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J. H. Van Closter belong to that class of
citizens wines aid and cooperation call always be counted upon to further any
progressive public measure. Since 1906 he has been engaged in business as the
proprietor of the Centropolis Hotel and has also promoted building operations.
he we, born in Belgium in 1856 and when about two nerd a
half years of any was brought by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Van Closter, to
the United States, the family home being established in New York. Ile was
educated in the high school of Wayne county-, that state, and afterward engaged
in teaching school for eight years, imparting readily and clearly to others the
knowledge that he had acquired. He also attended the Rochester (New York)
Business Institute and engaged in teaching in that school for one year.
The rapidly developing business interests of the west with their opportunities
attracted Mr. Van Cluster and in 1882 He made his may to Omaha, Nebraska, where
for one year he was engaged in teaching in a business college. On the expiration
of that period he accepted a position in the general office of the Union Pacific
Railroad Company and was afterward engaged in the hotel business there until his
removal to Kansas City in 1901. For two years he conducted the Ashland Hotel
here, after which he devoted two years to building. He erected the Dresden flats
at Eighth and Locust streets and pot up thirty apartments for negroes at
Independence avenue and Harrison street. These he rents, personally
superintending the rentals and collections. In 1906 he purchased the Centropolis
Hotel from W. J. Cooper and has since conducted the only two dollar per day
hotel in the city. It contains one hundred and fifty rooms and Ile employs fifty
-fire people. He has installed natural gas for heating and introduced many other
modern conveniences and has made this an excellent modern priced hotel.
In 1884 Mr. Van Closter was married in Omaha to Miss Addie P. Gaston, a native
of Vinton. Iowa, who died in 1886, leaving one son, Herbert G., who is now
attending the Ohio Wesleyan University. He is now a senior in the classical
course and intends preparing for the medical profession. Mr. Van Closter was
married again in Omaha to Mrs, Helen M. Tucker, a native of Missouri.
In community affairs Mr. Van Closter is deeply interested to the extent of
giving active cooperation to many movements that have had direct bearing on the
welfare and improvement of the city. He has made his own way in life, without
the assistance of wealth or influential friends, and what he has accomplished is
due to his force of character, laudable ambition and strong purpose that cannot
be diverted from the honorable business path that he has marked out
Source : Whitney, Carrie Westlake. : Kansas City, Missouri : its history and its people, 1808-1908; Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1908, 2083 pgs.