Corinthian Hall
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R. A. Long House
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The Kansas City Museum at Corinthian Hall
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| Location | 3218 Gladstone Blvd., Kansas City, Missouri |
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| Built | 1909 |
| Architect | Henry Ford Hoit |
| Architectural style | Beaux Arts |
| NRHP Reference # | |
| Added to NRHP | November 14, 1980 |
The Kansas City Museum at Corinthian Hall is a small museum in the historic Northeast Neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. Also known as the R.A. Long House, the 3-acre (12,000 m2) plot consists of Corinthian Hall and its outbuildings, most of which have been renovated to contain various displays concerning local area history and natural sciences, a 50-seat planetarium, and a 1910-style soda fountain that serves up phosphates and ice cream.
Named for its six Corinthian columns, the estate was also known as the "Palace on Gladstone Boulevard". Built in 1908 by Robert A. Long, for an estimated $1 million, and designed by architect Henry F. Hoit, this Beaux-Arts style 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) (24,292-square-foot (2,256.8 m2) of livable space) mansion served as the residence for the Long family until R.A. Long's death in 1934. The estate was donated to the Kansas City Museum Association in 1939 by the Longs' daughters and was opened to the public in 1940.
While it was a residence, the mansion contained a myriad of closets and rooms filled with ornate tapestries, paintings, and antique furniture. However, the building was ill-equipped to house a museum, and much renovation was required to consolidate the smaller rooms into larger ones with space enough for exhibits. Though these changes have lessened the value of the building as a "historic house", during its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s it was a pioneer of natural science, housing hundreds of stuffed animals in lifelike dioramas as well as offering various presentations and classes in taxidermy. Over the years the majority of this collection was handed over to larger establishments more suited to the upkeep of the animals.
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