Neighborhoods

Midtown has more than two dozen unique neighborhoods and several commercial and cultural districts. No two are alike. They are all interesting.

Mastin Mansion Once Dominated the Block at Armour and Main

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

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Coleman Highlands from the 1920s to 1940s

Census records from 1920-1940 show a two-block area of Coleman Highlands as a thriving section of the Midtown’s Redemptorist Parish – its well-built homes packed with large Catholic families.  A reader asked for more information about W. 33rd Street Terrace in Coleman Highlands, so today’s look back at history includes the area from the south side

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Current Home Depot Site Was Once Warner Plaza “Apartment City”

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

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Small Bungalows Lined Belleview, Jarboe in 1940

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.

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Black, White Families, Church, Businesses shared Westport block in Early 1900s

On one block of Westport around 1900, black families lived next to white families, and a church founded by a former slave and his brother stood just down the block from a grocery store in one of the oldest buildings in Kansas City. The block of Westport from Pennsylvania to Mill between 40th and Westport Road has seen

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On Westport Block, Frontier History Meets 20th Century

As one of the oldest parts of Kansas City, the block of Westport from Pennsylvania to Mill between 40th and Westport Road has seen several distinct stages of development. The area first came to life in the mid-1800s, when historic churches, courtrooms, wagon-making, and grocery shops mingled with small frame homes. Despite efforts to preserve

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Do You Remember this Block of Westport Road from Broadway to Central?

Although Westport is best known for its role as a frontier trading outpost, few remnants of that pioneer past remain standing. The Westport we know today, including this block from Westport Road to Archibald and from Broadway to Central, was mostly built in the early years of the 20th century, with Westport Road making the

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