The Hall of Waters in Excelsior Springs, MO

 Excelsior Springs, MO

Selfie in front of the Hall of Waters

Hall of Waters

We are at the 3 week park of our time in Kansas City, MO and usually about this time we start looking forward to the next place for whatever reason.  We have both felt it and we have felt it in places we are having a really great time.  I guess it's human nature.  Maybe I need to spend the next 50 years trying to live in the now.  Anyway, a good road trip usually snaps me out of the feeling so I started looking at surrounding counties we haven't been to and things to see and do inside those counties to give us a reason to drive there.  Today I found The Hall of Waters in Excelsior Springs MO which is in Clay Co MO which we have been to and which is about a 2 minute drive to Ray Co MO which we haven't been to.  Excelsior Springs is the site of the first spring water discovered in 1880. At that time, it was the only natural supply of ferro-manganese mineral water in the United States and one of only five known worldwide.  A second ferro-manganese water, the Regent spring, was discovered in 1881. Altogether four distinct kinds of mineral water are located in downtown Excelsior Springs, with more varieties than anywhere else on earth.  I found this info in the link above.  In 1936 the Federal Public Works Administration in Missouri funded the building of a mineral water health resort and water bottling plant.   It is a five level, reinforced concrete "T"-shaped building with strong Art Deco and Depression Modern features. It features a decorative boiler stack tower with cast stone and an aluminum cap 30 feet high.  Info taken from here.  In 2020 the National Trust for Historic Preservation named it one of America's most endangered historic places.  It is currently a small museum and city offices as well as a municipal court.

One of the linked sites has some of these elements lit up at night.

The "Bar" area was closed but I was still able to get good photos

Clay County MO has a lump of clay as their mascot.

The Art Deco Design has Mayan elements mixed in

We saw these in a James Bond movie

Each element used to have this trim all the way around it.  

The Excelsior Springs area looks pretty depressed right now.  Hopefully it can bounce back.  I am glad different agencies have stepped in to keep this old building safe.

After our visit we did a little grocery shopping.  Later that evening Gordon (one of our Disney friends we went to The Academy Museum with in LA and will be going to Disney World with in January) arrived in town so we went to get a drink on a roof top bar near us.  The weather was fantastic for a rooftop beer.

That was it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.