The Colonnade and Music Pavilion, located in the Northeast District near the Gladstone Boulevard entrance to Cliff Drive, at a broad intersection of roadways and great open lawns, is pictured on an old post card, in color, mailed from Kansas City to Edgar, Neb., in 1912.The Colonnade, high on Scarritt Point in Kessler Park, affords a panoramic view to the north of the Missouri River Valley and the Clay County hills beyond. The Colonnade was completed in June 1908. Records show J.B. Neevel & Son, contractors, received payments on the buildings (from the city) as work progressed, totaling $26,744.50, as per their contract. The city park force constructed outer retaining walls and steps. A driveway was graded approaching the Colonnade building from the Agnes Avenue Viaduct. Kessler Park, formerly called North Terrace Park, is one of the most scenic in the city. It lies along the Missouri River bluffs from highland Avenue to the Indian Mound at Belmont Avenue and Gladstone and contains 305,440 acres. The nucleus of the park was the 5 1/2-acre plot on Prospect Point, purchased by Jackson County in 1870 and used for a pest house and burial grounds for contagious diseases until 1885 when it became city property. It has been used as a park since. (The pest house was a city necessity in the days before vaccination.) Grading in the area was accomplished with horse and mule equipment and laborers with pick and shovel. W.H. Dunn, superintendent of parks, urged in his 1907 report that this new grading, as well as the approach to the Colonnade, and our newly graded roads, especially those on the steeper grades, should be paved at the earliest opportunity as a matter of protection to the work accomplished as well as for their value for increased pleasure driving. Today the park offers numerous points of interest, including the Colonnade, the Concourse and its fountain, a memorial to John F. Kennedy, and tennis courts. On the Concourse are a wading pool and a sailboat and casting pool. A monument dedicated to Thomas Hart Benton is located at St. John and Gladstone.The Kansas City Museum of History and Science is located nearby, in the old R.A. Long residence at 3218 Gladstone. Kansas City Times, February 1, 1980.
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