In the four decades since it closed, the Paseo YMCA has been a lot of things: historical emblem, graffiti sketchpad, and lately, a flophouse where the homeless around 18th and Vine crash.
If the directors of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum have their way, the building will get new life as the John "Buck" O'Neil Education and Research center.
The Paseo YMCA, located around the the corner from the museum complex, was completed in 1914, and quickly became the first stop for Kansas City's newest arriving African Americans. The building hosted literacy classes, vocational training and, as noted in this week's cover story, "Historian in Chief," the vote to organize the Negro National League in February, 1919.
In the 1970s, the building was decommissioned when the downtown YMCA
was racially integrated. The ensuing decades have taken their toll.
Today,
the building has become a "hot spot" for vagrants looking for shelter
in the winter months, said Greg Baker, president of the Negro National
Leagues Museum.
"We've had quite a number of vagrants residing
inside, breaking out windows and really causing a lot of expense to
clean it up," he said. Homeless people who call the place home have hoisted
mattresses into the upper floors and kicked out doors to facilitate
easier entry, he added.
Earlier this month, the museum hired a
demolition and cleaning crew to enter the building and haul the stuff
out. In a week's time, they filled a Dumpster. Baker said the building
has been re-boarded, a new front door installed, and other security
measures are in the works.
Though there's no specific time line,
Baker said the board would like to preserve the building in such a
state that tours can begin to recruit potential donors to construct the
Buck O'Neil research center. That project could cost $18 to $20
million, Baker said, but there are no formal construction plans
yet.
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Maybe they should start out cleaning up the facades on the buildings in the Jazz District itself before they jump into such a big project. The last time I was through there, the jazz district looked a little rough around the edges.
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