page_title: City workhouse castle
hierarchical_section_title: City workhouse castle
caption_attribution_description: English: City Workhouse Castle in Kansas City, Missouri, front view in 2020
context_page_description: City workhouse castle is a city historical register site located at 2001 Vine Street in Kansas City, Missouri. This is now the blighted 18th and Vine Jazz District, reportedly America's third most recognized street after Broadway and Hollywood Boulevard due to the legacy of Kansas City jazz music. The castle was constructed by contractors in 1897 at a cost of US$25,700 next to the natural deposit of yellow limestone which had been quarried by inmates of the previous city workhouse jail across Vine Street. On December 20, 1897, the castle was inaugurated as the city's new workhouse with dedicated jail. Its Romanesque Revival architecture with castellated towers were in vogue among the Kansas City upper class at the time. Its first Superintendent, Major Alfred Brant, proudly declared it "the best building Kansas City has".
  Its original purpose as correctional institution ended in 1924. 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.
context_section_description: City workhouse castle (Vine Street workhouse castle, Brant Castle) is a city historical register site located at 2001 Vine Street in Kansas City, Missouri. This is now the blighted 18th and Vine Jazz District, reportedly America's third most recognized street after Broadway and Hollywood Boulevard due to the legacy of Kansas City jazz music. The castle was constructed by contractors in 1897 at a cost of US$25,700 (equivalent to $789,812 in 2019) next to the natural deposit of yellow limestone which had been quarried by inmates of the previous city workhouse jail across Vine Street. On December 20, 1897, the castle was inaugurated as the city's new workhouse with dedicated jail. Its Romanesque Revival architecture with castellated towers were in vogue among the Kansas City upper class at the time. Its first Superintendent, Major Alfred Brant, proudly declared it "the best building Kansas City has".
  Its original purpose as correctional institution ended in 1924. 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. 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 structure steadily accumulated trash, trees, graffiti, and a cascade of unproductive owners and investors including Bank of America and a convicted con artist. 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. In 2014, it was bought conditionally cash-free by its current owner, Vewiser Dixon.
  In 2014, Daniel and Ebony Edwards led a huge nonprofit project to successfully remove 62 tons of trash, and then hosted their own wedding and various community events there, with the ultimately unrealized goal of buying and developing it into a permanent community center. The Kansas City Star nicknamed the project "Daniel and Ebony's Modern Fairy Tale", as the castle's first functionality in 42 years. The site has resumed vacancy and attracting graffiti since 2016.
caption: Castle front in April 2020
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone 11 Pro Max", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "13.4.1", "Image DateTime": "2020:04:23 19:29:02", "Image TileWidth": "512", "Image TileLength": "512", "Image ExifOffset": "214", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[39, 5, 407/25]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[94, 33, 1208/25]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "305933/1183", "GPS GPSSpeedRef": "K", "GPS GPSSpeed": "0", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "T", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "266128/2559", "GPS GPSDestBearingRef": "T", "GPS GPSDestBearing": "266128/2559", "GPS Tag 0x001F": "183762/12889", "Image GPSInfo": "1984", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1072", "EXIF FNumber": "9/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "32", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0231", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2020:04:23 19:29:02", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2020:04:23 19:29:02", "EXIF OffsetTime": "-05:00", "EXIF OffsetTimeOriginal": "-05:00", "EXIF OffsetTimeDigitized": "-05:00", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "89596/8901", "EXIF ApertureValue": "54823/32325", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "103813/11376", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "17/4", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[2009, 1509, 2318, 1390]", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "959", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "959", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3688", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2663", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "26", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[807365/524263, 6, 9/5, 12/5]", "EXIF LensMake": "Apple", "EXIF LensModel": "iPhone 11 Pro Max back triple camera 4.25mm f/1.8", "EXIF Tag 0xA460": "2"}