Category: People
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Among the fathers of Midtown: Dr. Joseph Feld
Before Penn Valley Park was created and before the Valentine, Roanoke, Coleman Highlands and Old Hyde Park neighborhoods were built, the northwest part of Midtown had a huge public park known as Feld Park. Dr. Joseph Feld, a native of Germany, was one of the earliest settlers in Kansas City and a major landowner in…
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Nelson’s country mansion became site of Nelson-Atkins Museum
William Rockhill Nelson is best remembered as the founder of the Kansas City Star, but Nelson once said he enjoyed nothing more than building houses. Nelson the journalist was also an avid real estate developer and planner. He was among the first of the Kansas City elite to move south – helping start the movement…
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Edgar Snow’s Midtown roots form lifelong Kansas City-Chinese bond
This week a delegation from China will tour Midtown sites in the Volker, Valentine and Hyde Park neighborhoods – all part of an ongoing relationship between China and Kansas City created by the work of journalist Edgar Snow. The Chinese dignitaries will be in Kansas City for the annual Edgar Snow Symposium. Kansas Citians Mary Clark…
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Volker residents explain what its like to live there
KCUR, Kansas City’s Public Radio Station, came to the Volker neighborhood last night for a “listening session.” The station’s Ron Jones explained KCUR is doing reporting on geographic dividing lines in Kansas City, and in this case is interested in the impact the state line has on residents. “We’re here to listen to you and…
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When Teddy Roosevelt came to Kansas City
As the PBS series on the Roosevelts continues this week, few in Kansas City remember the time when President Theodore Roosevelt visited Kansas City. But on May 1, 1903, crowds filled the streets to see him. “For nearly three hours this forenoon President Roosevelt rode between solid banks of cheering people that lined miles and…
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Midtown Millionaire’s Row was once at 31st and Troost
When Kansas City pioneer Webster Withers moved his family to this block in 1883, he said he’d decided to move to “the country.” He built his mansion on forty acres of ground on a spot few would recognize today – 31st Street and Troost Avenue. “We were tired of town life,” Withers’ wife told the Kansas…
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A history buff tracks the past from Volker
Some step into history easily, often people who lived much of it and paid attention. Among them is Merrill William “Bill” Day of the Volker neighborhood. Day, 67, worked as a bus driver and a milkman and saw streetscapes change before his eyes. His grandfather was a streetcar driver, and his father a mechanic and…
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Thomas Hart Benton home getting ready for artist’s 125 birthday
A couple of events coming up at the Thomas Hart Benton home at 3616 Belleview in Roanoke offer us a chance to take a look back at the history of that site. First, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources is hosting a meeting on April 19 to give an update on the site and get…
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Local St. Pat’s Day parade almost disappeared from history
The Kansas City St. Patrick’s Day parade – said today to be the 6th largest in the country – started out strong in 1873 but by 1891, anti-Catholic sentiment drove it to a close. It wasn’t until 1973 that a conversation in a cocktail lounge brought it back to life. And for a while after…
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Haddix book details Charlie Parker’s Midtown roots
Midtown’s role in Charlie Parker’s life was a missed note until a new biography recorded it. Chuck Haddix, director of the Marr Sound Archives at UMKC, put it in his book, Bird, the Life and Times of Charlie Parker. It turns out that Parker lived in two Midtown apartments as a boy and walked to…