Located in what was once Kansas City’s historic Garment District, 935 Broadway is a two-story brick building with a
full concrete basement. Built around 1874, this 15,000-square-foot structure is one of the oldest surviving buildings
in downtown Kansas City. Its west-facing façade features a glass retail storefront accented with decorative leaded clerestory
windows. Originally home to a drugstore, the building retains several unique historic elements, including a steel vault door in the
basement and ornate tin ceilings, moldings, and column detailing throughout the interior.
The north side of the originally divided building ground floor was built specifically for printing presses and heavy printing
equipment with concrete floors. Upstairs were 8 apartments. For its first 50 years, it was located across the street from the
largest and oldest hotel in Kansas City, the Coates House. At the time, the Garment District was an area of Kansas City with the
highest number of bath houses or massage parlors, as brothels of the day were called. There were more than 160 of them in
downtown Kansas City by 1900.
In 1888 the building was home to Hulett & Moulton Drug Store. In 1905 the drug store changed its name to Coates House
Pharmacy. The building was home to other businesses including an upstairs cap factory and a shoemaker. By 1909 there was no
longer a pharmacy in the ground floor space.
In 1931 the ground floor space became Reich and Seiden Furriers, later changed to Seiden’s furriers in 1935. That same year the
steel door vault was installed, with a very early form of air conditioning, which would allow the furs to be stored with insurance
certificates for garments stored in the vault. The store was open for more than 50 years.