Geology and geography are fundamental to what becomes of a place, as author James Michener points out in Centennial and his other books of historic fiction. What happens after that depends on the industriousness, resourcefulness and the vision of humans who come to inhabit that place. And so it is here in Kansas City, a place born near the geographic center of the continental United States. From its gritty beginnings at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, it has grown to a sprawling midwestern city that connects the nation North and South, East and West through rivers, interstate highways and rail. In the middle of this city that sprawls in all directions across state borders is the Country Club Plaza, widely regarded as the city's crown jewel.An infographic commissioned in 2015 (below) offers a brief timeline of a remarkable 100+ year journey. On one side of Brush Creek – once rugged, marshy land where Daniel Boone's son trapped fur and farmed, a Swiss immigrant operated a dairy farm and entrepreneurs successively operated a brickyard and a flower shop – is the Italian Renaissance Revival style building that has stood since 1928 and today houses The Raphael Hotel. On the other side is the 55-acre Spanish-styled Country Club Plaza, developed in 1923 and considered to be the first shopping center in the world designed to accommodate the automobile. Visionary developer J.C. Nichols acquired the land on both sides of Brush Creek through the 1920s. Nichols, enamored by the Moorish architecture he encountered during a bicycling adventure through Spain, chose the architectural style for what he envisioned as a shopping and residential services district to accommodate wealthy lumber barons and industrialists settling on Sunset Hill, an impressive neighborhood rising from the south side of the creek. As the Plaza grew, he set about selling plots of land on the south side of Brush Creek platted for multi-family structures to house affluent citizens that were migrating southward. In 1927, the McCanles Building Company purchased three lots and commissioned architect Alonzo Gentry, a noted local architect of the time, to design luxury apartments to harmonize with the Spanish and Mediterranean motifs employed for the nascent Country Club Plaza. Perhaps others would have continued the Spanish motif, but instead, Gentry grasped the symbolism of two great European nations, each with distinctive cultures and artistic styles, separated by a body of water. He chose the ornate, Italian Renaissance Revival style, popularized in the 1st quarter of the 20th century. The Villa Serena Apartment opened in 1928 at a cost $600,000, approximately $8.2 million in 2016 currency. The Locarno and Riviera apartment buildings to the East of the Raphael were completed in 1929. The arc of the Plaza and Villa Serena/Raphael's shared history has always bent toward progress and prosperity. Of course there have been challenges along the way: Shortly after the Villa Serena opened and the Country Club Plaza development was gaining steam, the stock market crash of 1929 brought on the Great Depression. Nichols pressed on with attracting upscale local retailers like Jack Henry, a notable menswear specialist, in 1931 and Harzfeld's, a women's wear shop, as well as mainstream national retailers like Sears and Woolworth's. The McCanles brothers completed their apartment projects, even while Villa Serena apartment rental rates fell to as little as $50 per month. Nichols, a wily promoter who had introduced larger-than-life sized colorful bunnies to create an “Easter Wonderland” in 1922, began a tradition of lighting the Plaza with festive colorful lights in 1929. He created an art festival in 1931. All three became signature Plaza events that are now among the city's most enduring traditions, attracting from thousands to millions of visitors each year. Wars – from World War II through Korea, Viet Nam and Afghanistan – as well as economic cycles and ownership transitions have slowed progress. But with each setback and transition, the Plaza and Villa Serena came roaring back. That changed briefly during the late 1960s and early 1970s for the Villa Serena. The property fell into disrepair while renters were increasingly buying homes in the suburbs and finding newer, more modern apartment dwellings. During that time the Nichols Company, under the direction of the founder's son, Miller Nichols, developed a hotel company to build and operate a hotel to accommodate national and international travelers attracted by this unique destination. Nichols hired Philip Pistilli, a Cornell-educated hotelier who was managing the historic Hotel Muehlebach in downtown Kansas City, to develop the new hotel. Pistilli began work on what would become the city's finest luxury hotel, the Alameda Plaza, when it eventually opened in 1972. The hotel's progress was stopped due to a lengthy construction strike. Pistilli, with time on his hands, ruminated on the 1960s urban renewal movement and came up with a new hotel concept. “Europeans preserve great architecture down through the centuries while in America we're tearing down beautiful buildings and replacing them with soulless boxes,” he said. And so, in an ironic twist a half century after The Plaza's beginning, the J.C. Nichols Company purchased the Villa Serena in 1974 to be repurposed as a hotel. The property was reborn September 8, 1975 as The Raphael following a renovation that preserved its architectural and historical virtues. It was named for the famed Italian Renaissance painter. Among its landmark features were hand-made wrought iron gates, twin watchtowers atop its red-tiled roof and twin canopies adorning the entrance to the hotel. The intimate lobby retains much of its original Villa Serena charm with its mahogany-paneled ceiling and ornate woodwork restored to its original condition and travertine marble floors. The Raphael concept became successful immediately in San Francisco, Kansas City and later Chicago, helping establish two new hotel categories: boutique and all-suite hotels. Two years later, tragedy struck the Plaza and The Raphael. A 100-year flood swept down Brush Creek September 12, 1977, resulting in 23 lives lost and $58 million in property damage. While all guests and employees at The Raphael were safely evacuated, the structure experienced significant damage and ceased operations for nearly a month while crews restored the property. The inevitability of ownership and management transition in human enterprise has impacted both Plaza entities. In 1998, the Nichols Company merged with Highwoods Properties, based in North Carolina. A cascading a result was the Pistilli family's purchase of The Raphael Kansas City. Lighthouse Properties, owned by the Walker family of Salina, Kansas, purchased The Raphael in 2005. Under Lighthouse Properties, the hotel was completely renovated at a cost greater than the building's original cost in today's currency; named to the National Register of Historic Places; affiliated with the Marriott Autograph Collection, a portfolio of distinctive, independent hotels and resorts; and received local and national acclaim. A venture owned equally by Taubman Centers Inc. and the Macerich Co. purchased the Country Club Plaza in 2016 and is continuing the tradition of the Country Club Plaza as a unique Kansas City shopping, dining and entertainment destination.
