Troostwood Block Offered Shade, Bungalows, and Two-Car Garages

Many homes built in Midtown just after the turn of the 20th century didn’t have garages. But on this Troostwood block built in the 1920s, garages were an advertised feature, even of smaller bungalows, a sign of how dependent residents were ...

On the Edge of Midtown, A Home for Orphan Girls

Where the BMA Tower (One Park Place)  stands today, on a hill at 31st and Southwest Trafficway, Catholic nuns once ran a home for orphans. The St. Joseph Orphan Girls’ Home operated from 1880 until 1960, one of several charitable institutions ...

Hyde Park Block Responded to Changing Residential Trends

  The Alexander Hamilton Apartments, seen in this 1949 Kansas City Star drawing,  were built during the post-war housing crisis. The 70 apartments offered much needed homes in an era where Kansas City residents were being urged to share ...

March 5: Learn About Kessler’s Parks and Boulevards

  News from the Roanoke Park Conservancy Kessler’s Historic Parks and Boulevards: A Green Framework for a Great Kansas City Tuesday March 5, 2019. Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library. Reception: 6:00 pm. Program: 6:30 pm. Noted ...

Old Hyde Park Block Has Seen Many Changes Since Dr. Hunter’s Time

The Main Street edge of this block, like many major streetcar route streets, has long been a commercial block. The top row of pictures shows three of the commercial buildings that once shared the block with two homes. The bottom row shows the ...

Noted Architect Lived on This Roanoke Block of Well-off Families

Architect Olaf Brostrom designed this Roanoke neighborhood residence for himself in 1926. Brostrom was best known for designing churches, for a book on church design, and important buildings like the Armour Bouelvard’s Newbern (Peacock) apartments. ...

Volker Homes Built Around 1910 To Meet The Needs of Immigrants

  Irish immigrant Cornelius Flaherty, his wife Mary and brother-in-law Patrick Fitzgerald lived in this Volker home from around 1920 through the 1940s. Cornelius worked as a foreman at the stockyards and Patrick repaired cars for the Rock ...

Uncovering History: Have Much of Midtown Has Been Uncovered?

This is the low-tech map I use to keep track of the Uncovering History posts developed for the Midtown KC Post. So far, the project has detailed the histories of more than 150 blocks of Midtown. A very important part of the project is the participation ...

The NE Corner of 39th and Main Holds Layers of History

When this 1924 photo of 39th and Main Street was taken, both sides of Main (seen here from the south) had been transformed from open space with a few scattered homes to commercial buildings. The streetcar track offers an important clue to why ...

Pioneering Photographer Was First Owner on this Roanoke Block

  Surrounded as it is today by apartments on fast-moving Southwest Trafficway, it is easy to miss the first house that was built on this Roanoke block. But at the turn of the 20th century, the home of D.P. and Sophia Thomson stood alone, ...