Travel Log: Greater Kansas City
I’m on the road this week so I will be bringing you images from my travels through small towns in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. A good friend from Seattle has work to do in a bunch of these towns so I am going along for the ride.
On Tuesday afternoon I walked a few blocks to catch the #70 Grand bus. The timing was good, I arrived at the stop just as the bus stopped — both were running a few minutes late. I then took MetroLink to the airport. My flight to Kansas City took about as long as it took me to get to the airport. Still, I didn’t use any fuel nor will I have to pay to park my car at the airport.
As we approached Kansas City the extent of the flooding was clear. This view is from over Downtown KC looking north. The airport is in the north edge of the KC region. I arrived at a different terminal than my friend’s flight that had some from Chicago. We each took buses to the rental car building where we had to get “upgraded” to a minivan because Dollar was out of economy cars. I must admit, the automatic opening/closing side & rear doors on the van are addictive.
After dinner with friends that live in a very cute bungalow in South KC we headed to Independence Missouri for the evening. Our Red Roof Inn had a nice view of I-70. The boil order on the water didn’t help. The next morning I spotted the newer gas station above with the sidewalk ending in grass of an old parking lot for the business next door. Many places have a lot of work to do until they get everything connected.
The above image is about as close as we got to downtown Lee’s Summit, MO — the downtown is getting a new streetscape. In my many years of visisting Kansas City, I assumed Lee’s Summit was just typical post-war suburbia. Much of it is. However, the downtown looked really interestsing (although not in the above image). It is not a one-street show — it is a multi-block area (see Google map). I look forward to returning to see how the streetscape project turned out.
We then headed to nearby Blue Springs Missouri. Again, I know Blue Springs from the sprawl along I-70 — who knew they had a real downtown. On Wednesday afternoon is we pretty active. Unlike Lee’s Summit, downtown Blue Springs is pretty much confined to a few blocks of one street — Main St (google map).
Even small towns got bad building remuddles.
Above: Another view of Main St. in Blue Springs MO.
Blue Springs has a very charming, yet unused, old train depot.
Just a couple of blcoks west on Main you see some of the old housing stock, at first larger homes such as this example.
Another block or two and you get more modest homes such as this one. I’m a sucker for frame bungalows, big porches and arts & crafts details.
Another cute house from Blue Springs Missouri within walking distance of downtown.
Above is from downtown Grandview Missouri, a small town now surrounded by Kansas City. This was the largest building in their downtown. Click here to see the google map.
It was an interesting day. Leaving the greater Kansas City area last night heading to Iowa we saw lots of flooding. Last night we stayed in some anonymous-looking area on the border of Iowa & Nebraska. Tonight we’ll be in central Kansas.
Those pictures from Blue Springs remind me a little of Webster Groves. Webster also has a great old train station sitting empty. I could imagine those places making a cool little diner or something.
Whatcha wanna bet the Webster station is still owned by a RR and unavailable for rent?
Is this the one you’re talking about RG? http://www.blaesdesign.com/history/history.html If so, Mike Blaes rents it for his architecture firm.
It’s interesting how the buildings Steve photographed could be anywhere–they remind me of little towns all over this part of the country, from Louisiana into Wisconsin. Makes me wonder if people regarded such buildings with the same distaste that we view current construction?
I don’t think that’s the one Lisa, the one I’m thinking of is between Big Bend and Hwy. 44, pretty close to the Elm exit actually, it looks pretty empty.
That’s an interesting comment you made about the how many of those old buildings look like old towns everywhere. I remember reading contemporary comments about old main streets (the same ones we value so much today) in our country, something to the effect of “every railroad town looks the same, same brick buildings on Main st., same movie theatre, post office, general store etc.- some of the same criticisms that are leveled at suburbia today. True, suburban sprawl is inefficient, but strictly from the perspective of style, I think a lot of the “bland” comments are a little unfair in this regard. Who knows in what creative ways future generations will re-use these buildings?
Webster actually has two unused stations…one is on the north side.
I’m still waiting for the Wabsh station on Delmar to be turned into something productive.
Isn’t the WG train station on Big Bend being used as a base for a model RR club?
http://www.geocities.com/bbrrclub/
^ That looks like the one I was talking about, I didn’t know it was in use. Not to take anything away from the model railroad club, but I think it would be really great as a diner with a bunch of railroad/Webster memorabilia.
I had forgotten about that station. My Father-in-law (owner of a Model Train Shop in Arkansas) was a member of that club as a teen in the ’50’s and told us about the new layout on one of his trips here. Apparently it’s pretty nice–O scalers tend to be fanatical that way …
From RG’s comment:
“strictly from the perspective of style, I think a lot of the “bland†comments are a little unfair in this regard. Who knows in what creative ways future generations will re-use these buildings?”
In my comment (#3), I was really thinking more about how our impressions of buildings change over time and based on the biases we bring to the table. It’s not so much about the landscape being “bland”, but of how the similarity weaves a fabric even between the different towns that like the suburbs of today, making it comfortable for families (like mine, like my father-in-law’s) to move from one town to another–you found another bungalow or big rambling Sears Victorian like the one you had left behind, you found the movie theater and the grocery store and the barber, and life went on largely in the same patterns (even aesthetic patterns) as before. I think the primary differention between this period and our own is in assumptions about means of transportation (feet vs. car), and construction quality/methods.
In some ways, I think sprawl has damaged the little towns like Blue Springs and Lee’s Summit even more than the cities. It takes away thier identities–no longer a place in and of itself, but encased in and assumed to be just “post-war suburbia.” Not only does it disperse people so that the cohesion of small town life begins to disintegrate, it also brings in “outsiders” in numbers that dissolve the bonds completely. The centers of many of our small towns have micro-sized versions of the problems we see here in the City as a result.
Whether the majority of the post-war construction will someday be viewed as historic, like 19th/early 20th century main streets, or adapt as well to changing uses, I can’t say.
those are great but sud photos…