Do You Know the history of this Heart of Westport Neighborhood Block?

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.

This post from our archives (originally posted in March of 2016)  features homes on the 3900 block of Central in the Heart of Westport neighborhood. Central Street is just one block east of Broadway.

Reader Janet Pickett says she grew up on it.

“I watched the city tear down 8 or 10 houses and build the Westport Station post office,” she wrote. “My house was torn down in the early ’70s for a parking lot.  When we first moved there, there was a Hallmark card factory next door to our house.  Hallmark’s address was, I think, 3954 Central.”

The Sanborn Fire Insurance map from 1895 shows that most of the homes on the west side of Central were built before the turn of the century.

The Sanborn Fire Insurance map from 1909 shows a few more homes were built in the first decade of the 20^th century.

We also couldn’t find much else out about the block.

Maps and photos courtesy Kansas City Public Library Missouri Valley Special Collections.