Marcia Norwood
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking
http://tellmeastory-marcia.blogspot.com/
QUALITY HILL
Kansas City, Missouri
My sister-in-law, Cheri, lived on Quality Hill years ago,
when we both worked in downtown
Kansas City, Missouri.
Quality Hill has beautiful views
and interesting statues.
My girls and I watched a storm come in on the horizon.
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
Information From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_Hill,_Kansas_City
Quality Hill is a historic neighborhood near downtown Kansas City, Missouri, USA, situated on a 200-foot-high bluff which overlooks the confluence of the Kansas River and Missouri River in the West Bottoms below.
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
Quality Hill is located on the west side of downtown, bounded by Broadway to the east, I-35 to the west, 7th Street to the north, and 14th Street to the south. The Kansas border is half a mile away through the West Bottoms.
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| Bull Statue Formerly at the American Hereford building. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Bull Statue Formerly at the American Hereford building. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
Since 1978, Quality Hill has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, it includes residences, large businesses (including the headquarters of Kansas City Southern Industries and DST Systems Inc. and a large branch of the State Street Corporation), retail establishments, entertainment venues, two cathedrals, and private clubs.
History
Situated within fourteen blocks of the Missouri River itself, Quality Hill is the oldest established residential area in the Kansas City metropolitan area to remain continuously inhabited.
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| CLICK on image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
French Origins
The Chouteau Society, a society dedicated to marking Kansas City's
French origins, erected a signpost at the northwest corner of 11th
Street and Washington Street, in both French and English, which states that the corner was the site of an early-18th-century French missionary
church, the oldest structure known to have been built by Europeans in
the region.
This would have been in keeping with the era of French fur trappers
who traveled the region's rivers. The first officially recorded church
on the site, however, was built in 1822 at the behest of François Chouteau, who is credited with being Kansas City's first Euro-American permanent settler and chartering what would become Kansas City.
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
Today, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, is located on the site of Chouteau's church. Known for its gold-covered dome, the cathedral is the oldest standing building on Quality Hill.
Two blocks down Washington Street is Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, which was built beginning in the 1860s, and serves as the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri. Several buildings on Quality Hill date to before the Civil War.
Lewis and Clark Expedition
On September 15, 1806, the Lewis and Clark Expedition stopped on what is now Quality Hill, on its return from the Pacific Ocean.
Meriwether Lewis
noted in his journal that the site offered a "commanding situation for a
fort." Today, the site is commemorated by a large bronze sculpture,
informational signposts, and a lookout point at the north end of Case
Park, located at 8th Street and Jefferson Street. Sculpture created by Eugene Daub.
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| CLICK on image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| CLICK on image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| CLICK on image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| CLICK on image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| CLICK on image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| CLICK on image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| CLICK on image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| CLICK on image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| CLICK on image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| CLICK on image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| CLICK on image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| BACK of the sculpture commemorates Lewis and Clark's stop on Quality Hill, and shows York, and the dog, "Seaman." Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
The Progress Club, a
gentlemen's club for prominent Jewish men founded in 1881 on Quality Hill, where it remained until 1928; today, the building houses the local
YMCA
Decline and Redevelopment
Beginning in the 1960s, Downtown Kansas City's population began a steep decline. The city's
center of population moved south, and those who used to live on
Quality Hill gradually moved to upscale areas farther south, such as the
Country Club Plaza and
Sunset Hill. As a result,
Quality Hill gradually fell into extreme disrepair.
By the mid-1970s, most of the old
Quality Hill mansions
were owned by Arnold Garfinkle, an investor.
"Mysteriously," over the
course of only a few years,
all of the stately houses he owned burned to
the ground, thereby erasing much of Kansas City's rich history from its
oldest neighborhood.
Thereafter, the
Hall Family Foundation, DST Systems, and the
Kauffman Foundation
acquired nearly all of
Quality Hill. They built many new structures,
both residential and commercial, and refurbished some old ones. In the
1980s, the
Hall Family Foundation granted management rights over its
eight-block portion to a private lessor company from St. Louis,
McCormack Baron Salazar. After several years, the Foundation gave the property to the company, subject to certain restrictions.
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
http://kcparks.org/attraction/the-hereford-bull-2/
One of the more unusual sculptures connected to Kansas City Parks and
Recreation is a 5,500 pound fiberglass Hereford bull replica that
resides in Mulkey Square. It is 11 feet, 8 inches tall. From nose to
tail, it spans 19 feet, 7 inches, and is 4 feet wide between the tips of
its horns. He has no official name but has sometimes been known as
“Bob” for “Bull On Building.”
