Kersey Coates was born September 15, 1823 in Pennslyvania. A Quaker with a background in both teaching and law, he arrived in Kansas City in 1854 as a land investor, developing the first upscale neighborhood in the city and calling it Quality Hill. He purchased the land on the west bluffs from Berenice Chouteau, which was not near the riverfront town of the time.

Coates wished to see the Kansas territory settled as a free state and helped settlers move to Kansas with the same cause. When the Civil War started, Coates volunteered as a colonel in the Missouri state militia, and his hotel located at 10th and Broadway served as a Union Calvary stable.

Coates and his wife Sarah remained in Kansas City after the war, and Coates remained a booster and investor in the city. He built the Hannibal Bridge, opening in 1869, along with Thaddeus Stevens and Charles E. Kearney. Coates also organized an agricultural and industrial fair, the first in Kansas City, in 1871, and was a founding member of the Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Board of Trade. Kersey Coates died on April 24, 1887.

[Information retrieved from Magerl, Barbara, "Biography of Kersey Coates (1823-1887), Civic Leader," Kansas City Public Library, https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/kchistory%253A115502.]