Corner of 39th and Pennsylvania Was Home to Westport Pioneer Family

Among the earliest homes in what is now Midtown were those of wealthy Westport settlers built in the mid-1800s. Those homes, such as the lavish Bernard mansion in what is now the Valentine neighborhood, were often replaced to make room for “modern” homes in the early 1900s. Because they sometimes occupied key intersections, many of these homes were later replaced by commercial businesses catering to the more developed south side.

The history of the block from W. 39^th to W. 39^th Terrace between Pennsylvania and Southwest Trafficway is a good example of this. In its earliest days, the entire block was the home of Santa Fe trader William Bernard and his wife Susan. By 1937, the home was a pile of rubble, soon to be replaced by a gas station. Today, the block is once again in a state of transition, as a developer begins plans to replace a run-down car wash on 39th Street with a new apartment building.

As part of our Uncovering History Project, the Midtown KC Post is examining each block in Midtown. A set of 1940 tax assessment photos is available for many blocks.

Today, the block bounded by 39^th and 39^th Terrace, from Southwest Trafficway to Pennsylvania.

Another view of the Bernard home from around 1920.

Early home of Westport pioneers

In the mid-1800s, this block was known to the people of Westport as the home of Santa Fe trader William Bernard. In 1937, the grandson of a pioneer settler shared an old map (below) with the Kansas City Star, showing the Bernard home just north of Colonel A.G. Boone’s residence.

“Fine old houses grew in Westport as a result of that Santa Fe trade. Roomy old brick houses they were, with low gables and wide yards around them, and gardens and living quarters for slaves. Colonel A.G. Boone lived in a house on what is now Pennsylvania, south of Thirty-ninth Street Terrace. Just north of him was William Bernard’s house,” the newspaper account reported.

In 1937, the year the article appeared, the Bernard house had recently been razed, but the Star said, “the place where it stood for more than eighty years is plainly marked with the remains of the foundation visible and piles of ancient bricks and tall trees that shaded the wide, gracious lawn.”

Photos from the 1940 tax assessment records show a gas station on the site. Today, it is a parking lot.

The block fills in with homes

After William Bernard died, his wife Susan owned the home until her death in 1895. A map from that year indicates another house at the opposite end of the block near what is now Southwest Trafficway, with ownership attributed to Susan.

1907 Tuttle & Pike map.

Sometime before 1907, the South Roanoke subdivision was platted. Seen here in a 1907 Tuttle & Pike map, a mixture of single-family homes and small apartment buildings filled in the block facing both W. 39^th Street and W. 39^th Terrace, and what appears to be a commercial building was constructed at the corner of Summit (Southwest Trafficway) and 39^th.

39^th Street homes replaced by businesses

That corner commercial building at 39^th and Summit was the harbinger of things to come. The well-known Janoe Bakery, “whole wheat bread and salt rising our specialty,” was a fixture on the corner from the late 1920s to about the late 1940s.

There was also a grocery store in the building that changed hands frequently. It was a Piggly-Wiggly in 1922, George F. Smith Grocery in 1926, an A&P in 1935, and the Jeffress Marker in 1941. In 1945, it was a nightclub.

The Adolph Hapke Jewelry store operated at 719 W. 39th from the 1920s until at least 1940.

Gradually, 39^th Street took on a more commercial flavor, and the homes that once lined it were replaced with what is today business buildings, a car wash, and a parking lot.

 Historic photos courtesy Kansas City Public Library/Missouri Valley Special Collections.