Kansas City's
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KANSAS CITY’S CITY MARKET Designed & conceptualized by The Kansas City Public Library CREDITS TEXT Dr. Ronald Miriani, Park University CONCEPTUALIZATION AND DESIGN Department of Public Affairs, The Kansas City Public Library IMAGES Missouri Valley Special Collections, The Kansas City Public Library The Kansas City Star Steamboat Arabia Museum PROJECT SPONSORS City Market Friends of the City Market The Kansas City Public Library 2 A History at the 1830s-Present Heart of Kansas City 5 1830s-1870s The Steamboat Era 6 1870s-1920s The Coming of the Railroads 9 1920s-1940s The Interwar Era 12 1940s-1950s The First Redevelopment 15 1950s-1970s Years of Decline and Renewal 18 1980s-Present City Market Revived 21 4 A HISTORY AT THE HEART OF KANSAS CITY resent-day City Market traces more than a stone’s throw from flowed with cattle and grain, River its formal beginnings to 1857. the confluence of the Missouri and Market provided space for warehouses PIn that year near its current Kansas rivers, it was the center for a and brokerage firms. It was the home location, the pioneering residents brisk trade, a place where farmers, base for small manufacturers and was of what would become Kansas settlers, westward-bound emigrants, the starting point for various Kansas City celebrated the erection of the and riverboat crews bargained over City enterprises, some of which are first shed expressly built to house foodstuffs, wood, textiles, tools, and still in existence, such as The Kansas commercial activities. other manufactured goods. City Star and St. Luke’s Hospital. The neighborhood was also known for its This modest structure confirmed the In time many of the items sold in the hotels, restaurants, and entertainment growing importance of an informal City Market would arrive by road, rail, options – both legal and otherwise marketplace that had already been and air. Agricultural products would – that included circuses, theaters, in existence for several years. Little come from throughout the world, not gambling halls, bars, and bordellos. just nearby counties. But the rhythm of the market would remain much As early as 1900, some observers the same as it had always been. noted the River Market to be in a state of decline. Indeed, for much of the While the City Market has twentieth century, the neighborhood changed little in its basic functions, was considered by many to be less the surrounding River Market than desirable. That judgment neighborhood has changed greatly over began to change in the 1980s when time. When steamboats were replaced a combination of public and private by trains, and the West Bottoms investment saved this area from what seemed to be terminal decay. Top left: World War II-era rally This booklet explains the 150-year saga Left: Gillis Opera House at 5th and Walnut, of City Market and the surrounding circa early 1900s River Market area – a history at the Opposite page: heart of Kansas City. 1871 map of Kansas City, Missouri, and Wyandotte City, Kansas 5 1830s-1870s 6 THE STEAMBOAT ERA he development of City complicated in those days, and it was naming it for the Kansa Indians Market and the surrounding not until 1846 that litigation over who resided immediately to the west TRiver Market neighborhood this sale was resolved. McCoy and in what was then Indian Territory. began in 1834 when John C. McCoy his fellow land company partners The Town Company also set aside discovered a rock landing on the then platted the “Town of Kansas,” the land between 4th and 5th streets Missouri River at what is now the and Walnut and Main streets for a foot of Grand Avenue. public square. This parcel comprises a portion of today’s City Market. McCoy, a businessman and real estate speculator, had just platted the town of The timing for establishing the Westport, Missouri, four miles to the new settlement was excellent. An south. He surmised correctly that this expansionist United States had natural landing would direct riverboat embraced the spirit of “Manifest trade away from the rival town of Destiny.” Texas was admitted to the Independence and toward his town Union, a treaty with Great Britain of Westport, which McCoy hoped yielded the present-day states of would become the eastern terminus Oregon and Washington, and war of the Santa Fe Trail. For many years with Mexico led to the annexation thereafter, this initial primacy of of California and the present-day Westport was reflected by the fact that Southwest. The Town of Kansas was McCoy’s Missouri River outpost – the ideally positioned to become the precursor to present-day Kansas City – outfitter for wagon trains heading was known as Westport Landing. west on the Oregon Trail and the California Trail, the latter of which In 1838 McCoy joined a company became a favorite route of the “Forty- of men who purchased the farm Top: Kansas City, looking south across Niners” following the discovery of of Gabriel Prudhomme, which the Missouri River, circa 1855 gold near Sacramento. The little town encompassed the whole of the Above: John C. McCoy became even busier in 1854 upon the present-day River Market area. Real creation of the territories of Kansas Intro page: General Order No. 11 estate transactions could be extremely by George Caleb Bingham and Nebraska. 