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This bronze sculpture is dedicated to all of the children whose lives were lost due to the harsh conditions on the overland journeys westward. A pioneer boy, a girl and their dog run through an arch. A rainbow floats above them and doves fly overhead. Rocks in the fountain beneath them represent the streams that children crossed on the overland trail. The sculpture was dedicated on Old Settlers Day, September 7, 2000, by the Johnson County Old Settlers Association.This work was was sculpted by Kansas City artist Kwan Wu. Sculptor Kwan Wu was born and trained in China, but since immigrating to the United States and settling in the Kansas City area he has sculpted two major works depicting the western trails for Olathe, Kansas. The other is "Going West on the Old Santa Fe Trail."Dedication plaque text:Perhaps the greatest test of the pioneers’ spirit was the loss of children like Asa Smith to the harsh and unforgiving elements of the frontier. His tiny marker stands today at the intersection of K-10 and K-7 Highways. It is joined by this sculpture created in loving memory of every child lost along the trails as families faced the unknown, blazing our nation’s westward growth.

"Going West on the Old Santa Fe Trail" on Clio

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This bronze sculpture is dedicated to all of the children whose lives were lost due to the harsh conditions on the overland journeys westward. A pioneer boy, a girl and their dog run through an arch. It was sculpted by Kansas City artist Kwan Wu. Rocks in the fountain beneath them represent the streams that children crossed on the overland trail. Sculptor Kwan Wu was born and trained in China, but since immigrating to the United States and settling in the Kansas City area he has sculpted two major works depicting the western trails for Olathe, Kansas.

Children of the Trails sculpture

This drive from Olathe to Shawnee includes some of the leading landmarks of Johnson County. The tour includes several museums along with historical markers, monuments, and homes that are significant for their age as well as the families who lived in them.

Martin Van Buren Parker (1840-1922) was an Olathe attorney, real estate/ insurance broker, and farmer. Parker enlisted in the Union Army early in the Civil War. His wife, Emma E. (Woodward, born in 1846), bought four lots in 1869 where their house would be built, in Stephenson's First Addition, west of downtown Olathe. The couple met in their native Illinois, married in 1866 and moved to Olathe around 1868. He was an 1866 graduate of the University of Albany's law department and passed the bar in New York State. Parker established one of Olathe's first law firms in partnership with his brother-in-law, John P. St. John, a future Kansas Governor and husband of Susan Jane Parker. The law partnership ended in 1876. Parker's business ventures were in partnership with A.J. Smith by the early 1880s and later with his son-in-law, Samuel Brockway. At one point, Parker owned over 700 acres in the area. Emma Parker was active in the community and was one of three women who founded the first women's club in Olathe in 1883. The Ladies Reading Circle co-founders included Emma's sister-in-law, Susan St. John, and Celestia Stevenson. The club set up the beginnings of a public library by borrowing fifty books from the State Library in 1889 for a six-month period. The town's Carnegie public library did not open until 1914 and contained 4.500 books to start. The Parkers had five children - all girls: May, Effie, Luella, and twins Zula and Zella. Only Luella married (Samuel Maurice Brockway) and moved out of her parents' mansion. Martin died in 1922; Emma out-lived her husband by ten years. May, Effie, and Zella continued to live in the mansion until their deaths from 1934 to 1959. Zula sold the property in 1960. The house was in a deteriorated state when a new owner purchased it in 1980. Unlike most other homes of its age in Olathe, it was restored instead of being torn down to be replaced by a modern house. The 1874 Johnson County Atlas includes a drawing of the Martin Van Buren House, so the home likely was built in the early 1870s. However, there are some differences in the sketch and the modern house exterior, so the 1874 house may be a different house, an idea for the incomplete house, or the original form of the house that later had a different style of roof added. The architect of the Martin Van Buren Parker House is not known, but the house is Eastern Stick style with some Eastlake influences. The sprawling Victorian mansion is about 100 feet long and 28 feet wide and irregular in plan. The house is covered in cedar lap siding and sits on a limestone foundation.

Constructed between 1869 and 1880, Olathe's Martin Van Buren Parker House is a two and a half-story wood frame Victorian stick style mansion. The home was restored in 1981 and still features the original iron cresting on the rooftop. However, the original window shutters were too rotted to be reused and were not replaced. Other missing or rotted wooden elements were replaced with items milled using the original for reference. The mansion was listed in the Register of Historic Kansas Places and the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 for its significance in architecture and commerce.

Martin Van Buren Parker House

Franklin Ringold "F.R." Lanter was born in Union City, Indiana in 1854. When F.R. moved to Kansas, he settled first in Garnet in 1874, moved to Osawatomie in 1875, then settled in Olathe in 1876. He married another Union City native, Martha C. DeBolt, around 1878. His first job in Olathe was as a steward at the Kansas State School for the Deaf. He established the Lanter Lumber Company in Olathe in 1883. The couple had three children, two of whom were still living in 1910: Harlan, born in 1886, and a daughter, the future Mrs. C.S. McCalla. F.R. was a 55-year-old retail merchant in 1910 and shared the home on W. Park St. with his 53-year-old wife. Lanter owned the home free of any mortgage. By 1920, the Lanters moved to 212 Kansas Street in Olathe Ward 1, where they shared their home with a 33-year-old boarder, Harry Koontz. F.R. served as Johnson County Treasurer from 1920 to 1924 and later was Justice of the Peace. Martha died in 1930 and F.R. passed away in 1935 at age 81. F.R.'s son, Harlan Lanter, did not live in the W. Park Street house in 1920. He and his wife and young children lresided at 115 N. Walnut Street in Ward 2; Harlan was an accountant at the lumber yard. By 1935, Harlan was president of the Cosley-Lanter Lumber Company with offices in Olathe and Overland Park. The Lanter House was built in Stevenson's first addition, a block of land west of downtown Olathe. The house features two polygonal corner turrets and a semi-circular, two-story front porch. The home's exterior is clad in horizontal board siding. The limestone foundation lines a basement level. There is a one-story, rectangular rear porch with columns and railings matching the front porch; the rear porch accesses the kitchen. A large window with a top section of leaded, beveled glass looks out on the rear porch. The main entrance leads to a large central room, with two rooms on both sides; this pattern is repeated on the second story. Closets and bathrooms have been added to the house, as well as carpeting upstairs, but many original elements have survived. Given the original owner's ties to the lumber business, it is not surprising that the home's interior is richly ornamented in a variety of high-quality curly maple, pine, and oak. Original wood baseboards, trim, pocket doors and mantels over three tile-faced fireplaces complement the home; the original gas lamp hangs in the dining room. During renovation, Lanter's name was seen written on the back of some of the wooden trim. The property's garage is also from 1901 but has lost its architectural integrity due to changes to the exterior. The three-bedroom, three-bath home currently sits on a lot of 0.66 acre and features over 3,500 square feet. The eleven-room property is estimated to be worth over $365,000.

The house at 562 W. Park Street was built in 1901 for Franklin R. Lanter, a local businessman who dealt in lumber and coal. The architect was George P. Washburn of Ottawa, Kansas. The late Victorian, two-story frame house is transitional Queen Anne/ Free Classic style. Lanter, who served as mayor and postmaster of Olathe, lived here until the 1910s. At one point the house was divided into apartments. While the Lanter House was listed in the Register of Kansas Historical Places in 1985, it was not added to the National Register until 2007. The beautifully restored home is a private, single-family residence once again and was nominated by its owners in 2007 for its architectural significance. 

