Midtown has more than two dozen unique neighborhoods and several commercial and cultural districts. No two are alike. They are all interesting.
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 history of Midtown Kansas City is full of tales of fortunes made and lost in real estate, but the Plaza Westport neighborhood’s past tells a different kind of story. A real estate developer and builder there, Will Corbin, is remembered for finding a way to help working-class people in Kansas City afford the modern
Neighborhood Builder Helped Working People Buy Homes Read More »
Gillham Plaza, between Gillham Road and Oak Street, was coming to life in 1928, soon after it was paved. A newspaper that year rounded up business life on the block, including the El Torreon Ballroom, the Martha Washington Candle Company, the new Luzier cosmetics laboratory, and the Stine-McClure Undertaking Company. A few years later, in 1933,
Gillham Plaza Came to Life in 1928 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 »
Near the site where a Whole Foods store will soon stand at 51st and Oak Streets, a Kansas City grain executive named Edwin Shields once lived with his wife in a celebrated house called Oaklawn. Shields occupied a large tract of land along with neighbor Herbert Hall, which was surrounded by residential development by the
Grain Magnate Predicted Future of 51st and Oak Read More »
Presidents, vice presidents, and company owners – that’s who lived on this block of Sunset Hill in 1940. Sunset Drive, 51st Street and 52nd Street bound the block. The large homes set on big wooded lots were intended by their developer to attract those who could afford the most exclusive addresses in Kansas City, and J.C.
Captains of Industry Settled in Sunset Hill 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 »
Around 1905, major development of Midtown Kansas City started moving for the first time south of Brush Creek, to an area that became known as the Country Club District. One of the earliest homes built in the area was on the block we’re focusing on in this post, from 52nd to 54th, between Oak and Brookside
The Beginnings of the Country Club District 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 »
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 »