By Diana Lambdin Meyer 

Donald Hall Jr. remembers gatherings at his grandparents’ home where greeting cards were strewn about the living room like family photos. They were passed around, talked about and reminisced over like members of the family.

They were also criticized for their shortcomings and praised for their accomplishments with an intimacy and affection that could only come from the founding family of the Hallmark Cards empire.

“My grandfather believed that relationships with family and friends were worth nurturing and protecting by doing little things that show people you care, like sending a greeting card,” said Hall. “He saw excellence and quality in our product as extensions of caring.”

Joyce C. Hall was an eager, optimistic 18 years old in 1910 when he arrived in Kansas City with a pocket full of change and two boxes of postcards. Today, Hallmark Cards has more than 14,000 full-time employees worldwide with about 4,000 working at the international headquarters in Kansas City.

The company is about much more than greeting cards, particularly for those visiting Kansas City. In 1973 the first phase of the Crown Center entertainment complex opened, containing shops, hotels, theatres and the city’s only outdoor skating facility. The Mayor’s Christmas Tree, a fundraiser for Kansas Citians in need and often the largest Christmas tree in the nation, has been a holiday highlight since then.

Two years later, Kaleidoscope began to instill a sense of creativity and imagination in thousands of young people, and in 1985, the Hallmark Visitors Center began to tell the story of this American treasure that is now a century old.