Gladstone Boulevard, Kansas City's first boulevard, was built from Independence Avenue to the Indian Mound at Belmont Avenue in the Northeast District. The total length was 2.82 miles. It was completed to Monroe in 1897, to Elmwood in 1906 and to Van Brunt in 1913. The cost of acquisition was $87,729 and the cost of construction was $164,013. The postcard, in color, pictures the stylish boulevard near the turn of the century. Pictured are horses and vehicles, children on bicycles and long-skirted ladies. The turreted red brick residence at the right was that of W. W. Wallace, prosecuting attorney for Jackson County and famous for his years of tracking down and convicting members of the James gang. The stately Wallace home, at 3218 Gladstone, was later moved a block north to 3200 Norledge, when R. A. Long, lumberman, purchased the site to build his residence, in 1911. It is now the Kansas City Museum of History and Science.The Litho Chrome postcard was published by the Southwest News Co. of Kansas City, Leipzig, Berlin, and Dresden. It was mailed in 1905 from Grace to Mrs. Fannie B. Tucker, vacationing in Colorado Springs. Kansas City Times. March 30, 1984
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