Modern Archeology

[DeadendLafayette]

I love this stuff and I love exploring KCK, so please keep it coming.

Are there any remnants of this railroad right of way left? I realized that the area between Quindaro/Brown and Parallel is one that I've missed most of during my explorations, so I'm especially curious about finding interesting spots here.

Here's that 1920 map. I love how it has the streetcar lines drawn in:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/maps870017-23955.html

When I first found this map I almost went blind, going back and forth between it and Windows Live. I traced where the lines went, and after you know what to look for you can see the scars are still there. As an example, check out the old buildings with angled walls to allow for the tracks that once passed by:





BTW, the book "Heartland Traction" say that there is a "piece of beltline rail" visible in the street a 16th and Nebraska. The book also says that this familiar building at 18th & Minnesota was the freight office for the Kaw Valley line and that tracks ran thru the overhangy part and also along the angled front.

[staubio]

BTW, the book "Heartland Traction" say that there is a "piece of beltline rail" visible in the street a 16th and Nebraska.

Google to the rescue again.



Pretty much all of the street car rails are still in place, paved over. You can see them all over the city where the pavement has broken up enough to expose them. I noticed a section of Quindaro that is raised where the rails are beneath and they are exposed at some intersections, like 5th Street.

[DeadendLafayette]

Chelsea Park has been mentioned before.
http://www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/KSCOLL/lochi ... w/TN40.htm



I'd love to know if there's any remnants at all of the lake, the zoo, or anything. For that matter- where was the dam?

This reminds me of a history mystery that I'm sure will never be resolved. The location:


Lakeview Street? There was a lake there??? When? I guess I'm easily intrigued...

[mlind]

Try this site for views.  Sometimes it's better than Google Earth.

http://maps.live.com/  Select the 'bird's eye' to get street views. 

I haven't downloaded the 3D view.

[KCFutbol]

Try this site for views.  Sometimes it's better than Google Earth.

http://maps.live.com/  Select the 'bird's eye' to get street views. 

I haven't downloaded the 3D view.

Looks to be a couple of years old.

[DeadendLafayette]

I got to looking at these 2 images, trying to determine on the modern map the limits of the lake...

...and then took a WindowsLive fly over, and saw this:



At first it appears to be the remnants of a foundation, but a Google look shows decorative touches:



I'm not saying it was part of the park or zoo, but who knows?

[moderne]

This was the site of an electical transformer substation for 75 years.  Nothing as pleasing as a park or zoo, in fact my grandparents and other neighbors fought against it all those years ago.  The building below it in the aerial was the powerhouse for the old interurban that ran through the area.  In the '30s a child molester drug my aunt into it but was fortunately rescued by a black man who saw what was happening before the molester could throw her into a seemingly bottomless water well in the building.

[DeadendLafayette]

This was the site of an electical transformer substation for 75 years.  Nothing as pleasing as a park or zoo, in fact my grandparents and other neighbors fought against it all those years ago.  The building below it in the aerial was the powerhouse for the old interurban that ran through the area.  In the '30s a child molester drug my aunt into it but was fortunately rescued by a black man who saw what was happening before the molester could throw her into a seemingly bottomless water well in the building.

I asked, "who knows?". You know! Thanks for the info. Got any idea when it was torn down?

[DeadendLafayette]

The Wyandotte County Museum has an archive of old photos. It makes for fun, though discouraging browsing- I doubt they're ever going to be available to the public. Here's their PDF:

http://www.wycokck.org/uploadedFiles/De ... oIndex.pdf

This is my favorite:



The tunnel under Minnesota Avenue has to be 10x obscurer than the 8th Street Tunnel. It would be nice if these pic could be digitized and either sold on a disc or put up on the web, but I don't see it happening soon.

[mlind]

I have a book about KCK history with lots of photos that was published for the bi-centennial.  I'll dig it out.  I seem to remember that there are pictures of the park that included Big Eleven. 

[mlind]

Here's that 1920 map. I love how it has the streetcar lines drawn in:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/maps870017-23955.html

When I first found this map I almost went blind, going back and forth between it and Windows Live. I traced where the lines went, and after you know what to look for you can see the scars are still there. As an example, check out the old buildings with angled walls to allow for the tracks that once passed by:





BTW, the book "Heartland Traction" say that there is a "piece of beltline rail" visible in the street a 16th and Nebraska. The book also says that this familiar building at 18th & Minnesota was the freight office for the Kaw Valley line and that tracks ran thru the overhangy part and also along the angled front.

I remember the street car line that ran down Minnesota.  On the corner opposite the Interstate Storage building at 18th & Minnesota was a drug store. I don't remember the actual name, but we called it Swede's after the owner.  My father knew him, so they would talk and we kids were sit at the lunch counter and drink cherry cokes.  My cousin remembers going there and drinking 'suicide' cokes that included all the flavors.  According to my sister, a car crashed through the front window and the building was torn down.  I also remember a fabric store next to the Storage bldg. 

On another corner was a furniture store, I think.  And just up 18th (toward Washington Blvd), was the first pizza place in KCK.  Exotic and wonderful. 

