Latest news with #KansasCityPublicLibrary
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Yahoo
A memorial for a Pendergast? The legacy of ‘Big Jim' in Kansas City
What's Your KCQ is a collaboration between The Star and the Kansas City Public Library series that answers your questions about the history, people, places and culture that make Kansas City unique. Have a suggestion for a future story? Share it with us here, or email our journalists at KCQ@ The Pendergast name carries different meanings in Kansas City. For some residents, it recalls the freewheeling 'Paris of the Plains' era, when Boss Tom's machine kept liquor flowing and nightclubs thriving, giving rise to the city's distinct style of jazz. For others who value open governance and respect for law and order, it remains a symbol of corruption and political patronage. Today, most Kansas Citians seem drawn to the city's more colorful past. While that image fits well with throwbacks to its seedier side, it hardly seems like something the city would officially memorialize in a public place. That's why a KCQ reader found it odd to see the Pendergast name on a statue in West Terrace Park — and was even more surprised to learn it honored James Pendergast, not Tom as they had anticipated. The plaques on the monument offered only vague details, describing him as the 'embodiment of truth' — also unanticipated — leaving the reader wondering who James Pendergast was and why the city chose to memorialize him. The Pendergast name didn't always carry the same weight in Kansas City. Reporting on the apprehension of an accused murderer in its June 21, 1883, edition, The Kansas City Journal noted that the suspect had been found in a West Bottoms hotel kept by 'a man named Pendergast.' The local press — and the city at large — would soon learn exactly who that man was. Born in Ohio in 1856 to recent Irish immigrants, James Pendergast's family later settled in St. Joseph. After the completion of the Hannibal Bridge in 1869, Kansas City's booming West Bottoms offered plenty of work in packing houses and iron foundries. Pendergast answered the call, arriving in 1876. 'Big Jim,' as he came to be known, quickly built a reputation as a hard-working and trustworthy laborer. Years later, Fire Department Chief George Hale described him as a 'fine-looking, husky lad, steady as a church and careful of money.' Local lore claims that Pendergast made a small fortune by betting on a horse named Climax. True or not, his rapid rise was apparent. Around 1880, he went from working as a 'helper' at the D.M. Jarboe & Company foundry to serving as proprietor of the American House hotel, which he later renamed the Pendergast House. He also entered the saloon business, and opened The Climax — said to be named after the horse that launched his rise — on the same block as his hotel. Pendergast thrived in business, expanding his real estate holdings and opening new establishments, including a saloon at Fifth and Main streets. Location was key: His West Bottoms ventures sat near the bustling Union Depot railroad station, while his new saloon stood kitty-corner from the city's second City Hall. From that strategic vantage point, Pendergast set his sights on a new venture — politics. In 1882, he was elected to represent the West Bottoms in the House of Aldermen — the predecessor to today's City Council — a seat he held for 17 years. He became known for his skill at navigating municipal affairs and turning out supporters at the polls, earning him the title of 'Boss.' Pendergast didn't boast of his boss status but didn't shy away from the label. Nor did he apologize for his influence, explaining, 'All there is to it is having friends, doing things for people, and then later on they'll do things for you.' He lived up to those words. As a saloonkeeper, he functioned as a banker for West Bottoms laborers, exchanging paychecks for cash — without cheating them. In 1903, when a flood devastated the city's low-lying areas, Pendergast reportedly personally directed recovery efforts in his ward. As an alderman, he began the Pendergast tradition of securing city jobs for his supporters — but only after sizing them up. Despite an abundance of friends, Pendergast had no shortage of rivals — even within his own party. He led the Goats, named for his First Ward constituents, many of whom lived along the steep bluffs below Quality Hill. In contrast, his chief Democratic rival, Joseph Shannon, led the Rabbits, who