Frank R. Lanter House

Isaac Orlando Pickering (1842-1923) was a successful attorney and a Civil War veteran, having served in the Ninth Kansas Cavalry. He moved from Ohio to the Kansas Territory with his parents and siblings in the mid-1850s. Like his father and two older brothers, the 19-year-old Pickering was a farmer in Liberty in1860. Major Pickering married Celona Weaver (1848-1925) in 1867. He was admitted to the bar in Olathe in 1872. Pickering also became the assistant chief clerk of the Kansas House of Representatives. By 1880, the Pickering household included three daughters and a son, aged five to twelve, and a mulatto servant and Missouri native named William Casson (age 19). From 1878 to 1885, Pickering was the city attorney for Olathe and then its mayor. Pickering ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Kansas in 1892 and 1894 on the Prohibition party ticket and was candidate for the state Supreme Court in 1908. Three generations of Pickerings were living in the house in 1900. The fourth child, Jessie (25) was married to James A. Evans (27, a merchant) and had a three-year-old daughter, Frances C. Jessie's two younger siblings, George B. (17) and Harold W. (14) shared the home with their parents. Isaac (68) and Celena (62) were empty nesters by 1910 but added a roomer named Richard Grover (60, a shopkeeper). The couple were joined by Celena's brother, Cornelius Weaver (69), a widower, by 1920. The graves of Isaac and Celona are in the Olathe Memorial Cemetery. A son of Isaac and Celona, Fred S. Pickering (61), lived in the West Street house in 1930 with his wife, Kate (58), and sons Ben A. (24) and John (16). Fred worked as a civil engineer and Ben was a musician in an orchestra. In 1935, Ben was living in New York and John was a resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. By 1940, the brothers and their wives lived in the West Street house once again with their parents and two young children of Ben. Fred was a civil engineer with the county surveyor's office and the brothers were musicians in an orchestra. The estimated value of the home dropped from $1,500 in 1930 to $1,000 in 1940. The front porch of the Isaac Pickering House ends in a domed pavilion and likely was a later addition to the house; the adjacent northeast corner of the house is curved. A kitchen was attached to the southwest corner of the house early in the twentieth century. Mr. and Mrs. Albert Fleer purchased the house in 1961 and completed some interior renovations. The formerly wooden front steps have been replaced with concrete steps. A number of interior architectural elements survived into the late 1970s when the house was documented for listing in the National Register. A curving staircase, fireplaces and mantels, doors, molding, and wainscoting were around one hundred years old by that time; later owners reportedly sold anything of value inside the home. The original large lot once contained vegetable and flower gardens, a stable, and a carriage house. The house served as a bed and breakfast in the 1990s and 2000s.

The Isaac O. Pickering House has overlooked West Park Street since the 1880s and took ten years to build. The Italianate style home has Queen Anne and Second Empire architectural elements including its tower above the main entrance and Eastlake decorated front porch. Pickering was a Civil war veteran and prominent local lawyer and politician who lived in the house until his death in 1923. His descendants owned the home - called "Old Liberty Hall" -  until 1960. The wood frame house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The house was gutted and neglected and came close to being condemned before a new owner in 2011 began restoring the building. He finished restoring the exterior in 2015 and turned his attention to the interior. 

Isaac O. Pickering House

This bronze sculpture is dedicated to all of the children whose lives were lost due to the harsh conditions on the overland journeys westward. A pioneer boy, a girl and their dog run through an arch. A rainbow floats above them and doves fly overhead. Rocks in the fountain beneath them represent the streams that children crossed on the overland trail. The sculpture was dedicated on Old Settlers Day, September 7, 2000, by the Johnson County Old Settlers Association.This work was was sculpted by Kansas City artist Kwan Wu. Sculptor Kwan Wu was born and trained in China, but since immigrating to the United States and settling in the Kansas City area he has sculpted two major works depicting the western trails for Olathe, Kansas. The other is "Going West on the Old Santa Fe Trail." Dedication plaque text:Perhaps the greatest test of the pioneers’ spirit was the loss of children like Asa Smith to the harsh and unforgiving elements of the frontier. His tiny marker stands today at the intersection of K-10 and K-7 Highways. It is joined by this sculpture created in loving memory of every child lost along the trails as families faced the unknown, blazing our nation’s westward growth.

Albert Ott (1862-1955) was born in Johnson County (containing Olathe) of German immigrants and became a merchant in Olathe. Albert was the son of Christian Martin Ott, who constructed the first mill in Olathe. Albert and his brother, Charles purchased a dry goods and grocery store in 1891; the brothers also took over the family's mill in 1892. Albert married Helena Hyer (1870-1958), also the child of German immigrants, in Illinois in 1893. Helena's brother, C.H. Hyer, owned the Hyer Boot Factory in Olathe. The couple had their home built on the mill tract, as Albert's father had done. On their fiftieth wedding anniversary, the couple was photographed standing on the front porch of their home, at 401 S. Harrison Street, surrounded by flowers. Photos of the couple from both days in 1893 and 1943 are linked below, from the Johnson County Museum's website. The couple lived alone in the home in 1900 but welcomed a daughter, Alberta, around 1901. While Albert's occupation was listed in 1900 as "grocerman", by 1910 he considered himself to be a farmer. The road that this house fronts was called County Road on the 1901 Sanborn Insurance Map for Olathe; the east side of the road (including the house) was not yet a densely developed block so was not mapped in detail in the Sanborn atlas. The road was renamed Spring Hill Avenue by 1912. The Olathe Roller Mill buildings were along the north side of Cedar Street, a block northeast of the Albert Ott House, in 1901. By 1905, the Olathe Roller Mill was no longer in operation; the vacant buildings of the closed operation were in decay, according to the Sanborn map. The buildings along Cedar Street had become the Great Western Rubber Company by 1912, a manufacturer of rubber goods. In 1920, Albert (age 57), Helena (49), and Alberta (18) shared the home; Albert worked as a manager of his own investments and Alberta was in school. Their neighbor, in a house on E. Cedar Street, was Albert's brother, Charles (55) and his wife and daughter. Albert's widowed mother, Justina (81) lived in a nearby house with an elderly nurse. Albert and Helena were living alone in the home once again by 1930. The property was valued at $4,500 and the 67-year-old worked as the manager of rentals. The house currently contains three bedrooms, two and one-half baths, and contains nearly 2,000 square feet on a quarter-acre lot. The exterior has been carefully preserved with its fishscale cladding, stick detailing, and turned wood porch columns.

The Albert Ott House, at 401 S. Harrison Street, is a Victorian home built in 1894 in what later became the Millbrooke neighborhood. The house was built on a large tract of land that contained his father's mill business and his father's home. The Queen Anne style house is wood frame construction on a limestone foundation. Albert Ott and his bride had the house built and were still living in it in the 1940s. Albert and his brother, Charles owned a dry goods store in Olathe and helped run the roller mill. The Albert Ott House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 for its significance in architecture.

Albert Ott House

The Kansas School for the Deaf dates back to 1861. It was founded by Philip A. Emery, a Deaf teacher who had recently moved to Kansas Territory from Indiana. The school started in a small rented cabin in Baldwin City, briefly moved to Topeka, and finally opened in Olathe in 1866, with 18 students. By 1893, enrollment was over 200. [1]One of the school’s students, William J. Marra, had lost his hearing from spinal meningitis when he was five years old. He struggled to learn at schools for the hearing until he was admitted to the Kansas School for the Deaf in 1925. He graduated and went on to attend Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. Marra taught at the Kansas School for the Deaf for 38 years. [2] He began a collection of memorabilia from the school and other aspects of Deaf culture. Marra described the beginnings of his collection in an interview in the mid-1980s: I decided to establish the museum here because I saw how the school was very careless in preserving the older records, pictures and oil paintings. They weren't taking care of what they had. One time, I saw them throwing a picture and some paper in the fire; I couldn't believe it. I saved them and I've been preserving these historical artifacts for 40 years. [2]Marra’s collection was first held in the basement of the school’s Robert Hall. [1] He continued to work with the collection even after his retirement in 1976. The collection eventually grew to be the base of the William J. Marra Museum, which was dedicated on September 20, 1986. [3]It became apparent through the success of the museum and an increase in the number of curious outside visitors that the school needed to expand into a larger facility dedicated to educating the public about issues in the Deaf community. [4] The Deaf Cultural Center opened in a new building across the street from the school in 2005, with the William J. Marra Museum of Deaf History and Deaf Culture located inside. The name of the facility was later changed to the Museum of Deaf History, Arts, and Culture, and it is a separate entity from the Kansas School for the Deaf.Today, the museum offers a space “to educate the general public about the often overlooked, ignored and oppressed heritage and diversity of the rich and vibrant culturo-linguistic Deaf community and to share its truths and contributions to society.” [4] Exhibits showcase the history of Deaf culture and American Sign Language, as well as spotlights on famous members of the Deaf community such as Olathe’s own famous Major League baseball pitcher Luther Taylor. The center also has an art gallery and runs community outreach programs which include beginner’s American Sign Language classes, Girl and Boy Scout projects, a lecture series, visual arts classes, and performing arts performances. Finally, the museum hosts in annual Deaf Cultural Day in conjunction with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. [4]

The Museum of Deaf History, Arts, and Culture is the only public museum in the US dedicated to the experience of being Deaf and telling the story of Deaf history. It began as a small collection of William J. Marra, a teacher at the Kansas School for the Deaf. The collection was first housed in the basement of a hall at the school, and eventually grew large enough to move into its own facility across the street. The William J. Marra Museum was located inside the Deaf Culture Center, which opened in 2005. The building has since been renamed the Museum of Deaf History, Arts, and Culture. 

