Liberty Memorial

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For the suburb of Kansas City, see Liberty, Missouri.
For other memorials to liberty, see Monument of Liberty.
Liberty Memorial
(U.S. National Historic Landmark)
Location: Kansas City, Missouri
Built/Founded: 1926
Architect: Harold Van Buren Magonigle, Westlake Construction Company
Architectural style(s): Beaux Arts Classicism
Added to NRHP: September 20, 2006
NRHP Reference#: 00001148 [1]
Governing body: Local

The Liberty Memorial, located in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, is the National World War I Memorial of the United States and houses the The National World War I Museum, as designated by the United States Congress in 2004.[2] On September 21, 2006, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne declared the memorial a National Historic Landmark.[3]

Contents

[edit] History

The memorial was designed by Harold Van Buren Magonigle who won a design competition. The primary sculptor was Robert Aikten. The approaches were designed by Wight and Wight.

It was dedicated on November 11, 1926, by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge. In attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony on November 1, 1921, were Lieutenant General Baron Jacques of Belgium, Admiral Earl Beatty of Great Britain, General Armando Diaz of Italy, Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France, and General John Pershing of the United States. In 1935, bas reliefs by Walker Hancock of Jacques, Beatty, Diaz, Foch and Pershing were unveiled.

The Liberty Memorial houses the official World War I museum of the United States. Among other landscaping, its grounds include two large sphinx sculptures, the centerpiece 217-foot (66 m) tower, and the museums around and under the tower. Commensurate with the memorial's congressional designation as the "national" memorial and museum, a new, much larger museum opened in 2006 beneath the main memorial to form a huge museum complex (see below).

The Memorial and Monument are managed by a non-profit organiztion[4] in cooperation with the Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners.[2]

[edit] Design

The design of the building is typical of the federal-type buildings of the era and is designed in the classical style of architecture with a limestone exterior. The foundation was constructed using sawed granite, and the exterior ground level walls are made of Bedford Stone. The main doors at the top of a large set of stairs are made from ornamental bronze, and the walls of the first floor lobby are finished in Kasota Stone, which was quarried in Kasota, Minnesota. The first floor corridor and the grand stairway are finished in travertine that was imported from Italy. The floors of the corridors and tread of stairway are made from Terrazzo and Kasota Marble, and the balusters and railing are made from Italian Travertine and Italian Tavernelle Clairemarble.

At night, the top of the memorial tower emits steam illuminated by a bright orange light. This effect creates the illusion of a burning pyre and can be seen for some distance. However, due to budget cuts in the city, the "Eternal Flame" has been shutdown. It will be used during specific holiday weekends such as Memorial Day weekend when the Flame will run from Friday through Monday.

In 1981, the building underwent a major renovation which updated existing systems to modern code specifications.

[edit] Gallery


[edit] External links

[edit] Sources

  1. ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
  2. ^ a b The National World War One Museum, libertymemorialmuseum.org. Accessed Sept. 2006.
  3. ^ Liberty Memorial Designated Historic Landmark - Kansas City News Story - KMBC Kansas City
  4. ^ Liberty Memorial Museum: a 'world class' museum in the making: designers of this new WWI museum draw parallels between that war and those of today | VFW Magazine | Find Articles at BNET.com


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