August Meyer

August R. Meyer (August 20, 1851–December 1, 1905) was a U.S. civil engineer, founding organizer of Leadville, Colorado, and developed the park and boulevard system for Kansas City, Missouri as first president of the Commission of Parks.

Background

August Robert Meyer was born in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1875, he started an ore-crushing mill at Alma, Colorado and struck it rich in the Colorado Silver Boom. He and other investors including Horace Austin Warner Tabor founded Leadville and Fairplay, Colorado. [ [http://www.georgekessler.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=100 Meyer, August 1851-1905, Parks - georgekessler.org] ] His home in Leadville, called Healy House, is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a museum.

In 1881, Meyer moved to Kansas City, Missouri. He established the Kansas City Smelting and Refining Company in the Armourdale section of Kansas City, Kansas. The comapny was taken over by the Guggenheim-owned American Smelting and Refining Company, and he joined the board of directors. Later, he became president of United Zinc Company. [ [http://www.kclibrary.org/localhistory/media.cfm?mediaID=213209 Local History - Kansas City Public Library ] ]

In 1887, Meyer became inspired by the City Beautiful Movement and began pushing for a new park system in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1892, Mayor Benjamin Holmes appointed him president of the city's first park board. Meyer and Holmes hired George Kessler to design the extensive and noteworthy system.

Meyer's home, called "Marburg," was a three-story, 35-room Germanic castle on eight and one-half acres. After his death, Howard Vanderslice bought the house and estate and donated it to become the Kansas City Art Institute (where after a Wight and Wight addition) it is the school's administration building). It is now called Vanderslice Hall and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Meyer died in Kansas City at age 54. Meyer Boulevard in Kansas City is named for him. A bronze bas-relief sculpture by Daniel Chester French on an convert|18|ft|m|sing=on high Knoxville marble marker honoring Meyer was dedicated on 2 June 1909, four years after his death. The memorial is located at 10th and The Paseo in the parkway. The epitaph reads:

:::"Houses and Shops Are Man's:::But Grass and Trees and Flowers:::Are God's Own Handiwork:::Undaunted, This Man Planned and Toiled:::That Dwellers in This Place:::Might Ever Freely Taste the:::Sweetest Delights of Nature."

References