[DeadendLafayette]

I remember the street car line that ran down Minnesota.  On the corner opposite the Interstate Storage building at 18th & Minnesota was a drug store. I don't remember the actual name, but we called it Swede's after the owner.  My father knew him, so they would talk and we kids were sit at the lunch counter and drink cherry cokes.  My cousin remembers going there and drinking 'suicide' cokes that included all the flavors.  According to my sister, a car crashed through the front window and the building was torn down.  I also remember a fabric store next to the Storage bldg. 

On another corner was a furniture store, I think.  And just up 18th (toward Washington Blvd), was the first pizza place in KCK.  Exotic and wonderful. 

Does Westheight Pharmacy (1801 Minn.) sound right?

Fabric for Fashions appears to have been one of the stores in the little cluster of shops just south of Interstate. My recollection is of a pet store in that cluster- I always looked for the puppies when we drove down 18th.

[moderne]

I do not know when the electric substation was torn down as I have not frequented the neighborhood in years.  I remember in the sixties when the old interurban powerhouse was converted into some cool multilevel apartments, and I mean literally cool as the walls are as thick as the walls of Constantinople.  Whenever I heard the story of my aunt's abduction and rescue I envisioned it in depression sepia tones and pictured it as a To Kill a Mockingbird Boo Radley moment.
    The furniture store at 18th and Minnesota was Falconers and on the corner they had a glass enclosed free standing rotating display.  The Kansas Pet Store was south of 18th on the east side.  The Pizza shop was Villa Capri, I think.It was between Minnesota and State.  Then in the mid sixties Sir James Pizza opened at about 16th and Minn. It is depressing how this area has declined.  In 1965 when Debbie Bryant became the first Miss America from KS(she was from Overland Park) there was a big parade down Minnesota Ave, not in JOCO!

[DeadendLafayette]

FWIW:

[mlind]

Does Westheight Pharmacy (1801 Minn.) sound right?

Fabric for Fashions appears to have been one of the stores in the little cluster of shops just south of Interstate. My recollection is of a pet store in that cluster- I always looked for the puppies when we drove down 18th.

I'm sure Westheight Pharmacy is the name.  I don't remember the pet store, but I remember going to the fabric store to buy supplies for a Valentine's Day project for my Camp Fire Troop that met at a church on Minnesota, just a block or two from Mark Twain School where I, my sisters and all of my cousins went. 

There was a diner located on Minnesota between Mark Twain and 18th St.  Very occasionally, my mother would give me money and a friend and I would have a school day lunch there.  Otherwise, everyone went home for lunch.  I remember only one boy whose mother must have worked and he had to bring his lunch.  My father told me that the school district received milk money from the government, but the board 'stole' it.  Certainly we students never saw any milk.

My father was born in KCK and my mother's family moved there in the 1940's.  According to their stories, it was a fairly corrupt place in the 40's & 50's - a small group of people running everything. 

[mlind]

I do not know when the electric substation was torn down as I have not frequented the neighborhood in years.  I remember in the sixties when the old interurban powerhouse was converted into some cool multilevel apartments, and I mean literally cool as the walls are as thick as the walls of Constantinople.  Whenever I heard the story of my aunt's abduction and rescue I envisioned it in depression sepia tones and pictured it as a To Kill a Mockingbird Boo Radley moment.
    The furniture store at 18th and Minnesota was Falconers and on the corner they had a glass enclosed free standing rotating display.  The Kansas Pet Store was south of 18th on the east side.  The Pizza shop was Villa Capri, I think.It was between Minnesota and State.  Then in the mid sixties Sir James Pizza opened at about 16th and Minn. It is depressing how this area has declined.  In 1965 when Debbie Bryant became the first Miss America from KS(she was from Overland Park) there was a big parade down Minnesota Ave, not in JOCO!

Villa Capri - you have no idea how wonderful it was to get pizza from there.  I don't remember Sir James, but my family moved to Denver in 1965.  I remember the name Falconers and there was another furniture store, maybe in downtown, called Glanvilles.

It may seen hard to believe, but when I was growing up in KCK in the 40's & 50's, it was a nice town.  A bit insulated, but perhaps everything was at that time. 

[staubio]

Villa Capri - you have no idea how wonderful it was to get pizza from there.  I don't remember Sir James, but my family moved to Denver in 1965.  I remember the name Falconers and there was another furniture store, maybe in downtown, called Glanvilles.

It may seen hard to believe, but when I was growing up in KCK in the 40's & 50's, it was a nice town.  A bit insulated, but perhaps everything was at that time. 

If you guys can find any old photos in your family archives to share, that would be fascinating. People don't think to photograph things like this, that seem like everyday, but decades later it is amazing to see what was.

[DeadendLafayette]

I love those photos that show the old streets cut thru and cliffs on either side before the hills or bluffs were graded down. That looked like it would have been a Herculean task given the machinery available at the time. Where did all of that material go? It was mostly clay, right?

[moderne]

Cut and fill.

[zonk]

Interesting story i came across on ABC News:

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7178402

Not necessarily related to KC, but definitely Modeern ARcheology.....New York City's Lost Tunnel.  check it out.

Ps....you also might recognize the moderator...a former Kansas Citian.