drew support from newer neighborhoods southeast of downtown. Their clashes dominated Kansas City's Democratic politics for years. All Republicans, of course, were his opponents. Yet Pendergast was often praised for not letting politics turn personal — except for an 1888 incident at a Republican gathering in a downtown saloon, where he punched a man during a heated dispute and was arrested. Afterward, he became a teetotaler and gained a reputation for helping others struggling to overcome alcoholism — a remarkably selfless turn for a saloonkeeper. His selflessness extended to politics as well. When city officials proposed building a new railroad station on higher ground, safe from flooding, Pendergast supported the move—even though abandoning Union Depot would devastate his West Bottoms businesses. When a local reporter asked why he supported the Union Station vote, he simply replied, 'The public needs it.' Perhaps his most formidable rival was newspaper publisher William Rockhill Nelson. Nelson championed Progressive Era reforms aimed at eliminating poverty, managing the effects of industrialization, assimilating immigrants, and dismantling boss-led politics — putting him naturally at odds with Pendergast. When one of Nelson's reporters asked Pendergast in 1908 about his biggest election obstacle, he growled, 'You know … it will be The Kansas City Star-r-r-r.' In poor health, Pendergast retired from politics in 1910 and died a year later at age 55. Friendlier newspapers covered his life and funeral — then one of the largest in the city's history — in greater detail, but even The Star conceded he would be remembered as 'the man who never broke a promise.' Big Jim's empire was in good hands. Years earlier, he had been joined by his three younger brothers, including a rising Democratic power broker: a young Boss Tom. Democrats and Republicans quickly united around the idea of memorializing Pendergast. They chose a site in Mulkey Square Park, near 13th and Summit streets where he could watch over the First Ward for a bronze statue and fountain. A sculptor was commissioned, and funds were raised by public subscription. The monument debuted on Independence Day 1913. That July 4, the public gathered to see a bronze likeness of Pendergast seated atop a granite base. Beside him stood two children, also cast in bronze, holding water basins that served as fountains — a nod to his charitable nature. Tom's daughter, Marceline, pulled a cord to remove the cloth covering the statue, while a giant American flag served as a backdrop. A camera crew filmed the ceremony and the speeches from local dignitaries, later charging 10 cents to view the film and boasting, 'You can almost hear them speak!' Unfortunately, the monument faced trouble almost immediately. In 1914, thieves managed to dislodge one of the bronze children and carry it 150 feet before abandoning the 300-pound figure. The child was replaced, but by 1915, both figures had been stolen — and the fountain features were never restored. The local press debated whether the culprits were metal thieves or worse — Republicans. Pendergast sat alone until the city replaced the missing figures from the original casts in 1919. However, starting in the 1930s, thieves unwilling to move the heavy statues began sawing off the children's limbs piece by piece. During the construction of Interstate 670 in the late 1960s, the monument was relocated within the park. By 1976, both children were gone again. Big Jim, too heavy to steal and too thick to saw through, endured decades of vandalism. By 1990, when the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners voted to restore the memorial, it bore a hacksaw gash in its neck, remnants of roofing tar that had been poured over its head, silver paint over its eyes, dried egg stains, initials carved into the granite base, and a hole — possibly from a bullet — in its backside. Along with approving restoration work, the parks board authorized moving the statue from its isolated spot in Mulkey Square to West Terrace Park. A Friends of Jim Pendergast organization, joined by local Irish clubs and labor organizations, helped fundraise for the restoration and commissioned local sculptor Tom Corbin to recreate the missing children — proving that Big Jim still has plenty of friends in Kansas City and that the Pendergast name means more than corruption and vice. Big Jim continues to watch over his beloved West Bottoms from his new vantage point.
