Despite looking like a crumbling romantic castle right out of a storybook, the origins of this iconic KC building are far from a fairytale.
Just south of the 18th and Vine historic jazz district, the 1897 yellow limestone building known as the Workhouse Castle (2001 Vine St.) served as a jail until 1924, housing mostly petty offenders—not royalty. According to records, female prisoners sewed prison uniforms while male prisoners spent their days working for the city’s public works department.
Built by popular KC architects A. Wallace Love and James Oliver Hog in the romanesque revival style, the location was chosen for its generous natural deposit of yellow limestone, which was quarried by inmates. The workhouse itself was constructed by hired labor, as the powers that be at the time did not think using prisoners to build their future home was a good idea. The four-story structure’s two-feet-thick walls are made of solid limestone and mortared with concrete. Adding to the castle-like look, the building has parapet walls and narrow barred windows, with two towers that extend two stories beyond the roof line.
After the prison shut down, it was repurposed a handful of times. It served in a variety of capacities, including city storage, a marine training facility and a dog euthanization center, before it was completely abandoned in 1972. It earned a place on the Kansas City Register of Historic Places in 2007. However, despite its status on the register and the special place it holds in many Kansas Citians’ minds, it has completely deteriorated over the last few decades. The roof collapsed, destroying the floors and leaving a large vacuous space. Various efforts by community groups and developers to bring it back to life have floundered.
Despite, the much needed repairs, it still looks like a romantic castle.
