Postcards From the Edge of Time

[FangKC]

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. This also includes the destruction of every single building on the left side of the photo which is today the "East Village" downtown.

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

Can't access the file on your Google drive.

[Jblanco]

Can't access the file on your Google drive.

You can now.

[FangKC]

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

There are more than indicated. I have indicated them in red. Some are easy to miss. I've been studying that neighborhood for a while now researching the Victorian-style buildings and other architecture in the neighborhood from the tax photos.



Buildings remaining not reflected on your map.

Admiral and Troost, SW corner.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1054258 ... ?entry=ttu

https://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/dig ... /742/rec/1

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912 Troost (Portland Garage)

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1025764 ... ?entry=ttu

https://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/dig ... /757/rec/1


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1318 Admiral

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1053234 ... ?entry=ttu

629 Tracy

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1059885 ... ?entry=ttu

614 Tracy

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1061706 ... ?entry=ttu

Independence Avenue and Forest, SE corner

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1068775 ... ?entry=ttu

613 Forest

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1064525 ... ?entry=ttu

617 Forest

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1061855 ... entry=ttu

621 Forest

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1061855 ... ?entry=ttu

https://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/dig ... /937/rec/1

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612 Virginia

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1065521 ... ?entry=ttu

1314 Independence Avenue

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1068284 ... ?entry=ttu

1321 Independence Avenue (modified)

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.106822 ... ?entry=ttu

1340 Admiral

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1053167 ... ?entry=ttu

https://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/dig ... /936/rec/1

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711 Virginia (warehouse portion fronting Virginia midblock-possibly Admiral entrance section was remodeled. There used to be a gas station where the parking lot is now).

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1043585 ... ?entry=ttu

720 Lydia

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1046645 ... ?entry=ttu

https://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/dig ... /941/rec/2

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1219 Independence Avenue

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1068771 ... ?entry=ttu

1221 Independence Avenue (back half of building remains; front demolished and modifed).

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1068686 ... ?entry=ttu

1307 Independence Avenue (shell only)

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1068552 ... ?entry=ttu

1309 Independence Avenue
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.106843 ... ?entry=ttu

https://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/dig ... /937/rec/1

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808-810 E. 10th Street (building has been modified)

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1019976 ... ?entry=ttu

https://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/dig ... /755/rec/1

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1210-12 E. 8th Street (warehouse buildings)

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1039739 ... entry=ttu

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711 Tracy

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.105001 ... ?entry=ttu

1320 E. 8th Street

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

1310-12 E. 8th Street (formerly Admiral Theater)

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

https://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/dig ... /940/rec/1

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1108 E. 10th Street (NE corner of Troost) City Union Mission (has been modified). This building was originally Western Dental College. Western Dental became Kansas City Dental College and was later absorbed into the UMKC campus as the dental school

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

https://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/dig ... /951/rec/1

[Jblanco]

^ Thanks for diving into the minutia with the magnifying glass for an exhaustive overview.
For some reason I posted the wrong photo as I had previously outlined the 1913 Admiral apartment building on the corner, I drive past it everyday. I tried to focus on buildings of significance.

It's a shame that KC leadership allowed this neighborhood to rot. I believe that most of this was intentional, especially when you demo housing and build hundreds of HUD apartment projects in separate places.

[Chris Stritzel]

If two projects I'm working on happen, I'd love to assemble land in Paseo West and rebuild density there in a mixed-use, mixed-income fashion. I imagine quite a few developers are watching the area though since the "Jazz Hill" renovations by Flaherty and Collins are well underway on the Paseo and the Royals could (and most likely will) be relocating to the East Village.

Financially well-off developers could easily buyout property owners who never had the intention of selling. Money talks. Let's watch this area closely.

[FangKC]

^ Thanks for diving into the minutia with the magnifying glass for an exhaustive overview.
For some reason I posted the wrong photo as I had previously outlined the 1913 Admiral apartment building on the corner, I drive past it everyday. I tried to focus on buildings of significance.

It's a shame that KC leadership allowed this neighborhood to rot. I believe that most of this was intentional, especially when you demo housing and build hundreds of HUD apartment projects in separate places.

Urban Renewal policies swept the nation in the late 1950s, and the 1960s and '70s. It was "slum clearance." Urban renewal sounded nicer. The federal government gave cities block grants for this purpose. Often times the clearance was done without a plan and financing to rebuild the neighborhood. Probably the city's land clearance authority sold large parcels for light industrial uses.

There were a lot of buildings that most likely could have been renovated, but it was just easier to clear everything. There was no effort at housing conservation.

I've picked some examples of buildings that would likely have been able to be renovated and avoided demolition.

Kansas City College of Osteopathy and Surgery on the NW corner of 11th and Harrison. The concrete and steel building had been built in 1915 for Wesley Hospital. KCCOS left the building in 1972 to move to their new campus at Independence and Woodland--what would later be called KC University of Medicine and Biosciences.



Below you can see the parking lot on the footprint of the former college building.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1010422 ... ?entry=ttu

The Inez Apartment Hotel on the NE corner of 9th and Troost.



The Orville Apartment Hotel on the NW corner of 9th and Forest. It was just east of the Inez Apartment Hotel. The Orville survived until 1998.



This 4-story apartment building was on 8th between Troost and Forest on the south side of the street. It would have been 1115-23 E. 8th Street.




I think these could have been renovated as well.

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.

[FangKC]

If two projects I'm working on happen, I'd love to assemble land in Paseo West and rebuild density there in a mixed-use, mixed-income fashion. I imagine quite a few developers are watching the area though since the "Jazz Hill" renovations by Flaherty and Collins are well underway on the Paseo and the Royals could (and most likely will) be relocating to the East Village.

Financially well-off developers could easily buyout property owners who never had the intention of selling. Money talks. Let's watch this area closely.

Where to start, where to start?

[FangKC]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxRFN3aJ9F6 ... BiNWFlZA==

The restaurant in that postcard at the link above would have been in this building.

[missingkc]

FangKC, you are a city treasure. Someone should interview you. Your knowledge should be recorded.

[FangKC]

City Union Mission posted photos today and one was a new angle of the entrance to Annie Chambers' brothel.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=78 ... 3719772337

[FangKC]

Near 14th and Main in 1962 we see the blade sign for Gateway Sporting Goods and the Mainstreet Theater when it was called the Empire Cinerama. The buildings on the NW corner of Truman and Main St. are still standing. The almost-corner building was the 4-story Main Hotel. Next to the Empire Theater is the 3-story Strand Hotel. There was a small hamburger restaurant to the south of the Hotel Main near the corner.

https://kchistory.org/image/main-stree ... ffset%5D=1

The movie playing at the time was How the West was Won which starring Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, and Henry Fonda and an all-star cast.

The trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM_UUB6J-Fw

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056085/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

[moderne]

How the West was Won was a cinerama movie, and all the cinerama movies plalyng KC were shown on the wide curved screen including the Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and This is Cinerama

[shinatoo]

Would have loved to have seen How the West Was Won, and the Henry Fonda reveal live in a theater. It was shocking enough in my living room 25 years after it was released.