The northwest corner of Westport Road and Main Street is a crucial Midtown intersection. As such, businesses and institutions have always seen the benefit of locating there, at the intersection of two major streets and in the heart of residential neighborhoods. That has meant that the corner has seen a lot of changes over the years as it has been put to new uses repeatedly.
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 1895-1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows vacant land at the corner of 39th and Main that later became rows of shops and later yet became CVS. It also shows the former home of the Hyde Park Christian Church, one of Missouri’s oldest Christian churches, and the former Baptist Church (now Redeemer Fellowship) on Baltimore.
The block Around 1900
A home at 3929 Baltimore, listed in 1899 as modern in every way, has since been replaced, as have the rest of the homes that once stood on the block.
This old map shows the block as it looked at the turn of the century when it was less of a commercial corner than it is today. Several single-family homes filled the corner of Westport Road and Baltimore, just down the block from the Allen Library.
The building with the circular room on the corner of Westport and Main was Morton’s Hall and Confectionary, a de facto country club for Kansas City back then. When Morton’s opened, Kansas City patrons and those from surrounding neighborhoods arrived in horse-drawn carriages for lunch, dinner, teas, and wedding receptions. People also rode cable cars to “the end of the line” just to visit the confectionary known for its ice cream and candy. The building later became the Jack O’Lantern, a popular dance hall.
The Hyde Park Christian Church in 1940.
The corner also housed three churches, including the Miss Barstow Day and Home School. In 1926, Main Street was widened and straightened, eliminating the curve seen on the map.
One church on this map is the Hyde Park Christian Church. Originally called the Westport Church, the church’s first home was a log structure on the Jacob Ragan farm near the 3600 block of Holmes. The stone building at 12 Westport Road was built in 1905. The church moved to 3801 Wyandotte in 1956.
In 1912, as the church celebrated its 75th anniversary as a congregation, Rev. L.S. Cupp predicted that within a decade, the church would be surrounded almost entirely by business establishments.
The block in 1940
Cupp was correct. By 1940, many of the homes on the block had been replaced by businesses. At the corner of 39th and Main, those commercial concerns included the Deluxe Café, Tanker Super Gas, and Walker’s Good Foods. (A CVS store is now on that corner).
However, those 1940s photos (see the rest of the buildings on the block in 1940 in the pictures below) still included several older homes. One house at 3929 Baltimore, which had been listed for sale” in 1899, still stood, but today, as “modern in e, the block has no houses, only businesses and the Redeemer Fellowship Church at 3921 Baltimore.
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