150 facts kc

T H E K A N S A S C I T Y P U B L I C L I B R A R Y

Missouri Valley Special Collections • http://www.kchistory.org • 14 W. 10th St., Kansas City, MO 64105 • 816.701.3427

1. Kansas City’s first televised event was a banquet to honor William M. Boyle,

Jr., chairman of the Democratic National Committee. WDAF-TV broadcast

the event, live, on September 29, 1949. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas

City Star, Star Magazine, April 14, 1985, p. 22.)

2. The Grove Bathouse, 15th and Agnes, allowed women bathers on

Wednesdays and Fridays only; men had the run of the place every other day.

Bathers were allowed to remain in the pool for 45 minutes at a time for as

many sessions as they pleased. During the Depression, however, bathers were

allowed only one swim per day because of the popularity of the pool.

(Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, May 29, 1983,

p. 24.)

3. The first locomotive for the Missouri Pacific Railroad (Kansas City’s first

railroad) came to Kansas City by boat, with a shipment of four flat cars and

100 tons of iron rails, delivered June 21, 1864. The locomotive was placed

onto tracks in September of the same year. (Kansas City Star, July 15, 1914.)

4. Kansas City native Mae Arbaugh, a professional softball player in the first 30

years of the 20th century, surpassed Lou Gehrig’s achievement of 2,130

career games played—hers numbered 6,486. (Flynn, Jane Fifield. Kansas City

Women of Independent Minds. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing Co., 1992, p.

4.)

5. Many Kansas Citians of the 1870s obtained their drinking water from a well

located at what is now 10th and McGee. (Kansas City Journal, February 27,

1909.)

6. The Commonwealth Hotel, located at 1216 Broadway, was the first downtown

hotel to carry radio programs to each room. The choice of programming was

made from a central master control, however. (Doohan, John J. “Album,”

Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, February 2, 1986, p. 20.)

7. The August R. Meyer memorial, located at 10th and the Paseo, was the first

memorial to be placed in a Kansas City park. It was dedicated June 2, 1909.

(Kansas City, Missouri Board of Parks and Recreation. Historic and

Dedicatory Monuments of Kansas City. Kansas City: The Board, 1987, p.

39.)

8. The first telegraph line reached Kansas City from Boonville on December 20,

1858. (Kansas City Star, December 25, 1910.)

9. In 1857 there was a toll-gate near the entrance to Union Cemetery—today’s

28th Street Terrace and Main—where fees were collected from travelers using

the “Westport Turnpike.” (Kansas City, Missouri Board of Parks and

Recreation. Historic and Dedicatory Monuments of Kansas City. Kansas

City: The Board, 1987, p. 68.)

10. Kansas City’s first venture in waterworks was a $10.00 appropriation for a

town pump, granted by the council on March 31, 1854. (Kansas City Star,

May 8, 1938.)

11. Colonel Thomas Swope, donor of the land constituting the city park that bears

his name, also gave to the city the property that later became known as

“Hospital Hill,” site of today’s Children’s Mercy Hospital and Truman

150 Facts About Kansas City



Medical Center. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star

Magazine, October 30, 1984, p. 2.)

12. When Kansas City’s first electric lights began operation in 1882, it was

thought impossible to measure electrical current, so rates for the electricity

used were based on the customer’s preceding year’s gas bill. (Kansas City

Star, November 8, 1936.)

13. At the time of its annexation by Kansas City in 1899, Westport comprised the

area from 31st to 47th Streets, State Line to Troost, except for a small tract

between 45th and 47th Streets, State Line to Holly. (Kansas City, Missouri

Board of Parks and Recreation. Historic and Dedicatory Monuments of

Kansas City. Kansas City: The Board, 1987, p. 76.)

14. At the first Kansas City municipal election in 1853, a crier announced the

name and vote of each of the 67 voters. (Kansas City Star, June 19, 1938.)

15. Organized street cleaning began in 1899; by April of that year, 3,000 cartloads

of street refuse had been gathered and dumped into the Missouri River.

(Kansas City Star, May 7, 1939.)

16. The horse patrol—mounted police, essentially—was used to control traffic,

first in downtown beginning in October of 1923, the later expanding in 1926

to the Country Club Plaza. Horses were quartered at a stable at 1509

Campbell, and children and adults regularly gathered there at 9:00 a.m. to

watch the inspection of the cavalry. The patrol was abandoned in 1929

because of high costs. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star

Magazine, February 10, 1985, p. 20.)

17. Waiters were shipped in from New York City for the opening of the first

Kansas City Club building (12th and Wyandotte) in 1887. (Kansas City Star,

February 7, 1937.)

18. The Kansas City Philharmonic made its national debut on WDAF radio during

the dedication ceremony for the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum of Art,

December 11, 1933. (Wolferman, Kristie C. Nelson-Atkins Museum of

Art: Culture Comes to Kansas City. Columbia: University of Missouri Press,

1993, p. 119.)

19. “Battle Row” was the area along the west side of Main from 3rd to 5th, so

named because of the numerous fights that spilled out from the taverns and

saloons that lined that stretch of the street. (Kansas City Star, July 23, 1905.)

20. Before a performance at Starlight Theater of Annie Get Your Gun in 1953, the

star fell ill. Theater Manager Dick Berger, upon learning the understudy did

not adequately know the role, played the part of Annie himself. He read the

lines and walked through the blocking, and the understudy sang the songs.

(Thorne, Kathleen H. The Story of Starlight Theater. Eugene, OR:

Generation Organization, 1993, p. 50)

21. The official flower of Kansas City is the iris. (Kansas City, Missouri. City

ordinance, passed August 12, 1929. See Vertical File, “Kansas City—

Flower”, Special Collections Department, Kansas City Public Library.)

