history
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: uncoursed limestone blocks

Walls: Jackson County oolitic limestone with heavy rock face of random pattern

Roof: red Spanish clay tiles

Function:

ca. 1904	private residence
ca. 2004-present (2006)	admissions office

Narrative:
Built in 1903-1904 and first owned by a Kansas City mining magnate Roland E. Bruner, "Mineral Hall," as it was originally called, is one of the most distinctive turn-of-the-century residences in Kansas City and a major example of the work of architect Louis S. Curtiss (see http://www.kclibrary.org/sc/bio/curtiss.htm). The entrance, featuring ornate, beveled, leaded glass panels and a surrounding archway of imported mosaics in yellow, green and copper-colored tesserae, inlaid with a banded design, is Kansas City's most photographed door. Bruner was president of the Anaconda-Arizona Mining Company, the Missouri Lithograph Marble and Mining Company, and other enterprises, and amassed one of the most magnificent private collections of minerals in the United States, totaling more than 10,000 specimens. Portions of this collection were displayed in the semi-octagonal extension added to the north side of the residence in 1905. Encircling the walls are display cabinets with art-glass doors. Above are uncoursed stone walls with minerals such as galena, sphalerite, calcite, and other specimens embedded in the mortar of the interior walls. A radius of wood rafters supports the arched ceiling, and pendant orb lamps are placed at the base of each rafter. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

References:

Mineral Hall [Kansas City Art Institute]. National Register of Historic Places designation report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1976.