Michael Bushnell Contributor

In his 2019 thesis entitled, A Historical Analysis of the Northeast Neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri, Lykins Neighborhood resident Sam Crowley describes Independence Avenue as “definitive of the entire neighborhood. With rich people located along the west end and hard-core, smokestack-type industry on the east end, the Avenue was a simple place.”

Our last zone, Zone 4 is a nine-tenths of a mile stretch of the Avenue, bounded on the west by Hardesty Avenue and on the southeast by Ewing/Newton Avenue, abutting what was once those “hardcore, smokestack industries” Crowley refers to on the east end of the Avenue corridor.

Dominating the skyline at the corner of Independence and Hardesty is the old, twelve-story National Bellas Hess building that occupies a 22-acre site that is currently working its way through the city’s planning process, soon to be redeveloped into over 350 affordable housing units with a mixed-use component on the ground floors of the iconic main building.

Built in 1919 as the National Cloak and Suit Company, it has gone through several owners and uses including acting as the Army’s Quartermaster’s Depot for over sixty years. Currently home to Hardesty Self Storage, Arnold Development Company stands ready to break ground on the new project later this year once all the city requirements are met.

Zone 4 is also home to one of the region’s most iconic attractions– the infamous Independence Avenue truck-eating bridge. Built-in 1912, with a clearance of only 12 feet between the road surface and bridge ceiling, the bridge has achieved legendary cult status as it continues to interfere with errant and un-aware truck drivers who, for whatever reason, can’t understand why their trucks that’s 13’6” doesn’t fit through a 12’ space. The legendary bridge recently became home to a new locally produced art installation sponsored by the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

As we continue eastward, a left turn on Wilson Road showcases the area’s largest shopping center, anchored by Cosentino’s Price Chopper and Family Dollar. Further east is the popular North-East Branch of the Kansas City Public Library.

Between the bridge and the Winner Road intersection, Taqueria Mexico II, CSL Plasma, El Torito II, and Aldi are on the north side across from El Mercado Fresco on the south. Family Dollar and Westlake Ace Hardware occupy large areas. From Winner to Ewing, we find UMB Bank, Hardee’s and Taco Express.

Neighborhood Associations bordering this area are the Indian Mound neighborhood to the north and the Sheffield neighborhood to the south.