22. In April of 1945, the Park Board received a request to place a prisoner-of-war

camp in Penn Valley Park. The request was denied because of adverse public

reaction. (Mobley, Jane and Nancy Whitnell Harris. A City Within a Park:

100 Years of Parks and Boulevards in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City:

American Society of Landscape Architects and Kansas City Missouri Board

of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, 1991, p. 48-49.)



23. “Stumptown” was a “suburb” of Kansas City in 1854, located in the district

now bounded by Brooklyn and Prospect, 12th

to 18th

Streets. It was so named

because of the large number of stumps left after timber had been cut away.

(Kansas City Star, December 15, 1920.)

24. Colesville was an early Mormon settlement (1832-1850) located on the site

where Troost Lake now lies (near 27th

and the Paseo). (Kansas City Journal-

Post, March 8, 1925.)

25. The Country Club Plaza bunnies originally debuted in the early ‘20s at

another J.C. Nichols development, the Crestwood Shops on 55th

between Oak

Street and Brookside Boulevard. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City

Star, Star Magazine, April 5, 1987, p. 36.)

26. The City Hall Fountain sea horses—installed in June, 1938—have names: the

western horse is named “Lug”, and the horse on the east is “Cut." They got

those names from city staffers “because the ‘Lugs’ for the primary and general

elections would come first and later be followed by the usual pay ‘Cuts’

which they had had in the machine days since 1930.” (Kansas City, Missouri

Board of Parks and Recreation. History and Dedicatory Monuments of Kansas

City. Kansas City: The Board, 1987, p. 11.)

27. Francis Parkman wrote of his 1846 visit to this area: “Whisky [sic], by the

way, circulates more freely in Westport than is altogether safe in a place

where every man carries a loaded pistol in his pocket.” (Kansas City Journal-

Post, August 15, 1926.)

28. J.C. Nichols once commented that “…we have sometimes regretted we chose

Spanish architecture for the Plaza, because…it takes a great deal of money to

build the towers and domes and other features so characteristic of good

Spanish architecture.” (Towner, Herberta. Spanish in Kansas City, Missouri.

Kansas City: s.n., 1953, p. 43.)

29. In 1910, the Humane Society of Kansas City erected, at 40th

and Main, the

first successful sanitary (i.e., continuously circulating) fountain for “horses,

dogs, birds, and other lowly creatures.” Tally sheets for mid-summer days

between daybreak and nightfall showed the fountain served an average of

1,965 creatures. (Human Society of Kansas City, Missouri. Annual Report,

1924, p. 8. Number served, Annual Report, 1913, p. 33.)

30. Kansas City tried to be annexed by the state of Kansas in 1855 (all of Jackson

County) and again in 1879. (Kansas City Times, December 8, 1915.)

31. The first money collected by Kansas city was $7.22, which the council

received on May 4, 1853, from Samuel Greir, treasurer of the former Town of

Kansas. (Kansas City Journal-Post, March 7, 1937.)

32. Among other items, a collection of 15 state sales tax tokens and small coins

from the collection of 17-year-old O. W. Price, Junior, was placed in the

cornerstone of the Federal Building at 8th

and Grand on October 21, 1938. The

collection included instructions that it was to be returned to him if known

when the box was opened, or, if not, to be given to a museum or public

library. (Greater Kansas City Federal Business Association. The Federal

Government in Greater Kansas City. Leavenworth, KS: Federal Prison

Industries, Inc., 1939, p. XIII.)

33. In 1867, the Kansas City postmaster Frank Foster reported that 936,000 letters

passed through Kansas City, 234,000 letters were received, and $43,000 worth

of stamps were sold. (Greater Kansas City Federal Business Association. The



Federal Government in Greater Kansas City. Leavenworth, KS: Federal

Prison Industries, Inc., 1939, p. 21.)

34. On the block bounded by Admiral Boulevard, Independence Avenue, Lydia,

and Virginia was once a swimming hole known as Ranson’s pond. It came

into being around 1880, during road construction. When drained in 1885, it

became a baseball park, where Billy Sunday played. Later, when Sunday was

a traveling evangelist, he erected a temporary tabernacle on the site. (Kansas

City Times, March 14, 1936.)

35. When it opened in October of 1870, the Coates Opera House had a grocery

and feed store on the first floor. The theater was located on the second floor.

(DeAngelo, Dory and Jane Fifield Flynn. Kansas City Style: a Social and

Cultural History of Kansas City as Seen Through its Lost Architecture.

Kansas City: Fifield Publishing Company, 1992, p. 53.)

36. The first official landing of a passenger plane at the Municipal Airport was a

plane that arrived from Richards Field, an airfield east of Kansas City, on

August 17, 1927. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star

Magazine, August 6, 1989, p. 29.)

37. At one time or another throughout the twentieth century, the following

suggestions were made for the development of Signboard Hill, now the site of

the Westin Crown Center Hotel: a stadium; a convention hall; a city hall; a

courthouse; a museum; and a traffic way. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas

City Star, Star Magazine, August 7, 1983, p. 24.)

38. In 1871 mule- or horse-drawn trolley car trips began from the City Market

area to Westport. If the mule behaved, the journey took two hours. (Doohan,

John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, March 17, 1985, p. 22.)

39. The General Motors Leeds assembly plant manufactured Army trucks and its

regular run of Chevrolets for several months until America’s entry into World

War II. At that point, all automobile production ceased, and the plant

eventually manufactured 75- and 105-millimeter shells. (Doohan, John J.

“Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, December 3, 1989, p. 29.)