Museum of Deaf History, Arts, and Culture

The Olathe Cemetery (Olathe Memorial Cemetery) is Olathe's oldest public cemetery, and it remains active today. Olathe Cemetary contains graves of several noteworthy persons, many of whom speak to the town's early exploration, settlement, and development; the first burial occurred in 1865. Additionally, the cemetery's shelter house represents the improvements made in 1937, performed by workers associated with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression.In 1857, Dr. John T. Barton, born in Albemarle County, Virginia, founded Olathe, which serves as Johnson County's county seat (Olathe was incorporated in 1857 and re-incorporated in 1858). Olathe is the Shawnee word for "beautiful." Olathe emerged three years after the establishment of the Kansas Territory and four years before the state's admittance into the Union in 1861 as a free state. During the Civil War, the town primarily functioned as a military camp. Watts Beckwith, a gardener and florist who came to Olathe from New York, argued that Olathe and Johnson County officials had failed to make provisions for the burial of the dead. So, in 1865, he donated ten acres of his land to use as a cemetery to alleviate crowding issues at Church Square (a cemetery that no longer exists). Beckwith's sister, Elvira, was the first person buried in the now-historic cemetery on April 30, 1865, and is the only member of the Beckwith family buried in Olathe cemetery.The land Beckwith donated sat just outside Olathe's city limits in 1865, but the city acquired the cemetery and five additional acres in 1879. Ten years later, in June 1889, the town added to the cemetery by acquiring eight additional acres immediately south of the original plat. Olathe also owned twenty acres of orchards adjacent to the cemetery, which eventually became a city park (and a subdivision by the 1950s). The now-historic cemetery is the final resting place for many of Olathe's early settlers and officials. The city's first mayor (William Pellet, elected in 1870), the first town marshall, its first postmaster, and four councilmen are buried in Olathe Memorial. And three of four members of Olathe's first board of trustees (est. 1859) are buried in the historic cemetery. One trustee, A.J. Clemmans, won three straight elections as the town sheriff. Thus, the cemetery remains a reflection of their contributions to the history of Johnson County. In fact, six of Olathe's first ten citizens are buried in Olathe Memorial Cemetery, including James Beattie Mahaffie (buried 1907). He came to Johnson County in 1857 and enjoyed exceptional success as a farmer. But, he is known for opening in 1864 a farmstead as a stagecoach stop, known as Mahaffie Station, the first stop for stagecoaches traveling along the Santa Fe Trail. Indeed, after the Civil War, Olathe became a major stop along the Santa Fe Trail, with as many as 600 wagons passing through Olathe on the way toward the West (for more, see The Clio Project: Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm, linked below).In 1878, John Pierce St. John (buried 1916) became the first of several Olathe residents to become governor of Kansas. St. John served in the State Senate from 1873 to 1874, then as governor from 1878 to 1882. During his tenure, he passed the Prohibitory Law in 1881, supported the construction of a State Reform School in Topeka, and helped create the Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association during the Great "Exodusters" movement of African-Americans to Kansas in 1879. One can find plots of several officers in charge of Johnson County regiments and companies of the Kansas State Militia during the Civil War. Also, many victims of the guerrilla conflicts in Johnson County during the Civil War, including five men who served in the Twelfth Regiment Kansas Volunteer Infantry, were laid to rest in Olathe Memorial Cemetery. Their burials speak to such events as the raid on Olathe on September 7, 1862. A notorious Confederate guerilla leader, William Quantrill, and roughly 140 men surprised residents and attacked Olathe. Guerrillas raided the city, robbed numerous businesses and homes, and destroyed the two newspaper offices.Another notable burial includes Colonel Josiah Emery Hayes, who moved to Olathe in 1857 (from New Hampshire) and erected numerous buildings, including the Kansas Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. Hayes, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Twelfth Kansas Infantry, had his leg amputated on the field during the Battle of Jenkin's Ferry and then taken prisoner. Confederate troops transported him to Shreveport, Louisiana, and he remained a prisoner there until 1864. After the Civil War, Colonel Hayes built several buildings in town (including the Kansas Institute for the Deaf and Dumb), was elected County Treasurer, became head of the Johnson County Bank, and then, in 1870, was elected State Treasurer (reelected in 1872). On March 8, 1881, Hayes died from complications tied to the wound he suffered during the Civil War battle. After the Civil War, tens of thousands of German (and other European) immigrants, along with German-American migrants, came to Kansas. Examples of that exist throughout the cemetery. For instance, Charles Henry (C.H.) Hyer, the son of an immigrant German shoemaker, moved to Olathe in the mid-1870s and taught shoe and harness making at the Kansas School for the Deaf. Hyer, and his sons, created mail-order catalogs with a measurement chart that enabled customers, such as Buffalo Bill Cody, Clark Gable, Will Rogers, and Dwight Eisenhower, to order custom-made boots. Hyer employed mainly immigrant craftsmen from Germany, Sweden, and Poland as well as hearing-impaired residents from the Kansas School for the Deaf. During World War I, Hyer and Sons made boots for the officers at Fort Leavenworth and Camp Funston. He, and many of his employees, can be found buried at Olathe Memorial Cemetery. Indeed, numerous successful businesspersons have been laid to rest in Olathe Memorial Cemetery over the years, including many who became influential leaders. For example, George and Frank Hodges founded the Hodges Brothers Lumber Company in 1889; it eventually grew to fourteen lumberyards in Johnson County by 1933. Frank also served two terms as mayor of Olathe; he spearheaded the city's first waterworks and sewer system and oversaw the grading of the town's streets. Meanwhile, George Hodges served on the city council, helping the city get its first electric lights, and then he was elected State senator before serving as Kansas's second Democratic governor. He became known as an advocate for progressive platforms such as establishing a corporation tax, passing women's suffrage, increasing the number of women in the Kansas government from one to twenty-eight (during his term in office), and overseeing the ratification of the seventeenth amendment Genoa Livermore is buried in the Livermore family mausoleum with her husband and children (and their spouses). In 1873, Genoa married Harvey Crane Livermore, and several years later, they moved to Olathe. She was a member of the Ladies Reading Circle (the first literary society organized in Olathe), a member of the Library Board, became the first president of the Olathe Improvement Society, and was matron of the Eastern Star. In addition, Mrs. Livermore organized a Red Cross chapter in Johnson County shortly after the Civil War. At 22 years of age, Private Earl Milton Collier became the first soldier from Olathe (and second from Johnson County) to die in World War I; he was buried in the World War Memorial of the Olathe Memorial Cemetery. In 1926, the City of Olathe donated a monument along with 186 graves in memory of the soldiers and marines of the Spanish-American War and the World War. Earl Collier's parents donated money as a perpetual fund for the area's upkeep in memory of their son. In September 1942, Don Roberds was the first Olathe airman (the U.S. Government purchased a naval training site -- Olathe Naval Air Station -- located southwest of Olathe in January 1942) to lose his life during World War II. There are also gravestones honoring two men who died during the Korean War.In 1937 the Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved the cemetery by adding stone entryways and a shelter house; only the shelter house remains today, but it represents improvements made as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs during the Great Depression. Nineteen years later, in 1956, the city transformed the original city park into the present Elmwood subdivision, which established the current boundaries to the cemetery. Today, the Olathe Cemetery, or Olathe Memorial Cemetery, serves as a home to numerous monuments to the town's, county's, and nation's history.

Established in 1865, the tombstones and plots at the Olathe Memorial Cemetery tell the story of Olathe's and Johnson Country's history. Six of the city's first ten citizens are buried here, as are early mayors, business leaders, veterans who fought during the Civil War which occurred only four years after the town's founding. The cemetery's headstones share information about family histories and Olathe's ties to the Civil War, Santa Fe Trail, World Wars, women's suffrage, and the New Deal. The historic burial site stands as the city's oldest public cemetery, and it remains active today.

