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You can find dozens of beautiful holiday displays throughout Brookside!

Many neighborhoods across the Kansas City metro show off their holiday spirit with elaborate light displays, but few capture the magic of the season quite like Brookside!

If you share Ellen’s love for historic homes and the tradition of self-guided holiday light tours, Brookside is a must-see destination! This charming neighborhood – and others nearby – feature majestic tree-lined streets and beautifully preserved homes in a wide variety of architectural styles. From sturdy Foursquares to charming Tudors to cozy bungalows, there are enough beautifully decorated homes to make a December cruise through Brookside more than enough to put anyone in the holiday spirit.

Holiday lights highlight the wide, horizontal features of Prairie-style homes.

American Foursquare Homes

Brookside has an impressive variety of American Foursquare homes. Inspired by the Prairie School movement, they are defined by their wide, boxy silhouettes and clean, striking lines. Broad overhanging eaves, natural materials, and rows of windows are signature elements of Frank Lloyd Wright’s influence on that design movement.

The geometric features of Foursquare homes become even more distinctive when decorated with strings of lights. The already subtle roof pitches recede even further into the background, allowing the tidy, horizontal lines of these homes to take center stage, highlighting the craftsmanship that defines Prairie School architecture.

Holiday lights especially accent the steep roof peaks and curving lines of English-style Tudors!

Tudor Homes

Hundreds of charming Tudor-style homes are found throughout Brookside and nearby neighborhoods, many of them the work of N.W. Dible – a prominent Kansas City architect in the first half of the 20th century. These stunning English-inspired homes feature intricate mixed-material façades with sharply peaked roofs, towering chimneys, and exquisitely crafted wood detailing.

These “mini-mansions” already look like something out of a storybook, and the addition of holiday lights ramps up their charm factor. Running lights along the sharp angles, steep rooflines, and curved arches accentuate the highly detailed exteriors of these homes.

Bungalows

Bungalows are one of the most popular home styles found throughout Kansas City. These low-profile residences feature wide, fully covered porches, typically supported by thick stone, brick, or wood pillars. The low-pitched roofs are often accented with eaves or gables, which stand out beautifully when strung with lights.

The bungalows’ covered porches are where holiday lights have the most dramatic impact. Draping lights along the roof creates a traditional and intimate aesthetic, and illuminating railings and porch walls showcase the symmetrical features of these homes. Most bungalows feature a walkway leading to the front steps, and when brightly lit with holiday lights, they extend a warm welcome to homeowners and their guests.

Holiday lights bring a whole new perspective to the unique architectural features of older homes, illuminating secondary design elements and showcasing a home’s unique qualities.

There’s no better place to enjoy the beauty of holiday lights and charming historic homes than Brookside and the surrounding neighborhoods. Many east-west streets just off of Ward Parkway even coordinate their blocks with similarly themed lighting displays. A drive up and down these magical streets offers a wonderful visual tour of some of the most interesting architecture in the city – festively lit to enhance the spirit of the holiday season!