40. Kansas City’s first sight-seeing bus began operating around 1908, and

included a spin through Penn Valley Park and along the Paseo. The trip lasted

about two hours, according to the weather and the condition of the car.

(Kansas City Public Service Company. Public Service News, April 15, 1947,

p. 1.)

41. Quality Hill was known earlier as "Silk Stocking Ridge", because of the

wealthy people who settled there. (DeAngelo, Dory and Jane Fifield Flynn.

Kansas City Style: a Social and Cultural History of Kansas City as Seen

Through its Lost Architecture. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing Company,

1992, p. 51.)

42. The Vendo Company of Kansas City—makers of vending machines, primarily

—was the largest manufacture of airplane radar antennae during the Second

World War—some 300,000 in all. (Fowler, Dick. Leaders in Our Town.

Kansas City: Burd and Fletcher, 1952, p. 354.)

43. 387 “quarantine” placards were posted by employees of the Sanitary Division

of the city Health Department in 1929. (Chamber of Commerce of Greater

Kansas City, Public Health and Welfare Committee. Health and Hospital

Survey. Kansas City: Lechtman Printing Company, 1931, p. 147.)



44. The 8th

Street tunnel was closed to streetcar traffic between 1922 and 1928 for

major repair work and cleaning. During this time, the tunnel was used to

grow mushrooms. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star

Magazine, November 16, 1986, p. 29.)

45. Admiral Boulevard received its name as a means to honor naval heroes who

fought during the Spanish-American war of 1898, the same year in which

planning for the boulevard occurred. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City

Star, Star Magazine, February 26, 1984, p. 20.)

46. The telescope atop Central High School, southeast corner of 11th

and Locust,

had to be removed because passing streetcars created severe vibrations,

rendering the instrument useless. (DeAngelo, Dory and Jane Fifield Flynn.

Kansas City Style: a Social and Cultural History of Kansas City as Seen

Through its Lost Architecture. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing Company,

1992, p. 35.)

47. Part of the stone foundation of the 1884 B’nai Jehudah Temple is still visible

along the west side of Oak between 11th

and 12th

Streets. (DeAngelo, Dory

and Jane Fifield Flynn. Kansas City Style: a Social and Cultural History of

Kansas City as Seen Through its Lost Architecture. Kansas City: Fifield

Publishing Company, 1992, p. 27.)

48. The KCPT (formerly KCTV) tower at 125 E. 31st Street is taller than the

Eiffel Tower in Paris. The KC tower stands 1,067 feet; the Parisian tower is

1,024 feet tall. (KC Tower: Kansas City Star, October 5, 1996.)

49. In 1898, all privy vaults and cesspools were required to be at least eight feet

deep, to be emptied only in daylight, and, between the first of May and the

first of October, to be deodorized with lime at least once a week. (Kansas

City, Missouri. Charter and Revised Ordinances of Kansas City, 1898.

Chapter 16, Article 8, Sections 1088, 1094, and 1101.)

50. Saint Teresa’s Academy was founded in 1866, a year before the public school

system was established in Kansas City. The first pupil enrolled at the

Academy was Laura Coates, daughter of investor and developer Kersey

Coates. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, April

10, 1983, p. 25.)

51. By 1860, there were 4,000 slaves and 80 free blacks in Kansas City. Fifty

years later the black community numbered 23, 566. (Schirmer, Sherry.

Historical Overview of the Ethnic Communities in Kansas City. Kansas City:

Pan-Educational Institute, 1976, part II, p 4.)

52. In 1912 there were 8 penny arcades in Kansas City, with a total of 250

machines. An estimated 47,600 people visited the arcades each week. (Kansas

City Board of Public Welfare. Annual Report, 1912, p. 255.)

53. According to the 1909 City Charter, the second Thursday in May of each year

was to be observed as “Charity Day,” “on which appropriate measures may be

taken for alleviating the condition of the poor and needy.” (Kansas City,

Missouri. Charter and Revised Ordinances of Kansas City. Kansas City: F.T.

Riley Publishing Co., 1909. Article 18, Section 33.)

54. Kansas residents left homeless by the July 1951 flood were relocated to

temporary homes in trailers located on the Old Homestead Golf Course near

22nd

and Steele Road in Kansas City, Kansas. “Trailer City” was occupied

until Christmas of 1952. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star

Magazine, June 1, 1986, p. 28.)



55. The city ordinances of 1898 provided that the Market Master of the Public

Square Market (4th

and Main) be supplied with “a bell or gong, and shall

announce, by the ringing thereof, the closing of the market, at least ten

minutes before the time of closing.” (Kansas City, Missouri. Charter and

Revised Ordinances of Kansas City, 1898. Chapter 6, Section 489.)

56. For three days in August of 1960, Municipal Airport closed for runway

resurfacing. Flights were diverted across the Missouri River to Fairfax

Industrial Airport, which was not equipped for substantial passenger traffic.

Passengers checked in at Municipal, and were then taken by bus or car to

board their plans at Fairfax. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star

Magazine, September 1, 1985, p. 27.)

57. John Philip Sousa attended the dedication of (the first) Convention Hall on

February 22, 1899. He directed his band in a rendition of his “Stars and

Stripes Forever,” among other tunes. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City

Star, Star Magazine, December 4, 1983, p. 24.)

58. The first municipal improvement made in Kansas City was construction of a

jail at 4th

and Main. $15.00 was expended for this activity. (Kansas City

Journal-Post, March 7, 1937.)

59. In 1855 the city Marshall was authorized to shoot on sight any hogs found in

the streets. (Kansas City Journal-Post, March 7, 1937.)