Olathe Cemetery (Olathe Memorial Cemetery)

The history of the farm begins with the arrival of James and Lucinda Mahaffie in 1857.1 The site originally held a wooden frame house that the Mahaffies had moved from downtown Olathe. Later, a limestone farmhouse was constructed in its place. The Mahaffies and their eight children worked the farm, which eventually grew to 340 acres. The home, a two-story limestone icehouse, and a barn (constructed using wooden pegs instead of nails) still stand today.2Within just a few years of buying the land, the Mahaffies started hosting travelers and a stagecoach stop along the Westport Route of the Santa Fe Trail. Travelers on the Barlow, Sanderson and Company Stagecoach Line took meals in the large basement of the new stone home. The meals were cooked by Lucinda herself, as well as her daughters and hired servants. By 1867, the family were serving between 50-100 meals a day. The farm also provided a supplies store, a campsite for covered wagons, and livery service, where the stagecoach could hitch up fresh horses while travelers ate.1,3Stagecoach operations eventually ended in the 1870s with the arrival of the railroad. However, the family and their farm remained prosperous. James Mahaffie invested in the railroad and served on the board of what would become the railroad company. In 1886, James and Lucinda moved back to Olathe town to live out their senior years.1Today, 20 acres of the original farm and stagecoach stop are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as a part of the Santa Fe National Historic Trail.1 The site is maintained by Olathe’s Parks and Recreation Department, which operates tours and events year-round. Visitors to the site today can view agricultural tools and live animals that would have been seen on the original farm, as well as learn more about daily tasks such as threshing and harvesting. Stagecoach rides run throughout the year. Living history programs include Civil War reenactments, Blacksmithing and cooking demonstrations, and children’s games and chores. One of the largest events hosted at the site is the Wild West Days, featuring live entertainment, cookoffs, dancing, and cowboy encampments, in addition to the usual living history activities. The Heritage Center building also acts as a rental venue for weddings and other special events.4

The Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm tells the story of an early pioneering family and stagecoach transportation in 1860s Kansas. The historic site is significant as the only remaining stagecoach stop along the old Santa Fe Trail. Today it acts as a living history museum, complete with stagecoach rides. Various exhibits and activities showcase frontier life and the Civil War era. 

Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm

To mark its 150th
anniversary, the town of Olathe constructed a 10,000-square-foot Heritage
Center to accompany the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm historic site and erected
a sixty-foot-long bronze stagecoach relief by local artist Kwan Wu.

The sculpture is 60 feet long
and 15 feet tall. It features full scale bronze relief of stagecoach and
passengers against a concrete backdrop. Stand-alone figures of horses, a woman
and young boy emerge from the relief.

Sculptor Kwan Wu was
born, raised, and trained in China. He immigrated to the United States in 1988, settling in the Kansas City area. He became a U.S. citizen in 1997.

The stagecoach sculpture reflects the ethnic diversity of the 19th-century American West. Wu’s stagecoach scene is
far more diverse than most pioneer monuments. Wu relied on historic photographs and photos of reproduction clothing and a stagecoach as he sculpted the scene. Fifteen characters represent men,
women, and children of different ethnicities traveling on the stagecoach. A Latino man and African-American couple sit on the roof of the crowded stagecoach.&nbsp;A Native
American woman and her dog wave farewell to the travelers while birds fly overhead.

The sculpture was funded
by private donations to mark Olathe’s 150th anniversary. It was dedicated
August 14, 2008.

“We wanted to give
something significant that the city could be proud of,” said Marlene Natoli, a
co-chair of Olathe’s Sequicentennial Committee. The sculpture “doesn’t let the
city forget where it came from.”1

The sculpture was
originally planned as part of the construction of a 10,000-square-foot, $3
million Heritage Center next to the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm. That
plan was set aside when funds ran short. But Wu had already designed the
sculpture, which was taken up by the town’s sesquicentennial committee. Local philanthropist
Maron Moore contributed half of the $400,000 budget. The anniversary committee
raised the other half. 

The artist used local
residents as models. Donor Maron Moore sits in the front window of the
stagecoach. Sesquicentennial Committee co-chair Mike Haskins and Mahaffie employees provided faces for several other characters.&nbsp;

This stagecoach sculpture designed by local Chinese-born artist Kwan Wu, reflects the ethnic diversity of the 19th-century American West. The sculpture was funded by private donations to mark Olathe’s 150th anniversary.

Going West on the Old Santa Fe Trail

Statue of pioneer family marks the junction of the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails. It depicts a man in frontier clothing kneeling in prayer. He holds a Bible in one hand, and his other hand rests on a walking plow. His wife stands beside him with her head bowed in prayer. She cradles their young son in one arm and rests the other hand on her husband's shoulder. This statue became a centerpoint of MidAmerica Nazarene University when erected in the campus Prayer Circle in 1994.

Harvest Prayer statue

This historic-themed park began from growing interest among local citizens in the 1970s who hoped to share the story of small family farms that were being replaced either by suburban sprawl in the case of the Kansas City metro or the growth of corporate farms in the larger region. The effort began with a single building, a handful of animals, and a silo that included a slide for children. In the past decades, the farmstead has added a complete village, over 200 animals, and numerous gardens. The farmstead remains centered on activities for children with activities such as fishing in a well-stocked pond, bottle feeding baby goats, covered wagon rides, a historic schoolhouse, and of course, treats for the whole family such as ice cream serves in a recreated western general store.

This family-centered farmstead and rural heritage park opened in 1978, offering a way to explore the historical and traditional single-family rural farms that previously dominated the landscape as it gave way to suburban sprawl. The farmstead was renamed in 1985 after Deanna Rose, the first Overland Park police officer was killed in the line of duty.

Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead

This museum was established in 2010 and opened in 2014 as the educational centerpiece of Prairiefire, a 58-acre mixed-use project that integrates residential and retail space with restaurants and entertainment. Guests to the museum enter the Great Hall which includes an interactive exhibit of dinosaurs along with a Tyrannosaurus Rex that was discovered by Kansas native Barnum Brown. The Great Hall also includes rotating exhibits and an interactive display where dinosaurs come alive through augmented reality. For those who purchase tickets, the Discovery Room engages children 3-12 years old with exhibits and programs in the natural sciences. Children and the adults that accompany them can assemble a Prestosuchus, a life-sized cast of a Triassic reptile, and dig up fossils in a re-creation of a paleontology field site, among many other activities and resources. In 2024, the museum completed plans with the National College Baseball Hall of Fame to share exhibit space.

The Museum at Prairiefire

Congregation B’nai Jehudah has historically had the largest number of members among local Jewish congregations. Throughout its significant history, B’nai Jehudah has committed to extending a lively, welcoming home to its congregants. However, the temple has faced many uncertainties and challenges in its early stages. One of the earliest challenges was employing a consistent rabbi. The first permanent building was constructed in September 1875. In 1876, the head rabbi left to pursue a job in Ohio, so the congregation came up against a situation of a substantial mortgage on the new building in addition to finding a new rabbi. The temple stood empty that year after no avail of hiring a new head rabbi. Close to half of the congregation's members withdrew support during this period without a rabbi and membership dropped to a mere 22 families by early 1877. Rabbi Ignatz Grossman was hired in 1878 as B’nai Jehudah’s first ordained Rabbi and has been the only individual in the Congregation’s history to act as rabbi and cantor at the same time. Nonetheless, he made an enormous positive impression at his first Rosh Hashanah service that by nine days later on Yom Kippur he had attracted 28 new members. After a two year period of leadership, Rabbi Grossman moved to Chicago. He was succeeded by Rabbi Elias Eppstein, who soon proposed a five day long fundraiser, and it was successful enough to retire the mortgage with money left over. By fall of 1880, B’nai Jehudah constituted 90 families, and it seemed the congregation was once again prospering.B’nai Jehudah’s first permanent building was constructed in September 1875. Talk of a permanent home for the congregation started in 1873 though two hindrances laid in the way of realizing that goal. Due to a nationwide financial panic in the fall of 1873, the city’s banks closed down. The following summer, a locust outbreak destroyed the midwest’s crop harvest. The Congregation’s Hebrew Ladies’ Relief Society held a two-day-long festival in May 1874 to raise funds for the construction of a new building. It successfully raised $860, and a year later, there were sufficient funds to establish a building. The congregation’s new home was located at the southeast corner of Wyandotte and Sixth street. It was built in five months, with contributions of gas light fixtures from the current president Louis Hammerslough while the ladies of the relief society supplied the organ, carpets, ark curtain and Torah covers. On September 24, 1875, the new temple was dedicated. The Kansas City Times newspaper covered the commencement as important local news:“The building is a perfect model of architectural beauty, and it is complete and elegant in all its appointments. It is constructed on acoustic principles and is admirably adapted to speaking or singing. The audience room will seat comfortably about three hundred and fifty people. The aisles are covered with a most beautiful carpet. The organ and choir are located in the gallery, in the rear of the room.”B’nai Jehudah occupied its first permanent home for the next ten years, encompassing new challenges and a return to hopefulness and stability.B’nai Jehudah sold its first temple at 6th and Wyandotte in the spring of 1883 with larger, grander ambitions in mind. The southwest corner of 11th and Oak Street was chosen for the new location. Money and troubles with construction scheduling proved to be a significant challenge. Again, the congregation held a successful fair and raised sufficient funds. The new building, once constructed in 1885, was a significant upgrade from the previous location. Although the Oak Street temple displayed modern design and improvement in size, it only served as the Congregation’s home for 23 years. Kansas City was seeing a massive amount of growth, and in 1905 B’nai Jehudah began to explore a new home. The new location was a site at the southeast corner of Linwood Boulevard and Flora Avenue. A design of “pure classic style” was approved by the congregation and the new building was erected in May of 1907. The Linwood Boulevard Temple stood for nearly five decades until the congregation moved south to 69th and Holmes in 1957, when B’nai Jehudah purchased 5.5 acres on the east side of Holmes Road, next to a public park and the Rose Hill Cemetery. The Architectural Record magazine featured B’nai Jehudah’s new building in its July 1969 issue admiring its structure. The temple stood for many successful years until B’nai Jehudah moved to its current location on Nall Avenue in Overland Park.Throughout its long history, the congregation has enjoyed an unparalleled richness and diversity. Currently, B'nai Jehudah's community is vast in that there are so many opportunities to be involved including an array of programs, youth groups, trips to Israel, classes for college students and young adults all the way through senior adults, and Sisterhood and Brotherhood organizations. Members are able to enjoy a range of programming that reaches to every member, throughout the city and across state boundaries. The core purpose of B’nai Jehudah is to nurture Jewish meaning, connection and continuity, and they have achieved that through constant dedication and determination through hardships and successes. B’nai Jehudah now celebrates over 150 years of history and tradition and continues to progress in its innovative thinking, strong leadership, and active community.