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
How Kansas Citians once fought for a struggling school and won — briefly
What's Your KCQ is a collaboration between The Star and the Kansas City Public Library series that answers your questions about the history, people, places and culture that make Kansas City unique. Have a suggestion for a future story? Share it with us here, or email our journalists at KCQ@ In December, when Kansas City's Guadalupe Centers announced a plan to use the former FBI field office on Summit to expand its charter school program, a reader asked What's Your KCQ? about the history of another area school a few blocks to the south. Today the building at 1936 Summit St. still bears the engraving 'West Junior High School,' but those who have lived in the area long enough may recall the institution's final decade when it became both a senior high school and the center of community activism. By the late 1960s, years of highway construction had left the West Side physically isolated. Its declining population, made up of roughly equal numbers of Hispanic, Black and white residents, suffered from unemployment at double the citywide average. The Star reported that federal housing officials told the mayor the area was 'no longer viable as a residential community.' With a fifth of the population under the age of 20 and a dropout rate nearing 9%, neighborhood activists argued that a new high school would serve as a community anchor. After years of public pressure, the Kansas City Board of Education acquiesced and, in 1968, authorized an official study of education on the West Side. Results of the study called for both the establishment of a high school and meaningful community input in its administration. Despite the reservations of some members, the school board agreed to convert West Junior High into a high school in time for the 1969-70 academic year. Almost from the beginning, the question of community input caused friction with the board. West Side residents asked repeatedly for a more diverse faculty and curriculum, while the board, looking to cut costs as taxpayers fled the city for the suburbs, publicly considered closing the school at least six times over the course of the decade. By 1978, a cycle of falling standards, declining enrollment, and uncertainty over the school's future had clearly emerged. The board selected West High to house a 'minimagnet' business/management center. Despite community support, the program quickly came under scrutiny. At a meeting of over 100 West Side residents in early 1979, four school board members listened as parents complained of disinvestment and low academic expectations. Some claimed that teachers allowed students to watch television in class and didn't report absences. One teacher said West had become little more than 'a day-care center.' Representative Raul Rojas called the district's neglect 'mental genocide.' But perhaps the harshest criticism came from longtime community organizer Donaciano 'Don' Pecina. He read the names of 15 one-time West students who, he claimed, were now dead. These kids, Pecina said, 'didn't have a chance.' Tensions erupted again later that summer when the board was considering 'alternatives' for West and held a meeting to solicit community input. Pecina rose to ask if there was any possibility West would be closed. Board President Dr. Edward Scaggs refused to answer. When Pecina pressed the question, Scaggs adjourned the meeting. In response, the Westside Educational Task Force publicly accused district superintendent Robert Wheeler of targeting West as a form of retaliation against the community. Despite these tense exchanges, the 1979-80 school year passed uneventfully. However, on Aug. 4, 1980, superintendent Wheeler recommended closing West, and the very next day, the board voted 5-3 to do so, acknowledging that the sudden move might upset West Side residents. What ensued took district officials by surprise. At about 2:20 p.m. that day, Pecina and at least 28 others, including parents, teenagers, and children, entered the school with sleeping bags, food, lumber, and chains, and notified the principal that they were occupying the building. The protesters, now calling themselves the Coalition to Preserve Education on the West Side, agreed to a meeting with several state education officials as well as Wheeler and Scaggs, but also vowed to continue their occupation until Sept. 3, at which point they would establish their own community high school. About 5 p.m., Pecina read a statement from an upper window of the school to the applause of about 200 West Side residents gathered outside, who broke into chants of 'West, West, West!' By Aug. 14, a long-term siege became unnecessary. In a remarkable about-face, the school board agreed to the establishment of an experimental, 'community-sponsored' school at West. Under the agreement, a nine-person committee would work out a plan for the school, which would open in fall 1981 and operate for at least three years. The seven-day occupation ended with demonstrators and board members laughing and embracing. The committee's plan received board approval in February, but by April, talk of budget shortfalls again clouded the future; the district had already furloughed 800 employees and closed 13 buildings due to federal spending cuts. Amid these rollbacks, some board members remained committed to using the building for education, while others opposed reopening West at all when other area schools were being shut down. A.H. 'Scotty' Kilpatrick commented that the district was 'building false hopes on the West Side.' In late July, the board put an end to the uncertainty and announced that reopening West was simply unworkable. Pecina, who had volunteered on the planning committee for nine months, refused to concede defeat. He and others pledged that the school would open as planned on Monday, Aug. 31, no matter what the district said. That Friday, school district lawyers requested a restraining order against the volunteer teachers. Circuit Judge Donald Mason denied the request, ruling that the district had not sufficiently disproved the existence of a contract with the protesters, referring to the Aug. 14, 1980, agreement endorsing the experimental school. District officials had signed the document but backpedaled and claimed it was more of a 'concept' than a contract. At a time when trust in government was generally in decline, the school district's posture severely diminished its stature. Star columnist Rich Hood put it best when he wrote that the question at the heart of the proceedings was 'whether a government agency has to keep its promises.' Even a member of the school board lamented that 'West is a very blatant way of showing that we cannot be trusted.' The legal battle effectively ended in October, when Circuit Judge Julian Levitt ruled that the 1980 agreement was legally unenforceable. Nevertheless, he continued, it represented at the least 'a very solemn promise,' and 'it would be tragic if the school board does not make every attempt to create an experimental program at West.' Despite these sentiments, Levitt's decision plunged the final nail into West's coffin. Over the following decades, the building at 1936 Summit St. fell gradually into disuse before officially closing in 1999. In 2014, after over a decade of wrangling with potential buyers, the school board voted to sell the building to Foutch Brothers, LLC, who have since converted it into market-rate lofts.
