Midtown is constantly changing, but the buildings and homes we have lost shape what is here today. We need to consider what is important before we consider demolition.
A bank building now sits at the southwest corner of Armour Boulevard and Main Street, offering no hint of the important mansion that once occupied the site. But from the time it was built in 1888 until it was razed in 1927, the Thomas H. Mastin home was one of the best known mansions in […]
Mastin Mansion Once Dominated the Block at Armour and Main Read More »
Despite being known as perhaps the grandest home in Kansas City at the turn of the 20th century, the mansion at 3000 Troost was razed in 1938 to make way for commerce and apartment buildings. Mrs. Samuel B. Sebree (formerly Alice Smith) remembered the days between around 1900 and 1920 when she lived in the home
Home at 30th and Troost Housed Millionaires and Musicians Read More »
An “apartment city” that once stood where Home Depot is located today was billed as “an innovative approach to multi-use residential development.” Built in 1926, the Warner Plaza development included two seven-story buildings on Main Street near Thirty-third Street and a roadway also called Warner Plaza with a long row of apartment buildings on either
Current Home Depot Site Was Once Warner Plaza “Apartment City” Read More »
This block of Midtown once thrived as a commercial center, with businesses such as pharmacies, restaurants and beauty shops serving the surrounding neighborhoods. Although a recent satellite image shows only a large parking lot at the corner of Thirty-first and Holmes, that location was bustling in earlier days. From the 1920s to the 1940s, 31st
31st Street Was Home to Neighborhood Businesses 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 »
Although many of their homes don’t survive, the turn-of-the-century residents of Armour Boulevard included many civic and business leaders of the early 1900s. It was news in 1902 when E.H.L. Thompson took out a permit to build a home on the northeast corner of Armour and Kenwood, seen here as it had been designed. The house
Large Homes Once Stood on Armour Read More »
As we reported last week, demolition threatens a row of three iconic apartment buildings at the back of the Bloch Cancer Survivors Park on the Plaza. So we’re looking back at the two blocks around the apartments, from W. 47th to W. 48th Streets, from Roanoke Parkway to Jefferson, to get a sense of their
Apartments Replaced Homes in The Plaza Read More »
It is history day at the Midtown KC Post, and we’ve got a new map that shows how Troost Avenue changed between 1880 and 1920, transforming from millionaire’s row into Kansas City’s premier shopping street. The best way to see the transition is by studying old maps of 29th to 32nd Streets and Troost. The map
When Troost Was Millionaire’s Row Read More »
A home on the 3100 block of Summit in 1940. Before Penn Valley Community College was built, several hundred homes filled in the area between 31st and 33rd Streets, from Broadway to Southwest Trafficway. In the late 1960s, communities across the United States formed community college districts fueled by changes in society that seemed to
Video: Lost Homes of the Valentine Neighborhood Read More »