The grand, six-pillared, bronze-doored building at 10^th and Baltimore streets has been home to the Kansas City Public Library’s Central location since April 2004. The structure, established as the First National Bank in 1906, has acted as the cultural nerve center, knowledge source, and bridge over the digital divide for the greater Kansas City community ever since.

To celebrate two decades at 14 W. 10th Street, the public is invited to an all-ages drop-in happy hour on April 19, 2024, that includes refreshments, crafts for families, a scavenger hunt with prizes, and dancing to music provided by a quartet from the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra. Also, hear winners of the Carrie Westlake Whitney fan fiction contest read from their work.

Twice, the building has changed the landscape of downtown. First as one of several banks that established “Bankers Row,” helping to transform the wild-west crisscross of dirt roads into a metropolitan downtown. And many decades later, it became a cornerstone of revitalization efforts when it was reimagined as the Library, remaking the neighborhood as the Library District.