The east side of the 3800 block of Broadway is dominated by Walgreens and a couple of popular local bars, the Blarney Stone and Chez Charlie, that we wrote about last week. But there’s a sweet, sad story about the history of the block – once the home of a Kansas City mother who lost her […]
Changes on the East Side of Broadway Read More »
Modern offices and commercial buildings today dominate the streetscape just east of the Country Club Plaza, where small homes and apartment buildings stood 75 years ago. The block of the Country Club Plaza (from Emanuel Cleaver Boulevard to Brush Creek, from Grand to McGee) just east of Winstead’s is the subject of today’s look back
Houses Once Filled in Winstead’s Block Read More »
(The latest Rockhill Neighborhood Association newsletter contained two articles with some interesting neighborhood history; they’ve given us permission to reprint them. Yesterday, Rockhill resident Todi Hughes profiled Laura Nelson Kirkwood. Today, UMKC Professor Emeritus Robert M. Farnsworth shares a story at the home of I.H. Kirkwood, later the Rockhill Tennis Club, which came to his
President Theodore Roosevelt, Race Relations and the Kirkwood Home Read More »
(The latest Rockhill Neighborhood Association newsletter contained two articles with some interesting neighborhood history, and they’ve given us permission to reprint them. Today, Rockhill resident Todi Hughes profiles Laura Nelson Kirkwood. Tomorrow, the link between President Theodore Roosevelt, race relations and the Kirkwood house in Rockhill.) Reprinted with permission from the Rockhill Neighborhood newsletter by
The Legacy of Laura Nelson Kirkwood Read More »
Decades ago, Midtown Kansas City had a grocery store in almost every neighborhood. Before the advent of large chain “supermarkets,” grocery stores were often literally mom-and-pop businesses. They grew up along streetcar lines and within walking distance of Midtown residential areas. This map shows all the groceries within Midtown boundaries in 1949, based on a
Neighborhood Grocery Stores Were Everywhere Read More »
The Southwell Building, an art deco masterpiece at 3941 Main and home to Harlings, takes its name from a family that made its mark on Midtown – and across the country. Little remembered today, George Southwell was a composer of band music who played in bandstands in small towns across the country. The Kansas City
Remembering George Southwell of Main Street, the King of Band Music Read More »
When the Raleigh Arms apartments at 3346-50 Gillham first opened in 1909, the owners described the building as modern; in fact, they called it “up to the second.” In a 1909 advertisement in the Kansas City Star, they touted the address in the fashionable Hyde Park district, close to Westport High School and the Hyde
An “Up to the Second” Apartment in 1909 Read More »
A reader named James Brumwell recently sent us this photo of his aunt and her husband in front of their Crestwood home in 1922. Valerie and Clare Chapman, seen here in another 1922 photo, lived at 5510 Crestwood Drive when the neighborhood young. Crestwood has a unique history as a Midtown neighborhood; it was intended
Crestwood Has Remained The Same Over the Decades Read More »
Anyone who knows Midtown Kansas City will encounter some pretty familiar places and things with slight twists when reading the book Of Stones and Feathers. There’s the barely-disguised Nelson Museum of Art with its shuttlecocks and sheep sculptures; Gillham Road and Penn Valley Park; Martini Row with its Never-Sleeping, Three-Headed Velvet Dog-Jaws of Death; the
Coleman’s book invites rediscovery of Midtown – and reimagining of Kansas City Read More »
In 1910, as the desire for new “modern” homes in Midtown Kansas City continued, an “old fashioned, two-story” frame home at 39th and Gillham was being prepared to be moved. The Kansas City Times published this sketch and told the story on Feb. 4 of that year: An Old House Being Moved: Henry C. Flower
A Dairy Farm Became Notre Dame de Sion Read More »