Michael Bushnell
Northeast News

This view of The Paseo, between 15th and 16th Streets, looks north toward the old Chace School, circa 1907 or 1908.

The Chace Public School was built in 1880 and served what was then a sparsely populated area near what is now the Parade Park.
The school was named for former mayor and prominent businessman, Charles A. Chace.

Chace was born in 1835 and moved west in the mid 1860s, settling in Kansas City in 1867.

At the time he moved here, he was an agent for the Hannibal, Quincy & Saint Joseph Railroad, the same company that worked with then Congressman R.T. Van Horn on securing the region’s first railroad bridge across the Missouri River.

Chace also operated a feed and grain business at 1306 Grand Street, and he was a partner in the Sheridan Hotel at 212 W. 5th Street.

Chace was elected as mayor of Kansas City and served from 1880 to 1881.

The view in the card has changed drastically since its printing. The lake was filled in 1907 and was used for flower beds between the northbound and southbound lanes of The Paseo.

The school was razed in 1913 and is now the site of the busy I-70 and Paseo interchange.

The Paseo is one of Kansas City’s first boulevards and was named and modeled after Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma.

This Detroit Publishing “Phostint” postcard was mailed June 13, 1912 to Miss Gertrude Koehring in Lawrence, Kansas.

The message on the back reads “There are twelve of the party here at the depot with more to join us in St. Paul. A dear little Dorothy Peters is very interesting. Tell you more about her later. Alfa.”