The printed legend on the reverse side of this 1908 post card published by Hall Bros. Reads: One of the principal boulevards in Kansas City's 65-mile beautiful boulevard system. The location is believed to be looking east towards Troost Avenue from about Charlotte Street. A fine new touring car with top down is driven by a derby-hatted gentleman, while two passengers in the back seat enjoy a spring ride along the well-kept boulevard lined with young tree plantings. Several other automobiles are parked horizontally along the quiet street.Where did Linwood get its name? The late Henry Van Brunt wrote in a Kansas City Star story of Nov 27, 1935: Frustration has been this researcher's lot in the attempt to trace the origin of many of our street names. This was the case in seeking some hint to explain the naming of one of our most important arteries, Linwood Boulevard...The most far reaching memories of those questioned regarding the name associated it vaguely with the old Linwood grade school, at Linwood and Woodland, but stopped there, leaving the name's derivation still unexplained. Webster Withers, veteran authority on the development of the Linwood-Troost area, recalls having been taken as a small boy on a drive into the country by his father, who pointed out the original (one room) frame Linwood School on the site of the present school. This was established as county school No. 6, but Withers is sure that, at that time of the early visit his father called it the Linwood School, and that was about 1884. The school faced a rutted dirt road called 'Linwood Lane,' meandering westward probably as far as Holmes Street. A chance visit to the park board offices brought a confident answer from W.I. Ayres who says that Linwood was called 'Linwood Avenue' as early as 1893 before it was paved and developed as a preferred residence street. The name derived from a grove of Linden (or lin) trees which surrounded the country school house and without any formal action in the matter, people began to call both school and road Linwood. Kansas City Times, March 26, 1982.
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