Why was there a huge steel tank at 33rd and Harrison in the 1920s?
This vintage postcard gives no details about “the tank,” which was sitting in the yard of 3310 Harrison in North Hyde Park in the 1920s. But a little research turned up numerous news articles from the day about its purpose, and highlighted ...
A block dominated by churches in Old Westport
Two churches, Our Lady of Good Counsel and Westport Methodist, dominate this block of the Valentine neighborhood just north of Westport. Many churches moved to Midtown in the early 1900s as their congregations moved south. This photo is from ...
Do you know the history of the Center City neighborhood?
Homes in the Center City neighborhood around 1900.
originally published April 6, 2015
In the early 1900s, developers such as the Cowherd Brothers were building “modern” middle class homes across what is now Midtown. One area where development ...
Westwood Park homes offered fireplaces, garages, and rec rooms
Small but modern homes close to the Country Club Plaza made for modern living in the early 1930s, as this block of Westwood Park filled in. This photo was taken in 1940.
Many of the homes on this Westwood Park block, between Liberty and Terrace ...
Streetcar expansion spurred development of this Squier Park block
An 1891 map of the block shows it has been subdivided into the Troost Park subdivision, but only a handful of homes have been constructed. Source: A Complete Set of Surveys and Plats of Properties in Kansas City, Mo. 1891.
Many parts of ...
NE Corner of 39th Street and Summit Once Housed Local Shops, Apartments
This long building at a busy streetcar stop at 39th and Summit (now Southwest Trafficway) once housed apartments, grocery stores, drug stores, and a beloved neighborhood shoemaker’s shop. Today, traffic whizzes by this corner, where local ...
Roanoke property owners took a stand against apartments in 1920s
Charles and Rose Burkey, who owned the Summit Theater, lived in this Roanoke home at 827 Valentine for almost two decades. The block, between Summit Street (now Southwest Trafficway) and Madison, is a mix of single-family homes and apartments ...
Corner of 39th and Pennsylvania was home to Westport pioneer family
The home of William and Susan Bernard stood near the corner of Pennsylvania and W. 39th Street in this photo from about 1920.
Among the earliest homes in what is now Midtown were the those of wealthy Westport settlers built in the mid-1800s. ...
1932 arson destroyed fine old Broadway residential hotel
This early drawing of the McGee home, later the Rochambeau Hotel, is one of the few publicly-available images of the important mansion that stood at 37th and Broadway, near the site of the current Uptown Theater. Built by Kansas City pioneer ...
Plaza homes replaced by “modern” apartments as Plaza developed
While families came and went and homes were replaced with apartment buildings, the Charles McCallum family lived on this Plaza Westport block from at least the 1920s to the 1940s. McCallum was a Scottish-born carpenter and his widowed son, also ...
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