The New Santa Fe Trailer: Envisioning the Beginnings of the Country Club Plaza

Spring 1912

He certainly was glad he brought his work boots in his automobile as he climbed the muddy hill to the north. His motor car couldn't even make the journey- roads did not yet exist on this undeveloped plot between bustling downtown and his subdivisions to the south. The marshland was an eyesore; it was dotted with shacks, shanties and a quarry that blasted at all hours of the day.

He knew he had to do something about it as he continued to convince the wealthy to call his beautiful houses home sweet home. He was a visionary- a man beyond his years who could look at this land and see something truly stunning for its future.

Adjusting his wire-rimmed glasses, J.C. Nichols took a handkerchief out of his jacket pocket and rubbed his nose. After taking a deep sigh, he put one hand on his hip and the other above his forehead to block the sun. An employee unfolded a map in front of him and pointed out the different parcels of land. It would be difficult to buy up this property, he reasoned. It would take years to track down all these names listed on the map in order to make his vision a reality.

Regardless of the challenge, Nichols knew it was important to the suburbs to continue his mission. As he stared to the south, he could see the continuation of roads from Westport and downtown into his new community- he wanted to create a shopping area that would serve his beloved Country Club District. Yes, it would take years. And yes, there would be naysayers that would scratch their heads in disapproval. He paid them no mind.

Jesse Clyde Nichols had a plan. He always did.

* * * * * *

Jesse Clyde (JC) Nichols' graduation photo
from the University of Kansas

When out-of-town visitors come to Kansas City, one of the first spots to see is the Country Club Plaza. With its unique architecture, show stopping fountains, gorgeous landscaping and holiday lights showcased on tv stations nationwide, the Plaza is quintessentially Kansas City.

The early history of the Country Club Plaza embraces the growth of the city to the south and the innovation of one brilliant man who saw past a swampland; he could envision the future of the suburbs- the need for shopping nearby that catered to a new, growing mobile society.

Jesse Clyde Nichols (1880-1950), better known by his initials “J.C.,” made a name for himself as a suburban planner who greatly influenced how our city grew to the south. In 1907, he began development of what is known as the Country Club District, deriving its name from nearby Kansas City Country Club (now Loose Park). What started as a ten-acre piece of land far away from downtown, the area grew to fifty subdivisions that shied away from the grid system of streets and embraced the natural landscape with all its curves.

I could go on for days about J.C. Nichols and his contributions to Kansas City. And, don't worry- it will happen- very soon!

J.C. Nichols's objective was to "develop whole residential neighborhoods that would attract an element of people who desired a better way of life, a nicer place to live and would be willing to work in order to keep it better." Skipping over Brush Creek and building first to the south, Nichols knew he needed to ensure his developments offered all the modern conveniences of the era in order to attract wealthy and influential people to the area.

Mill Creek Boulevard from 42nd St. facing north in 1911 shows how isolated the area would have been.
Image courtesy of John Dawson

Around 1912, J.C. Nichols stood upon a hill near present-day St. Lukes, gazing south at a “marshy, weed-invested oxbow of Brush Creek valley.” His Country Club District was growing, but lack of zoning laws at the time had eyesores such as shanties and shacks dotting the valley too close for comfort to his beloved developments. It was imperative he protect his investment.

Even when he gazed at the land that would become the Plaza, he knew how difficult it would be to track down all the people who owned small parcels that would become part of his plan. Many of these landowners had never even step foot in Kansas City, and it would take years to track them all down.

Lyle Rock Company at 49th and Baltimore

Along the hillsides on the south side of Brush Creek was a dump, a hog farm emanating a horrid smell, and Lyle Rock Company. The hills were covered with brick kilns, trash and quarries. Located between Ward Parkway and 49^th from Main to Wornall, the Lyle Rock Co. yard was known for its black smoke barreling into the sky from the valley.

The company was a constant complaint for neighbors who had purchased homes in the Country Club District. Even though Lyle Rock Co. had established their quarries in 1907, those moving south were unforgiving- the business was a constant problem. People living around it called it a “war zone.” Explosions rocked people’s foundations- one witness said a two-pound stone from a blast shattered his brand new front porch. J.C. Nichols called it “unsightly in its condition.”

It took J.C. Nichols nine years to buy up the land in the area, including Lyle Rock Co. In 1921, Nichols spent one million dollars to acquire forty acres at the future site of the Country Club Plaza. In total, 26 houses and stores in bad condition were leveled to the ground.

An illustration from the Kansas City Star of Lyle Rock Co. smoke
barreled onto the newly-established JC Nichols neighborhoods.

