As Midtown grew, its streets and boulevards bloomed with homes and businesses, connecting us to other neighborhoods and other parts of the city.
Like many blocks of Midtown in 1940, this section of Manheim Park from Troost to Forest between 42nd and 43rd was a mixture of homes and commercial establishments that served the families there. Along Troost, a typical commercial streetcar corridor, business names changed frequently, including automobile sales, chicken sales and supplies, grocery stores, and drug […]
Troost Block Served Manheim Park Residents Read More »
A 1930s snapshot of one Midtown block highlights its transformation from a neighborhood of working-class families to a commercial corridor along a major traffic route. Although those photos are NOT available for this block, other historical records offer a glimpse of how the block has changed from the 1930s to today. A 1909-1950 Sanburn map of
Southwest Trafficway Used to Be Summit Street Read More »
The block of Paseo to Virginia, from 36th to 37th Streets, was a lively neighborhood from 1910 to 1940, home to families that made homes in its solid single-family dwellings as well as its high-end apartment building. This 1909-1950 Sanborn Map shows the block, just north of the Faxon School, filled in with a mixture
Paseo Homes and High-End Apartments Read More »
In 1929, Mrs. Maud Wilson, the wife of the proprietor of a coffee shop at 31st and Holmes, was catapulted to the front page of the newspapers, where she held a firm spot for several weeks. By all accounts, the hard-working women struggling with her husband and daughter, Iris, to earn a living at the coffee
Woman Smashed Liquor Shop with Ax Read More »
Today’s historical post looks at the block from Armour to 36th Street, from Main to Walnut, a block that undertook a radical transformation in a few brief decades. From an exclusive enclave of wealthy families like the Armours in the early 1900s, the block became a center of culture around the Conservatory of Music in the
Mansions at Armour and Main gradually repurposed, replaced Read More »
Although his apartment building and small homes along Armour Boulevard no longer stand, W.H. Collins is remembered as a pioneer who left his mark on Midtown Kansas City. Collins’ structures once dominated the block from Armour Boulevard to 36th Street, from Central to Wyandotte, although neither his groundbreaking apartment building or workingmen’s cottages remain today.
Armour Boulevard Apartments, Workingmen’s Cottages, Now Gone Read More »
While many blocks of Midtown have barely changed since the early 1900s, this block of Armour at the Paseo looks like a different place today. The heyday of the block began just after the turn of the 20th century when wealthy and successful captains of the industry started building along the Paseo. However, the prestige
Mansions at Paseo and Armour Have Been Lost Read More »
This block between 30th and 31st from Cherry to Holmes is in an area that is returning to life. Home to the Maker Village, the new Cherry Pit Collective, and the Superior Linen Company, it was once mainly residential but is almost completely commercial today. This week, the block from 30th to 31st and from
31st and Cherry Morphed from Residential to Commercial Read More »
A Midtown Memorial Day tribute goes to George Sedgewick, a Kansas City pioneer who lived at Armour and Virginia before his 20 acres were platted as Sedgewick Place. Like many pioneers, Sedgewick wasn’t born here but was attracted to the growing railroad hub and potential for Kansas City’s growth. When Sedgewick, born in 1823, was
Pioneer George Sedgewick and his Block of Armour and Virginia Read More »
Like much of Midtown Kansas City, this block of Hyde Park from 38th to 39th from Troost to Harrison became populated in the first decade of the 20th century as the growing population of Kansas City moved south. An earlier map of the block from 1891 shows lots had been divided and laid out in
South Hyde Park Came Alive After 1900 Read More »