History of Kansas City
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The History of Kansas City of Missouri and Kansas (and surrounding communities) dates back to the 1800s. Kansas City, Missouri was incorporated in 1850 on the banks of the Missouri River. Kansas City, Kansas formed in 1868 and incorporated in October of 1872.
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[edit] Exploration
[edit] Marquette & Joliet
The first western exploration of the area surrounding the junction of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers occurred when, in 1673, French explorers Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette travelled through the Mississippi Valley, mapping the area that would eventually become St. Louis, Missouri. Marquette embarked on a six-day canoe trip up the Missouri River, becoming the first known westerner to reach the area of present-day Kansas City. He drew a map of the area, and marked the habitations of the Kansa, "Ouchage" (Osage), and "Pani" (Pawnee) Indian tribes. In the early 18th century, more French explorers and fur traders entered the area, hoping to trade with Spanish "New Mexico" and setting up a bartering trade with the native American Indian tribes. The entire area became part of French Louisiana, which had been named in honor of King Louis XIV by explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1682.
[edit] Lewis & Clark
Following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 the Lewis and Clark Expedition left St. Louis on a mission to reach the Pacific Ocean; they stopped at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas for three days, meeting French fur traders and mapping the area calling Quality Hill "a fine place for a fort." Because of the burgeoning trade up the Missouri River from St. Louis, especially following Lewis and Clark's expedition, the United States Government sought to form government posts throughout the area. Accordingly, in 1808, Fort Osage was established twenty miles from the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers.
[edit] Kaw's Mouth
In 1812 after Louisiana formally became a state, the remaining portions of the original Louisiana Territory north of Arkansas renamed the Missouri Territory. As plans were made to carve up the territory for the entry of Missouri into the union it was determined that the western border of the new state from Iowa to Arkansas would be the confluence of the Kansas River (Kaw) and Missouri River. As part of the Missouri Compromise in 1821, Congress admitted Missouri to the union as the 24th state; it was admitted as a slave state. The confluence of the two rivers in the West Bottoms has been subject to floods and changes of course. The confluence has now moved about a quarter mile upstream.
[edit] Settlement
[edit] Chouteau's/Village of the Kansa
The language of the first settlement in Kansas City was French.
In 1821, 24-year-old François Gesseau Chouteau, nephew of René Auguste Chouteau, set up a permanent trading post in the great bend in the Missouri River that makes up the Northeast Industrial District (crossed today by Chouteau Trafficway). He referred to the post as "the village of the Kansa." After Indians agreed to leave the westernmost six miles of Missouri to the confluence of the Kansas 1825 the area were referred to as "Chouteau's" . Chouteau moved his trading post to higher ground in 1826 at Troost Avenue and the river following a flood. He was to also finance the first Catholic church which was built on Quality Hill.[1]
The area soon began to be populated by trappers, scouts, traders, and farmers, leading in 1827 to the incorporation of Jackson County, Missouri and the founding of Independence, Missouri (located approximately 10 miles from the river junction) as its county seat. As the number of farmers increased, the fur traders retreated northward.
In 1831, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("LDS Church"; see also Mormon) coming from Kirtland, Ohio and New York State purchased about 2,000 acres (8 km²) of land in the Paseo and Troost Lake areas. Conflict between the LDS members and other Missouri residents led to the expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County in 1833 (although today there is still a notable presence of LDS members in the KC area).
[edit] Westport and Westport Landing
Over the next years the character of Kansas City was defined by those who wanted to live close to the river (which were referred to as "rabbits" and those who wanted to live in the hills (the "goats"). John Calvin McCoy, who is considered the "father of Kansas City," had a hand in both locations.
In 1833 he opened a trading post in the hills three miles south of the river. He name it "West Port" because it was the last place to get supplies before travelers went into Kansas Territory on the Santa Fe Trail.
McCoy got supplies from boats that docked at a rocky outcropping on the river at what is Main Street and the river which was called "Westport Landing." McCoy's landing and Chouteau's trading post were to drive traffic to the last outpost before settlers either traveled up the Kansas or Missouri Rivers. The road connecting Westport with the trading post and Westport Landing followed Broadway.
In 1834, the steamboat John Hancock, which was laden with goods for McCoy, became the first steamboat to dock at the Wesport Landing and opened up a new era of communication and transportation for the area.
