Pictured is the fashionable Elesmere family hotel at a time when Linwood and Troost was part of a quiet residential neighborhood. There were no other apartments or business houses then. On the corner north of the hotel (now occupied by a Firestone store) was the fine home of Alexander G. Sutherland, listed in the 1905 city directory as 3125 Troost. Diagonally across from the hotel was the home and barn of Daniel T. Kelly, who owned the property between Troost and Harrison and built three 2-story brick residences, occupied by George A. Leiter, Charles Carrol Martin and James Kelly, a son. All are listed in 1903-1905 directories. Mary Martin (now Mrs. Ralph Metcalf) remembers the neighborhood when they moved to their new home in 1904: Linwood Boulevard was not paved then, but was a short time later. The end of the Troost street car line was in the middle of the block between Linwood and 33rd, where a street car barn was located on the east side of Troost. She remembers many of the young people of the neighborhood. At the Elesmere Hotel lived Presley Williams, whose father Elmer built the hotel, Hazel Gould, Eleanor Wood and Maud Chatten, who became Mrs. Fletcher Cowherd, Jr. Living nearby were Jimmy Leiter, Searcy Ridge, Jr., Burris Jenkins, Jr., and the Nicholsons. The beautiful Elesmere, she said, is where well-dressed ladies idled away pleasant afternoon hours in rocking chairs on the veranda. It had a large fountain in the lobby and a nice dining room. The veranda of the hotel was removed in 1925 and the entire front of the building remodeled to accommodate five shops. Today the hotel continues operation as the Cornell under the ownership of William D. and J. J. Snyder. Kansas City Times, November 16, 1974.
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