60. Between June of 1910 and May of 1911, a survey of 4,993 homes was

conducted by the Housing Survey of Kansas City. Eighty-three houses were

condemned because “not one of them was fit for human habitation…As to

character they included unsanitary houseboats, tumbledown one-room shacks

and barns where animals were housed on one floor and people on the other.”

(Kansas City Board of Public Welfare. Annual Report, 1910-11, p. 104.)

61. During World War II high school boys were trained to send messages in

Morse code from the rooftops of schools and the Walnuts apartments at 5409

Wornall, as part of the city’s civilian defense efforts. (Spletstoser, Fredrick. A

City at War: the Impact of the Second World War on Kansas City. Thesis,

University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1971, p. 50.)

62. City Bank and Trust Company, located on the southeast corner of 18th

and

Grand, had a window cut out of one of its back doors to provide drive-up

banking—in 1931. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star

Magazine, August 14, 1988, p. 29.)

63. City ordinance prohibited persons “naked or insufficiently clothed” from

bathing, washing, or swimming in the Missouri River or other waterways

within the city limits between one hour before sunrise and one hour after

sunset. (Kansas City, Missouri. Charter and Revised Ordinances of Kansas

City. Kansas City: F.T. Riley Publishing Co., 1909. Chapter 7, Section 293.)

64. In the summer of 1914, a grizzly bear (recently relocated from Yellowstone

National Park) escaped from the Swope Park Zoo by climbing a 14-foot high

stone wall and pushing himself through the iron bars surrounding the zoo.

The bear was spotted across the park and as fara as 35 miles away for over

two weeks, until he was corralled and killed at Mount Washington Cemetery.

(Mobley, Jane and Nancy Whitnell Harris. A City Within a Park: 100 Years of

Parks and Boulevards in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City: American

Society of Landscape Architects and Kansas City, Missouri Board of Parks

and Recreation Commissioners, 1991, p. 89.)



65. In fiscal year 1942-43, the turnover rate for city jobs was 125%: 3,663

employees left, and 3,557 people accepted jobs with the city. (Spletstoser,

Fredrick. A City at War: the Impact of the Second World War on Kansas City.

Thesis, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1971, p. 68.)

66. The width of Grand Avenue (now Boulevard) was set by Mayor Milton

McGee, who laid out the street wide enough so that he could turn his horse

and buggy around without having to back up. (Ray, Mrs. Sam. “Postcard

from Old Kansas City,” Kansas City Times, June 19, 1987.)

67. “Peacock Alley” was the name given to the Baltimore Hotel’s block-long

lobby, as it was the place to see the wealthy, dressed in evening gowns and

tuxedos, parading at the city’s most opulent parties. (DeAngelo, Dory and

Jane Fifield Flynn. Kansas City Style : a Social and Cultural History of

Kansas City as Seen Through its Lost Architecture. Kansas City: Fifield

Publishing Company,1992, p. 17.)

68. Grand Avenue was the first road from the Missouri River to the town of

Westport. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine,

October 13, 1985, p. 28.)

69. In 1944, Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus was set up at

Municipal Stadium (called Ruppert Stadium at the time). It was held outside,

owing to the destruction of the Big Top tent during a fire in Hartford,

Connecticut, in which 167 people died. The lack of a “ceiling” meant that the

height of the aerial and acrobatic acts could be—and was—increased.

(Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, March 5, 1989,

p. 22.)

70. When the new 6th

Street Trafficway was opened on November 27, 1923, city

officials did not cut a ceremonial ribbon—they drove golf balls down the new

street. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, July 15,

1984, p. 19.)

71. Sale of the following products at the City Market was forbidden by city

ordinance: “any dry goods or clothing of any description whatever, or any

glass, china or earthenware, books and stationery, or Yankee notions…nor

any wines, or spirituous or fermented liquors.” (Kansas City, Missouri.

Charter and Revised Ordinances of Kansas City, 1898. Chapter 6, Section

502.)

72. Early in the 20th

century, the poorest of the immigrants from Eastern

Europe—primarily meatpacking employees—lived in a shanty town called

“the Patch,” located in the West Bottoms between State Line and the Kaw

River. (Schirmer, Sherry. Historical Overview of the Ethnic Communities in

Kansas City. Kansas City: Pan-Educational Institute, 1976, part 4, p. 5.)

73. By the beginning of 1943, Kansas City had the second largest percentage of

people enrolled in civilian defense programs of all cities and counties in

Missouri. (Spletstoser, Frederick Marcel. A City at War: the Impact of the

Second World War on Kansas City. Thesis, University of Missouri – Kansas

City, 1971, p. 35.)

74. From October 1902 through February 1903, the Kansas City Fire Department

spent $1,876.00 on the shoeing of department horses. (Kansas City, Missouri.

Department of Finance. Semi-Annual Report of the City Comptroller, 1903, p.

41.)



75. Kansas Citians were prohibited from driving any animal attached to a sleigh

unless the animal or sleigh was affixed with an appropriate number of bells

sufficient to warn persons of the sleigh’s approach. (Kansas City, Missouri.

Charter and Revised Ordinances of Kansas City. Kansas City: F.T. Riley

Publishing Company, 1909. Chapter 9, Section 362.)

76. The scoreboard at Arrowhead stadium was the first to transmit instant replay.

(Enich, Pete. Casey, Lawrin, and the Gang: Pete Enich’s Kansas City Sports

Quiz. Marceline, Missouri: Walsworth Publishing, 1990, p. 97-98.)

77. In 1880, ten years after in opened, Benton School—located in the West

Bottoms—had an enrollment of more than 1,000 students. (DeAngelo, Dory

and Jane Flynn. Kansas City Style. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing Company,

1992, p. 25.)