[edit] Town of Kansas
Expansion around the landing was stifled because it was a farm mostly owned by Gabriel Prudhomme. In 1838 McCoy and Chouteau and other merchants formed the "Town of Kansas Company" and purchased Prudhomme's 271-acre farm for $4,220. The investors rejected other names for the new town including Port Fonda, Rabbitville and Possum Trot. The following year, in 1839, Chouteau died, and the area outside of Westport Landing was renamed the Town of Kansas
Throughout the 1840s, the population and importance of the Town of Kansas swelled as it and nearby Independence and Westport became starting points on the Oregon, Santa Fe, and California trails for settlers heading west. Between St. Louis and California, the Kansas/Missouri river junction was one of the few substantially-populated areas. The first rail travel came to the Town of Kansas in 1847.
Jackson County finally formally incorporated the Town of Kansas on June 3, 1850 (traditionally viewed as the date of Kansas City's founding). Its population was approximately 1,500 people. The first newspaper (the now-defunct Kansas City Ledger) and first telegraph service were established in the Town of Kansas in 1851.
[edit] City of Kansas
Missouri officially incorporated the city March 28, 1853, it changed the name to the City of Kansas. At the first municipal election in 1853 there were 67 voters from an estimated population of 2,500. The initial incorporated area was about 10 blocks west to east and five blocks north to south. It was bordered by Bluff Road (about I-35 today) on the west, Independence Avenue on the south and Holmes Street on the east and the Missouri River on the north. William S. Gregory became the first mayor but had to resign within 10 months when it was discovered that the mayor actually had to live in the city.
[edit] Border War
Main article: Bleeding Kansas
At the time of the City of Kansas's incorporation, Missouri was still a slave state. However, the population was deeply divided over the issue of slavery. In 1854, the United States Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which rejected the 1820 Missouri Compromise and allowed new territories to choose whether they wished to allow slavery, whereas the Missouri Compromise had prohibited slavery in any new states to be created north of latitude 36°30'. Thus, according to the Missouri Compromise, Kansas Territory (located immediately to the west of the City of Kansas, Missouri) had been a free territory, but now could choose to permit slavery.
As a result of the new potential for slavery in Kansas, pro-slavery Missourians flocked to Kansas in force, electing a pro-slavery Kansas Territorial Legislature. In response, abolitionists began arriving in the area, and in 1855 they declared the Kansas Territorial Legislature "bogus" and elected their own representatives to form a new territorial government in Lawrence, Kansas (approximately 35 miles west of the City of Kansas). The newly-established City of Kansas soon found itself in the middle of this divisive issue. When in 1856 a group of slavery advocates from Missouri sacked and burned Lawrence, abolitionist John Brown rode through the City of Kansas freeing slaves and burning nearby plantations. Thus began the border wars of Bleeding Kansas.
Despite the ongoing conflict, the City of Kansas continued to grow rapidly. It gained a courthouse, city market, and chamber of commerce in 1857; In 1858, however, the local violence had grown so fierce that the Kansas Territorial Governor and the State of Missouri both asked US President James Buchanan to send in federal troops. The President agreed, and with the troops' presence the violence seemed quelled.
[edit] Civil War
Main articles: General Order No. 11, Battle of Westport and John Newman Edwards
Missouri stayed in the Union during the Civil War but given that the city's first settlers had arrived traveling up the Missouri River from the South, there were considerable tensions. Missourian Sterling Price was to fight battles in the area at the beginning and end of the war to incite residents to join the Confederate cause.
In 1863 William Quantrill burned and sacked Lawrence, and killed 168 people in what was called the Lawrence Massacre. General Thomas Ewing, Jr., beleiving the raid was rooted in the four Missouri counties on the Kansas border south of the Missouri River, promulgated his General Order No. 11 which confiscated the property of all those living in rural areas outside of designated urban areas regardless of loyalty of the farmers.
This area was to affect those living south of Brush Creek and east of the Blue River. Kansas City's first mayor was exiled to St. Louis.
In 1864 Price pushed the Union troops out of Independence and into the City of Kansas resulting in the Battle of Westport, a last gasp Confederate offensive called Price's Raid, which took place in October near Brush Creek. Price was decisively defeated and forced out of the state.
