What's Your KCQ?

Railroad tycoon envisioned a grand Belgian settlement in Kansas City. Then came cholera

Today, Guinotte Avenue is a rather unassuming stretch of road running through Kansas City’s predominantly industrial East Bottoms. One hundred seventy years ago, however, the thoroughfare was the embodiment of one man’s dream to make Kansas City a global city and a center of Belgian immigrant culture in North America. Its history intrigued a local reader who asked What’s Your KCQ?, a partnership between the Kansas City Public Library and The Kansas City Star, for insight. Joseph Guinotte, the namesake of Guinotte Avenue, was born in the French-speaking Belgian city of Liège in 1815. A well-respected engineer by the early 1840s, he was appointed by Belgium’s king, Leopold I, to oversee construction of a railroad from Mexico City to Veracruz — under a government agreement to send engineers to construct railways in Mexico with Belgian materials. Before departing, Guinotte proposed to his sweetheart, Aimée Brichaut, and left with her promise that she would join him once he had settled in North America.

What happened to Kansas City's first school for Black students — and its historical marker?

Walking past Dr. Jeremiah Cameron Park in Westport, a reader noticed a marker for something called the Penn School and wrote to What’s Your KCQ?, a partnership between the Kansas City Public Library and The Kansas City Star, to learn about it. The park, located on Broadway Boulevard between 42nd and 43rd streets, marks the “Penn School Historic Site,” and was named for an alumnus of the Penn School who was an educator and the second Black member of the Missouri Parks and Recreation Board. The class of 1933 dedicated the plaque in homage to their alma mater in 1992. As of this writing, the plaque is missing — a reminder of the shaky role markers play in preserving local history and the challenges of making that history known.

KCQ serves up a history of early KC hamburger stands

While the hot dog is considered quintessential cuisine for the July Fourth holiday, the hamburger is undeniably king among American eats. It is a menu staple at restaurants throughout the U.S., not to mention the backyards and ballparks in which countless grilled patties are served up and consumed. Kansas City has its own juicy burger history — the focus of this installment of What’s Your KCQ?, an ongoing series produced by the Kansas City Public Library and The Kansas City Star. A reader recently perused the Library’s 1940 Tax Assessment Photograph Collection, a photographic survey of Kansas City buildings and residences, and noticed numerous hamburger stands around the downtown area. Town Topic and White Castle were two familiar names, but Bungalow, Eat-Moore, Happy Hollow, and many others were not.

Was Lee’s Summit named after Robert E. Lee? What’s Your KCQ? examines the complicated legacy of the town’s namesake

Many assume Lee’s Summit was named for Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and a reader asked What’s Your KCQ?, a collaboration between The Kansas City Star and the Kansas City Public Library, to find out the truth. Not only is the Kansas City, Missouri, suburb not named after Robert E. Lee, but the town didn’t take its name from anyone named Lee at all. Rather, it’s named after an early resident, a physician named Dr. Pleasant John Graves Lea. Born in the first decade of the 19th century in Tennessee, Pleasant Lea came to Jackson County around 1850. He settled in the area then known as Big Cedar with his wife Lucinda, their nine children, and his brother. The Leas became respected members of the community; each served a stint as postmaster in the 1850s, and Dr. Lea acted as the town physician as well.

KCQ Explores the History and Legacy of Kansas City’s Pioneer Mother

With Mother’s Day weekend approaching, it is fitting that What’s Your KCQ? respond to a query about Kansas City’s Pioneer Mother sculpture in Penn Valley Park.

KCQ takes on three of your Kansas City history questions

A body in the old Waldo water tower? The first hospital for Black patients west of the Mississippi River? Before the Chiefs … the Blues? What’s Your KCQ?, on which the Kansas City Public Library and The Kansas City Star collaborate to answer reader-submitted questions about local history, quirks, and curiosities, tackles a trio of recent inquiries: As a kid, I remember hearing a body was once found inside the Waldo water tower. Did that really happen? What's the history of Douglass Hospital in KCK? I heard Kansas City had a pro football team that played at Muehlebach Field before the Chiefs. Is that true?

KCQ rapid response: Swope Park edition

Spring has arrived, and winter-weary Kansas Citians have once again turned their attention to the great outdoors. The What’s Your KCQ? team, a collaboration between the Kansas City Public Library and The Kansas City Star, have been inundated with questions about the crown jewel of the KC Parks system: Swope Park. To keep readers satisfied, we’re taking on five inquiries for this week’s rapid response edition.

A tale of two hospitals: KCQ investigates the end of Kansas City's segregated hospital system

A reader recalling her mother’s experience as a nurse during the integration of Kansas City’s hospital system in the 1950s, asked “What’s Your KCQ?” — a partnership between the Kansas City Public Library and The Kansas City Star — to investigate how equal treatment and desegregation came to the city’s Black hospital.