Restoring Kansas City's most famous carriage house
One of the most notable properties on the grounds of the Kansas City Museum is the carriage house and stable. Its sheer size is impressive (40'x121') with two stories. It is a formidable structure that served the R.A. Long family’s equestrian interests well.
The carriage house and stable housed the Museum’s Natural History Halls until 2008. The carriage house is being restored to the building’s original purpose as a carriage house for Loula Long Combs’ famous horse carriages.
Documentation from the U.S. Department of Interior, which named the R.A. Long residence to the National Register of Historic Places, described the exceptional architectural value of the carriage house at The Kansas City Museum: “The carriage house exhibits the same quality construction and workmanship as the main residence of Corinthian Hall, with red tile roofing, Bedford limestone for facing and copper for deck scrolls and other ornamentation. The architectural style is more restrained than that of the main residence, yet its formality…harmonizes with the mansion’s Beaux Arts style.”
When built in 1910, the carriage house was placed carefully within the site plan for maximum utility and aesthetic appearance. The two-story building originally contained horse stalls, a harness and tack room, and an elevator that could lift vehicles to the second floor. The Long family's stable hands had living quarters on the second floor.
Since the late 1950s, the converted building housed the Natural History Halls of the Museum, featuring exhibits of animal specimens and natural artifacts from the Kansas City region. In 2008, these exhibits were removed and the specimens were transferred to other regional historic centers.
The doors and windows of the carriage house have been replaced in the original Beaux Arts style to coordinate with ornamental detailing of the Corinthian Hall mansion.
A Carriage House Again
The Museum's carriage house will be restored to the building's original purpose as a carriage house for the R.A. Long family. Daughter Loula Long Combs' famous and extensive collection of horse carriages will return to the carriage house after restoration is complete.
The current phase of restoration includes the replacement of all exterior windows and doors on the residence and the carriage house. The restoration of the carriage house windows and doors should be nearly completed in 2009. Lead and asbestos has been abated, as well. The third phase will address HVAC installation for museum-quality climate controls.
An Elaborate Carriage House In 1910
The largest and most significant of the service buildings on the R.A. Long estate, the carriage house and stable was built with two stories on the carriage room portion and one story on the stable portion. The front of the building faces south, where the carriages drove into the main doors for washing.
The exquisite horse carriages of Loula Long will return to the Kansas City Museum’s carriage house after restoration is completed. View more photos.
The carriage house was built when automobiles were fast replacing horse-drawn vehicles as a means of transportation. It reflects R. A. Long’s love of horses and his daughter Loula’s lifelong career as an internationally acclaimed exhibitor of harness horses and ponies. The stable sheltered some of the nation’s finest hackney breed horses before they were moved in 1914 to Longview Farm, the Long’s country estate in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, near south Kansas City.
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View the original Long family carriage house and stables