78. Children with “dirty faces or uncombed hair” were prohibited from partaking

in planned activities at Holmes Square playground during the early part of the

20th

century. (Mobley, Jane, and Nancy Whitnell Harris. A City Within a Park

100 Years of Parks and Boulevards in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City:

Society of Landscape Architects and Kansas City Board of Parks and

Recreation Commissioners, 1991, p. 69.)

79. Armour Boulevard was known as Commonwealth Avenue until shortly after

Kirkland Armour built his home on the street in 1893, at which point it

received its current name. (DeAngelo, Dory and Jane Flynn. Kansas City

Style. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing Company, 1992, p. 23.)

80. Lawrin, a horse raised by clothier Herb Woolf, was the 1938 Kentucky Derby

winner and is buried at 83rd

and Mission Road in Prairie Village, Kansas.

(Enich, Pete. Casey, Lawrin, and the Gang: Pete Enich’s Kansas City Sports

Quiz. Marceline, Missouri: Walsworth Publishing, 1990, p. 89-90.)

81. A tunnel from the lower level of the Main Street (later Empire) Theater—

southwest corner of 14th

and Main—ran underneath 14 Street to the President

Hotel. (Ray, Mrs. Sam. “Postcard from Old Kansas City,” Kansas City Times,

April 24, 1987.)

82. Tivoli Gardens was Kansas City’s first amusement park, built in 1878 on the

bluffs at 24th

and Main that later became known as “Signboard Hill,” and still

later became the site of the Westin Crown Center. (DeAngelo, Dory and Jane

Flynn. Kansas City Style. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing Company, 1992, p.

3.)

83. Knickerbocker Place (between Amour and 36th

, Broadway to Pennsylvania)

was a private street until deeded to Kansas City in 1958. (DeAngelo, Dory and

Jane Flynn. Kansas City Style. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing Company,

1992, p. 9.)

84. The highest point within the city limits of Kansas City is 155th

and Prospect:

1,081 feet above sea level; the lowest point—733 feet above sea level—is at

Front Street and I-35. (Findlay, Ted and Pat Schudy “Q,” Kansas City Star,

Star Magazine, September 22, 1985, p. 28.)

85. In May of 1942, the fountains that line the entrance to City Hall were turned

off as a way to support the war effort. This act saved the city $1.50 per day in

electricity used to operate the circulating pumps. (Piland, Sherry and Ellen J.

Uguccioni. Fountains of Kansas City. Kansas City: City of Fountains

Foundation, 1985, p. 201.)



86. The Studio Building, located on 9th

and Locust, was so named because of the

large number of artists and art patrons who resided there, including painter

George Van Millet (founder of the paint and sketch club that eventually

evolved into the Kansas City Art Institute) and composer Sir Carl Busch.

(Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, May 11, 1986,

p. 38.)

87. $98,000,000 was spent on new buildings in Kansas City between 1886 and

1889. (DeAngelo, Dory and Jane Flynn. Kansas City Style. Kansas City:

Fifield Publishing Company, 1992, p. 9.)

88. By 1909, the Board of Public Works of Kansas City was authorized, by city

ordinance, to publish public notices in both the English- and German-

language newspapers of the area. (Kansas City, Missouri. Charter and

Revised Ordinances of Kansas City. Kansas City: F.T. Riley Publishing

Company, 1909. Chapter 13, Section 528.)

89. In 1964, former mayor H. Roe Bartle was named “Cigar Smoker of the Year”

by the Missouri Association of Tobacco Distributors. Thomas Hart Benton

was named “Pipe Smoker of the Year” for the same year by the same

association. Bartle received a humidor filled with his choice of cigars; Benton

received a year’s supply of tobacco and a set of pipes, including a Missouri

corncob pipe. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine,

January 14, 1990, p. 34.)

90. An operating gas light stood at the intersection of Manheim Road and the

Paseo until the late 1950s. Kansas City, Kansas, operated 130 gas lights as late

as 1954. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine,

December 7, 1986, p. 10.)

91. In 1920, there were companies located in Kansas City that manufactured,

among other things, the following: sheep casing; dynamite; “electric suction

cleaners;” hearse bodies; egg whips; flue cleaning rattlers; artificial oil of

mustard; mincemeat; tetanus antitoxin; and parasols. (Chamber of Commerce

of Kansas City. What Kansas City Makes and Sells to the World. Kansas City:

Chamber of Commerce, Department of Industries, 1920.)

92. The Pomona Fountain and courtyard outside the southwest entrance to what is

now the Eddie Bauer store was once a Standard Oil Service Station. Gas

pumps were located near where the fountain now stands. (Doohan, John J.

“Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, March 20, 1988, p. 30.)

93. In 1909, railroad trains traveling in the city limits were restricted to a speed of

6 mph; streetcars could travel up to 12 mph. (Kansas City, Missouri. Charter

and Revised Ordinances of Kansas City. Kansas City: F.T. Riley Publishing

Company, 1909. Rail: Chapter 14, Article 1, Section 654; Streetcars: Chapter

14, Article 2, Section 676.)

94. “Queens” of the Priests of Pallas festivals (1887-1924) were disguised and

their identity never disclosed during the festival events. It was later revealed

that the “queens” were, in fact, men. At the time, it was felt the parade and

other activities would be to strenuous for a woman. (Doohan, John J.

“Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, October 30, 1983, p. 24.)

95. Hillcrest Country Club planners chose what was said to be the highest point in

Jackson County when they laid out their golf course in 1915. Twenty-three

years later, the course was the scene of a lightning storm that killed two



people during the Kansas City Open. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City

Star, Star Magazine, September 29, 1985, p. 37.)

