Confederate Civil War captain Richard McCarty lived in this South Hyde Park home at 4300 Holmes in 1919. The home, seen here in a 1940 photo, was owned in the 1920s by Erwin Le Roy Cottingham, a Marine who helped guard President Wilson on a trip to France and then special investigator for Kansas City Mayor Frank Crowell.
Like most of Midtown, people moved in and out of this South Hyde Park neighborhood from the time its small homes and apartments were built in the early 1900s. Some of the small bungalows were occupied by owners and their families; others were rented from real estate companies.
A Sanborn Fire Insurance map of the block from 1909-1950.
As part of our Uncovering History Project, the Midtown KC Post is taking a look at each block in Midtown, including a set of 1940 tax assessment photos which is available for many blocks. (Many people seem confused by the tax assessment photos, which all include a man holding a sign. Here’s the story behind them). Today, the block bounded by Holmes, Gillham and 43rd Street.
1910 Census Offers a Snapshot of the Block
In 1910, most of those who lived on the block were part of middle-class families whose heads worked as salesmen, cattle dealers and automobile agents. Here’s what was recorded in the federal census that year:
- 4300 Holmes: Richard McCarty, 83, a widower, lived here with his son, Edward C., and two daughters, Bernice and Mary. The elder McCarty was a Confederate captain in the Civil War in Company K of General Parson’s brigade in southern Missouri. After the war he engaged in a horse and mule business in Boonville, Mo. Later he sold out and took up farming. He came to Kansas City shortly before his death and lived in this home with his son.
- 4304 Holmes: Walter Fur, a newspaper stereotyper, lived here with his wife and daughter. Two years later, in 1912, George F. Rich, a former barber at the Stag Barber Shop, lived in this house when he got a patent on a safety razor.
- 4306 Holmes: Joseph Hiddle, a dry goods salesman, shared this home with his wife Cora and two boarders, Willis and Nellie Myers.
- 4308 Holmes: The Wolfe family, which included mercantile company superintendent Robert Wolfe, his wife Meta, three sons, and a boarder lived here.
- 4310 Holmes: Stock yards cattle dealer James Williamson shared this home with his wife Roberta and a daughter.
- 4339 Gillham: A fire insurance salesman named Edgar Bishop resided with his wife Julia in this house.
- 4331 Gillham: Automobile agent Ray Phillip lived here with his wife Laura.
- 4327 Holmes: This bungalow was the home of cleaning and dying company owner Julius Goldman, his wife Florence, and son and daughter John and Lura Mitchell.
- 4323 Holmes: Widow Addie Davis, 66, lived here with two sons and a black servant named Ethel Robinson.
The slideshow below shows the buildings on the block as they looked in 1940.
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Historic photos courtesy Kansas City Public Library/Missouri Valley Special Collections.
Do you have memories or more details about this area of Midtown? Please share them with our readers. Would you like us to focus on your block next week? Send us an email.
The book Kansas City’s Historic Midtown Neighborhoods is available now at local bookstores and on Amazon.com. Let us know if you want us to come to your neighborhood association or organization’s meeting to share what we’ve learned about Midtown neighborhood history and tell your members how they can help preserve Midtown history.
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