After the War Kansas City remained a hotbed for former pro-Southerns. John Newman Edwards founded the Kansas City Times to stringently object to Republican rule. He also created the Jesse James anti-hero myth about James just fighting an unjust Republican Reconstruction. James himself went on to rob the Kansas City fairgrounds at 12th Street and Campbell (in addition to living at various places throughout the metropolitan area).[2]
[edit] Kansas City
[edit] Crossroads of the Country
Main articles: Union Station and Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad
In 1865 the Missouri Pacific railroad reached Kansas City arriving of the Missouri. At the time Kansas City was similar in population to Independence and Leavenworth, Kansas. That was to change in 1867 when Kansas City defeated Leavenworth (then over twice Kansas City's size)for the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad bridge over the Missouri River. The Hannibal Bridge, designed by Octave Chanute, opened in 1869. With that, the city's population quadrupled in fifty years.
In 1889, with a population of around 60,000, the city adopted a new charter and changed its name to Kansas City. In 1897, Kansas City annexed Westport. The initial meeting of tracks occurred in the West Bottoms in area that had previously been used to outfit travellers on the Oregon and Santa Fe trails who had followed the Kansas River. The biggest outfitting facility was the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company. That company went out of business following the collapse of the Pony Express. Its facilities were to become the Kansas City Stockyards.
The city became the second (to Chicago) busiest train center in the country (and still is). In 1914 the city's Union Station in the West Bottoms became outdated and the new Union Station was built.
[edit] Cow Town
Main articles: Kansas City Stockyards and American Royal
In 1871 the Kansas City Stockyards boomed in the West Bottoms because of its central location in the country and proximity to trains. It became second only to Chicago in size and the city itself was to be identified with its Kansas City steak. In 1899 the American Hereford Association hosted a cattle judging contest in a tent in the stockyards. It was to become the American Royal two-month long livestock festival. The stockyards were destroyed in the Great Flood of 1951 and never fully recovered.
[edit] Pendergast era
[edit] Overview
The Pendergast era under Democrat Big City bosses James Pendergast and later more importantly Tom Pendergast from 1890 to 1940 ushered in a colorful and influential era for the city.
Pendergast was to preside over an era when the city that saw the rise of many outsize personalities that shaped the city and country. During this period, the Kansas City boulevard and park system was developed; the Country Club Plaza, Country Club District, and Ward Parkway were created; TWA made Kansas City the hub of national aviation; most of the downtown Kansas City buildings were built; its inner city culture was to blossom with contributions to the Negro League, Kansas City Jazz, Kansas City-style barbecue, the stockyards and train station was to be second only to Chicago; and Harry S. Truman was to become President.
Much of the construction during these "wide open days" was with Pendergast Readi-Mix Concrete and the era was marked by considerable violence and corruption. Pendergast was to ultimately be defanged with a 1940 evasion of income tax charge.
[edit] Political history
[edit] James Pendergast
Main article: James Pendergast
In 1880, James Pendergast, the oldest son of Irish immigrants, moved to Kansas City's West Bottoms. He worked at a local iron foundry until buying a bar with money he won from betting on a longshot horse ("Climax") at a local race track. From his new bar, Pendergast began networking with local leaders and soon built a powerful faction in the Jackson County Democratic Party. Pendergast's faction was called the "goats" because they were backed by those living in the hills above the river. His chief rival were the "rabbits" because they tended to come from the area around the rivers. The lead of this faction was Joe Shannon.
[edit] Tom Pendergast
Main article: Tom Pendergast
Just prior to winning his first of nine terms on the city council in 1892, he summoned his youngest brother Tom from nearby St. Joseph. As Jim's health deteriorated, Tom began to utilize many of Jim's connections to lead the "Goat" faction after Jim's death in 1910. Tom succeeded Jim in the council too, but left after three terms but assumed more powerful position as chairman of the Jackson County Democratic Club with its headquarters at 1908 Main Street.
[edit] City manager government
In 1925, Kansas City voted in favor of establishing a city manager-based government with one city council of 12 members instead of two chambers of 32 members total, giving Tom an easier road to gaining majority control. By 1925, the Pendergast machine had established a majority, appointing a passive mayor and powerful city manager Henry McElroy.
