In 2014, it was bought conditionally cash-free by its current owner, Vewiser Dixon. The castle has been only a token feature among many broken promises by developers for lucrative areawide rehabilitation, at least one of whom proposed the structure's demolition. The structure steadily accumulated trash, trees, graffiti, and a cascade of unproductive owners and investors including Bank of America and a convicted con artist. Across the decades of infamous blight of the whole Vine Street District, the dilapidated ceilings and wood floors collapsed down to only the open limestone walls. The castle and surrounding field would be periodically repurposed more than one dozen times across the next five decades including as a city storage facility, a Marine training camp, and a dog euthanasia center-abandoned in 1972. Its original purpose as correctional institution ended in 1924. Its first Superintendent, Major Alfred Brant, proudly declared it "the best building Kansas City has". Its Romanesque Revival architecture with castellated towers were in vogue among the Kansas City upper class at the time. On December 20, 1897, the castle was inaugurated as the city's new workhouse with dedicated jail. The castle was constructed by contractors in 1897 at a cost of US$25,700 (equivalent to $904,000 in 2022) next to the natural deposit of yellow limestone which had been quarried by inmates of the previous city workhouse jail across Vine Street. This is within the 18th and Vine Jazz District, which has been referred to as America's third most recognized street after Broadway and Hollywood Boulevard due to the legacy of Kansas City jazz music. Kansas City Business Center for Entrepreneurial Development Ĭity workhouse castle ( Vine Street workhouse castle, Brant Castle ) is a city historical register site located at 2001 Vine Street in Kansas City, Missouri.
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