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1 Memorial Drive

building in Missouri, United States

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 22, 2025
Entity authorityQ4595994
Source-derived summary

1 Memorial Drive is the headquarters complex of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Situated within Penn Valley Park, the complex lies across from the Liberty Memorial on the former site of St. Mary's Hospital—where Jo Zach Miller, Jr., the bank president who oversaw the construction of the previous headquarters at 925 Grand, spent his final days.

Relocated from Downtown Kansas City, the facility occupies a 15.7-acre park-like setting with landscaping designed by Laurie Olin of Olin Associates.

The 618,000-square-foot complex comprises a 14-story tower and a two-story base housing the bank's cash processing and operations facilities. Designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, with Henry N. Cobb as lead architect, the building was officially dedicated on June 11, 2008, replacing the former headquarters at 925 Grand. It was the first Federal Reserve facility constructed following the September 11 attacks, reflecting heightened security considerations in federal building design.

Money Museum

Included in the building is the Money Museum. Its most prominent exhibit is a 27-pound gold bar valued at $400,000 which visitors are permitted to pick up.

Other exhibits include a 463 piece coin collection on loan from the Truman Library which has coins from every Presidential administration.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “1 Memorial Drive” as building in Missouri, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Memorial, Drive and building.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2008. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Memorial, Drive and building providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “1 Memorial Drive”, the useful work is to connect “building in Missouri, United States” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4595994. Authority coordinates are 39.075, -94.585. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “1 Memorial Drive”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 1 Memorial Drive primary sources, 1 Memorial Drive archive and Memorial research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1 Memorial Drive”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from 1 Memorial Drive” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.