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A Place in Time: Book takes a look back to historic Kansas City sites

Posted at 8:47 PM, Jun 26, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-27 05:58:30-04

These days, Kansas City seems to be focused on moving forward. But there's an office in City Hall where they think a look back would be a good idea.

The Historic Preservation Commission decided about three years ago that it was time to get serious about an update to the story of Kansas City, as told in their book published 40 years ago — "Kansas City, A Place in Time".

"We sat down and started the process of identifying new sites, reviewing the old sites in the book, see what was still around," explained Brad Wolf, Kansas City Historic Preservation Officer.

Now, the second edition is in print. It features color photos and handy maps if you want to take your own tour of historical points of interest. But the main feature seems to be inclusion and scope.

"We really wanted to basically do a wider variety of sites. All the sites are generally built before 1950, so we didn't go too much into the modern era. What we were really looking at is, geographically, trying to identify sites throughout the city really to demonstrate the variety of sites, no matter where you're at. Even if you're in a newer subdivision up north, there actually are old houses up there," said Wolf.

The new book may run a bit longer, but it's still slim format that can easily be carried around. The commission encourages you to pick up the book and see our history before it's gone.

"There were definitely some commercial buildings... I know there were one or two churches," said Wolf, when asked if any buildings had disappeared since the first book was published.

"We had more a couple more sites on the Santa Fe Trail which were actually highlighted in the book. You actually can see the ruts, the impressions left as they went through the city, so there's still some remnants of those. They haven't all been destroyed yet," he said. 

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