Pendergast's power grew during the Great Depression, creating a Ten-Year Plan bond plan aimed at putting unemployed Kansas Citians to work building civic structures that still stand, including City Hall, Municipal Auditorium, and the Jackson County Courthouse. These structures, sporting art deco architecture, were built with concrete supplied by Pendergast's Ready-Mixed Concrete company and other companies that provided kickbacks to Pendergast.
At its peak, the machine wielded considerable influence on state politics, handily electing Platte County judge Guy Brasfield Park governor of Missouri in 1932 when the Democratic candidate Francis Wilson died two weeks before the election. Also during this time, Kansas City also became a center for night life and music, with jazz by musicians such as Count Basie, Charlie Parker and blues Kansas City blues flourishing in areas such as 18th and Vine.
[edit] Union Station massacre
Violence and gangster activity proliferated during this time as well. On June 17, 1933, three gangsters attempted to free Frank Nash from FBI custody, but wound up killing him and four unarmed agents. The gangsters had spent the prior evening at the Hotel Monroe, adjacent to Pendergast's office, and had received assistance in eluding a bribed police force from Johnny Lazia, a major underworld figure with connections to Pendergast.
Pendergast's machine became synonymous with inflating election results by bringing in out-of-town hoodlums to vote for machine candidates repeatedly. The March 27, 1934 municipal elections (dramatized in Robert Altman's 1996 film Kansas City) resulted in nine deaths.
[edit] Demise of the machine
Tom Pendergast's power was brought down by health ailments and a determined effort by reform leaders, capped by Tom pleading guilty to tax evasion on May 24, 1939. Remnants of the machine lingered until the 1950s.
[edit] Personalities in the Pendergast Era
[edit] Walt Disney
Main articles: Laugh-O-Gram Studios and Walt Disney
Walt Disney moved to Kansas City with his family in the early 1900s. He attended weekend classes at the Kansas City Art Institute and was said to have been inspired to make the affectionate depiction of a mouse after seeing one in his drawers in Kansas City. After World War II Disney first animation efforts were at Laugh-O-Gram Studios in Kansas City.
[edit] Joyce Clyde Hall
Main articles: Joyce Clyde Hall, Hallmark Cards, and Crown Center
J.C. Hall Hallmark Cards greeting card company with his brother Rollie in the early 1900s first by selling Valentines Day cards. He expanded the corporate headquarters to become Crown Center shortly before he died in the 1960s.
[edit] Howard Hughes and Jack Frye
Main articles: TWA, Jack Frye and Howard Hughes
Charles Lindbergh helped lure the nearly created Transcontinental & Western Airline (TW&A) -- later TWA to locate its corporate headquarters in Kansas City because of the city's central location. The airline would ultimately have more than 20,000 employees in the metropolitan area and usher in a golden era of aviation.
[edit] William T. Kemper
William T. Kemper became the scion for a powerful financial family that had controlling interest of the city's two biggest banks Commerce Bancshares and UMB Bancshares. The family has influenced financial endeavors throughout the Missouri and Kansas including Kemper Arena and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. William became president of Commerce. One of his sons R. Crosby Kemper to control United Missouri Banks while the other son James T. Kemper took over Commerce.
[edit] William Rockhill Nelson
Main articles: William Rockhill Nelson and Kansas City Star
William Rockhill Nelson founded the Kansas City Star in 1880 and was to eventually take over its prime competitor the Kansas City Times. Nelson was a big Democratic supporter and urban booster. At the urging of his paper the city built Memorial Hall in 1899 to attract the 1900 Democratic National Convention. The hall burned in early 1900 was rebuilt in 90 days in time for the convention. After Nelson he left provisions that his house ultimately be torn down to create Nelson-Atkins Gallery of Art.
[edit] J.C. Nichols
Main articles: J.C. Nichols, Country Club Plaza, and Country Club District
Beginning in 1906, developer J.C. Nichols created a planned upscale community, the Country Club District, south of Brush Creek. This development is famous for Ward Parkway, a wide, separated, manicured boulevard that traverses the neighborhood, lined with large houses. In the 1920s, Nichols created the Country Club Plaza, a shopping district and neighborhood along Brush Creek modeled on Seville, Spain. The Plaza is said to have been the world's first shopping center designed to accomodate people arriving by automobile.
