It may surprise you to learn that Brookside, which is known for its easy walkability, was actually designed to specifically accommodate the automobile!
If you were to jump back in time to a hundred years ago in Brookside in the 1910s and 20s, there wouldn’t be much to see. Open stretches of land would be dotted with a house or two here and there, with the most notable attraction being the Kansas City Country Club Golf Course, which stood in present-day Loose Park. While it didn’t seem like much yet, someone knew the potential this area held – J.C. Nichols. Brookside would be one of the many areas transformed by Nichols during the first half of the 20th century.
One of KC’s first streetcars circa 1908. Photo Credit: NortheastNews.net
At the time, neighborhoods built close to downtown were constructed around trolleys and streetcars. Kansas City, and basically every other major city across the U.S., needed a solution to the overcrowding that was happening in the downtown area. People needed to be downtown so they could work, but there wasn’t enough space for all of them. So land developers began building “streetcar neighborhoods.” In these neighborhoods a streetcar line would provide cheap, sometimes free, transportation from these areas back to downtown, allowing working and middle-class families to spread out further from city centers.
Thanks to streetcar neighborhoods, the popularity of public transportation skyrocketed. The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce reports that Kansas City public transportation during the 10s and 20s saw an average daily ridership of about 300,000, in comparison to present day, which sees about 45,000.
These neighborhoods were blossoming all around Kansas City, and Nichols played a part in their developments as well, but he was also looking beyond. Despite the apparent success of Kansas City’s public transit system (which happened to be the third largest in the nation after Chicago and San Francisco), Nichols could see the automobile was going to be a complete game-changer. In 1913, Henry Ford opened his first auto assembly plant outside of the Detroit area in Kansas City. General Motors was not far behind and many, many smaller automobile manufacturers were springing up all around the city.
Brookside Shopping District circa 1919. Photo Credit: The State Historic Society of Missouri – Kansas City
Brookside would be a neighborhood designed to accommodate the automobile, in turn, attracting those who could afford an automobile at this time, i.e. middle and upper-class families. While others had to hop on the streetcar and venture back into the city center for their shopping, Nichols created a place for the residents of Brookside to go instead – the Brookside Shopping District. It may not seem that wildly different from other shopping centers, but at the time it was an entirely new concept. The Brookside Shopping District officially opened in 1922, one year before the Country Club Plaza was completed, which is considered to be the nation’s first shopping mall.
With the Brookside Shopping District, residents didn’t have to travel into the dirty, crowded city for their daily needs. They had everything they needed – a grocery, doctors, police, fire, a drug store, and more. The open-air design was modeled after traditional downtown shopping districts, but this one sat in the middle of Nichols’s picturesque subdivision, far from the hustle, bustle, and grime of the city. And all of it was just a short drive away. Compared to other neighborhoods, Brookside had the necessary space needed for cars to be driven and parked.
Yes, the streetcar still made its way down to Brookside, but the neighborhood was primarily designed for those who would be driving their own vehicle, which turned out to be a good call.
Photo Credit: Kansas City Public Library
Even though the streetcar reigned supreme when Brookside was born in the 1920s, in just 30 years it would be completely gone. The Kansas City Public Service Co., which operated the streetcars by the 1950s, voted to have it completely removed in 1955. The popularity of the streetcar took a sharp drop once cars became more affordable and new highways allowed more people to live even further away from downtown.
With Brookside, Nichols achieved a balance few other neighborhoods could. Peaceful, suburban streets lined with striking middle and upper-class homes with all the amenities of the city just a few blocks away. Over the next century, many of these early 20th-century neighborhoods fell into disfavor with people annoyed at their lack of conveniences and accessibility. These neighborhoods eventually began to fall into disrepair as well, although some have seen revitalization in the past 20 years.
Brookside Shopping District circa 1961. Photo Credit: Missouri Valley Special Collections
Brookside, on the other hand, continues to thrive to this day! Now, instead of moving to Brookside for how easy it is to drive around, people move to Brookside because of how walkable it is! The Brookside Shopping District still sits right in the center, providing residents with all the same conveniences, albeit updated for the times, that it did when it was first built in the early 20s.
