Kansas City is the largest city in the state of Missouri, and it is a city located at the mouth of the Kansas River flow into the Missouri River. Already during the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition after the American purchase of French Louisiana in 1803, it was determined that the place was well suited for a fort. It took until 1831 before a group of Mormons led by Joseph Smith settled here, but they had to move on two years later.

In the following years, settlements appeared in Independence, Westport and along the Missouri River, and in 1850 the Town of Kansas formally became a city, with a location along the river in the northern part of the modern downtown. In the last decades of the 19th century, the city boomed due to the railroad, and in 1889 it was named Kansas City. In the year 1900, a good 163,000 inhabitants lived here. The city was continuously expanded and got a large network of trams, and through the 1900s there was extensive expansion with large public buildings and skyscrapers.

Today there is much to see in Kansas City, and you can start in the northern part of downtown, where the Historic City Market from 1857 is located. It is a place where the city’s sales stalls, horse trading and much more once took place. Today, there are many shops and restaurants in the area, where you can visit the Arabia Steamboat Museum as well, which exhibits salvaged effects from the paddle steamer Arabia, which sank in the Missouri River in 1856.

From here you can go south to the modern downtown, where Kansas City’s high-rises are located, and where you can go to Clark’s Point, from where Lewis and Clark envisioned the city’s future location in 1806 during their great expedition to the west. Here is a statue commemorating the expedition, and there is a fine view of the area towards the Kansas River and Missouri River from here.

When you go through the high-rise district, also called the Power and Light District, you can go to the city’s town hall. The City Hall was built 1935-1937 in the Art Deco style of the time with an elegant interior decoration. The height of 158.5 meters made the city hall Missouri’s tallest building at the time. On the 30th floor there is an observation deck with an excellent view of the entire city. In the district, you can see the stylistically similar high-rises, the Jackson County Courthouse, the Bryant Building, the Union Carbide Building and the Kansas City Power and Light Building.

Close to City Hall is One Kansas City Place, which opened as the city’s tallest building in 1988 and it was architecturally inspired by Kansas City City Hall. However, the city is particularly known for its many buildings in art deco architecture, and the theater and concert hall Municipal Auditorium from 1935 is another example of the style. You can also notice the two-tower structure in the cityscape, 909 Walnut, which was built in 1931 as the Fidelity National Bank & Trust Building.

South of downtown, you can see Kansas City’s beautiful railroad building, Union Station, which opened in 1914 in Beaux-Arts as a replacement for a smaller station from 1878. Union Station was closed in 1985 after years of declining traffic. Amtrak reopened passenger services in 2002, but by then the beautiful station had been redeveloped with several museums and activities, which you can enjoy today.

You can e.g. visit the science museum Science City, the Gottlieb Planetarium and the Irish Museum and Cultural Center in the buildings. Just south of Union Station is the National World War I Museum and Memorial, which opened in 1926 with the name Liberty Memorial. The museum is the American National Museum of World War I, and it is a colossal memorial with an accompanying museum that you can visit. From the memorial you can also enjoy a fine view of Union Station and the skyscrapers of Kansas City’s downtown.

There is something to see in the areas around downtown Kansas City as well. To the east, you can visit the interesting city museum, the Kansas City Museum, housed in Corinthian Hall, which is a beautiful mansion worth seeing. Corinthian Hall was built as a residence by businessman Robert Alexander Long in 1910 and the family donated it to the city for the purpose of opening a city museum. In the museum’s elegant halls, you can learn about the history of the city from its founding to the present day. In the 19th century, Independence was one of the area’s towns, and it is close to the museum to the east.

Here you can visit the Historic Truman Courthouse, which is a courthouse that was built in colonial style in 1836. The courthouse is historically special, as the later US President Harry Truman had an office and worked here in his earlier political life. That history is told on a tour of the fine house. Close by is Harry S. Truman’s residence at 219 North Delaware Street, where he lived when he resided in Independence.