7 To accommodate all of the travelers, gained through bond issues in the tradesmen, drifters, and potential late 1850s provided for leveling settlers of the West, over 300 these bluffs. The height of the area steamboats a year plied the Missouri surrounding City Market did, at least, River by the 1850s. One of them keep the neighborhood safe from the was the Arabia, which sank before floods that washed away the original reaching Parkville in 1856. A visit to French settlements along the river the Steamboat Arabia Museum here and in the present-day West Bottoms at City Market, provides tremendous area. insight into the lifestyles of the people who settled the West in the 1850s. After reaching a population exceeding 4,500 by the early 1860s, Without doubt, each of these boats Kansas City nearly collapsed under was met by Jackson County farmers the stress of the Civil War. A low- who had surplus poultry, meat and intensity Missouri-Kansas border dairy products, besides seasonal fruits, war had been underway since the vegetables, and grains. And, without mid-1850s, but following William doubt, the farmers purchased goods Clarke Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence resembling those now displayed in in August 1863, Union General the Steamboat Arabia Museum. Thomas Ewing issued Order No. 11, which banished all Southern In 1857, the city leased the west sympathizers from western Missouri portion of this land to the Scheibel and temporarily brought Kansas Brothers, who constructed the first City’s growth to a standstill. market building. Photographs show, however, that most of the marketing and sales took place directly from farm Top right: Rooftop view of Kansas City looking east from wagons surrounding the town square. 3rd and Main, circa 1870 On the east portion of the square, the Center right: Market Square at 4th and town built a modest brick city hall. Walnut, circa 1870 Bottom right: The Steamboat Arabia by A huge problem for the emerging city Gary Lucy was the bluffs that rose up to 100 feet just south of the Missouri floodplain and levee. Where there were breaks in the bluffs the town builders penciled in streets like Market (Grand), Main, Delaware, and Broadway. Financing 8 1870s-1920s 9 THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS he Hannibal Bridge, the brought thousands of people into of the great agricultural emporiums first railway span across the the West Bottoms daily, and most of the United States, if not the world. TMissouri River, was completed of them found their way up to what Grain and cattle firms employed in 1869. Almost overnight it made had been merely a market but was thousands. Kansas City a leading gateway to now a vigorous “downtown,” with the West and Southwest. Within hotels, restaurants, shops, and Wholesale became more important just a few years, the city hosted 13 entertainment of all sorts, much of than retail, though local farmers railroad companies. The population it illegal. from places like Lenexa, Parkville, of Kansas City exploded, exceeding Grandview, and rural Wyandotte 200,000 by 1909 and sprawling south The City Market, which had been County and their individual customers to 79th Street. largely a farmers’ market became one from throughout metropolitan Kansas City never stopped coming. From Kansas and beyond, cattle were brought for slaughter, and In 1888 Kansas City constructed grain, especially winter wheat, an elegant brick market building was brought for milling. Kansas with 56 stalls along Walnut near 5th City’s Union Depot, built in 1878, Street. Immediately to the west of this structure, Kansas City also built an ornate Gothic-style City Hall. Articles in The Kansas City Star pointed out that the market stalls were soon inadequate as refrigerated rail cars carrying food Top: “Battle Row” on Main products from Colorado, Mexico, and Street, 1885 even South America greatly expanded Left: Hannibal Bridge what was available in the wholesale Intro page: Union Depot in and retail markets of Kansas City. West Bottoms, 1890 In 1910 the city accommodated the new demand by purchasing the land between 3rd and 4th streets, doubling the size of City Market. 10 Right: City Market, circa 1913 Nearly all of the buildings of the Below: Interior hallway entrance to the house of present-day River Market area that prostitution at 300 Wyandotte owned and operated by Annie Chambers from we still prize were constructed in the 1870s to the 1920s this period.