From four-plexes to shirtwaists, Midtown’s unique architecture sets it apart.
Before the Walnuts, among Kansas City’s most high-end apartments, were erected in 1929, a large home stood on the same site at Fifty-first and Wornall. The mansion—also known as the Walnuts —became a famous venue for entertaining well-to-do city residents until a developer saw the site’s potential as a luxury residential hotel. Today, block between […]
Walnuts Apartments Replaced Famous Mansion of the Same Name Read More »
The block between Main and Walnut from 36th to 37th Streets has seen many changes since it attracted its first residents in the late 1800s. Its history reflects the movement of people from the north to the new “south side” around the turn of the century, which brought new homes, businesses, and a church to
Famous “Bachelor Retreat” Once Stood at 36th and Main Read More »
The West Plaza neighborhood is one of Midtown’s historic areas where working-class families owned and rented homes in these photos. This block of Belleview and Jarboe between 45th and 46th is a great example. Residents in these 1940s photos included streetcar and meatpacking workers, a movie theater projectionist, and the owner of a watch repair business.
Small Bungalows Lined Belleview, Jarboe in 1940 Read More »
Midtown’s South Hyde Park area developed rapidly after 1905, spurred by new city water service and the expansion of streetcar lines to newly built middle-class homes. Today’s focus block, from 42nd to 43rd, from Holmes to Charlotte, is composed of modest homes that still look much like they did when built more than 100 years
Bungalows in South Hyde Park Read More »
As Midtown became home to many of Kansas City’s wealthiest families in the early 1900s, they built mansions to house their families. Many of these families later moved on as new districts developed to the south, but they left behind large homes built to last decades, and a number of those homes were repurposed by
Once Exclusive Mansions Became Part of UMKC Read More »
One of the former apartment hotels on Armour Boulevard, the Newbern, celebrated its grand reopening last week. The Newbern’s history tells a tale of the glory days of Armour Boulevard, its decline, and its new role as Midtown’s major apartment corridor. MAC Properties, a developer who has renovated. ts on Armour, spent more than a
Luxury Hotels Dominated Armour Boulevard Read More »
A hulking white building at 911 E. Linwood was in the news this week, with a developer successfully requesting assistance to overhaul it. The building – formerly a hotel, a nursing home and a government headquarters – is now slated to reopen as market-rate apartments in 2017. According to the Kansas City Star, developer Ted Sleder
A Midtown Hospital for Hemorrhoids Read More »
The block between Archibald and 41st Street and between Central and Baltimore today is part of Nutterville, an area of brightly-painted and carefully landscaped homes that have been converted to business spaces by the James B. Nutter company. Homes that once stood on the block along the west side of Baltimore Street are gone, for the
Nutterville Stands Out in Westport Read More »
The Kansas City Athenaeum Club said it had sold its 101-year-old building at Linwood and Campbell to the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority DEED Foundation. Both groups describe the transfer of the historic building as a perfect fit for the site , which has a century of history and now has a past and a future involving important women’s
Historic Athenaeum Building Changes Hands 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 »