Here marks the current location of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah is one of the oldest Reform Jewish Congregations in the nation and the oldest synagogue in the Kansas City metropolitan area. It is a center for locals of all ages in the Jewish community of Overland Park, Kansas. Founded in 1870 by a handful of pioneer families, it has historically had the largest number of members among local Jewish congregations. Towards the end of the 19th century, B’nai Jehudah became a founding member of the Union for Reform Judaism establishing its ambition to seek social improvement. The congregation has since been known nationally for its vision, leadership and progressive thinking. There is an unparalleled richness and diversity in the life of the congregation and an enthusiasm for social justice and committing to the needs of others.

The Temple, Congregation B'nai Jehudah

Kansas City became home to many Holocaust survivors after World War II ended thanks in part to the support of the city's Jewish community. In 1958, a group of local Holocaust survivors came together to consider ways to create a memorial and support other efforts to preserve history and strengthen the Jewish community in the Kansas City area. The group met with the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Center, Sol E. Margolin, and considered a variety of ideas. The New Americans Club of the Jewish Community Center of Kansas City, otherwise known as The New Americans, was born from this meeting. The meeting also led to plans to create a memorial, originally referred to as the Warsaw Ghetto Monument in 1959. The monument would later be referred to as the Memorial to the Six Million. Demonstrating change over time, the memorial was moved to this location from its original location on Holmes Road after the Jewish Community Center followed the path of residents to suburban Overland Park.Funding for the aluminum sculpture was organized by the New Americans over the next four years The group commissioned artist Maurice Newman, a native of Lithuania working in Washington, D.C., to design the monument at a cost of $15,000 dollars ($100,000 in 2020). Kansas City resident and former President Harry S. Truman delivered the keynote address at the dedication, and the monument stood on Holmes Road until in 1988 it was relocated to the new Jewish Community Center.The memorial features many important aspects from both the Holocaust and the Warsaw Ghetto. With symbolic imagery, Newman's artistry encourages the audience to remember the Holocaust and prevent something similar from occurring again. The memorial's inclusion of a detailed map of the Warsaw Ghetto, devoid of its inhabitants, emphasizes the magnitude of the area while also providing remembrance for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Underneath the map, the crowds of people being forcefully herded towards concentration and death camps commemorate those who suffered during the Holocaust, lest we forget how such events began and were perpetuated. The inclusion of two separate exoduses, that of the biblical exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and that of Jews leaving Europe after World War II, offer a symbol of promise and hope for new lives after enduring immense pain. The visage of a warrior within flames depicts the necessity of remembering the Holocaust. The memorial's construction, with the aluminum shaped like rocks at the base, further depicts the rise from the Warsaw Ghetto. Finally, the names engraved on the monument are the names of family members who had died during the Holocaust, further tying the memorial to the local Jewish community while honoring those who had lost their lives.The memorial is located on the grounds of the Jewish Community Center, known as "The J" to local residents, The Community Center provides many community-building activities and programs, as well as educational programs for the Jewish community in the Kansas City area.

This monument was dedicated in 1963, making it one of the first memorials in the United States to recognize the history of the Holocaust. At the end of World War II, Holocaust survivors moved around the world to rebuild their lives. Given the large Jewish community in Kansas City and global family networks, some survivors moved to the Kansas City metropolitan area. With the support of the Jewish community and others throughout Kansas City, local Holocaust survivors led the effort to raise funds to create this memorial to the six million Jews who were victims of the Holocaust. Fundraising began in the late 1950s and President Harry Truman spoke at the memorial's dedication ceremony on June 9, 1963. The monument was one of the first of its kind in the United States and originally stood on Holmes Road until the decision was made in 1988 to move to its present location on the grounds of the Jewish Community Center.

The Memorial to the Six Million; Kansas City Jewish Community Center

The Johnson County Museum opened in 1967 and was originally run by all volunteers. It was housed in the old Greenwood School in Shawnee, a two-room stone schoolhouse built in 1927. [1] One of the signature pieces of the museum was the “1950s All-Electric House,” a five-room model show house moved to the lot behind the main building. Constructed in 1954, it was used to demonstrate the “home of the future” at the time. [2] By the time the museum closed, the school had expanded to a facility of 20,000 square feet. [1]The old King Louie West building in Overland Park was chosen to be the location of the new museum. This building had once housed an ice rink, bowling alley, and billiards room, but it had sat empty for over a decade. [3] In 2017, the AHC opened at its new location after a $22 million renovation project. In addition to gallery and office space, the new 76,000-square-feet facility has a theater, classrooms, rehearsal room, and event space. [3] The AHC began charging an admission fee for the first time in the museum’s history, and about 70,000 visitors were served the first year. [1] The building won a Capstone Award for Adaptive Reuse in 2018. [3]Today, the museum has over 20,000 artifacts, as well as a million photographs and 300 cubic feet of archival material, many of which are accessible online in its “JoCoHistory” portal. [1]. The main exhibit “Becoming Johnson County” traces the history of the county through its residents, the use of the land, and policies. The 1950s All-Electric House made the journey to the new facility, and now takes up 12,500 square feet of inside gallery space. A new exhibit called KidScape, an interactive exhibit that takes families through an 1870s farmstead, a 1900s city market, and a 1950s suburban community. The center also hosts regular special exhibitions and a wide variety of programs for adults and children, such as art classes and performing arts camps. The center's Black Box Theater holds 300, with a resident theater company that produces show year-round. The AHC has been “recognized over 20 times for excellence in exhibitions, programming and publications by national, regional and state organizations.” [1]The AHC is under the management of Johnson County Parks &amp; Recreation. [1] Lansfield Historic Site is also under its supervision (see separate Clio entry).

The Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center (AHC) was formerly known as the Johnson County Museum of History. The museum first opened in 1967 in the old Greenwood School in Shawnee. In 2017, the museum was moved to a new location in Overland Park, in an award-winning renovated building. The large galleries tell the story of Johnson County’s history through interactive exhibits. 

Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center 

Bob D. Campbell made a name for himself in Kansas City as the head of the civil engineering firm Bob D. Campbell &amp; Co. Campbell worked on several buildings across the metropolitan area, largely using the contemporary modern style that gained popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. However, few architects went so far as to build their own homes in this style. Among the ranch, split-level, and duplex homes of the South Lake neighborhood, Campbell built his dream home with a dome for the ceiling, designing it in a way he believed would make it more efficient than a typical home. He then lived in the house for the rest of his life, maintaining it as needed for more than 50 years.Bob and his wife, Lolly Campbell, passed away in the early 2010s. After that, the home sat vacant for a few years except for when it was used for a few private Campbell family events. More recently, Bob and Lolly's grandaughter Keli Campbell had the idea to share the unique home with the public. This proved to be a difficult task. Between the home's age and architectural design, it turned out to need more maintenance than the average home. The home was added on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022, making it eligible for tax credits to support restoration. Keli Campbell hopes to turn it into an Airbnb eventually. She hopes that these things will help her maintain her family's historic home and share her grandfather's futuristic vision with others.