In October 1953,
President Dwight Eisenhower attended the dedication
of a new national headquarters for the American Hereford Association
building at 715 Kirk Drive in the
Quality Hill area. The Association,
founded in 1883, had previously been located at 300 W. 11th St. The
planned design for the new building, done by Joseph Radotinsky of Kansas
City, Kansas, included a
bull statue.
His lead architect Robert Manos
came up with the idea, which Radotinsky supported.
The bull was created
for the American Hereford Association by Paul Decker with the firm
Rochetti and Parzinin of New York. It was made at Colonial Plastic
Corporation of Newark, New Jersey. In October
1954, the Hereford
Association placed the bull on a 90-foot pylon by its new headquarters.
In the
1990s, the architecture firm
HNTB
bought the
American Hereford building for its world headquarters and
removed the
bull statue from the building. In 2002, HNTB and other firms
arranged to have it moved across I-35 to Mulkey Square.
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| Bull Statue Formerly at the American Hereford building. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Bull Statue Formerly at the American Hereford building. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Bull Statue Formerly at the American Hereford building. Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
In 2004, Kansas City Southern Industries completed a multi-million
dollar new headquarters, designed after
Quality Hill's distinctive
architectural style, located between the two cathedrals. Around that
time, State Street purchased
Quality Hill property from DST Systems and
opened a major branch.
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
The Heart of America
United Way
(the Kansas City Metropolitan Area branch of the United Way) also
maintains its headquarters in the heart of
Quality Hill, in the former
Virginia Hotel and two 19th-century houses along Washington and
Pennsylvania streets.
Today
An entrance to Kansas City's Quality Hill neighborhood.
Since its initial refurbishment,
Quality Hill once again has become a
highly upscale urban neighborhood. According to Tony Salazar, it is
widely regarded as one of the best successes in
urban renewal
in the United States.
Quality Hill's attractiveness to potential
inhabitants derives from both its historic beauty and its ready access
to the cultural and business benefits of downtown Kansas City.
Its
architecture – both historic and new, echoing Kansas City's origins and
in a similar architectural style to
St. Louis's historic
Soulard neighborhood – is mostly in a 19th-century French colonial style.
In February 2008, McCormack Baron Salazar, who owned and managed its
large property as a development, called New
Quality Hill, sold 21
buildings consisting of 382 residential units to C.R.E.S. Management
LLC, a Kansas City-based development company. Its plans were for a major
restoration and revitalization of all the buildings and area landscape.
Many other properties are privately owned, including residences and
businesses.
Quality Hill contains undeveloped land, most of which is
owned by DST Systems and the
Kauffman Foundation.[citation needed] This includes several large, often-unused parking lots and many vacant house lots.
The Kauffman Foundation has continued refurbishing its remaining
historic buildings for lease. Recently some residents voiced concerns
that the
New Quality Hill portion of the neighborhood slowly is falling
into disrepair once again. McCormick Baron Salazar initially said it was
working to address those concerns,
but in November 2006 but instead decided to sell the bulk of its property on
Quality Hill.
As redevelopment of
Downtown Kansas City
burgeons, and with the population having swelled from 3,000 in 2002 to
over 16,000 in 2006,
Quality Hill's population continues to grow rapidly
(and the cost of living there continues to increase).
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
Quality Hill Playhouse
CLICK on the link or COPY & PASTE the link in your browser:
http://www.qualityhillplayhouse.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWS-81oG_gSIJWG5gETCCA?feature=watch
The
Quality Hill Playhouse features many
Broadway and
off-Broadway shows.
The River Club, one of only two existing
private city clubs on the Missouri side of Kansas City (along with the
Kansas City Club in the nearby
Library District),
also is located on
Quality Hill, on 8th Street between Jefferson Street
and Pennsylvania Avenue, near the
Lewis and Clark historic site.
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
The Works Progress Administration (renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest and most ambitious American 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.
CLICK on the link or COPY & PASTE the link in your browser:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_Hill,_Kansas_City
References
External links
QUALITY HILL
Kansas City, Missouri
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
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| Copyright 2014 Marcia Norwood |
Thanks for stopping by!
Come back often, and invite a friend!
Marcia Norwood
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking
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