Background
Asa Bebee Cross was born in 1826 at Camden, New Jersey, United States.
Asa Bebee Cross was born in 1826 at Camden, New Jersey, United States.
He received an architectural training in St. Louis offices, afterward settled in Kansas City where he carried on a general practice. Among his best known buildings were the Pacific Hotel, built at the S. W. corner of 4th & Delaware Ave. (destroyed by fire in 1867, but rebuilt the following year on a larger scale); the first Kansas City Union Depot, 1878, with William Taylor, Associate; the hotel known as Blossom House; Keith 6 Perry Building, 1887; Jackson County Court House (second building), 1890; the Clay County Court House at Liberty, Mo. (probably the second building), and the Union Depot at Denver, Colo.
Mr. Cross also planned many factories and warehouses in Kansas City, and in his early work is said to have built kilns on the site of some buildings under construction to provide the needed brick, also saved lumber from near-by stands of timber.