Kansas City FAQs

Author: 

Jason Roe

On August 17, 1927, less than three months after Charles A. Lindbergh’s historic solo flight from New York to Paris, Lindbergh landed his famous “Spirit of St. Louis” aircraft in Kansas City. The occasion—the dedication of Kansas City’s newest airport.

Legendary pitcher Leroy "Satchel" Paige, born in Mobile, Alabama, around 1906, began fine-tuning his arm in his teens and joined his first professional team, the Mobile Tigers, in 1924. Throughout the 1920s and '30s, Paige made a national name for himself pitching both for barnstorming baseball teams and established Negro Leagues clubs, including the Chattanooga Black Lookouts and the Pittsburgh Crawfords.

The Union Station Massacre took place on the morning of June 17, 1933. Convicted bank robber Frank Nash had escaped from the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, only to be recaptured in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was brought by train back to Kansas City, and from here, federal and local law enforcement officers planned to drive him back to Leavenworth.

Author: 

Sherrie Kline Smith

The Willows Maternity Sanitarium closed in 1969, marking the end of 64 years of providing a haven and help for "unfortunate" girls and adoption services for their newborns. There is a long-standing rumour that, after it closed, the records of The Willows "were piled in the backyard and burned."

Author: 

Dan Coleman

Jesse James was born near Kearney, Missouri in 1847, the son of Zerelda Cole James and the Reverend Robert James, a well-respected Baptist minister who ran a prosperous farm, owned slaves, and was involved in the creation of William Jewell College in Liberty. During the Civil War, Jesse’s older brother, Frank, fought with Confederate forces under General Sterling Price, and when he returned from this service, both he and Jesse took part in the guerrilla warfare then raging in Missouri and Kansas.

The Nighthawks Orchestra/Band was a musical group formed in the early 1920s by Carleton Coon and Joe Sanders. Originating in the Plantation Grill at the Muehlebach Hotel, the Nighthawks gained world-wide fame as WDAF broadcast their shows on the radio throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Located just east of downtown, this historic area includes a number of city blocks surrounding the intersection of 18th and Vine Streets. African-American Kansas Citians began settling in this area in the late 1800s, and by the 1920s the 18th and Vine District was a thriving commercial, residential, and entertainment center. From shopping for clothes and food to visiting a doctor or lawyer, it has been said that one could find anything and everything near 18th and Vine.

The origin of modern-day Kansas City, Missouri, dates back to the 1830s, when John McCoy founded the settlement of Westport at what is now Westport Road and Pennsylvania Avenue. McCoy chose this area to open an outfitting store for pioneers on the Santa Fe Trail. He then established a river boat landing on the bluffs at the bend in the Missouri River, just two miles north of his settlement. This Westport Landing was connected to the settlement of Westport by road and sparked development in the area.

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