On the east side of his newly-purchased land was a stream flowing from Westport into Brush Creek called Mill Creek. Nichols set after getting the city to pay for a road there to join his neighborhoods and serve as an anchor to a commercial development he had envisioned for the future; however, the city refused to pay for it. Not one to let a setback ruffle his plans, Nichols built the road, 16 feet wide, and called it Mill Creek Parkway (now J.C. Nichols Parkway). Upon completion, it was time to plan something never seen before: Nichols was to build an outdoor shopping mall.

It certainly would have been easy to plan another housing development, but Nichols was a man ahead of his time. Although most Kansas Citian's didn’t own automobiles, he could see that the car was the future. Accessibility, he reasoned, would spread retail sales past Petticoat Lane and the stores downtown.

Edward B. Delk's original design for the Plaza in 1922. Image courtesy of Robert and Brad Pearson.

The architecture of the Country Club Plaza was essential in order to ensure its success with the elite. Prior to construction, Nicholas found inspiration from his own travels to Europe where he admired the arches in Spain, villas nestled into the hillsides in Italy and the height of buildings in France. In order to execute his vision of something beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, Nichols hired architect Edward B. Delk (1885-1956) and sent him to Spain, Mexico and South America to study the planning and design of buildings. He enlisted none other than George Kessler, landscape designer of the Parks and Boulevard system along with Herbert Hare to sketch in green spaces and tree-lined streets.

Edward Delk (1885-1956).
Courtesy of Oklahoma Wesleyan University

In April 1922, he announced a five million-dollar, 30-acre shopping center to serve his elite neighborhoods to the south. Adamant about the automobile, J.C. Nichols devoted 46 percent of his land to go to wide streets and parking lots. Prior to his vision of the Country Club Plaza, commercial buildings failed to add any type of parking for cars. His plan included no building over three stories high with harmony in design and color, wide streets, and parking lots. He justified parking by bringing up that downtown hadn’t predicted the streetcar on their congested streets let alone the automobile.

The design, centered around a diagonal, tree-lined thoroughfare called “the Alameda” (renamed Nichols Rd. in the late 1940s). When construction began in Spring 1922, Nichols commented, “It is essential the new district be not only attractive to the eye, affording also a maximum of convenience, but that it be made commercially profitable.” Despite J.C. Nichols’ ambition for his Country Club Plaza, developers and business owners thought he was crazy. It was too far from downtown and blocks away from the streetcar line- no one would go there, they contended. Before the Plaza opened for business, people called it “Nichols’ folly.”

J.C. Nichols didn’t listen to the naysayers. He simply stated that he believed his Plaza plan could become the model of outlying business districts around the country.

He was right.

Aerial view of the Plaza before development.
Image courtesy of Robert and Brad Pearson

Spain was the model for architecture. Buildings were planned to feature tile, iron, open plazas and balconies for optimal beauty. Keeping his promise to only feature buildings three stories or lower, J.C. Nichols worked with Delk to design ornate towers to grace the skyline in the Mill Creek valley. “Two proposed towers should give striking character to the otherwise general low roof lines of the remainder of the development,” Nichols said.

In November 1922, the first building, called the Suydam Building after its first tenant (an interior decorating company) opened its doors at current-day 47^th and J.C. Nichols Parkway. The Marinello Beauty Shop opened up inside and offered Kansas City’s first place to get the “permanent wave.” By the following year, the Plaza featured an art and gift shop, baby shop, a drug store, a mechanic, a florist, photographer and a millinery shop. At first, customers were scarce, so Nichols asked merchants to park on the street to make the new business district look busier than it was.

He touted the shopping district as “The Country Club Plaza: Where shopping is a pleasure.” Within the year, J.C. Nichols got his wish- people began to drive their motor cars to shop on the Plaza and its first fountain featuring a boy and fish began shooting water. This fountain was moved to 76^th and The Paseo in 1968.

Suydam Decorating Company in the Mill Creek (Suydam)
Building in 1923.

Completed in March 1924, the first of Delk’s planned ornate Spanish-inspired towers was finished at 47^th and Mill Creek Pkwy. It served as a striking gateway to the Plaza. In 1925, the Triangle Building at 47^th and Wyandotte was completed and housed Piggly Wiggly, the nation's first self-service grocery store.

Shortly thereafter, Wolferman’s opened on the Plaza and became the second grocery store in the development. The advertisements for Wolferman's showcase, surprisingly, how cleanliness was a cornerstone for their business. "It is a marvel of hygienic cleanliness and modern equipment from the spotless bakery with its white tiled walls and floor to the sausage kitchens, ice box and meat department." Elite customers phoned in their orders and distinctive Wolferman’s trucks would deliver groceries to customers’ doors. In the same year, the Tower and Balcony Building were open for business.

Wolferman's Grocery Store in the 1920s

Enticing motor cars also meant it was important to make sure a station was readily available to fill up and service vehicles. Skelly Oil Company opened its doors and gave a free half pound of Martha Washington chocolates with purchase when it opened in 1924.