[edit] Harry S. Truman
Main article: Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman, who was born on a Jackson County farm, started a haberdashery in downtown Kansas City after World War I. When the business failed he asked Pendergast for a job and he wound Eastern Jackson County Judge (actually a county commissioner position). Truman was to be promoted to Senator. He was one of the few politicians to attend Tom Pendergast's funeral in 1945 just a few days after he became Vice President.
[edit] 18th Street & Vine
Main article: 18th Street & Vine
One of the most dramatic developments of the era was the flourishing of the inner city neighborhood of 18th Street and Vine.
[edit] Kansas City Monarchs and the Negro Leagues
Main article: Kansas City Monarchs
The Kansas City Monarchs playing at Municipal Stadium (Kansas City) were one of the premiere Negro Leagues baseball teams with championship teams and stars such as Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson.
[edit] Kansas City Jazz
Main article: Kansas City Jazz
With Kansas City not enforcing liquor laws and clubs allowed to stay open all night, musicians began all night jam sessions after performing in structured big band performances. The Kansas City sound became Bebop that hit the national stage with Kansas City native Charlie Parker.
[edit] Kansas City-style barbecue
Main article: Kansas City-style barbecue
Henry Perry was to introduce a Memphis-style barbecue to the city from his restaurant in the 18th Street and Vine in the early 1900s. Arthur Bryant (restaurateur) was to add more molasses to the recipie when he took over Perry's restaurant. One of Perry's cooks opened Gates and Sons Bar-B-Q which added more molasses. In 1986, Rich Davis sold KC Masterpiece to the Kingsford charcoal division of Clorox.
[edit] Crossroads of the World
The period from the 1940s through the 1970s was a heady time when Kansas City sometimes considered the crossroads of the world. This was fueled by the Presidency of hometown boy Harry Truman from 1945 through 1953. This in turn was followed by Kansan Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. Throughout this period TWA under Howard Hughes and Jack Frye was headquartered in Kansas City and had great plans to turn the city cosmopolitan hub that would be the gateway to the world. The era's great expectations were to wind down with the diminished presence of TWA.
[edit] 1950's
Since the 1950's, Kansas City has gone through a transition has tried to shed its Cow Town image.
The transition began when Kansas City was at its height of national with the back to back Presidencies of Harry Truman and Kansas favorite-son Dwight D. Eisenhower. Events of the day saw the heyday of Roy A. Roberts influence as editor of the Kansas City Star.
The change began in the early 1950s with the precipitous decline of the railroad to competition from the automobile and jet travel. Union Station (Kansas City) which had lorded over the second (to Chicago) busiest rail intersection began a rapid decline.
The Great Flood of 1951 decimated the Kansas City Stockyards in the West Bottoms. The stockyards (which were also second to Chicago in size) were never to come back to their full glory as stockyards moved away from urban, unionized centers.
In 1955 Kansas City formally began its relationship with major league sports when the Philadelphia Athletics moved to become the Kansas City Athletics playing at Municipal Stadium (Kansas City).
[edit] 1960's
The 1960's were marked by a period of ambitious projects coupled with the rapid urban decay of many inner city neighborhoods including the posh area along the Paseo. During this period, downtown Kansas City was to become transformed into a sleazy world that was most typified in the book and movie In Cold Blood by Truman Capote in which the killers of rural Kansas family passed through Kansas City on a Greyhound Bus.
During this inner city decay, Kansas City began an ambitious effort to expand its area (thus not repeating the mistakes of St. Louis, Missouri which hemmed itself in by refusing to ratify the annexations of land that became St. Louis County, Missouri). In the process, Kansas City became one of the largest cities in the United States area wise at 318 square miles. It is still not uncommon to find cattle and corn fields on the extreme edges of Kansas City. Kansas City in 2000 ranked 21st in the United States in terms of area while #40 in terms of List of United States cities by population.
In 1967 the Kansas City Chiefs were defeated in the first ever Super Bowl. In the same year Charlie Finley got permission to move the Kansas City Athletics out of the 1923-era Municipal Stadium (Kansas City). Kansas City responded to these developments by approving a bond issue to build the Truman Sports Complex on the extreme suburban eastern edge of the city by the Interstate 70 and Interstate 435 edge of the city. The construction of the complex was to be so successful that virtually all major league ballparks and football stadiums have been designed in accordance with the Truman Complex master plan and most have been designed by Kansas City architects.