Express Tribune
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
The World's Most Bizarre and Unique Buildings You Have to See
Architecture has a way of captivating our imaginations, especially when buildings push the boundaries of conventional design. Across the globe, some structures stand out due to their unique shapes, unexpected materials, and whimsical designs. These buildings not only serve as functional spaces but also as striking pieces of art, each telling its own story. Whether they're inspired by nature, whimsy, or sheer creativity, these unusual buildings have become landmarks in their respective cities. Here's a look at some of the world's most unconventional and fascinating buildings. 1. Kansas City Public Library – Missouri, USA (Built in 2004) Located in downtown Kansas City, the Kansas City Public Library is one of the most striking libraries in the world. Its design incorporates a large, colorful bookshelf as the building's exterior, with rows of giant books displayed on the facade. The "community bookshelf" is a unique and fun homage to reading and knowledge, making this building a favorite of locals and tourists alike. 2. WonderWorks Building – Tennessee, USA (Built in 2012) The WonderWorks Building in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, is an upside-down building that immediately captures attention. Originally designed as an amusement park attraction, the structure is intended to look like it has been flipped upside down, with its roof resting on the ground. Inside, it's filled with interactive exhibits, including science-based games and puzzles, adding an educational twist to this unusual design. 3. Fuji Television Building – Tokyo, Japan (Built in 1997) The Fuji Television Building in Tokyo stands out thanks to its unique design, which features a giant sphere that is suspended from the structure. This sphere is a broadcasting studio and an iconic part of the Tokyo skyline. Designed by renowned architect Kenzo Tange, the building combines futuristic elements with a distinctive, industrial look. It's one of Tokyo's most photographed landmarks. 4. Crazy House – Da Lat, Vietnam (Built in 1990) The Crazy House in Da Lat is a one-of-a-kind hotel that looks like something straight out of a fairytale. Designed by architect Dang Viet Nga, the building is known for its bizarre and organic forms, resembling a treehouse intertwined with strange and surrealistic elements. Its whimsical appearance draws visitors from all over the world who come to explore its winding hallways, bridges, and animal-themed rooms. 5. Lotus Temple – New Delhi, India (Built in 1986) The Lotus Temple in New Delhi is an architectural marvel and a place of worship for the Bahá'í community. Shaped like a blooming lotus flower, the temple is made of white marble and surrounded by lush gardens. The building's smooth curves and petal-like structures have made it one of the most photographed buildings in the world, symbolizing unity and peace. 6. The Niagara Falls Building – Niagara Falls, Canada (Built in 1963) The Niagara Falls Building, located near the world-famous waterfall, is a quirky structure that sits on the edge of one of nature's most stunning sites. The building's most unusual feature is its design, with a stark, utilitarian look that contrasts against the natural beauty of the falls. Although not as architecturally celebrated as some other buildings on this list, its location and function make it a noteworthy structure. 7. Teapot Shaped Building – Meitan County, China (Built in 2014) In Meitan County, China, there is a teapot-shaped building that serves as a tourist attraction. The structure, standing as a giant teapot, represents the region's deep cultural connection to tea production. This fun and whimsical building has become a popular photo opportunity for travelers visiting the area. 8. Tianzi Hotel – Hebei, China (Built in 2000) The Tianzi Hotel in Hebei is a striking example of unconventional architecture, designed to resemble a human figure. The building consists of three towers, each shaped like a man. Standing at 10 stories high, this "human-shaped" hotel is an eye-catching and eccentric structure, making it a bizarre yet memorable landmark. 9. National Fisheries Development Board – Hyderabad, India (Built in 2011) The National Fisheries Development Board in Hyderabad has a unique and contemporary design, resembling a fish. The building's flowing, organic shape is meant to symbolize the importance of water and the country's rich fishing industry. The structure is a perfect example of functional architecture combined with symbolic artistry. 