96. In 1926, Kansas City had 800 streetcars; 30 years later it had none. (Kansas

City Star, October 29, 1956.)

97. The first street to receive any sort of surfacing was Main Street, which was

macadamized (covered with broken stone) just prior to the Civil War. (Kansas

City Star, March 24, 1940.)

98. Kansas City’s “Bowery” was located on 18th

Street from Flora to Highland.

(Kansas City Star, July 23, 1905.)

99. Because pari-mutuel betting was illegal in Missouri, gamblers at the Riverside

Racetrack bought tickets at a window labeled “Donations” and picked up

winnings at one marked “Refunds.” (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City

Star, Star Magazine, August 28, 1983, p. 29.)

100. In 1927, boys attending Paseo High School were reminded of the

following: “hats off on entering the building; don’t put them on before you are

at the outer door ready to leave, even though you should see grown men

violate this rule.” (Student Council of Paseo High School. Handbook of the

Paseo High School. Kansas City: s.l., p. 59.)

101. Some of the bands that played in Volker Park (also known as “Peoples’

Park”) in the summer of 1968 included: the Amelia Earhart Memorial Flying

Band; Marshmellow [sic] Monorail; the Mystic Number National Bank; and

the New Action Army. (Giangreco, Dennis. “Volker Park, Peoples Park,”

Westport Trucker, volume 1, number 4, April 25, 1971, p. 3.)

102. In 1929, the following quantities and types of food were condemned

(found unfit for human consumption) by the city’s Health Department: 13,000

pounds of meat (10,000 pounds of which was sausage); 137 ½ dozen eggs;

776 pounds of candy; 1,235 pounds of nuts; and 491 cans of vegetables.

(Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City. Public Health and Welfare

Committee. Health and Hospital Survey. Kansas City: Lechtman Printing

Company, 1931, p. 141.)

103. The dome of the first Federal Building on Grand between 8th

and 9th

could

be reached by a stairway. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star

Magazine, January 8, 1984, p. 16.)

104. In 1913 there were 554 “public prostitutes” in Kansas City. Money spent

with these individuals totaled almost $1.5 million (over 28,000 transactions at

$50 each). (Church Federation of Greater Kansas City. Public Morals

Committee. Kansas City’s Shame. Kansas City: The Federation, 1913, p. 1.)

105. The “Christmas Spirit” was a streetcar that was decorated in holiday attire

from December 1 to Christmas Day in the 1930s. The car ran every line,

taking a different route each day and night, broadcasting Christmas tunes

through loudspeakers. Operators dressed as Santa Claus sat at the controls.

(Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, December 23,

1984, p. 19.)

106. In May of 1901, the only two automobiles in the city crashed into each

other near the intersection of 11th

and Grand. (DeAngelo, Dory and Jane

Flynn. Kansas City Style. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing Company, 1992, p.

15.)

107. Located on the fourth floor of the first Federal Building on Grand between

8th

and 9th

were quarters for railway mail clerks, who arrived at all hours of



the day and night and rested there before going home on the next train.

(Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, December 18,

1988, p. 21.)

108. After the 1951 flood, the Heath Department of Kansas City administered

111,711 vaccinations to prevent typhoid fever. (Soward, James L. Hospital

Hill: an Illustrated Account of Public Healthcare Institutions in Kansas City,

Missouri. Kansas City: Truman Medical Center Charitable Foundation, 1995,

p. 99.)

109. The first organized black athletic team in Kansas City was the Lawn

Tennis Club of Kansas City, formed in 1887. (Enich, Pete. Casey, Lawrin, and

the Gang: Pete Enich’s Kansas City Sports Quiz. Marceline, Missouri:

Walsworth Publishing, 1990, p. 93-94.)

110. “Skidoo House,” at 2nd

and Oak, was so named on account of the tendency

of its tenants to migrate on or about the time the rent came due. (Kansas City

Star, July 23, 1905.)

111. An auction was held the opening night of the Willis Wood Theater

(northwest corner of 11th

and Baltimore) to determine who would be the first

to traverse the theater’s tunnel to the Baltimore Hotel. The winning bid by a

now-anonymous patron was $35. (DeAngelo, Dory and Jane Flynn. Kansas

City Style. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing Company, 1992, p. 213.)

112. The following businesses were once located on the Country Club Plaza:

Kroger’s (groceries); Plaza Bowl (bowling alley); Woolworth’s; Sears Farm

Store; Plaza Bird and Pet Supplies; Cook Paint and Varnish. (Worley,

William. The Plaza: First and Always. Lenexa, Kansas: Addax Publishing

Group, 1997.)

113. In 1965, the Kansas City, Missouri Parks and Planning departments

proposed a major park to be called the Blue River Parkway, a 2,600-acre park

extending from Swope Park approximately eleven miles diagonally southwest

to State Line. (Kansas City, Missouri Parks Department. Proposed Major

Parks, Boulevards, Parkways, and Greenways. Kansas City: Parks

Department and City Planning Department, 1965, p. 53.)

114. By 1949, 86 factories were manufacturing garments in Kansas City. It was

said that one in seven American women wore clothing made in Kansas City.

(Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, September 16,

1984, p. 37.)

115. In 1939, the Kansas City Fire Department needed a new truck but did not

have the $12,000 necessary to buy one. Enterprising departmental mechanics

built one, in their spare time, from old parts. (Doohan, John J. “Album,”

Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, January 13, 1985, p. 19.)

116. The Standard Theater (now the Folly) was originally built with a large ball

covered with lights that was attached to a flagpole at the southeast corner of

the building’s roof. The ball was constructed so that it could be raised to

indicate a performance was taking place. (Luce, Michael G. A History of the

Standard Theater, Kansas City, Missouri: 1900-1929. Thesis, Central

Missouri State University, 1981, p. 15.)

