Mary Jo Browne remembers clearly that cold winter morning in Union Station, then on the verge of renovation: "We had trudged through snow to get there, and I can't tell you how cold it is in a stone building that hasn't been heated in years. But the sun was coming through those windows, and when I looked up the hill, it brought back all of the love and all of the wonder, and I was warm."

What she saw was the Liberty Memorial, the country's largest memorial dedicated to World War I, fallen into disrepair, closed, its eternal flame extinguished. The Liberty Memorial had been part of her whole life, a stately sister to Union Station, where she, like so many, had said goodbye to loved ones leaving for wars—some never to return, others welcomed back years later on the same platforms. Honoring the inherent connection between these two historical treasures, Kansas Citians joined forces several years go to bring Liberty Memorial back to life. That effort culminated in December 2006 when the National World War I Museum opened, even grander than the memorial’s 1926 debut.

The original elements endure: the courtyard, the sphinxes—Memory shielding her eyes from war while Future looks towards peace—and the Memorial Tower, climbing 217 feet and crowned by the figures of Courage, Honor, Patriotism and Sacrifice. Now the Liberty Memorial opens to a vast museum spreading beneath the original complex. Visitors enter over a glass bridge spanning a field of thousands of poppies honoring fallen heroes. From a balcony, they look down into trenches, canons and other artifacts of WWI, all casting shadows on a screen four stories high and fourteen stories wide while voices recount the entanglements leading up to WWI.

The National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial adds a compelling experience to the downtown Kansas City renaissance, where visitors already enjoy Hallmark Visitors Center, Science City, all that Union Station offers, Kansas City Symphony concerts, the ever-changing water displays of the Bloch Fountain and the Crossroads Arts District.

As an insider, Mary Jo has watched its rebirth, and her enthusiasm is contagious. "It's one of the most powerful museums anywhere in the country," she says. "Ralph Applebaum Associates are the architects. They did the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. They want this to be their finest hour. It's not a place. It's a state of being."