10. Piano and Violin Building – Huainan, China (Built in 2007) This whimsical building in Huainan, China, takes the shape of a giant piano and violin, symbolizing the city's love for music. The building's curving, smooth lines and intricate design make it stand out as an artistic tribute to the country's rich musical traditions. Inside, it houses a variety of cultural spaces for public enjoyment. 11. Kunsthaus Graz – Graz, Austria (Built in 2003) The Kunsthaus Graz, or 'The Friendly Alien,' is a futuristic art museum in Austria with a strikingly unconventional design. Its blob-like, organic shape is covered with blue transparent panels, making it appear as if it were dropped straight out of another world. The museum's design challenges traditional architecture and has made it a landmark in the city. 12. The Little Crooked House – Sopot, Poland (Built in 2004) This charming building in Sopot, Poland, appears to be crooked, with warped walls and windows, making it look like something from a dream or fairytale. Its unusual design is the result of inspiration from a Polish artist's illustrations. The Little Crooked House is a beloved tourist attraction, drawing crowds for its quirky, optical illusion-like features. 13. 'Big Basket' – Ohio, USA (Built in 1997) In Newark, Ohio, the "Big Basket" building serves as the headquarters for the Longaberger Company. Shaped like a massive picnic basket, the building was designed to reflect the company's product line. Although it's no longer in use as the company's headquarters, the Big Basket remains an iconic structure in the city. 14. Nautilus House – Mexico City, Mexico (Built in 2006) The Nautilus House in Mexico City is a surreal, ocean-inspired home shaped like a giant seashell. The building, designed by Mexican architect Javier Senosiain, features flowing curves, organic forms, and vibrant colors, making it one of the most unique homes in the world. The structure blends seamlessly with its surrounding environment, giving off a harmonious, nature-inspired vibe. 15. House Attack – Vienna, Austria (Built in 2006) In Vienna, Austria, the House Attack is a striking example of modern architecture with an unusual twist. A large house appears to be precariously balanced on top of a museum building, giving the illusion that it's about to fall off. This playful design, created by artist Erwin Wurm, is part of the collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art. 16. Lucy the Elephant – New Jersey, USA (Built in 1881) Lucy the Elephant is a historic building located in Margate, New Jersey. Shaped like an elephant, this 65-foot-tall structure has been standing for over 100 years. Initially built as a tourist attraction, Lucy has since become a symbol of the town and a fascinating piece of Americana. You can now book to stay a night inside! 17. The Dog Bark Park Inn – Idaho, USA (Built in 2003) In Cottonwood, Idaho, visitors can stay in a bed-and-breakfast located inside a giant beagle-shaped building. The Dog Bark Park Inn is a whimsical and fun place to stay, attracting visitors who enjoy quirky architecture and a love for dogs.
CBS News
05-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Free Library of Philadelphia and Kansas City Public Library battle in Library Love Competition
Philadelphia library fans have until Friday to help Free Library of Philadelphia win a friendly competition against rival Kansas City Public Library in the Library Love Competition. While both cities will face off at the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Sunday, the American Library Association is tallying to see how many community members in both cities love their libraries. Free Library of Philadelphia's spokesperson Mark Graham says it's been an amazing boost to see how much people love the Philadelphia library. "I love the appreciation for the wonderful library staff," Graham said. "I'm moved by how important libraries are to Philadelphians." Hundreds of comments from Philly library fans have poured in expressing everything from how the library's existence helped them find work and create community to the Free Library's commitment to inclusivity and free access to so many important resources. "Keep the comments coming," Graham said. "We're following this closely and sharing the love around the Free Library. And we need to beat Kansas City! And finally, go Birds!" Look for the Library Love Competition post on Free Library of Philadelphia's Facebook page and comment in the comment section on why Philadelphia should win before Friday. It's all part of National Library Lovers Month celebrated throughout February.
