Of all the great places to see and do in Kansas City this is one of my favorites.
The Rosedale Arch offers the absolute best view of the Kansas City skyline and is the home of one my most favored memories. We stumbled on it by chance.
Jeremy and I were driving towards Westport, I saw this decorative arch on the side of a large hill. We drove around and discovered a road that wound its way up to the arch. What a view.
The arch had a few plaques that briefly explained the purpose of the monument. Afterwards, I did more research.
Inspired by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, architect and Rosedale resident, John LeRoy Marshall designed the memorial.
Side Note: The Town of Rosedale was a neighborhood on the southside of Kansas City. The city originated in 1872, and in less than three years, it had a population of over 600 which met the requirement to be established as a city. The City of Rosedale was incorporated in 1877. In 1922 it was annexed by Kansas City, KS.
The memorial sits on Mt. Marty, what a great name!
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 2, 1977.
A historic marker was added under the arch in 1993 to honor the soldiers of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
Back in May 2008 Jeremy and I were sitting on a dilapidated picnic table enjoying the cool weather.
I ran to the car to get a small wrapped gift for my boyfriend, Jeremy.
It was a book celebrating our two years together. Mostly pictures of us and this inscription in the back of the book:
Dear Jeremy,
You mean everything to me,
You have changed my life
more than you will ever know.
The last two years have been an
incredible time.
The things we have seen, done and lived;
are just the beginning.
I want to make a commitment to you.
I commit my love and my life to you.
Forever.
From this moment on
Jeremy read it and got tears in his eyes. I said, you know, every great book needs a bookmark. I handed him a silver bookmark engraved with our names and dates of importance.
I had decorated the bookmark with three red tassels sporting several silver doohickeys. At the end of the tassels were matching rings. It was still illegal for gay couples to get married at that time, so I thought I would at least lock him in theoretically. Probably a good time to mention Jeremy did say yes.
We used to visit the Memorial everytime we were in Kansas City, but the last couple of times the gates have been locked on the weekends.
That’s our dog KC, she was named after Kansas City. It’s her town as much as it is ours.
I called the KC Parks and Recreation before this recent trip to check on the gates.
They are open during the weekdays, but they lock them up at night because there is so much vandalism.
We took some pictures then asked a woman if she would mind taking a few pics. She was glad to do so. We chatted with her a moment. She and her wife were in town scouting some sights for an upcoming convention.