A colorful old postcard with American flags flying against a blue sky from the tops of tall buildings on Walnut Street was published about 1910 by the Acmegraph Publishing Co. of Chicago. The card is captioned Walnut Street, North From 12th, Kansas City Mo. The Wurmser Furniture & Carpets street sign, with upstretched hand, is seen at the right side of the card. A pool hall is next door north, and farther along McDonald Furs, whose large white banner over the sidewalk indicates a sale in progress. Across the street at 1112 Walnut is the curved blue canopy over the entrance to the Globe Theater and high above it the Globe Theater sign. (The Globe moved to new and larger quarters at 13th and Walnut streets in 1913.) Automobiles and horse and buggy rigs share the parking space about equally parallel to the curb. A bicyclist pedals his way south and a pedestrian crosses the street before an approaching street car. Walnut Street was one of those early-day Kansas City roadways that was so difficult to build, cutting through the big clay bluffs of the Missouri River. An 1885 clipping from The Kansas City Star shows workmen, horses and wagons as dirt was being loaded and they struggled to level bluffs to make a city thoroughfare. Observers were pictured on both sides of the deep excavation as they watched the grueling work. Kansas City Times, January 25, 1985.
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