Prospect of Convention Hall revisited

The prospect of building a convention hall, abandoned in 1901, reappeared in 1911 as part of the “improvement and beautifying of Liberty Park.”

The park had at one time been privately owned, and featured a five-acre lake, a band pagoda, and “beautifully landscaped grounds with shade trees, ornamental shrubbery, and flower bed with arbors.”

A hotel on the grounds boasted gas lighting, hot and cold running water, and a restaurant seating 500 people.

A county fair, pretentiously called the Missouri State Fair, had been held there, using the livestock pens, a grandstand and race track there.

When the state moved the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia in 1899, the park’s fairgrounds became unnecessary. By the first decade of the 20th century, the park’s glory had faded and the hotel had become dilapidated.

In March 1911, the Sedalia City Council voted to ask the voters to approve a $60,000 bond issue for park improvements. The bonds were to be paid off with existing tax revenues.

The Sedalia Democrat-Sentinel actively campaigned for passage of the bond issue, printing numerous articles and editorials between March 17 when the council’s decision was first reported and the March 30 election.

The Democrat-Sentinel supported the issue with a variety of arguments, including children’s health, motherhood, job opportunities, civic pride, and race and class relations. Each of the arguments was presented as an accompaniment to the assurance that taxes would not be increased.

The tax question was dispelled first by printing the entire park bond issue resolution and by printing editorials that emphasized “the present tax rate will not and cannot be raised above the present figure.”

The city hosted a series of public meetings on the issue. On March 26, the Democrat-Sentinel announced the meetings that would explain “the proposed bond issue for the improvement of Liberty Park … and the means of doing this without increasing the present tax levy one cent.”

The park improvement campaign committee arranged for meetings on Monday at Tillberry Hall on Engineer Street; on Tuesday at the Second Congregational Church on East 14th Street and at the Methodist Episcopal Church at Lamine Avenue and Henry Street; and on Wednesday at the Pettis County Courthouse.

The Second Regiment Band and the Queen City Band provided music at each meeting, and city councilmen, judges, ministers, and attorneys spoke on behalf of the bond issue. Although women could not vote at that time, “a special invitation is extended to the ladies to attend these meetings.”

More interesting than the repeated coverage of the tax issue are the emotional appeals used to convince voters to approve the issue.

Concern for children’s health, a popular topic during the first two decades of the 20th century, was coupled with concern for those who were unable “to go away with their families to the seashore or mountains where they can get close to nature and build up their bodies and clear up their minds with the blessed out-of-doors.”

The press extolled the virtues of “splendid turf, dotted with numerous shade trees, interspersed with flowering shrubs and blooming plants.”

In addition to its natural beauty, the park would provide an athletic field and be “plentifully supplied with swings, maypoles, and other devices that appeal to the calesthenic (sic) instincts of young America. Liberty Park would be a “real blessing” to working men, the “little ones,” and their “tired mothers.”

Another emotional appeal combined the prospect of job opportunities with community spirit, noting that any wage earner, “from the day laborer to the most skilled mechanic will have part and parcel in it.”

he Democrat-Sentinel listed the types of work to be done — grading, excavating, masonry, plumbing, plastering, carpentry, painting, paving, and electrical wiring as well as confirming that building suppliers would benefit from the “buy-at-home spirit” that would prevail among the contractors.

Concern for integrity in civic endeavors was addressed as the press assured readers that because the architect would work under the supervision of the park board and the City Council, Sedalians “can have every reasonable assurance that the work will be honestly and economically done, without favoritism or graft.”

Pride in advancing Sedalia underscored much of the emotional appeal. Passing the park bond issue “will put Sedalia on the map” as a “progressive city.” Sedalian Louis Ritchie had already notified the press that he had received a letter from a friend in Philadelphia, Penn., who reported that the Philadelphia Amusement Co., a manufacturer of amusement park rides, had learned of Sedalia’s park proposal and wished to explore the possibility of locating a factory here.

The Democrat-Sentinel optimistically predicted that property values would increase and that “more actual improvements and building in Sedalia” would occur “than during any similar period in the history of the city.” When the local members of the Republican Party endorsed the project, the press praised the action, noting that “Sedalia is our home, and what is good for the city as a whole is good for each resident.”

Next week’s column details the appeals to race and class relations that appeared in their arguments.