Demolition of 23 homes and other buildings in the Valentine neighborhood is continuing this month between 33rd and 35th Streets from Pennsylvania to Southwest Trafficway. The story of these demolitions began more than 50 years ago when the Kansas City Life Insurance Company and other groups proposed demolishing a larger area and replacing the homes with apartment complexes and office buildings. Although that plan ultimately failed, the insurance company continued to buy up homes in the area, which is directly adjacent to its headquarters, and has torn many of them down in the years since. While there were more than 80 structures in the four-block area in 1909, there will be only about six when the current round of demolition is completed.
The background
On Feb. 1, 1971, the Kansas City Star reported for the first time on a plan it called in the headline the “Big Penn Valley Land Grab.” It detailed a proposal for a 45-million dollar Penn Valley Plaza redevelopment project in the midtown area from Thirty-third Street south to Valentine Road between Southwest Trafficway and Pennsylvania Avenue which was filed with the city plan commission by the Penn Valley Redevelopment corporation
