House History
Corinthian Hall is the former residence of Kansas City entrepreneur and civic leader Robert A. Long and his family. Construction of the house and five outbuildings took place between 1907 and 1910. Planning for Corinthian Hall began in 1906. Mr. Long’s collection of horses was outgrowing the family’s existing stables and as his daughter Loula later said, “...a new stable had to be built; and since we were going to have a new stable, Daddy decided that we might as well build a new house, too.”
The house, 70 rooms and closets and 15 baths on three floors, attic and full basement, measures 105 x 85 feet with a 2-story northeast wing of 41 x 50 feet comprising more than 30,000 square feet. All told, there are more than 50,000 square feet of usable interior space on the site. The mansion’s structure was built of concrete reinforced with steel provided by Des Moines Bridge and Iron Works.
In 1910 dollars, the final cost of the house, additional buildings, interior design and furnishings and landscaping was close to $1 million dollars. The mansion was added to the National Historic Register in 1980.
Long retained Kansas City architect Henry Ford Hoit to design the Corinthian Hall estate. Hoit was an enthusiastic proponent of the Classical Revival sentiment that swept America after the great Columbian Exposition of 1893. He was influenced by the Ecole des Beaux Arts, a French school that promoted the “classical ideal” and the melding of many historical forms of architectural ornament in a less-than historically accurate manner. Corinthian Hall receives its name from the capitals atop the six columns supporting the front portico. The columns measure 25 feet by 30 inches in diameter. The capitals are actually stylized composite Corinthian, with human faces placed in top center, in each of the cardinal directions.
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