Liberty Memorial, Kansas City, MO
Many may not know that the nation’s only World War One museum is located in Kansas City. MinnPost visited the museum and its accompanying memorial tower, and explains its roots:
The original memorial was a local idea, and the complex is still a locally run point of civic pride. Congress gave it the “national” designation in 2004.
As soon as the war ended, Kansas City business leaders bought the land — on the crest of a ridge that overlooks downtown — and began planning a tribute and raising funds. The Liberty Memorial was completed in 1926: a 217-foot tower flanked by two stone exhibit halls and a pair of winged lions covering their faces in grief.
That tower today remains an iconic landmark for Kansas City, and with the museum sits inside 176-acre Penn Valley Park, which is one of the more popular green spaces in the city. The park is home to not only the World War One features, but a running trail, dog park, skate park, music concerts and the Just Off Broadway Theater Association.
Filed under: facilities
The pictures of the sphinxes (winged lions) are amazing. The sculpture idea was clearly adopted from the use of sphinxes in ancient Egypt. One of the comments to the original article states that “Facing east, Memory, has its wings shielding its face from the horrors of the battlefields of Europe. Future, facing west, has its wings shrouding its face to the symbolic unseen future.”
It sounds like this museum is amazing and definitely worth a visit when in KC.