117. In November of 1958, the flute-playing angel portion of the Volker

Memorial fountain began to sink into the ground. It was later repaired by

Parks Department personnel. (Piland, Sherry and Ellen J. Uguccioni.



Fountains of Kansas City. Kansas City: City of Fountains Foundation, 1985,

p. 159.)

118. The Midland Hotel, 705 Walnut, built in 1888, was the first Kansas City

hotel equipped with electricity. Gas jets were also on the walls, in case of a

power failure. (DeAngelo, Dory and Jane Flynn. Kansas City Style. Kansas

City: Fifield Publishing Company, 1992, p. 133.)

119. When Carol Burnett came to Kansas City for her role in Starlight

Theater’s production of Calamity Jane, she sometimes relieved the

switchboard operator after rehearsals and answered incoming calls. If the

caller asked about the Jane production, Burnett would give the requisite

information, adding “You’ll love that Carol Burnett—she’s the greatest.”

(Thorne, Kathleen H. The Story of Starlight Theater. Euguen, Oregon:

Generation Organization, 1993, p. 53.)

120. George C. Hale, Kansas City’s fire chief from 1882-1902, invented the

sliding pole for use in fire houses. (Doohan, John J. “Album”, Kansas City

Star, Star Magazine, November 20, 1983, p. 30.)

121. The Wayne Miner housing complex was named for a Kansas City soldier

who was killed in France, three hours before the end of World War I. He had

volunteered to carry ammunition to a unit pinned down by enemy fire, and he

died during the mission. The housing complex was demolished in 1987.

(Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, May 3, 1987, p.

52.)

122. The Main Street Theater (later the Empire), at the southwest corner of 14th

and Main, was equipped with an elevator offstage so that elephants could be

brought up from the animal room, which also had a pool for seals. (Maier,

Ray. History of I.A.T.S.E. Local No. 31. Kansas City: International Alliance

of Theatrical Stage Employees, 1995, p. 35.)

123. Beginning on October 20, 1961, the Midland Theater opened as an

exhibition bowling alley. To create the alley, seats were removed and the

alleys cut into the stage. The bowling venture lasted three months. (Maier,

Ray. History of I.A.T.S.E. Local No. 31. Kansas City: International Alliance

of Theatrical Stage Employees, 1995, p. 68.)

124. Rather than use the traditional basket-on-an-overhead-wire for cash

transactions, Ike Katz installed a cash register at every counter in his Katz

drugstores. Crowds kept the registers so busy that their wooden drawers wore

out in one week. So, Katz ordered registers specially made with steel drawers,

which he believed were the first of their kind. (Fowler, Richard. Leaders in

Our Town. Kansas City: Burd and Fletcher, 1952, p. 239.)

125. Major Samuel R. Curtis watched the Battle of Westport along Brush Creek

on October 23, 1864, from the roof of the Harris House, a hotel located on the

northeast corner of Westport Road and Pennsylvania. Other guests who

visited the hotel included Senator Thomas Hart Benton, author Washington

Irving, and Horace Greeley. (Doohan, John J. “Album”, Kansas City Star,

Star Magazine, October 22, 1985, p. 29.)

126. During the heyday of downtown, eleven mammoth crowns spanned major

intersections as part of Christmas decorations. The Country Club Plaza lights

were turned on the evening of Thanksgiving, while downtown lights were

turned on the Friday after. On the following Monday, a parade was held in



downtown to officially open the holiday season. (Doohan, John J. “Album”,

Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, November 18, 1984, p. 36.)

127. The ballroom floor of the Pla-Mor, 3142 Main, was laid atop more than

7,000 hair felt spring cushions with a “give” of a quarter-inch. (DeAngelo,

Dory and Jane Flynn. Kansas City Style. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing

Company, 1992, p. 159.)

128. Kansas City had nearly 100 motion picture theaters in 1910; two-thirds of

these were in residential neighborhoods. (DeAngelo, Dory and Jane Flynn.

Kansas City Style. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing Company, 1992, p. 139.)

129. In 1939, approximately 78,000 passengers passed through Municipal

Airport; ten years later that number had ballooned to almost 848,000.

(Spletstoser, Frederick Marcel. A City at War: the Impact of the Second World

War on Kansas City. Thesis, University of Missouri – Kansas City, 1971, p.

98.)

130. During one of the performances of the historical revue “Thrills of a

Century”—produced to commemorate Kansas City’s centennial, and the

inaugural show of Starlight Theater—a team of oxen hitched to a 600-lb cart

broke loose, thundered across the stage, and crashed into new cars on loan to

the pageant by a local car dealer. (Thorne, Kathleen H. The Story of Starlight

Theater. Eugene, Oregon: Generation Organization, 1993, p. 7.)

131. When the new General Hospital #2—the city’s hospital for the black

population-- opened in 1930, there was neither natural nor artificial ventilation

for the morgue, located on the ground floor. A second morgue, built in the

basement of the adjoining nurses’ building, required transport of cadavers

across the hospital lawn and down a flight of steps. Unpleasant odors, arising

during post-mortem examinations, penetrated into the nurses living quarters.

(Soward, James L. Hospital Hill: an Illustrated Account of Public Healthcare

Institutions in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City: Truman Medical Center

Charitable Foundation, 1995, p. 84-85.)

132. In 1915, while waiting for completion of the tuberculosis hospital at

Leeds, patients lived in a colony of tents on the hospital grounds. (Soward,

James L. Hospital Hill: an Illustrated Account of Public Healthcare

Institutions in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City: Truman Medical Center

Charitable Foundation, 1995, p. 49.)

