Benton Boulevard, looking south from 9th Street, is pictured in color on a post card published early in the century by C.W. France. The three-story red brick flats with white brick trim and large porches at left were called the Bentonian Apartments. Each had eight high-ceilinged rooms. The structures still stand, with little change, the trees grown tall over the shaded porches. A closer look reveals all windows and doors tightly boarded.Across the street at the southwest corner was the drug store of George L. Morton, according to the 1919 city directory. Today the store is gone. A grassy vacant lot remains. The intersection was an important one, since 9th Street ran west to the downtown business section and continued to the old Union Depot in the west bottoms. Cable cars crossed the intersection, running as far east as Jackson Avenue. Kansas City was the third city in the world to have cable cars, and by 1890 had more miles of cable car tracks than any city in the country. The East 9th Street cable cars changed to electric power in 1903. Kansas City Times, September 10, 1982.
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