This old post card, titled Independence Boulevard and lithographed in color, is No. 2 of a set of cards copyrighted in 1899 by G.H. Otto. The quiet, tree-lined street was largely residential at the time and the Northeast District was slated to become Kansas City's most fashionable neighborhood. Many of Kansas City's prominent citizens had already built Independence Boulevard mansions, with cupolas and turrets, carriage houses, barns, gardens and fine landscaped lawns. Robert Keith, furniture merchant, lived in one of these dwellings and often rode horseback to his downtown store on 11th Street. David Bealls, banker, was another who chose Independence Boulevard for his palatial home. Harper's Weekly ran a four-page supplement to its publication on Feb. 5, 1888, describing Kansas City. It was titled The Gateway of Kansas, and pictured businesses, theaters and churches. The accompanying article said:Society is yet in its formative state. It is naturally of a cosmopolitan character. On the west side most of the people live who upheld the Northern cause during the war. Some of the oldest houses in the city are on the West Bluff (Quality Hill) overlooking the West Bottoms, noteworthy among which is Mr. John Doggett's house, and old plantation seat that is soon to give place to a lofty apartment structure. The Southern people and those who have become suddenly rich have built up the east side with many handsome and costly homes. Pictured on the old post card are a few residences, double street car tracks and a street car. In the distance is the fine new four-story Bonadventure Hotel (1866) and the tall spire of the Independence Avenue Methodist Church, located at Independence and Olive. Not discernible is one of the first and smallest parks, the 1.73-acre grassy plot on both sides of the street, Independence Plaza, acquired in 1898 between Brooklyn and Park, near the hotel. Kansas City Times, April 24, 1981.
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