Tell Me A Story: COME, SIT DOWN, RELAX, AND ENJOY THE VIEW

Marcia Norwood
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking

http://tellmeastory-marcia.blogspot.com/

"COME, SIT DOWN,

RELAX,

AND ENJOY THE VIEW."

Quote from sign

Sit with me at Loose Park!

Jacob L. Loose Memorial Park

Laura Conyers Smith Municipal Rose Garden

5200 Wornall Road

Kansas City, Missouri 64112

(816) 784-5300

kcparks.org/park/loose-park

The First Home

of The Kansas City Country Club

kcparks.org/park/loose-park

Acquired in 1927

74.08 Acres

The Park

At 75-acres, Jacob L. Loose Park is one of Kansas City’s most popular, beautiful and historical. The park is well-known locally as being a major site for the Battle of Westport where Confederate forces were routed by Union forces in the area in which the park is now located. It is estimated that 29,000 people were involved in the battle. The property at that time was owned by William Bent, a man who led wagon trains and traded with the Indians.

Download Loose Park Map

History

Seth Ward bought the property in 1871 after William Bent’s death. In 1896 a group of people, many of whom had been members of the golf club near Hyde Park, incorporated the Kansas City Country Club and signed a lease with Seth Ward to use part of his property as a golf course for $1 a year plus taxes. The property included what is now Loose Park and was used as a golf course until 1927. In 1926, Ella Loose bought the property from the Hugh Ward estate (the son of Seth Ward) so that it could be made into a park to honor her husband, Jacob Loose. She gave the property to the city in 1927. Jacob Loose founded the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, which produced Sunshine Biscuits and other products. He passed away in 1923.

Rose Garden

Kansas City’s municipal rose garden in Loose Park is the realization of a dream that began in 1931, when a group of citizens under the leadership of Laura Conyers Smith established the Kansas City Rose Society. The first garden contained 120 rose plants. Today, there are about 4,000 roses of nearly 168 varieties in the 1.5 acre garden. The garden recently underwent a $400,000 renovation project, which included planting 1,200 new roses and restoring the beds to the original plans.

Robert Davis

Architectural Masonry & Restoration, Inc.

P.O. Box 151

Oak Grove, MO 64075

Email: amrkc@embarqmail.com

www.architecturalmasonryinc.com

Mobile: 816.536.9545

Office: 816.690.4298

"There are no knots in this cedar from British Columbia."
Jared, Architectural Masonry & Restoration, Inc.

Robert uncovered
a "WPA" stone dated 1940, during renovations.

The WPA stone had been completely underground
before restorations.

CLICK on the link or COPY & PASTE the link in your browser:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration

CLICK on the link or COPY & PASTE the link in your browser:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Works Progress Administration (renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration; (WPA) was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unemployed people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. In a much smaller but more famous project, the Federal Project Number One, the WPA employed musicians, artists, writers, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects.

Almost every community in the United States had a new park, bridge or school constructed by the agency.

The WPA's initial appropriation in 1935 was for $4.9 billion (about 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP), and in total it spent $13.4 billion.