133. Kansas City’s Welfare Department, organized in April, 1910, was the first

full public department of welfare in the United States. To keep it apolitical,

the city government gave the responsibility for running the department to a

citizen board, members of which served without compensation. (Haskell,

Henry C. and Richard B. Fowler. City of the Future. Kansas City: F. Glenn

Publishing Co., 1950, p. 111-13.)

134. On the evening of December 24, 1855, the Missouri River froze over. For

the following month, the river was used as a “highway” for teams of horses,

mules, and oxen. (Kansas City Enterprise, January 26, 1856.)

135. Floats in the Priests of Pallas parades were built on streetcars, thus the

parades followed streetcar routes. (Doohan, John J. “Album,” Kansas City

Star, Star Magazine, October 16, 1988, p. 29.)

136. In 1872, a smallpox epidemic struck Kansas City. A “pest house” was

established on an island in the Missouri River, opposite the East Bottoms.

When fire destroyed the quarantine buildings, the pest house was moved to



another sandbar island in the river opposite Bluff Street, near the West

Bottoms. That island washed away in 1877. (Soward, James L. Hospital Hill:

an Illustrated Account of Public Healthcare Institutions in Kansas City,

Missouri. Kansas City: Truman Medical Center Charitable Foundation, 1995,

p. 16.)

137. Shortly after it began publishing in 1880, the Kansas City Star became

known colloquially as “The Little Twinkler.” (Kansas City Times, August 19,

1941.)

138. “Peoples’ Pop,” a canned soft drink, was sold—15 cents a can—at

concerts and other events by the Mother Love Tribe of Westport. Proceeds

from sale of the drink went to the organization’s “bust fund.” (“Watch the

Honkey’s Next Door Sweat,” Westport Trucker, volume 2, number 5, June,

1971, p. 3.)

139. Mail came to Westport on a weekly basis in 1845, and was often kept in

the pocket of postmaster W.W. Clark. (Kansas City Times, August 26, 1895.)

140. The summer of 1936 was a record-setter: on August 14, the temperature

hit 113 , the highest temperature ever recorded in Kansas City. Temperatures

soared to the 100 mark or higher on 53 days. Virtually no one had air

conditioning; people sought relief by driving to Swope or Penn Valley Park

and spending the night outdoors. (Kansas City Times, August 14, 1986, p.

A1, col. 2.)

141. McClure’s Flats, at 19th

and McGee, was generally known as “The

Incubator” because of the large number of children who resided there.

(Kansas City Star, July 23, 1905.)

142. The first telephone operators in Kansas City were boys. (Kansas City

Times, January 1, 1924.)

143. A nine-hole golf course was once laid out in the area where Westport High

School now stands, with the ninth hole located at 36th

and Gillham. It was

rather rough, as golfers were often bothered by cows grazing on the greens.

(DeAngelo, Dory and Jane Flynn. Kansas City Style. Kansas City: Fifield

Publishing Company, 1992, p. 111.)

144. Dr. Isaac M. Ridge, Civil War-era physician in Kansas City, maintained a

neutral stance during the conflict. Despite this, soldiers so mistrusted him that

they would lead him blindfolded to the locals where there were wounded men.

(Soward, James L. Hospital Hill: an Illustrated Account of Public Healthcare

Institutions in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City: ruman Medical Center

Charitable Foundation, 1995, p. 6.)

145. The Standard (later the Folly) Theater was Kansas City’s first air

conditioned theater. In August of 1909, theater owners cooled the house with

fans that blew air across huge blocks of ice into pipes, which took the air to all

parts of the audience. (Luce, Michael G. A History of the Standard Theater,

Kansas City, Missouri: 1900-1929. Thesis, Central Missouri State University,

1981, p. 37.)

146. Troost Avenue, from 26th

to 32nd

, was known in the 1890s as

“Millionaire’s Row,” because of the wealthy people living in mansions along

the street. (DeAngelo, Dory and Jane Flynn. Kansas City Style. Kansas City:

Fifield Publishing Company, 1992, p. 135.)

147. To reshape the hillside that is surrounded by the Westin Crown Center

hotel lobby, 400,000 cubic yards of rock and shale were removed. (Piland,



Sherry and Ellen J. Uguccioni. Fountains of Kansas City. Kansas City: City of

Fountains Foundation, 1985, p. 185.)

148. The Kansas City Speedway, located at 95th

and Troost, was a 1-mile oval

automobile racing track, made of wood. It was only open for two years (1922-

1924), closing because the track was breaking up. (Doohan, John J. “Album,”

Kansas City Star, Star Magazine, May 27, 1984, p. 22.)

149. First reports of Spanish influenza in late 1918 came from the army-

sponsored Sweeny Motoring School, across the street from Union Station.

Within 24 hours, 170 cases developed followed by 500 in the next 48 hours,

and 800 by the following week. During the last four months of 1918, a total of

1,865 Kansas Citians died form influenza and pneumonia. (McShane, Kevin

C. “The 1918 Kansas City Influenza Epidemic,” Missouri Historical Review,

volume 63, number 1, October 1968.)

150. Architect Louis S. Curtiss lived in an apartment in the building next door to

the Empress Theater (northwest corner of 12th

and McGee), and had a door

cut from his apartment directly into a “box” at the theater. (DeAngelo, Dory

and Jane Flynn. Kansas City Style. Kansas City: Fifield Publishing

Company, 1992, p. 79.)

Prepared by former Missouri Valley Special Collections librarian Stuart Hinds for

the sesquicentennial in 2000.

150 facts kc

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