Also in 1967 work began on the Crown Center complex around the headquarters of Hallmark Cards.
Another development in the 1960s was the approval of a bond issue to move the city's main airport from Kansas City Downtown Airport to the TWA overhaul base at what was formerly called Mid-Continent International Airport -- now called Kansas City International Airport (but which is referred to in baggage tags by its original abbreviation of MCI).
Although Kansas City enjoyed much expansion in the 1960s, the inner city was to endure numerous heartbreaks and fires including the 1968 riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King.
[edit] 1970's
The first half of the 1970s was dominated by Kansas City's ambitious urban renewal projects that were to be showcased when the city hosted the 1976 Republican National Convention.
[edit] New Arenas Bring New Teams
After the Charlie Finley moved the Kansas City Athletics to Oakland, Missouri Senator Stuart Symington threatened to remove professional baseball's antitrust exemption. Major League Baseball responded by awarding an expasion team to Kansas City which started play in 1969 under Ewing Kauffman. The Royals had winning seasons by 1971 and moved into their new home in the Truman Sports Complex at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in 1973 beginning a decade in which they appeared in the World Series twice (winning once) and winning six American League West division titles.
In 1972 the Kansas City Chiefs played their first game at the new Arrowhead Stadium. Ironically the Chiefs which had defined Kansas City in the 1960s during the days at Municipal Stadium were to go into a decline in which they had only two winning seasons between 1974 and 1986.
In 1972 Kansas City lured the Cincinnati Royals National Basketball Association team to the city with promises of building a new indoor arena.
Kemper Arena which was the first major project by architect Helmut Jahn was built in 18 months from 1973 to 1974 on former location of the Kansas City Stockyards in the West Bottoms. Its construction was financed by general obligation bonds, donated land from the stockyards, donations from the American Royal and R. Crosby Kemper Sr. The arena was considered an architectural gem because of how fast it could be built and the fact that with external supports there were no obstructions to sight lines.
The Arena was the crowning achievement for luring the 1976 Republican Convention.
The Arena also resulted in Kansas City being awarded the National Hockey League expansion team Kansas City Scouts which began playing in 1974.
[edit] Kansas City International Airport
The Kansas City Downtown Airport built initially during the Pendergast in the Missouri River bottoms immediately north of downtown was convenient. However it lacked room for expansion and jets landing and taking off had to avoid the 200 foot high Quality Hill at its south edge.
TWA, which was headquartered in Kansas City at the time, had an overhaul base with a landing strip surrounded by open farm land 15 miles north of downtown in rural Platte County, Missouri. The airport was listed on maps as Mid-Continent International Airport.
In 1966 voters approved a $150 million bond issue to move the city's main airport to an expanded Mid-Continent. However the city did not annex the area, instead the small town of Platte City, Missouri annexed the airport.
Following a series of court battles, Kansas City eventually annexed the airport and selected architect firm Kivett and Myers to design the airport which was dedicated in 1972. Almost all the airlines that were at the old facility moved to the new airport which was renamed Kansas City International Airport to more closely identify it with the city. The international designation was applied because of jets traveling to and from Mexico. The MCI abbreviation was to stick since it was an existing airport and had already been listed on navigation charts.
[edit] River Quay
One of the most prominent failures during the period occurred when a gangland war broke out among members of the Kansas City mafia over control of the newly created (and thriving) River Quay entertainment district (and also control over mob skimming at the Stardust Resort & Casino in Las Vegas).
In the process several mobsters were killed and three buildings were blown up in the River Quay which effectively ended its function as Kansas City's entertainment center. The River Quay in the City Market area along the Missouri River on the north edge of Downtown Kansas City had been a 1970s urban renewal project to offer a more family friendly entertainment complex based on the city's of Kansas City Jazz heritage replacing the establishments along 12th Street which had deteriorated into a center for crime, drugs and prostitution.
The battle over mob skimming in Las Vegas was highlighted in the book Casino (film) and movie by Nicholas Pileggi. The battle was to end the era of mob control of the Vegas casinos.
[edit] Big Storms
Although Kansas City which is in tornado alley is usually hit with at least one and often many more tornadoes each year, two major storms that were not tornadoes had profound effects on the city.