This mid-century modern home was designed by civil engineer Bob Campbell and constructed between 1967 and 1968. Campbell lived in the home with his family, who shared his optimism that the design represented the future of architecture. Campbell and other engineers believed that the Schwedler dome, which utilizes a series of meridional metal ribs to support the roof, offered numerous advantages in providing a strong and spacious design with minimal materials. In retrospect, the design was impractical to construct at scale and hard to maintain, so few other houses were built in this style. Campbell's family home remains a neighborhood landmark after 50 years and his granddaughter occasionally holds open houses. The home is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the family hopes to convert the structure into a rental so more people can see Bob Campbell's futuristic vision.

Campbell Dome House

William B. Strang (1857-1921) first came to Kansas in 1885 after making a name for himself in the railroad business. Throughout much of his career, Strang worked to build several railroads throughout the United States. He finally landed in Johnson County, Kansas in 1905, where he started construction of his interurban rail line and established the subdivision of Overland Park in 1906. As his wealth grew, Strang constructed his carriage house in 1915 to house his personal carriages and automobiles, while the second floor of the building served as a residence for his chauffeurs.As the United States was expanding west, much of the land development happened along the railroads so it often fell upon the railroad magnates to plan those developments. William B. Strang Jr. was one such magnate and in 1905, he purchased 600 acres of suitable land south of Kansas City for the purpose of building a residential suburb. Some of the region had been damaged by the Kansas River flooding in 1903, so Strang bought land on higher ground with the hopes of protecting residential areas from flood damage. It was his idea to connect Kansas City to its new suburb with an electric interurban railway. This would allow easy access for city dwellers to escape into the rural country, while simultaneously giving suburban residents quick access to employment in the city.In 1906, Strang established the Missouri and Kansas Interurban Railway to run a trolley from Kansas City to his newly developed city Overland Park. Strang established this and many other construction projects in Overland Park, including the town's first airstrip. Strang’s initial ambitions for Overland Park fell victim to the expanding metro area of Kansas City, which eventually grew to engulf the suburb. Many of his infrastructural contributions to the Kansas City area, including his trolley car line and the air strip, have since been demolished. However, several streets and buildings in Overland Park are named in honor of Strang and his contributions to the town.Strang inhabited Overland Park from 1905 until his death in 1921. For some time after his death, the carriage house was rarely used and fell into disrepair. It is one of the most well constructed of its era and since 1998, it has been the headquarters of the Overland Park Historical Society. The historical society heavily renovated the interior of the building, however, it still features its original wooden doors and limestone exterior. The Strang Carriage House also houses a small museum with several small collections of local artifacts.

Built in 1915, the Strang Carriage House was constructed for railroad magnate William B. Strang, the founder of the city of Overland Park and the first electric rail line. The carriage house was used to house the personal vehicles while his chauffeurs lived on the second level. Many of the surrounding projects built by Strang have since been demolished, but his old carriage house remains as one of the oldest buildings still standing in Overland Park. The building was renovated in 1998 and now serves as the site of the Overland Park Historical Society.

Strang Carriage House

William B. Strang was an international builder of short-line railroads, urban developer, and gifted promoter. The 1903 floods of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers accelerated development on both sides of the state line, but it was the rapid population growth of Kansas City that was most responsible for the founding of Overland Park, Kansas.Strang had offices on Wall Street and a Park Avenue, New York City residence. A popular story connecting Strant to the development of this community involves his widowed mother who lived in Kansas City at the time of the floods. A popular book on the early history of Overland Park includes a story that she approached her son and suggested that a city rail line could promote residential developments that would rescue her and others from the “awful stench of rotting carcasses” from the flooded stockyards that permeated the air of her Kansas City, Missouri, home. The story continues that Strang took his mother to the farm of his friend, George Metcalf, located several miles into the country and across the state line on Kansas Street, where she mentioned how good the air smelled and how happy she was that Strang had the idea to build a “planned parklike suburb there” where the air was clean and there was no chance of flooding (Oberg).Strang’s vision of an interurban rail line followed similar patterns that led to the creation of trolley lines and suburbs such as Brookside and Waldo. With no natural barrier, former farmland could be purchased and developed with affordable homes away from the urban core as long as transportation networks were available. Strang’s first patented, self-propelled streetcar with no overhead wire was the first of its kind to be used on railroad tracks in the United States. The interurban line was officially called the Missouri &amp; Kansas Interurban Railroad but known locally as the Strang Line,That same year, in 1906, Strang purchased 600 acres that he named Overland Park. In August 1906, there was an auction with 83 parcels of land sold for as high as $380 (over $10,000 today). Strang acquired more land and planned and promoted additional developments. The Strang Depot on the interurban line was the first commercial building in Overland Park, Kansas.In the next century, this building was expanded and remodeled, with the original walls covered. The Overland Park Historical Society purchased the structure and pulled back some of the walls to reveal the stone walls from 1906 along with original wainscoting and lap siding. The group plans to create a museum and community space that will offer exhibits, educational programs, and an archive.

Construction of this interurban railway depot began in 1905 under the direction of William B. Strang, Jr., who is widely recognized as the founder of Overland Park, given the central role of his interurban railroad that connected this area to the growing city. Strang's Missouri &amp; Kansas Interurban Railroad was also known as the "Stran Line" and this depot became the first commercial building in what would become Overland Park, Kansas. The first interurban rail car arrived in March 1906. The Overland Park Historical Society (OPHS) purchased this structure and plans to create a museum and community space that will feature a trolley car, exhibits, a conference room, an educational center, and archival facilities.

Strang Depot

Glen Dickinson opened his first movie theatre in Manhattan, Kansas in 1920. It would become the first in a chain of Dickinson movie palaces and drive-ins operated throughout the Midwest. Within a decade, there were 26 Dickinson movie theatres, and Dickinson decided to move the company headquarters to Lawrence, Kansas. Later, the headquarters would again move, this time to Overland Park. [1] At its peak, the Dickinson Theatres operated 400 screens across seven states, and the company was worth millions.Dickinson Theatres chose Robert Boller to design the Overland Theatre. The renowned local Boller Brothers architectural firm, owned by Carl and Robert Boller, had specialized in grand movie palaces during the 1920s. However, the firm fell on hard times with the Great Depression and dissolved. Carl Boller retired, but Robert Boller continued to find work on smaller projects on his own. Then, movie theatre construction was halted completely by the war department between 1942 and 1944. [2] Overland Park had had two previous movie theatres, but neither survived the Great Depression. [3] By the time the Overland Theatre opened on Christmas Day 1946, the town had been without a movie theatre for a decade, and the community must have been eager for an entertainment venue.Overland Theatre was an example of Modern-style architecture. The building is made of cement blocks with a porcelain tile exterior. The main façade has features constructed out of corrugated aluminum and glass blocks, and many of the elements light up with neon tube lighting. An eye-like design in the center of the building has a Spanish or southwest influence, typical of many of the Boller Brothers’ designs. Below the marquee are two double doors with a glass ticket booth in the center. The Overland Theatre originally had about 600 seats. The first movie to be shown at the theatre was “The Hurricane”, and an adult ticket cost 50 cents. [4]Over the years, the name of the theatre changed to Kimo South and then Park Cinema. From 1977 to 1987, the theatre was the home of a performance art group for kids called Theatre for Young America. In 1999, after 80 years and three generations as a family-run business, Dickinson Theatres filed for bankruptcy. [5] Overland Theatre was purchased by the Fine Arts Group, which set to work renovating the building. It reopened as Rio Theatre on June 30, 2000. [6] It is 2000 square feet, with 281 seats and one screen. The theatre focuses on showing independent and foreign films. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

The Rio Theatre opened as Overland Theatre in 1946 and was one of over two dozen midwestern theatres that were part of the Dickinson Theatre chain established in Manhattan, Kansas, in 1920 and later headquartered in Lawrence. Architect Robert Boller, of the well-known Boller Brothers firm, designed the theatre in the Moderne Style. The theater has been well-preserved and is known today for its striking retro neon lighting, glass blocks, and pastel-colored tiles. In 2000, the theatre reopened as the Rio Theatre, an independent movie house. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Rio Theatre

