A Google Maps screenshot showing what Google calls the Hanover Place and Broadway Gillham neighborhoods…which we local folks call Old Hyde Park. The orange shading indicates the official boundaries of the Old Hyde Park Historic Distict Neighborhood.
A news story in the Kansas City Star this week discussed a death in the Hanover Place neighborhood. This got my attention because it has been driving me crazy for years that Google Maps refers to a section of Midtown Kansas City as Hanover Place. (It also lists the section of the Old Hyde Park neighborhood as Broadway Gillham, which is an old name for the neighborhood that has not been used by local people for maybe a few decades.)
This explains why the Star sometimes refers to the area as Hanover Place, but not why it is listed that way on the Google map.
The screenshot of Google Maps (above) shows that according to Google, thereis a neighborhood the area between W. Armour and E. 39th Street from Broadway to Gillham Road called Hanover Place. Yet I have never heard anyone in Kansas City refer to the Hanover Plane neighborhood. So where does that neighborhood label come from?
A little research indicates Google Maps gets its information from both official city and commercial sources. It doesn’t look like the Hanover Place name comes from a city source, since the city recognizes the Old Hyde Park Historic District Neighborhood Association as including both Hanover Place and Broadway Gillham.
The city’s KC Compass site lists Old Hyde Park as the official name of the area generally between Linwood/Armour, 39th Street, Gillham Road and Broadway.
Several places in other parts of the United States and around the world have been identified by names unknown to the locals.
I started to unravel how this all came about, but then I thought there might be folks out there who already have some insight into this discrepancy. Please share your thoughts in the comments, and we can work together to figure this out.
Questions about Old Hyde Park’s name
Here are the questions:
Do you have any idea why Google Maps refers to Old Hyde Park as Hanover Place?
Does it matter to you?
What do real estate agents call the area?
Is it worth trying to get the map corrected? (I’ve read it is very difficult.)
I can’t speak to where it came from but if you check the city parcel viewer, Hanover Place is listed as the “Census Neighborhood” for properties between Broadway and Gillham & and Armour south to 39th. Properties from 31st to Armour and Broadway to Gillham have Broadway Gillham listed as their Census Neighborhood.
And to follow up, it looks like Hanover Place appears in the KC Star archives in real estate ads back to 1886, and any “Old Hyde Park” mentions start a year or two later, and appear mostly descriptive – lots are “near the old Hyde Park” vs. the area being called Old Hyde Park. The Star archives also include several mentions of the Hanover Place Neighborhood Association in the 1980s, so there was clearly some colloquial shift/rebranding fairly recently. And the name does continue to exist legally!
Katie, that is interesting. I have only been in Kansas City since the early 1980s and have never heard of a Hanover Place Neighborhood Association.