Oh, you chicken
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
April 17, 2013
Kansas City’s convention hall
Posted April 23, 2013 at 11:00 pm
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
April 24, 2013
Dedicated on Feb. 22, 1899, Kansas City’s new Convention Hall was as state-of-the-art as you could get for that time period.
City fathers celebrated the construction because there was finally a building large enough to accommodate larger conventions and gatherings of up to 20,000 people. The cost to erect the structure was $225,000. A little over a year later, however, the hall burned almost to the ground. Only stone walls from the building’s foundation remained. Additionally, a short 90 days later the city was to host the Democratic National Convention. Labor and trade unions set aside their differences as the city worked to reconstruct the hall in time for the convention. This is what established the Kansas City Spirit. The effort was successful and the convention was
Town owes history to oil
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
April 10, 2013
This early postcard shows the Sugar Creek Refinery, Standard Oil Co., near Kansas City, Mo. The Missouri River and the operations of the refinery can easily be seen on this postcard published by the Southwest news Company of Kansas City, Mo.
The land the refinery sat on was located some eight miles east of downtown Kansas City and was purchased from James Mallinson. The refinery began processing oil in
Opulance defines Scarritt building
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
April 3, 2013
Built in 1907 by the Scarritt Estate Company (formed in 1903 by the children of the prominent early-day Kansas Citian, Nathan Scarritt, who migrated to Western Missouri in 1848 as teacher and preacher), the Scarritt Building cost $750,000 and was Kansas City’s second “skyscraper.”
The R. A. Long building was first, and the National Bank of Commerce (now Commerce Bank) was Kansas City’s third. For many years, these buildings dominated the downtown skyline as Kansas City’s tallest structures.
The three entrances to the Scarritt Building were on
The Spring Valley Park that once was
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
March 27, 2013
Spring Valley Park, located between 28th Street at Woodland Avenue and 29th Street at Brooklyn Avenue, lies in a natural canyon carved out during a previous ice age that exposed the natural limestone shelf and a small cave.
Once the site of a rock quarry, the 33-acre, irregularly shaped tract was taken over by the city’s Park Board in 1902.
Like the natural springs along Cliff Drive, as many as six natural springs flowed from the limestone crevasses in the park, drawing hundreds a day to partake
Plaza living – old school finery
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
March 20, 2013
This Kodachrome postcard published in the late 1950s shows the numerous apartment buildings built on the south side of Brush Creek near the Country Club Plaza.
The bridge shown in the card was deemed obsolete following the tragic flood of 1977 where 25 people died and more than $100 million in damages were sustained by businesses along the banks of the normally placid creek. A new bridge was erected in 1980-81 that allowed for a more freely flowing Brush Creek during high water periods. Easily visible
Sunday School at Oakley M.E. Church
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
March 13, 2013
In 1885, Mr. Alfred Zartman, assisted by a J.W. Jenkins and a George Larkin, conducted a Sunday School class in the Oakley School, a small frame building near what is now Independence and Brighton (the approximate site of present day Thacher School). At that time, the school was a number of blocks outside the city limits of Kansas City, which then stopped at Monroe Avenue.
In 1887, when the city limits were extended to what is now Brighton Avenue, the school could no longer be used
A beauty spot along lovely Cliff Drive
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
March 6, 2013
This historic postcard was published by the South West News Company of Kansas City, Mo. and shows what was then referred to as “Horse Shoe Bend” on beautiful Cliff Drive. The card was mailed to Miss Alice Bursley of New Orleans, La., on Jan. 23, 1907.
Cliff Drive has long been known for its natural beauty, rugged splendor and limestone bluffs overlooking the East Bottoms. In 2000, Cliff Drive, which was designed by early Parks Architect George E. Kessler, was designated a state scenic byway. Two
Beautiful Collins, Colo., light plant
February 20, 2013
This linen style postcard published by the Sanborn Souvenir Company of Denver, Colo., shows the newly constructed Fort Collins Municipal Light Plant in Fort Collins, Colo. Heralded at the time of its construction as having equipment that is “the most up to date and efficient that money can buy, thus assuring the highest standard of business efficiency,” the plant went in to operation on June 15,1936.
The description on the back of the card notes: “Municipal Light Plant and Grounds,
Perchance a kiss to steal
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
February 13, 2013
Around 200 AD (CE), the Roman Emperor Claudius was busy conquering various parts of Europe and Asia, making a general nuisance of himself in a most barbaric way. Claudius had determined that married soldiers were of little or no good on the battlefield, so he banned the institution of marriage throughout Rome.
A Catholic bishop named Valentine, however, secretly continued to marry young couples who came to him. When Claudius found out about Valentine, he first