Kansas City, Missouri businessman Barney L. Allis owned and operated the Muehlebach Hotel at 12th and Baltimore, originally built by George E. Muehlebach in 1916. In 1941 he purchased and reopened the Standard Theatre at 12th and Central. Now known as the Folly Theater it stands NW of the plaza. Over the years it has seen many famous performers including the Marx Brothers, Al Jolson and Gypsy Rose Lee. At one time Frank James was a ticket taker there.
In 1888 Barney and his family moved to Kansas City from Poland when he was just 2 years old. He dropped out of school after 4th grade and sold copies of the Kansas City World newspaper near the corner of 12th and Wyandotte to help them make ends meet. As an adult he only reached 5’ 3” but he never let his small size hold him back. He spent countless hours teaching himself about the business world and developed inroads in the restaurant, hotel, printing and theater industries.
His enthusiasm for business was matched only by his love of Kansas City and he worked tirelessly to promote the downtown area. Following WWII he led an effort to revitalize and promote the area.
In 1962 just a few blocks from the Muehlebach Hotel he collapsed and died. In 1985 when the city redesigned the park it was renamed in his honor.
To highlight a few of the noteworthy locations in this park I have put together an intercache starting at the posted coordinates.
An InterCache is an interactive geocache that is similar to a wherigo geocache but does not require special gps equipment or a special smart device application. It does however require a compatible smart device and browser.
To verify that your smart device is compatible, navigate to HERE on it then scroll down to the "Is My Device Supported?" heading and click on the "Test Device" button. Be sure to have your location services turned on and if prompted for location permission, choose to allow intercaching to see your location. Most Android and iPhone devices will work.
There are 6 stops around the plaza each will require an answer to proceed. You will see that the order in which you visit them is up to you. This is so you can feel free to explore and discover the area unrestricted by the format. If time or distance is an issue the most efficient order to complete them in is as follows:
The Fountain
Dutton Brookfield
Rebirth
KC Stars
Dedication Plaques
Old French Kansas City
Once you’ve visited all the locations and answered the questions correctly you’ll see a new location titled “Final” is available. This will lead to the physical container you can sign. Follow its instructions carefully as the buildings down here can cause a lot of signal bounce and there are restrictions on where you can retrieve the cache from.
Thanks to the fine folks at the Missouri Valley Special Collections research office for the information about Mr. Allis and to Matt Cunningham for permission to place the geocache.
When you are ready to begin follow this link: https://intercaching.com/intercache/play.php?gameId=2428
Enjoy!