The Strang Line Car Barn was one of the first buildings to be constructed in Overland Park and was built by railroad magnate William B. Strang Jr.. A first generation American, Strang was born in Syracuse, New York to Irish immigrants in 1857. He made his name as an entrepreneur and railroad magnate across the continental United States before settling in Kansas in 1885. By the dawn of the twentieth century Kansas City was growing rapidly in population and in 1903, much of the surrounding area was devastated when the Kansas River flooded. This provided Strang with an opportunity to develop land around the city for new rail lines and residential areas to replace those lost in the flood. In 1905 he purchased 600 acres of land south of Kansas City to develop a suburb. This land was purchased on high ground above the floodplain to protect its residents. Strang created a railway company called the Missouri and Kansas Interurban Railway with the idea of creating an electric rail line to connect his new suburb to Kansas City.By 1906 the line was up and running, and the car barn was already built at the end of the tracks. In its original form, the car barn served to repair the trolley cars and provide electricity to the rail line. The rail line connecting Overland Park to Kansas City greatly facilitated the suburb's early population growth. During its operation the rail line was commonly colloquially referred to as the Strang line by people in the Kansas City area. Strang built many other projects in Overland Park, including an airfield that hosted numerous airshows with early aircraft. This airfield no longer exists as it was demolished to make way for further residential developments.It was Strang’s vision for Overland Park to be a small town rural getaway for those who felt stuck in the urban landscape of Kansas City. The electric rail line operated differently than traditional railroads. It ran far more often throughout the day with a much cheaper fare to ride, because the line’s primary purpose wasn’t to make money rather it was to facilitate travel between Kansas City and Overland Park. This system was ideal for families wanting to have a day trip getaway to the countryside and return home at the end of the day. The line also provided quick access to Kansas City’s employment opportunities to Overland Park’s residents. Much of the car barn was destroyed in a fire in 1925 and had to be rebuilt. The original rail line was popular and operated for several decades before its closure in 1940. Since then, the rails have all been removed and little remains of the original infrastructure planned by Strang. The car barn, a small artificial lake nearby, and the Strang carriage house down the street are all that remains of the original structures. Today, a furniture store operates out of the Strang Line Car Barn building and proudly showcases the building’s original limestone exterior. It sits near the middle of downtown Overland Park, which is no longer a rural suburb as it is now physically connected to the Kansas City metro area. Most of the passenger rail traffic between Overland Park and Kansas City has been replaced by automobile traffic. Strang died in 1921, almost two decades before his rail line closed forever.

Built in 1906, the Strang Line Car Barn worked to house and repair trolleys for the Missouri and Kansas Interurban Railway, while also providing power to the electric track. Established by the founder of Overland Park, William B. Strang, the car barn operated until 1940 when the rail line was shut down and abandoned. Eventually the tracks and much of the surrounding infrastructure was demolished, but the original car barn remains. Today the building is occupied by a furniture store.

Strang Line Car Barn

The Loomis Historic District represents the evolution of the property from farm acreage to a Kansas City suburb. Emily Loomis purchased the property in 1882 and built a large farmhouse in 1886. Years later, her son added to the property and had a second home built on the land, where he lived with his wife. Over time, the family started selling portions of the land, including to the Griffith family, who built the third home on the site and used a shed moved there from an old, mid-nineteenth-century Quaker Mission. Each of the four buildings within the district represents a distinct architectural style that corresponds to a historic era of development in Johnson County, Kansas.In 1882, Emily Louise Field Loomis purchased land in the southwest portion of the now-historic district. Although Emily had been married to Edgar Calvin Loomis since 1860, the property's warranty deed was in her name alone. Emily, born in 1844, and Edgar, born in 1826, came to Kansas from rural New York via Michigan, where their two sons, Calvin and Charles, were born. The Loomis family likely lived in another house while their grand farmhouse (8325 Johnson Drive) was under construction. An 1886 inscription in the house's limestone foundation dates the home to four years after they purchased the property. The size of the land and the grand nature of the Italiante-style farmhouse speak to Emily Loomis' affluence and the farm's success. Emily's oldest son, Calvin Willard Loomis, was born in 1866 and eventually purchased farmland in Leavenworth County, Kansas, where he operated a dairy farm and bred Holstein cattle until he died unexpectedly in 1913. Meanwhile, Charles Henry Loomis, born in 1873, lived in Merriam his entire adult life. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kansas in 1898 and a medical degree from the University of Chicago in 1901. Also, in 1901, he married Viola Eleanor Starns, and the two lived with Emily Loomis in the large farmhouse. Emily and Edgar Loomis had divorced in 1887; she subsequently sold several parcels of her acreage, including a sizable portion to her ex-husband. Emily then married and was quickly divorced in November 1891 before marrying a third time in 1898. In 1912, Emily deeded the remaining portion of her land to Charles, who had acquired more acreage south of his mother's property; Charles and Viola moved into a separate home at 5900 Hadley Ave, designed in the Craftsman (Bungalow) style, a style with roots in the English Arts and Crafts movementAfter Emily died in August 1916, the Loomis family began selling off several parcels of the property by the early 1920s. In 1944, the Loomis family had sold property south of the Emily Loomis house to Ellen Griffith and her husband, Lloyd A, a World War II veteran. Lloyd Griffith died in 1978, but the land stayed in the Griffith family until Ellen passed away in 1995. The home they had constructed serves as an example of the mid-20th century Minimal Traditional style, the most common house style from the end of World War II until the early 1950s.The "Griffith Shed," erected in 1840, came from the 320-acre Quaker (or Friends) Mission, one of three missions established in northeast Johnson County. The Mission closed in 1870, leaving a small collection of buildings, which they rented some to tenant farmers. Charles eventually purchased the structures, including the shed, which he moved to the site the Griffiths purchased from the Loomis family.Charles and Viola Loomis likely moved from their 5900 Hadley house as early as 1928; records show the deed passed back and forth from the Loomises to two separate buyers between 1928 and 1944. Charles Loomis partially retired from his medical practice in 1920. He also served as the Shawnee State Bank vice president for 45 years. In October 1937, Charles and Viola Loomis sold the Emily Loomis house and property. By 1949, four years before Charles died, the Loomis family sold the rest of the property they had owned since Emily purchased it in 1882.The three homes and the shed set amidst a suburban landscape survive as an illustration of the area's evolution from farmland to a Kansas City suburb. Each structure, built in a different architectural style, also offers evidence of the changing home-design trends from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. The original farmhouse home, designed in the Italianate style, denotes the Loomis family and the farm's success. However, Emily's divorces and her kids' decisions to lead different (non-farm) career paths led the family to sell parts of the land from time to time until finally selling the grand farmhouse in 1937 and the remaining property in 1949.

The Loomis District consists of four structures, three homes, and one shed, each built at different times from the late nineteenth century through the early twentieth century. Emily Loomis purchased this land in 1882 and had the grand farmhouse built four years later. Unusual for the time, the property and home were listed in her name rather than her husband's name. Her oldest son moved to another part of Kansas to develop a farm while his youngest, Charles Loomis, became a doctor. Charles added to the property and built a home for his family. But, by the 1920s, the Loomis family began to sell portions of the land until finally selling the remaining property before World War II. Each structure enjoys a unique architectural style that reflects the era for which they were built. Moreover, the collection of houses amidst the suburban landscape speaks to Meriam's gradual change from a rural, farm location to that of a Kansas City suburb.