On September 12, 1977, following a soggy summer, 16 inches fell on Kansas City flooding the entire region with the most dramatic flooding being in the Country Club Plaza neighborhood along Bush Creek. The storm killed 25 people and did nearly $100 million worth of damage to property. [1]
On June 4, 1979, an evening storm caused the roof of Kemper Arena to collapse. Nobody was injured as there were no events at it at the time. Initial reports indicated the collapse was the result of a downburst. However an investigation later revealed that storm water had pooled on the roof and then the supports could not handle the heavier roof when coupled with high winds that rocked its exterior skeleton. The arena was repaired and reopened in early 1980.
[edit] Small Market Major League
Kanas City's grandiose dreams began to diminish in the 1980s as TWA and the major league hockey and basketball teams left and the NCAA no longer played its Final Four games in the city. Kansas City began to settle into the fact that it is one of the smallest markets of major league teams. The era from 1980 to the present has been marked by substanital bond issues by the city to protect its past such as Union Station and Liberty Memorial as well as to make major improvements to the airport and sports complex. Kansas City is now experiencing the biggest building boom in downtown since the Pendergast era.
[edit] 1980s
[edit] Desegregation case
The single most divisive issue in Kansas City in 1980s and 1990s was school desegregation case that was to span three decades, cost millions of dollars, be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and be featured in a CBS 60 Minutes profile about good intentions gone awry.
The case began in 1977 when the Kansas City school district sued its neighboring districts for funds to help it desegregate its schools. In the ensuing court battle, Kansas City's school system itself was put under a federal court judge guidance and the judge then proceeded to order tax increases to improve the quality of the schools as the system built its network of magnet schools including the high schools of Lincoln College Prepatory School (which is now predominately black) and Paseo Academy of Performing Arts (which is now predominately white). The battle dragged in the entire state of Missouri as schools outside the metropolitan area argued they should not have to pay for Kansas City schools. Further, Kansas City residents were angered over plans to bus students an hour or more each day over Kansas City's vast area.
At the height of the debate Kansas City spent more than $11,700 per pupil -- the most of any large public school district in the country. Teacher salaries zoomed, teacher-student ratios were 12 or 13 to 1 and some schools were equipped with Olympic size swimming pools, wildlife sancutaries and model United Nations with simultaneous translation capability.[2]
Kansas City had hoped to stop white flight to attain 35% white enrollment at nearly every school. Instead, over the life of the case minority enrollment has grown from 67% to 84%. [3]
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1995 in Missouri v. Jenkins ruled that the courts had exceeded their authority in the case. The case still continued to work its way back through the courts and in 2003 a federal court judge finally released Kansas City from the judicial oversight.
[edit] Hyatt Regency walkway collapse
One of the biggest showcases of Kansas City rebirth in this era was Crown Center which was being built by Hallmark Cards which is headquartered in the complex by Union Station (Kansas City). The newest addition to the complex was the site of the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse in 1981 during a tea dance which had been set up to bring back the magic of Kansas City Jazz. The Kansas City Star which had been caught flat footed after the Kemper collapse hired a structural engineer following the Hyatt disaster and wound up winning a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage.
[edit] Champions of the World
The Hyatt along with the Kemper collapse undermined confidence in Kansas City's indoor gathering facilites. In 1986, the Kansas City Kings left town to become the Sacramento Kings. The Kansas City Scouts were unable to create the same National Hockey League buzz as the St. Louis Blues and they departed to become the Colorado Rockies (which in turn became the New Jersey Devils)
The Kansas City Royals were to boost city morale in 1980 when they played their first World Series in 1980 (in which they were favored to win but lost) and then in 1985 in the I-70 Series with the intrastate rival St. Louis Cardinals (in which they were underdog to the St. Louis Cardinals but won).
[edit] References
- ^ "A History of Kansas City" (KCMO.org)
- ^ 4. Who was Jesse James, and what was his connection to the Kansas City area? Kansas City Public Library
[edit] External links
- Kansas City history database from the Kansas City Public Library
- Sween, The Kansas City Star's 125th Anniversary homepage
- "Pictorial History of Kansas City and Wyandotte County Kansas". August 2000.
- William G. Cutler, "History of the State of Kansas", Kansas City, Kansas.
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