Category Archives: History

Penn Valley Park History

Photo: Aerial view of a post-World War II housing development in Penn Valley Park. The Pioneer Mother Memorial statue can be seen. Courtesy Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Valley Special Collections. Located in the heart of Kansas City, Penn Valley Park was built in an historic area once called Penn Street Ravine. The ravine was originally a […]

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Southwest Trafficway History

By Mary Jo Draper I recently spent a considerable amount of time researching the history of Southwest Trafficway. Its development tells an interesting story about the development of Kansas City. The story begins in the 1880s when Kansas City ended at 31st Street and Westport began at 39th. The area in between, where Valentine lays […]

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Knickerbocker Place: A street that time passed by

Reproduced by permission of The Kansas City Star  Knickerbocker Place is a street located one block north of Valentine Road between Broadway Boulevard and Pennsylvania Avenue. The Knickerbocker Apartments, now boarded up, were once exclusive residences and “a highly desirable address.” This article was published in the May 24, 1981 edition of Star Magazine. Writer […]

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Night of the Living Safeway

Reproduced by permission of The Kansas City Star  On the northwest corner of Broadway Boulevard and Valentine Road there is a strip-mall style shopping center. It is currently called the Uptown Shoppes since the Uptown Theater sits across Valentine Road to the south. Before that, it was called the Broadway-Valentine Shopping Center. At the west […]

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Valentine Walking Tour

Award winning artist, Mark L. Moseman, co-created the Valentine Walking Tour booklet when he was a Kansas City urban designer and a Valentine resident. His former home is featured on the cover. The design and inside drawings were created by Patricia Brown, also a former Valentine resident. Mark and Pat created the booklet in 1980. […]

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Little Ambassadors

“Little Ambassadors” Offered Overflow Rooms for the Ambassador Hotel The buildings at 435 and 441 Knickerbocker were referred to by neighborhood residents as the “Little Ambassadors” or the “Little Knickerbockers.” Actually, they are called Ambassador A and Ambassador B, according to the nomination form that led to their inclusion on the National Register of Historic […]

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Westport in 1855

In 1937, The Star obtained a map of “Westport, Mo. and Its Additions” made in 1855. Its outlines are shown by the dark lines, with the dotted lines showing Westport as it stood in 1937. The Star said: “Studying the old map, one observes that what is now Westport road, running diagonally across the chart, […]

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A Day at the Valentine racetrack, 1883

“And they’re off!” by Dory D’Angelo A century ago, Kansas Citians came to Westport’s horse track to enjoy a day at the races. And it was all perfectly legal. Kansas Citians who have been observing the recent controversy surrounding the issue of pari-mutuel betting in Missouri may be surprised to learn that legalized horse racing […]

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Dixon’s Store

KC Times, June 21, 1945 Edward Dixon, 74 years old, sat in the back room of his store building at 4056 Pennsylvania in what was once the heart of old Westport and looked back through the June sunlight to the days of his boyhood. He was born in another house on the same plot of […]

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Valentine Neighborhood Association

Promoting Our Neighborhood Through Advocacy, Safety Initiatives and Community Events.