City Workhouse Castle

Completed in 1897, this beautiful Romanesque Revival castle first served as a penitentiary for local inmates but has since been abandoned for years.

2021 view of City Workhouse.

City Workhouse Castle

2001 Vine Street, Kansas City, MO (Map)
Built: 1897
Architect/Style: A. Wallace Love // James Oliver Hogg // Romanesque Revival
Area: Vine Street

The City Workhouse Castle, also known as the Vine Street Workhouse Castle, has stood as a symbol of Kansas City's complex history since its construction in 1897. Located at 2001 Vine Street in the historic 18th and Vine District, the building was designed by Kansas City architects A. Wallace Love and James Oliver Hogg in the Romanesque Revival style, reflecting the popular architectural tastes of the city's upper class at the time.

1900 view. Courtesy: Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, MO

Built for $25,700, the castle was constructed with yellow limestone quarried by inmates who would later be held within its walls. The structure, which featured castellated towers and two-foot-thick limestone walls, was meant to be imposing, but it also served a dual purpose as both a high-security facility and a model of humane housing for Kansas City's petty criminals and vagrants. Major Alfred Brant, the workhouse's first superintendent, envisioned the building as a place where offenders could find dignity and productivity through their labor for the city's public works.