Neighborhoods - Midtown KC Post

Armour Boulevard Apartments, Workingmen’s Cottages, Now Gone

2 Comments / Great Streets, Lost and Endangered, Neighborhoods / By midtownkcposter

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. […]

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Large Homes Once Stood on Armour

Leave a Comment / Big Changes, Lost and Endangered, Neighborhoods / By midtownkcposter

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

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Valentine Was Home to First Female Livestock Exchange Member

3 Comments / Neighborhoods, People / By midtownkcposter

Census records from the 3700 block of Washington Street in the Valentine neighborhood show a pattern repeated across Kansas City. In the early 1900s, the owners shared these large homes with extended family members and servants. But by 1930, almost every family had given up its servants and had taken in one or several lodgers.

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A Corner Store Served the Neighbourhood

Leave a Comment / Gathering Places, Neighborhoods / By midtownkcposter

In the 1930s and 40s, this West Plaza neighborhood block had a corner grocery store and was home to young working-class families who moved in and out. A reader turned our attention to the block bounded by Mercier and Holly between 47th and 48th Streets, where, she wrote, she had heard a respected sculptor had once

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Pioneer Family Owned this Valentine Block

5 Comments / Neighborhoods / By midtownkcposter

Early maps of this Valentine neighborhood street show that most of it was once owned by Nellie G. Nelson, the daughter of Kansas City pioneer A.B.H. McGee. In 1890, Nellie married William W. Nelson, the son of a prominent family, in one of the most celebrated weddings in Kansas City history of a pioneer fa.

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South Hyde Park Came Alive After 1900

3 Comments / Great Streets, Neighborhoods / By midtownkcposter

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

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Some of Armour Blvd.’s Mansions Remain

Leave a Comment / Great Streets, Neighborhoods / By midtownkcposter

Much has changed along Armour Boulevard since the early 1900s, but one block, the north side of Armour to 34th Street from Campbell to Charlotte, remains much the same. One of the Armour mansions is no longer there, but the remaining homes of the block look pretty much the same as when they were built.

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Manheim Park Called Ideal and Artistic

2 Comments / Great Streets, Neighborhoods / By midtownkcposter

Their original developer described the 3900 blocks of Troost and Forest as an “ideal residence park where all homes are complete, well-designed, original and artistic.” Most of the homes were built around 1909-1910, and since then, the neighborhood has had its ups and downs, but current residents say Manheim is making a comeback. The block

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Architect Saw Value in Southmoreland

1 Comment / Neighborhoods, People / By midtownkcposter

A recent Google Maps view of the 4300 block of Walnut. One important name stands out in the history of a block of the Southmoreland neighborhood from Warwick Boulevard west to Walnut and from 43rd to 44th, that of architect Albert Turney. Perhaps best known for the design of Kansas City Fire Department Building #2 in 1905, Turney

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Swedish Families Settled in West Plaza

1 Comment / Cultural Melthing Pot, Neighborhoods / By midtownkcposter

Working-class families from Sweden, Missouri, and Kansas lived on this West Plaza block in 1940. Residents had a variety of jobs: salesman, flour mill hand, marble cutter, machinist in a canning factory, upholsterer, piano tuner, landscaper, bookkeeper, radio serviceman, railroad freight clerk, and barber. The area developed around 1907 when newspaper ads hawked lots in

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