No, the Baltimore Hotel was not on this site

Somehow, the bronze historical marker created in 1978 to honor the founding of the Future Farmers of America in Kansas City has mysteriously moved a couple of blocks north of where it used to be.

The plaque, stating that “on this site in the old Hotel Baltimore the Future Farmers of America was founded November 8, 1928, ” was positioned, for several decades, in front of  the City Center Square building between 11th and 12th streets on Baltimore. That was the original site where the Hotel Baltimore, one of Kansas City’s most glamorous lodging spots (it was designed by Louis Curtiss), stood until it was razed in 1939.

The FFA plaque is now mounted on the exterior wall of the Kansas City Public Library Parking Garage at 920 Baltimore.

So how did it get there?
The Pitch asked Crosby Kemper III, the executive director of the Kansas City Public Library, how the plaque had moved from the original site of the Hotel Baltimore to the parking garage (which was where the Shubert Theater had stood back in 1928, when the FFA was organized).

Kemper replied in an e-mail: “I heard the new owners of the (City Center Square) building wanted to get rid of it. And so I asked them for it and they gave it to us. When I win the lottery, we will put up a plaque explaining the removal and origins. Though there is some indication the FFA actually wants it now, though I think the plaque should stay downtown.”