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
How did Westport, near no body of water, get its name? KCQ provides a history lesson
What's Your KCQ is a collaboration between The Star and the Kansas City Public Library series that answers your questions about the history, people, places and culture that make Kansas City unique. Have a suggestion for a future story? Share it with us here, or email our journalists at KCQ@ Francis Parkman's 1849 book 'The Oregon Trail' recounted the author's harrowing travels through America's frontier, including an 1846 stop in a burgeoning western Missouri community: 'Westport was full of Indians, whose little shaggy ponies were tied by dozens along the houses and fences. Sacs and Foxes, with shaved heads and painted faces, Shawanoes and Delawares, fluttering in calico frocks, and turbans, Wyandottes dressed like white men, and a few wretched Kansas wrapped in old blankets, were strolling about the streets, or lounging in and out of the shops and houses.' Susan A. Dillon, who was born in 1830 and claimed 'the proud distinction of being the first white child born on the site of Westport,' wrote in 1878 about the early days of the Santa Fe Trail settlement: 'Westport was a lively village. It was all tents and looked like the resting place of an army. Few buildings went up. Nearly all the arrivals came with tents and lived in them while waiting for a cavalcade of soldiers for safety going through the plains and over the mountains.' B.H. 'Barney' Regan, 70, recalled the Westport of his youth in a 1929 story in The Star: 'I can remember when if you didn't get across Westport road by 9 o'clock in the morning you couldn't get across until 4 o'clock in the afternoon. When the wagon trains started moving out West, when the boats were landing at the foot of Main street — then things started moving. … You just stayed on your side of the street. Whips cracked and popped like firecrackers. Drivers yelled: 'Pow-e-e-e-e-e, ho, ho!'' All of which depicts a place that is a far cry from Kansas City's Westport entertainment district of today — except perhaps for the occasional gunplay that still troubles the area. Reader Ryan Reed, who lives a bit east of Westport in South Hyde Park, wanted to know about the origins of Westport and posed an even more basic question for What's Your KCQ?, a partnership between the Kansas City Library and The Star: 'How did Westport, which is near no water and was founded before the Kansas-City-To-Be Westport Landing, get its port-themed name?' That's a natural question, given that Westport isn't — and never was — on a body of water. The more famous Westport in Connecticut is on Long Island Sound. Westport, Massachusetts, was the westernmost port in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Even Westport, Kentucky, is on the Ohio River. So, what's the deal with our Westport? Well, it might not have been on water, but it was a port of sorts for pioneers beginning their ventures into the great unknown of the American West. Westport was the first stop south of Independence on the Santa Fe, California and Oregon trails, which eventually parted ways after crossing into what is now Kansas. The settlement also was the ultimate destination for provisions that were sent by boat to the upstart Westport Landing (eventually to become Kansas City) a few miles away on the Missouri River. Marty Wiedenmann Jarvis, president of the Westport Historical Society and a sixth-generation Westporter, said: 'I think the way they phrase it, and I've even seen it in old print, it's the furthest western port before the pioneers jumped off into the territories.' We're talking about nearly 200 years ago, though, so the records are sketchy. And, as with much of Westport's history, there are conflicting reports. Carrie Westlake Whitney, best known as the first director of the Kansas City Public Library, wrote in her 1908 book 'Kansas City, Missouri: Its History and Its People, 1808-1908' that 'John C. McCoy … chose the name because the town was a port of entry into the great Western country.' But McCoy, considered the founder of Westport as well as of Kansas City, didn't actually choose the name; he simply adopted a name that already was in use. Moreover, records show that the name was 'West Port' before the one-word version became standard a few years later. In a 1933 Kansas City Journal article, Albert Doerschuk, a Kansas City druggist and self-styled Westport historian, provided his own theory on the town's name: 'It was called West Port and came into use, freighters said, because of the extremely difficult bit of road just west of town, across Mill Creek. The Harris hotel site was a steep elevation above the creek, with a mud wallow in front of it. From this elevation west across the deep gulch that existed was one of the toughest pulls of the entire trail. So the prairie voyagers, seeking to make port across the creek, named the goal at the journey's end West Port, and the name stuck.' Doerschuk provided another tidbit: 'It was said that in the East the settlement of Westport was also known as the 'Town of Sundown,' since here men basked in the last rays of civilization before departing into the unknown future that a plains journey held for them.' Doerschuk also conducted a one-man campaign — nearly 100 years after the fact — to convince people that McCoy wasn't Westport's founder. After researching deeds and land records, he concluded that John Campbell, a government Indian agent who had come to the region in 1827, was the 'original proprietor of the old town of West Port.' 