By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
September 21, 2011

Pendleton Heights hasn’t forgotten about its past.

For the first time, the neighborhood association has published a hardback book, “Pendleton Heights: Then and Now,” which features 83 homes and businesses in the 179-page book.

“For the most part, it’s been really fun because it really helped me and other folks dig into the history of the prominent families that lived in our neighborhood, not only in Pendleton Heights, but throughout the whole Northeast,” said Kent Dicus, Pendleton Heights Neighborhood Association president.

Dicus said he thought of the idea for a book several years ago when Harold Dellinger of the Lykins neighborhood published a similar book, displaying “then” and “now” pictures of properties in the neighborhood, along with short stories about former residents.

In the Pendleton Heights’ book, each photograph tells a story, unfolding the past and the present. Some properties date back to the 1880s while others as late as the 1960s. Along with each picture is a brief history of the property and its owners.

Ninety percent of the properties featured in the book are listed on the local historic register, Dicus said, and most of the earlier pictures came from the files at Kansas City’s Landmarks Commission. Other pictures were provided by current owners or from Kansas City’s public library website.

Local photographer and former Indian Mound Neighborhood Association President David Remley volunteered to photograph the “now” pictures and was tasked with recreating the same angle from the “then” picture.

“In some cases, it was a little harder than others because the structure was gone,” Remley said of recreating photographic angles. “Sometimes there would be a wall that was still in existence or a set of stairs, and that was a big help and you could match those with the photo.

“In some cases, there was nothing left.”

However, in some instances, the buildings remained unchanged, like the former Children’s Mercy Hospital, now an administrative building at the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences (KCUMB), and the Victorian home at 508 Garfield.

“It’s the most intact Victorian house in all of Pendleton Heights,” Remley said.

A self-professed “history junkie,” Remley said he enjoyed seeing for himself how the neighborhood changed over the years. At one time, most of the properties were Victorian and uniform in appearance, he said. Now, the neighborhood oozes a more eclectic vibe, he said.

“It’s also sad because I see exactly what we’ve lost,” he said. “If it was still like it was in 1906, we’d be a tourist mecca. We’d be like England.”

Other key players in publishing the book included Northeast News‘ Erica VanDee, who designed the book, Su Collara, proofreader and researcher, Michael Olson, liaison for KCUMB, and Joy Brandon, researcher.

Nine months in the making, the book is finally published and ready for purchase.

“When I saw the first draft of the book maybe six weeks ago, I thought, ‘Wow, it looks really good,'” Dicus said. “But then when I printed it out and could really hold it in my hand, that’s when to me it really started to come to life.

“For the first time in well over a century, the early settlers of Pendleton Heights are being talked about again.”