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Missouri River by Chris Light from

10 Historical Events that Happened in Kansas City

Early nineteenth-century French fur traders who arrived along the Missouri River and erected spartan cottages along the river are credited with the founding of Kansas City. In 1838, the community of Kansas was established, and the town of Westport built a path connecting its river dock to the Santa Fe Trail.

A few years later, commercial structures started to appear along the river bluffs. Because Kansas was a free state and Missouri was a slave state, the years leading up to the Civil War were tumultuous and violent in Kansas City.

The site of the Battle of Westport, one of the deadliest conflicts west of the Mississippi, is now Loose Park and Forest Hill Cemetery. The city remained split even after the Union gained the victory. On the west side of Main Street, on the streets known as Pennsylvania, Broadway, and Washington, Northerners preferred to reside; on the east side, on the streets known as Oak, Walnut, and Locust. A downtown street layout had been established by 1870.

Here are 10 historical events that happened in Kansas City.

1. The 19th century was the building boom era 

Board of Trade Building by Ymblanter from

A number of famous Kansas City structures were constructed during the prosperous last decades of the 19th century, including the Board of Trade Building (1888), the New York Life Building (1890), the Emery Bird Thayer Building (1890), and a Convention Hall (1899). In order to benefit from the construction boom, architectural companies from New York, Chicago, and Boston opened offices in Kansas City.

The Garment District at 9th and Walnut, Quality Hill, and Independence Avenue were popular places to visit during this time, and a number of wealthy businessmen were constructing houses there.

Kansas City at this time had more cable roads than any other city outside San Francisco and Chicago. By 1895, George Kessler had created the system of parks and boulevards as a result of the City Beautiful Movement, which had started in 1895.

2. Jazz achieved its aesthetic and popular peak in the 1930s

Mutual Musicians by Mwkruse from

Jazz achieved its artistic and cultural peak in the 1930s, with Kansas City at the epicentre of the action. Nightclubs started popping up on 12th Street and at 18th and Vine, and they quickly became well-liked gathering places for prominent and avant-garde performers.

Jazz and baseball met especially at the segregated 18th and Vine neighbourhood. Within a half-mile radius are the Mutual Musicians Foundation, Blues Stadium for the Negro National League, and well-known establishments including the Blue Room at the Streets.

4. The Spanish-themed Country Club Plaza opened in 1923

Country Club by charvex from

In 1923, Country Club Plaza, a building with a Spanish flair, opened. The Plaza was the first planned suburban shopping mall ever built and was created by J.C. Nichols and Edward Buehler Delk.

By providing a large number of gas stations and free parking, it was made to welcome and draw customers who arrived by car. The commercial complex opened its first annual Christmas light display in 1925, servicing the Country Club District and Midtown areas. It immediately gained popularity as a popular attraction.

5. In 1947, Kansas City annexed additional territory to the south

Missouri River by Cmichel67 from

The additional southern territory was annexed by Kansas City in 1947. In the 1950s and 1960s, the White middle class relocated in large numbers to newly constructed suburbs like Prairie Village, which is located just across the Kansas state line.

Black people were no longer limited to dwelling north of 27th Street; instead, a large number moved south to the residential areas east of Troost. This pattern of white flight and disinvestment in the areas east of Troost was further exacerbated by unfair housing and lending rules, blockbusting, and redlining in the public school system.

6. The City’s population boomed after the railways were built 

The city’s population exploded after the Civil War as a result of the completion of several railways and the first bridge across the Missouri River. The wealthy constructed their mansions on Quality Hill along with the growth downtown due to the influx of people.

While the expanding cattle business was centred on the West Bottoms, with stockyards, warehouses, and packing houses, the City Market at 4th and Walnut served as the hub of commerce and where people came to purchase and sell commodities.

7. Kansas became the 1st state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages 

By amending its state constitution, Kansas became the first state to outright ban alcohol in 1880 in an effort to more tightly regulate its use and consumption.
In the early decades of the nineteenth century, the Temperance movement, which promoted self-control and attempted to restrict the legal availability of alcohol, had grown in popularity.

Reformers used a variety of tactics because they were convinced of the importance of their cause in a society where drug usage had grown to be a major problem. Activists were able to achieve clear outcomes by altering the procedures for issuing liquor licences, local option legislation, and state prohibition laws.

8. Kansas was once known as the promised land for African Americans

Singleton thought of Kansas as a new Canaan and himself as a “Black Moses” who would guide his people to the promised land because the state was known for John Brown’s actions and its fight against slavery. In order to colonise Kansas, Singleton traversed the South setting up parties.

“Sunny Kansas” was promoted as “one of the nicest countries for a poor man in the world” with “plenty of stone and water, and wood on the streams” by Singleton in advertising handbills and posters distributed around the area. Large areas of countryside, tranquil homes and fiestas, and none of these things were disturbed by anyone, according to one poster.

Nearly 300 Black people accompanied him to Kansas between 1877 and 1879. Some dwelt in Cherokee County’s “Singleton’s Colony.” Others relocated to Dunlap, Tennessee Town in Topeka, and Wyandotte.

9. In July 1859 Kansas City affirmed property rights for women

American Civil War by Hal Jespersen from

Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state under the Wyandotte Constitution on January 29, 1861, bringing an end to the conflict known as Bleeding Kansas. This occurred in the years just before the American Civil War.

The Wyandotte Declaration of Rights, which was drafted in July 1859 and is now a part of Kansas City, upheld women’s property rights but rejected suffrage for women and blacks and slavery. An estimated 10,000 to 5,000 people voted in favour of the document in a referendum (Oct. 4, 1859). It has been altered numerous times, most notably in 1912 with the addition of a universal suffrage amendment.

10. Power came to rural Kansas in early 1938

Prescott, Kansas by United States Department of Agriculture from

Early in 1938, when the Brown-Atchison Electric Cooperative started laying wire, electricity was brought to rural Kansas. One image, certainly the one that received the most media attention for Rural Electrification, came to represent the advancement of R.E.A.

On March 30, 1938, the day before the lines at Horton were powered up, it was taken. The “four horsemen of the lines” for Rural Electric, the farmers—all locals of Brown County—were destined to go down in history. In Kansas, the county received service for the first time on April 1, 1938.

Kansas City has made progress in the last many years to establish itself as a desirable destination to live and work.