J.C. Nichols wanted to encourage clean streets and upscale businesses and wouldn’t allow merchants to load and unload goods in the streets- he designed loading docks in the back, an innovation at the time. He would walk the streets at night and take meticulous notes, scribbling down when fingerprints could be found on doors or when a window display was quite impressive. A letter typed and delivered to merchants the next day would warn or praise the merchants.

In December 1925, merchants decided to decorate the pristine sidewalks with mini Christmas trees. Likely in the holiday spirit, a J.C. Nichols employee who helped lease space along the Plaza named Charles Pitrat stood at the Suydam building, wishing merchants a Merry Christmas.

J.C. Nichols with the Plaza Christmas lights
in the 1920s.

In his hand was one simple strand of sixteen indoor Christmas lights that, stretched out, was six feet long. Feeling festive, Pitrat gazed up at the cornice of the building and grabbed a ladder. He hung that simple strand above the entrance without much thought; thus, the beginning of the Plaza Christmas light display began.

To be fair, there were few witnesses and no grand flipping of the switch on Thanksgiving night. It took a few more years for Christmas lights along the Plaza to become a showcase. In October 1928, the Plaza Theater opened its doors at 207 W. 47^th St., seating 2500 and showcasing the tallest tower at the time at over twice the height of any other at 72 feet.

The $750,000 construction of the Plaza Theater building was a monumental occasion, and for the Christmas season in 1928, the new building featured the first-ever outdoor strand of continuous lights on 47^th St.

Just one year later, the buildings were outlined in multiple colors and followed the architecture so significant to the Plaza. For every year since, minus 1973 when Nixon called for conservation of energy, the Plaza lights have been a staple of Kansas City’s rich history. It is said that the Plaza lights inspired companies to make stronger bulbs that were weatherproof, thus the creation of outdoor Christmas lights.

The Plaza Theater in 1932. Image courtesy
Missouri Valley Special Collections, KCPL

In 1927, J.C. Nichols turned his energy toward developing the abandoned quarries on the south side of Brush Creek on Ward Parkway. Fifteen acres in total, the new landscape plan for beautification included high-rise apartment complexes and hotels that still exist today.

There was one flaw in J.C. Nichols plans. He didn’t add parking for cars because he was under the impression that apartment dwellers wouldn’t be able to afford them. He was gravely mistaken. By 1930, 60 percent of the nation owned a car, and the number post-Depression only grew higher. The ability to be mobile, as he had predicted for his elite neighborhood clientele, had trickled down to the working class.

This mistake was something he deeply regretted.

J.C. Nichols’ vision for The Country Club Plaza solidified his Sunset Hills and Mission Hills neighborhoods as the most desirable in Kansas City. In 1915, these communities housed ten percent of the elite; by 1930, 59 percent of the most prominent families called his neighborhoods home. Their popularity, no doubt, had much to do with the gamble he took when developing the Plaza.

The Plaza apartment buildings on the south side of Brush Creek replaced
Lyle Rock Co. They also lacked parking.

Using his vision of Spanish architecture and the future of the automobile as a means of mobilizing Kansas Citians as never seen before, the Plaza, with its wide parkways lined with trees, beautiful towers, sculptures and fountains, has become one of Kansas City’s most iconic districts that is recognizable to people across the nation. The Plaza’s Spanish influence- including modeling two towers after landmarks in Seville- didn’t stop in our own city. Today, you can travel down “Kansas City Avenue” in our sister city of Seville, Spain.

Jesse Clyde Nichols said in 1922, “I realize, in the laying out of these plans, that it will take many years of Kansas City’s growth to carry out our development. But I really feel that this plan is no larger undertaking, nor more difficult to accomplish, than the development of the Country Club District in the beginning.”

The Plaza in the 1930s

Visionary J.C. Nichols proved everyone wrong when the Plaza became the first outdoor shopping mall in all of America and the model for cities across the nation on how to capitalize on suburban development. It may have taken him years to plan, but the early Country Club Plaza is more than a shopping area. It is a tourist destination due to its architectural integrity, tree-lined streets and high-class shopping- all things he had expertly envisioned while standing on top of the hill and gazing down at the eye-sore of Mill Creek valley in 1912.

His plan, indeed, worked.

* * * * * *

The influence of J.C. Nichols on KC will be featured SOON! Please stay tuned!

* Please go to Facebook, search "The New Santa Fe Trailer," and LIKE my page so you don't miss my writing!

**If you like my writing, you would LOVE my free podcast with radio personality Bob Fescoe! Kansas City: 2 States, 1 Story is all about our history in KC. Please consider downloading the episodes so you can take a listen anytime-anywhere! Click here to see what we've been up to. It's FREE!

*** Recommended reading: The J.C. Nichols Chronicle by Robert and Brad Pearson

Images below are all courtesy of Missouri Valley Special Collections, KCPL.