As City Union Mission marks its 100th year in Kansas City, we’re looking back at its beginnings.
It was founded in 1924 by Reverend David Bulkley and his wife Beulah from Sedalia, Missouri. He worked with the YMCA and served as a chaplain assigned to the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I. There he was wounded.
The Mission’s current CEO Terry Megli said Reverend Bulkley was deeply affected by what he saw.
“He did a variety of passing messages along, first aid, food, assisting soldiers at the hospitals,” Megli said. “War is very traumatic and that really shaped him to want to do more when he came back to Kansas City.”
City Union Mission had a rocky start. Originally in a storefront at 5th and Main, there were 40 brothels in the area.
None like the so-called resort operated by Annie Chambers at 3rd and Wyandotte. Her 24-room mansion had a barber shop and a ballroom. Ms. Chambers required her girls dress properly and conduct themselves as refined ladies. Annie knew many prominent Kansas Citians, politicians and law enforcement brass. A button set off an alarm at KCPD headquarters about three blocks away.