Category: People
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Female Architect Left Her Stamp On This Countryside Block
Built when well-off residents of Kansas City were moving south of the Plaza and located right next to Loose Park, it is no surprise that this Countryside neighborhood block was built by prominent architects and attracted prominent families. The block from Wornall to Wyandotte between W. 54rd Street and W. 53rd Terrace is part of the…
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Parkview Drugstores Started on this Manheim Park Block
In the early 1900s, this block from Brush Creek Boulevard to Cleaver Boulevard between Tracy and Virginia was best known as the home of the original Parkview Pharmacy. Located just east of the popular Electric Park, in those days the block was a mixture of commercial buildings, apartments (even one designed by Nelle Peters), and…
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On the Edge of Midtown, A Home for Orphan Girls
A home for orphans that took in hundreds of children between 1880 and 1960 was a well-known part of the Midtown landscape. The St. Joseph Orphan Girls’ home took up the entire block between SouthweTrafficway (then called Summit) and Pennsylvania north of 31st Street (Karnes). Although it was called the Orphan Girls’ Home, the institution did…
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Noted Architect Lived on This Roanoke Block of Well-off Families
Kansas City architect E.O. Brostrom – designer of the Newbern Hotel, several churches and an advocate in the 1930s of tiny houses – was just one of the noted early residents of a Roanoke neighborhood block. The homes in the area from W. 37th to W. 38th between Jarboe and Valentine were built between 1900 and 1930, when the…
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Volker Homes Built Around 1910 To Meet The Needs of Immigrants
Most of the homes we now occupy in Midtown were built in a relatively short period – from 1900 to about 1920. While some of Kansas City’s wealthiest families had moved south in in the 1880s, the majority of homes were constructed to meet a rapidly-growing population after the turn of the century. For example,…
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The NE Corner of 39th and Main Holds Layers of History
(This post originally ran on April 23, 2017) When Barbara Bescher bought a lot at the corner of 39th and Main in 1901, the home she built for herself was practically the only thing on the block. But just two decades later, in 1924, the savvy businesswoman sold the property for more than 20 times what…
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In 1910, a block of immigrant families in Valentine
As Kansas City neighborhoods filled up with residents after the turn of the 20th century, this block, like many others in Midtown, became home to many immigrants. In 1910, the residents of the area from Summit to Jefferson between 34th to 35th Streets came from Russia, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Canada, mixing in with other families who…
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Swedish families settled and stayed for decades on this Volker block
It is common to find families moving in and out of Midtown neighborhood blocks in the early 1900s, but this Volker area with many Swedish immigrants was much more stable. Census records from 1910 to 1940 shows several families that stayed on the block the entire time, while others moved in and stayed for two…
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Mansions at Armour and Main gradually repurposed, replaced
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…
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3700 block of Washington was home to first female Livestock Exchange member
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.…