Kansas City College of Pharmacy
Kansas City, Missouri
1885-1943
E-Travel
The 1924 and 1928 Mortar yearbooks are available on Ancestry.com and e-yearbooks. Both the Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times carried school advertisements and some school news. Professional Education in the United States (1900) has a profile of the college. The 1893 ad ((right) is from the Kansas City Medical Index-Lancet.
History
Recognizing the need for “men trained in the art and science of compounding prescriptions,” a group of physicians and pharmacists founded Kansas City College of Pharmacy in 1885. The initial enrollment was 23. The school was incorporated in 1887; until 1897 it was associated with University Medical College.
Minnie Whitney (left) and David Whitney (right) were associated with K,C.C.P. for more than 40 years. He was dean and professor of pharmacy; she was secretary and professor of Pharmacology.
Image from the 1924 Mortar.
Two women were admitted as students in 1896, and one—Harriet Benton—received the Graduate in Pharmacy degree in 1897. The initial program was for two years of six months each (increased to seven months in 1905); enrollment had reached 50 in 1902 and 150 in 1922. Another year was added to the program in 1926, and by 1936 K.C.C.P. offered a four-year course leading to a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy.
The yearbooks contain calendars of school events. Among key social events was the annual spring picnic, which also included an interclass baseball game. A school dance in 1923 became an annual event. Students also enjoyed school outings for the Kansas City Blues’ baseball opener and for college football games.
The 1928 Mortar notes that K.C.C.P. had entered a new era by an association with Lincoln and Lee University. However, by around 1930 that Methodist Episcopal school was gone, and by 1933 a new University of Kansas City had been established. In 1943 Kansas City College of Pharmacy merged with it. Since 1963 K.C.C.P. has been the Pharmacy Department of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Bricks and Mortar
In March 1923 the Kansas City Star reported that the Kansas City College of Pharmacy had purchased property on the SE corner of Thirtieth Street and Grand Avenue. A three-story brick building measuring 82 by 42 feet had been commissioned. Apparently this plan was never realized, and K.C.C.P. continued in leased quarters.
Beginning classes at 913 East 10th Street—see image above--, the school moved to 714 Wyandotte in the Garment District. “It doesn’t look like a college to me,” one student reported. Then in the fall of 1923, having outgrown those quarters, the school moved to 1721 Baltimore Avenue, a building that had been a part of the Muehlbach Brewery. The brick building was two stories over a basement, providing space for “well-ventilated” lecture rooms and laboratories, a library, a reading room, and a “special lab for advanced work.’ K.C.C.P. remained at this location until the merger.
1721 Baltimore today is an upscale event and wedding venue.
Google image of 1721 Baltimore in 2019 with construction going on.
Sports
School colors: Red and Black, according to the 1896 Kansas City Times. By 1924 these
had become Green and White.
College Football Data Warehouse shows games against Kansas City University in 1914. Area Newspapers show a football program in 1914 and 1915. The 1914 team team played three games against the Argentine (KS) Athletic Association, a game against the Kansas School of the Deaf and a game against Argentine High School. The 1915 team played two games against Camden Point and one against the Kansas School for the Deaf. Football teams were likely independent of the college. The Kansas City (KS) Republic noted that for the Argentine game of December 10, the “Pharmacys” were “loaded for bear,” “having many Warrensburg Normals” on the team. The 1928 Mortar reported that a football team had been organized but had not been able to schedule a game.
In the 1920’s, Kansas City College of Pharmacy fielded a basketball team that played in the higher levels of the Kansas City Manufacturers and Jobbers League against other independent teams. The 1928 yearbook also shows games against the Kansas City-Western Dental College and the Lathrop Trade School. As opposed to the earlier football teams, all ten basketball players shown in the 1928 Mortar were authentic K.C.C.P. students.
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