KCRag Forum

Sweet house on the site where the Muehlebach Hotel would later be built.

https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/ ... m/OBJ/view

You can see the east side of the house behind the church.

https://kchistory.org/image/first-bapti ... fset%5D=1

3239 Broadway Then and Now

https://northeastnews.net/pages/aaa-pro ... -traveler/

https://www.google.com/maps/place/3239+ ... ?entry=ttu

Downtown Kansas City map listing building occupants in 1929. Click on Zoom In.

https://tedsvintageart.com/products/vi ... tion-1929/

FangKC wrote: ↑Tue Jun 13, 2023 12:03 am Downtown Kansas City map listing building occupants in 1929. Click on Zoom In.

https://tedsvintageart.com/products/vi ... tion-1929/

Hey this is cool, found Milwaukee Deli

Also shows what would become KMart. Went there as a kid along with Jones store and Woolworths, stopping at the topsies for an ice cream cone or corn balls on 12th street .
Main st. between 11th and 12th was my hangout.

S. S. Kresge's created K-Mart.

Seems that Jupiter was a part of Kresges back then to compete with TG&Ys five and dime. They had a store across the river in Kc Kansas around 7th street if my memory is correct.

Jupiter was a deep, deep discount store concept of the S.S Kresge Company that took over old Kresge stores after K-Mart stores began opening.

KCKev wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 12:56 am Seems that Jupiter was a part of Kresges back then to compete with TH&Ys five and dime. They had a store across the river in Kc Kansas around 7th street if my memory is correct.

Jupiter was the fate of many Kresge Stores as they lost profitability, but still had time left on their lease. It was basically an overstock outlet for Kresge and Kmart. Fun fact, one of the few Kresge stores that made it until the division was shut down in the 80s anchored The Landing.

Photo from 1962 shows when 12th and Troost had a real functioning urban intersection. What is seen is the north and south block of 12th between Harrison and Troost.

Are any of those buildings still standing? Interesting that the built environment that was not taken by the freeway path itself eventually also succumbed, as if the freeway wound was infected and ate into the surrounding tissue.

moderne wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 11:37 am Are any of those buildings still standing? Interesting that the built environment that was not taken by the freeway path itself eventually also succumbed, as if the freeway wound was infected and ate into the surrounding tissue.

Looks like nothing survived

Looking at the Dearing Flats on the NE corner of 12th and Troost in 1940. On the right side is the Highland Drug Store in the Lafayette Hotel on the SE corner of that intersection.



The Dearing Flats in the 1920s before other buildings were constructed around it.



The Dean Hotel was on the south side of 12th Street west of Troost.

What is now called Paseo West light industrial district was a mixed use neighborhood. Was there some conscious plan or policy to abandon the mixed use neighborhood? Was it seen to do away with residential to create a buffer between DT and the East Side?

moderne wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 1:02 pm What is now called Paseo West light industrial district was a mixed use neighborhood. Was there some conscious plan or policy to abandon the mixed use neighborhood?

I humbly disagree. That area was always residential with retail and small light industrial shops to support the residents. There were larger warehouses on the western edge of downtown. My dad was born in a multi-floor "tenement" apartment building on the corner of 8th and Tracy. It was a rough neighborhood. Those buildings were built quickly in the late 18 and early 1900s to support all of the immigrants and transplants to KC and they were poorly maintained. 12th Street was the border between black and white and the area was known to be rough. Eventually all of these buildings fell into the hands of slumlords that let them rot.

I imagine that small businesses realized that these properties could be purchased cheaply and be close enough to downtown to support larger businesses and industry and that's how the neighborhood became all light industrial til today.

Here are aerials of the neighborhood.

https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/ ... m/OBJ/view

https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/ ... m/OBJ/view

https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/ ... m/OBJ/view

Shown below is the New Center Theater building in 1920 at E. 15th (later Truman Road) and Troost. In addition to the movie theater, the 7-story building's tenants were Spaulding Commercial College and Kansas City College of Osteopathy and Surgery. Murphy's Drug Store is on the first-floor corner of 15th Street (later Truman Road) and Troost Avenue.



The one-screen theater opened in 1916 and had 1400 seats. The building was designed by the Boller Brothers, a local firm that specialized in theaters and designed many in the KC metro, and more than 200 across the country.

https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/18048

Spaulding's Commercial College also was located at an earlier time in the New York Life Building at 9th and Baltimore, on the SW corner of 11th and Main, and in the Insurance Building at 318 E. 10th on the NW corner of 10th and Oak now owned by Abnos. Other later locations were 3103 Troost and 3208 Troost. The college taught bookkeeping, shorthand, typewriting, modern languages, and higher mathematics.

Kansas City College of Osteopathy and Surgery would later evolve into Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences at Independence Avenue and Woodland.

Later the New Center Theater building would become the headquarters for The Calvin Company which produced mostly educational and training industrial films. The Calvin Company would become a training ground for filmmaker Robert Altman. The Calvin Company was a self-contained production company within one building. They made movies as well as processed and printed them. The facility had soundstages and film printing labs. The company employed copywriters, film editors, directors, camera operators, as well as all the related film production staff.

The Calvin Company is discussed in this archived video starting at minute 29.00.

https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb ... 4-83xsjcz4

The company closed in the mid-1980s and the building was demolished to create an athletic field for the Manual Career Tech Center next door.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/3208+ ... ?entry=ttu

FangKC wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 8:18 pm Here are aerials of the neighborhood.

https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/ ... m/OBJ/view

Not surprising and very sickening. There are only 12 structures still standing from this entire photo. I have highlighted the buildings that are still standing. My sight isn't the best, if someone else finds more let me know. This also includes the destruction of every single building on the left side of the photo which is today the eastern edge of the "East Village" downtown.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h4VTYL ... sp=sharing

One would think the Germans or Japanese bombed Kansas City in WW2.