Shoppers stroll along Petticoat Lane in this 1905 post-card scene. A few horse-and-buggy rigs and a street car are in the distance. The card was published in Germany for S. H. K. & Co., Kansas City, Mo. It was mailed to G. N. Hill Jr., Dewitt, Mo. Familiar stores such as Browning-King (now Harzfeld's location) and Emery-Bird-Thayer are recognizable. Awnings on windows in this era before air-conditioning protected the stores against the summer sun. Big electric ceiling fans cooled most interiors. Carrie Whitney's history of 1909 tells how this area had appeared in earlier years, when the business area was still near the river front: The most picturesque place in early Kansas City was the old-fashioned home of Judge T. A. Smart on a plot of ground bounded by Main Street, Grand Avenue, 11th and 12th. It stood in the midst of a beautiful blue grass lawn, with shade trees and fruit trees. The house was sufficiently large to accommodate a large company of guests. The massive hillside on the west was covered with forest trees; the eastern slope was a steep barren bluff. In those days there was but one road by which to reach the southern part of town with any degree of comfort, and that was by way of Main Street as far as 11th or 12th and thence by way of Grand Avenue. The grounds of Judge Smart were crossed by a road which made a cut-off and was generally used. The post card is owned by Mrs. John H. Wheeler of Mission Hills. Kansas City Times, November 30, 1979.
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