How One Westport Block Has Changed

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, we feature the 3900 block of Central in the Heart of Westport neighborhood. Central Street is just one block east of Broadway.

Here’s what we know about the block so far. Reader Janet Pickett says she grew up on the block.

“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, was 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.

The photos below show all the houses on the block’s west side as they looked in 1940. Unfortunately, the 1940 photos of the east side of the block are not available at the Kansas City Public Library.

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