Midtown Kansas City

More Steptoe Homes Lost, Erasing More of Kansas City’s Black History

Homes at the corner of W. 44th Terrace and Washington Street in the Steptoe neighborhood in 1940. Steptoe has been gradually removed from history as homes have been demolished over the years. In June of 2022, three more homes on this block, from 44th Street Terrace to 44th Street between Pennsylvania and Washington, were destroyed to make room for a parking lot.  It’s been a while since the…

Before it was a commercial strip, 39th Street between Summit and Roanoke was home to families who built new homes as Kansas City expanded to the south. Architect Louis Curtiss designed this house at 1020 W. 39th (seen here around 1980) for the Hugh Matthews family, who moved into the home sometime before 1910. The Matthews family had previously lived downtown at 16th and Jefferson. The house is…

A 1920s Block Filled with Streetcar Workers

Small homes like this one on Campbell just south of Emanuel Cleaver Boulevard were once filled with streetcar workers, their families, and boarders who worked for the streetcar company. The homes on the block from 47th to 48th between Charlotte and Campbell are mostly gone now, but when they were new, the car barn at 48th and Harrison made this block attractive to railway workers who both rented…

Middle, Upper Class Families Were First Residents of Crestwood Block

The Nichols Company described this home at 5445 Cherry for sale for $16,000 as “one of Kansas City’s loveliest Dutch Colonials” in a 1945 ad. “Forest trees and abundant shrubbery are its decoration. Living, dining and breakfast rooms, kitchen and large screened porch complete the first floor,” the company boasted. “ A rare mantel piece with canvas wall covering in major rooms are notable…

Plaza’s Nordstrom Block Has Seen Changes Before

Families headed up by a saddle maker, a stone mason and a wood worker once lived on this block of the Country Club Plaza, between 47th and 48th from Summit to Jefferson, now the site of redevelopment for a new Nordstrom store. In 1940, when this photo was taken, five small houses lined the west side of Summit Street, and apartment buildings filled in the south end of the block.

Change is…

Family Once Owned This South Plaza Block

The shops on the southeast corner of 51st and Main were built in the 1930s, after the McDonald farm was sold and the areas was developed for both commercial and residential use.

Some blocks of Midtown Kansas City offer more insights into history than others. That is true of the block from 50th to 51st between Main and Walnut Streets. Two weeks ago, we offered the story of one housewhere…

Prohibition Raid Found ‘One of Finest Distilleries’ in South Plaza

The southwest corner of 51st and Main has been a popular eating spot for several decades. A 1917 map of the block shows only five houses on the block, including 5101 Main, which newspaper reports at the time described as a large and comfortable home where some very fine whiskey was being made despite prohibition being in effect.

One of the greatest troves of Midtown history comes from the crime…

How One Family Came to this Rockhill Block

Alfred and Grace Schauffler, a prominent Kansas City family, moved onto this Rockhill neighborhood block in the late 1920s. They lived at 4460 Rockhill Terrace until around 1945. Like many of their neighbors, they were active in Kansas City civic life and enjoyed the neighborhood of large homes built near the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.

As well-to-do Kansas Citians moved south in the 1920s,…

Westwood Park Block Attracted Families in Early 1920s

This area of the Westwood Park neighborhood was slow to develop after 1913 – until J.C. Nichols took over the marketing. Then the lots sold quickly and the block, from 50th to West 50th Terrace between Wyoming to Westwood Terrace, filled in with solid middle class homes.

A recent aerial photo of the block shows the homes that were built between 1920 and 1930.

Doctors, dentists and lawyers were…

Female Architect Left Her Stamp On This Countryside Block

Although there were few female architects at the time, Alice Jackson designed and built three of the homes on this Countryside block in the 1910s. Jackson designed a total of about twenty residences in Kansas City, mostly south of the Plaza but also in Coleman Highlands and Sunset Hill. This home at 248 W. 53rd Terrace was built for Earnest C. Winters in 1917.

Built when well-off residents of…

Gardeners Once Flocked To A Backyard On This Block Near Westport

In the 1950s, many Kansas City gardeners visited the yard of Mrs. F.T. Hoeck at 4254 Jefferson near Westport Road. She was a highly acclaimed gardener whose backyard drew many visitors every year. Today, the house and garden have been replaced by an apartment complex, as have most of the other homes on this Plaza Westport block.

In 1920, homes of this block from Westport Road to Archibald between…

Manheim Park block attracted immigrants in 1920s

Small, well-built bungalows lined Forest Avenue and E. 44th Street on this Manheim Park block in the 1940s. Much of the block was developed around 1910, and by the 1920s, the homes were filled with families from Italy, Germany, Sweden, England and Scotland, living side-by-side with American-born residents.

When residents began moving into this Manheim Park block (from Troost to Forest between E.…

Residents Rebuild in West Plaza After 1962 Gas Main Explosion

Eleven homes at 46th and Wyoming were destroyed in a 1962 gas main explosion. It took more than a year for the damage to be repaired and homes to be rebuilt, but neighbors rallied to help those whose homes had been wrecked and several families rebuilt so they could stay in the neighborhood.

A fiery explosion that leveled 11 homes and damaged 17 was not enough to drive away residents of the West…

West Plaza Block: Immigrants, Births, Deaths, Weddings, Soldiers

  The Alexander family, headed by railroad engineer Robert E. Alexander, was living in this West Plaza home as early as 1910. Over the next three decades, Robert and Margaret Alexander had six children, lost one, saw a daughter married in the home, and sent a son off to war. While most families spent fewer years on this block, the Alexanders were a typical working class families who settled the…

Block of Boulevards Shifts from Residential in 1920s

This block, bounded by Tracy to the west, The Paseo to the east, E. 31st to the north and Linwood Boulevard to the south, began as a well-to-do residential block in 1900. Seen above in a 1907 map (left), the large Peltzer home dominated the important corner of Linwood and The Paseo. Over the following decades, the large old homes became boarding and apartment houses and were replaced by…

Newly-renovated Scottish Rite Temple Anchors Historic Linwood and Paseo Block

The Scottish Rite Temple at the northwest corner of Linwood and the Paseo, opened in 1930, has recently been renovated and is available as rental space for parties, weddings and conventions – an effort meant to allow the organization to keep the building open and in good repair.

A recent Google photo of the blocks shows the Temple at the northwest corner of Linwood and the Paseo.)

The Kansas City…

Parkview Drugstores Started on this Manheim Park Block

David Smolinsky and his sons opened their first Parkview Pharmacy at 46th and Virginia in 1910. The pharmacy was named for its view of Electric Park, a popular amusement park just to the west. Parkview Pharmacy became a popular gathering place for people visiting the park and for the show people who worked there. By 1960, the family had 20 stores in Kansas City and Topeka with $11 million in…