'The more records I examined, the more likely it seemed that there was a plat of the town of West Port before McCoy made his,' Campbell told The Star in 1925. 'That would make Campbell the real father of the town.' The claim was not without merit. In her 1983 book, 'Westport: Missouri's Port of Many Returns,' Patricia Cleary Miller wrote that 'McCoy's plat was just northwest of another little plat, 'West Port,' spelled in two words, that the loquacious Indian agent John Campbell had already drawn up.' It should be noted, however, that McCoy's plat included what became the main section of town and that Campbell left the area before developing his adjoining plat, never to return. In any case, it is generally agreed that Westport was founded in 1833; it had a post office by 1835, with McCoy as its postmaster. By then it had become a bustling area because of the trade the trails brought as well as because of its proximity to the Indian territory a few miles west. Whitney wrote in her 1908 book that 'for fifteen years it seemed that this was to become the city of destiny.' 'It really blossomed quickly,' said Wiedenmann Jarvis, whose family owned and operated a store in the building that now houses Kelly's Westport Inn. 'But then it also died back fairly quickly because of the war. And then it built up slowly again because people started coming back.' Westport overtook Independence as the primary eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail by the mid-1850s. Whitney estimated that 40,000 immigrants bought outfits in Westport between 1849 and 1850 and that its population was 5,000 by the time it was incorporated as a town in 1857. According to the Westport Historic Resources Survey of 2017, the Westport of 1855 included three hotels (all with taverns), 37 businesses and two churches. The principal hotel was the Harris House, where explorer and military commander John C. Fremont, Sen. Thomas Hart Benton, author Washington Irving and newspaper publisher Horace Greeley all stayed. Among Westport's early inhabitants were Albert Gallatin Boone, the grandson of Daniel; John Sutter, who later discovered gold in California; Jim Bridger, the famous frontiersman and mountain man; Johnny Behan, who became sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, and was known for his opposition to the Earps before and after the gunfight at the O.K. Corral; and Mamie Bernard Aguirre, who married a Mexican-born trader, ventured west and became one of the first female professors at the University of Arizona. 'Those were the good old days of Westport,' Regan recalled in 1929. 'Men were men. You weren't in it if you didn't carry a six-shooter or two and a bowie knife. But if fellows fell out in town, they didn't use their guns. They fought it out with their fists right there in the square of Penn and Westport.' Regan befriended Bridger, who died in 1881 blind and penniless after living his final years in Westport, and rubbed shoulders with the James brothers. According to The Star's 1929 story, Jesse and Frank James frequented Westport, and they didn't have to worry about the law when they did. 'Whenever Jesse James rode into town, as he did freely, the sheriff always disappeared, it was told. ''I ain't lost no James boys,' the sheriff is said to have commented. 'And I ain't lookin' for no James boys.'' The Civil War took a heavy toll on the largely pro-slavery town. Many pro-Union businessmen and residents fled Westport for more friendly environs such as St. Joseph or Leavenworth. Meanwhile, Union Gen. Thomas Ewing Jr.'s Order No. 11 forced the evacuation of rural areas near Westport and elsewhere in western Missouri. The Westport Historical Society's Wiedenmann Jarvis points to the Harris family, which operated the Harris House hotel but also owned slaves. The Harrises lived in what became known as the Harris-Kearney House outside of Westport at present-day Westport Road and Main Street (the eventual site of the Katz drugstore) until they were forced out by Order No. 11. 'The Harrises had to leave town,' Jarvis said. 'What I think is funny is that they … moved about 10 blocks north to Kansas City, where the Kearneys were living.' The Harris-Kearney House survived the war, but some Westport buildings were damaged or destroyed during the Battle of Westport, fought Oct. 21-23, 1864. Most of the battle took place south of town in the area now encompassing Loose Park, with Union forces defeating the Confederates in what has been called the 'Gettysburg of the West.' As Native Americans were displaced from eastern Kansas and railroads replaced the trails west, Kansas City overtook Westport to become the area's primary trading center. By 1870, Westport's population had dropped to 1,500. Kansas City's population exploded, surpassing 32,000 in 1870 and 132,000 in 1890, with the city swallowing up Westport as it grew south. Westport voters approved annexation into Kansas City in 1897. The 1855 Harris-Kearney House was moved two blocks to its present location at 4000 Baltimore Ave. in 1922 when it was threatened with demolition. The house, where the historical society is headquartered, underwent a 17-month renovation before reopening last July. It is closed for regular tours through March 1, although group tours can be arranged.
