Couple’s collection is so big they bought a second house
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Marianne Noll calls it “the creep.”
Hundreds of boxes brimming with Kansas Citythemed postcards, ashtrays, plates, paintings and more began to creep outside their regulated zones.
First, Marianne allowed her husband Steve, an avid collector — perhaps a borderline hoarder? — to have the basement of their Prairie Village home to store his treasures. But soon it filled, and boxes crept up the stairs. Then Marianne ceded his office upstairs, and quickly it too was filled to capacity and the boxes moved into the hallway. The garage was next.
“Finally, the guys next door moved out and the creep moved there,” said Marianne, laughing. About a year and half ago, they purchased that house, and the massive collection moved in. Recently, they purchased a midtown mortuary that houses their biggest collection yet: 1 million KC film negatives.
After 12 years as executive director of the Jackson County Historical Society, Steve plans to retire at the end of the year. But he hopes those negatives will be his lasting legacy.
At the house they’ve turned into a museum. Steve throws open the screen door, sweeps his arms and says, “Welcome to the History House, or One Door West.”
He flashes a grin, a slight gap between his two front teeth. “Want the grand tour?”
He’s been collecting since he was a kid, starting with postcards. Now he has an entire closet filled with them.
“People might say they don’t care about history, but they don’t understand that history is all about stories, and everybody loves a good story,” Steve says.
Every piece in the collection has a story, and he easily describes the smallest piece in incredible detail.
He turns to a poster on the wall, an illustration of the old River Quay near downtown. “Right about there was where I celebrated my 21st birthday, and of course that entire area was owned and operated by the mob, which they blew up. Did you know that? The mob blew up the entire area in the ‘70s,” Steve says.
Then a notebook with Union Station architectural drawings grabs his attention, and he’s on to describing visits with his grandmother while she volunteered with the USO.
On the main floor, most rooms feature a few curio cabinets. Each cabinet is themed by shelf and includes souvenirs from the opening of Union Station, the now-demolished Hotel Baltimore and the Kansas City Zoo.
Steve is most interested in Kansas City businesses, especially hotels and restaurants. He always wanted to own his own club — he named the house he lives in “Club 4500,” after the address, and even has cocktail napkins and swizzle sticks printed with a custom logo. He spent most of his professional career working in business logistics and economics. After he retires, he wants to write a comprehensive book on bygone restaurants in Kansas City.