Loomis District: Emily Loomis House

<div>“The Bear Pit” was installed outside of Merriam’s Visitors Bureau in 2006. It is a&nbsp;life-size&nbsp;sculpture made entirely of&nbsp;bronze that is used in conjunction with a fountain system.&nbsp;Also&nbsp;titled “Motherhood,”&nbsp;it&nbsp;depicts two bear cubs accompanying their mother. The mother appears to be directing her attention to one cub, while the other is preoccupied with trying to catch a fish that flew out of the water. The fountain begins in Shawnee Mission Parkway, containing four bubblers and a sign for the City of Merriam. The water trails underneath a walking path and ends up in the pool surrounding the bears with an additional seven bubblers. The sculpture and fountain were installed in 2006&nbsp;</div><div>Kwan Wu, a sculptor residing in Kansas City, created and built “The Bear Pit.” Wu grew up in China and was a promising sculptor from early on. He was scouted to attend China’s most&nbsp;prestigious&nbsp;art school along with only seven others. Four years later, he and one other student became the apprentices of Pan Ho, the Chinese National Sculptor.&nbsp;Several&nbsp;years later, Wu was Pan&nbsp;Ho’s most talented and capable apprentice; he was even in&nbsp;the position to replace him in the&nbsp;future. However, his work sent him to America for a few years, and he chose to stay, bringing his wife and son and helping them gain U.S. citizenship.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div>“The Bear Pit” is located over the area that used to be Merriam Park, from which Wu drew his inspiration for the sculpture. Merriam Park was an amusement&nbsp;park built&nbsp;on 40 acres of land by the Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad company&nbsp;as a way to&nbsp;lure people to the growing area and cultivate business opportunities.&nbsp;The&nbsp;park,&nbsp;designed by architect George Kessler, who later became one of&nbsp;the park’s superintendents,&nbsp;opened in July of 1880. The FS&amp;G Railroad Company held a dedication ceremony featuring a speech by the current President, Ulysses S. Grant, who referred to the park as the “greatest amusement West of the Mississippi.” Admission to the park was a mere 25 cents (approximately $6.18 today), and&nbsp;it&nbsp;garnered thousands of visitors per day, reaching as high as 20,000 on their best days.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div>There were a variety of attractions in the park, including: a lagoon for&nbsp;sailboats&nbsp;or ice skating depending on the weather; areas designated for sports such as baseball, croquet, and tennis; a merry-go-round pulled by horses; at least one tree from every country in the world, an idea thought up by Kessler;&nbsp;and a small zoo. The zoo contained a large assortment of animals, but the most renowned are the park’s three bears. The legend states that the three bears were caught roaming around the park each night. They were never far from their designated area, but they were far enough that, most nights, they had to be escorted&nbsp;back. The bears were reportedly in pleasant moods when they were out, almost as if they simply wanted to roam.&nbsp;</div><div>Merriam Park was&nbsp;closed down&nbsp;in 1900 when Kansas City built its own attractions and parks to compete with the original. However, remnants of the park, namely the steps and the bear pits, were still extremely apparent even in the 1930s. Wu built the sculpture to commemorate this park, but&nbsp;it&nbsp;is far from the only thing in the area that is reminiscent of it. Kessler, after designing Merriam Park, was contracted to create a blueprint for the roads and parks in Kansas City. Because of this, the older parts of Kansas City look&nbsp;similar to&nbsp;how Merriam Park used to be laid out.&nbsp;</div>

“The Bear Pit” is a bronze sculpture located outside of the Merriam Visitors Bureau in Kansas. The sculpture, which is part of a larger system of fountains, was designed and installed in 2006 by Kansas City sculptor Kwan Wu. It was inspired by Merriam Park, an amusement park designed by George Kessler that was located where the Visitors Bureau is today. The sculpture commemorates the park’s legend of three bears that would escape their dens each night and wander the park. 

Merriam Park: The Bear Pit

The fertile and inexpensive land that became available with the creation of the Kansas Territory in 1854 attracted Tennessee native David Gee Campbell. He traveled to Kansas in two covered wagons with his wife and their children and possibly his parents and the people he had held in bondage. They settled in Shawnee in 1860. When Quantrill's Raiders burned Shawnee in 1864, Campbell bought acreage from a Native American family and moved the original house to modern-day Merriam. Campbell placed the home, located on what is today 9503 Johnson Drive, on an 18" rock foundation and basement made from stone and sand hauled from the Turkey Creek basin.In 1867 the Kansas City and Neosho Valley Railroad began building a railroad through Turkey Creek. Understanding the value of a train stop to a town, Campbell decided to give part of his land to the railroad company. The arrival of the train to the growing settlement helped it grow. Campbell decided to donate more land, which led to the development of several businesses, including a Blacksmith shop and general store. The expanding community was named Campbellton in honor of its founder.Campbellton, along with the entire Kansas City area, experienced considerable population growth in conjunction with the increased railway traffic into the region. As a result, the Kansas City, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railroad built the town's first railroad hub, which opened in 1870. The railroad spearheaded further land development, named Merriam after the railroad's secretary and largest stockholder, Charles Merriam. Over time, the additional land grew larger than the original Campbellton settlement leading to the town dropping the Campbellton name altogether by the 1880s.The historic home stands today as a reminder of the town's original Campbellton name and its founder, David Gee Campbell. Although the house, which Campbell moved from Shawnee to modern-day Merriam, burned down in 1890. The rebuilt house, which enjoyed the same design as the original structure, arose in 1893 on the same foundation used by Campbell in 1864, which had survived the fire.

David Gee Campbell moved from Tennessee to Shawnee, Kansas, in 1860 and built this home for his wife and children. Sources indicate that Campbell was a slave owner prior to coming to Kansas and suggests that the people he had once enslaved may have also made the journey to Kansas with the Campbell family. During the Civil War, in 1864, Campbell moved the home from Shawnee to this location, a settlement known once as "Campbellton" which later became Merriam. Campbell had the foresight to donate land to the railroad, and its development increased the value of his property while also supporting the rapid expansion of the town. The Campbell home, the oldest home in the town, survives as the Merriam's origins before the train arrived and the community became a suburb of Kansas City.

Campbell Home

This park was created as a
sesquicentennial project for the town of Shawnee in 2006. It commemorates
Shawnee’s place on the mid-19th-century Santa Fe, Oregon, and
California wagon trails and Fort Leavenworth Military Road. It features two
sculptures by local artist Charles Goslin depicting that history. 

Goslin’s original wagon train
sculpture was reproduced in life size for this park. Most of the work is a stone
relief of covered wagons driven by men and boys. At the front is a freestanding
bronze oxen team. A bronze pioneer mother accompanies the relief.

Near the wagon train installation
stands a limestone and bronze portrait of wagon master Richard “Dick” Williams.
Williams first came to Johnson County in the 1850s as a government surveyor. He
then worked as a “wagonmaster” escorting wagon trains from Kansas City to Santa
Fe, New Mexico, and other destinations in the western United States.

Some Shawnee residents questioned
spending close to $1 million on the 2.2 acre park and stone and bronze
sculptures. The park is a narrow wedge of land in a commercial district that
was once a used car lot.

Park created the town of Shawnee's 150th anniversary in 2006. It commemorates Shawnee’s place on the mid-19th-century Santa Fe, Oregon, and California wagon trails and Fort Leavenworth Military Road. It features two sculptures by local artist Charles Goslin depicting that history.

Pioneer Crossing Park

Shawnee is located just 35 miles away from Lawrence and this marker sits in front of the Shawnee Town Hall. The marker shares the town's connection to William Quantrill and his proslavery bushwhackers from Missouri who performed several raids that included the murder of anyone they suspected might harbor antislavery sentiment. Quantrill’s most famous raid took place in Lawrence where his posse murdered 183 men and boys aged 14 to 90. In addition to these murders and theft of property, Quantrill and his posse burned many homes and businesses in Lawrence. Quantrill performed these raids in order to scare and intimidate the people who opposed slavery in Kansas. The attacks between the Kansas Jayhawkers and the Missouri Bushwhackers occurred mostly during the period known as “Bleeding Kansas,” but acts such as the burning of Shawnee and Lawrence occurred frequently during the Civil War in communities throughout the United States. The attacks on Shawnee and Lawrence, as well as those committed in Missouri in retaliation for these attacks, demonstrate a tragic part of the Civil War. The first raid on Shawnee took place on October 17th, 1862. On that day, Quantrill and his gang of roughly 140 bushwhackers stormed into town and corralled the residents into the town square which is roughly located where today's City Hall is located. In this first raid, survivors indicated that the bushwhackers stole clothing and horses while also murdering two Shawnee residents. Once Quantrill stole as much property as they could take, his band of bushwhackers set fire to the town. The fire destroyed around twenty buildings that represented most of the structures in the small town at that time.The second raid took place during the summer of 1863. This raid can be understood today as training and preparation for the larger raid on Lawrence that would take place in August of 1863. The second raid on Shawnee offered a chance for a surprise attack and prepared an escape route for the participants of the planned attack on Lawrence so that they could return to Missouri. The route had to be devoid of Union soldiers, as the bushwhackers would be executed immediately if they encountered any Union troops. The town of Shawnee was small at the time so no Union soldiers were stationed there so by attacking this town, Quantrill reduced the likelihood that area men could rally before the raiders returned to Missouri. The attack on Shawnee also guaranteed that area men would be less likely to know if the initial reports of the attack on Lawrence were part of a planned series of attacks, spreading panic and making it less likely for able-bodied men to search for the attackers as they would fear that their village might be next. that would make it less likely to know the exact nature of the attacks until the raiders had made it back. While it palled in comparison to the Sack of Lawrence, thirteen people were injured in the second raid of Shawnee.

This historical marker shares the history of William Quantrill’s Raid and its connection to Shawnee. The raid is best known for the tragic slaughter of innocent men and the burning of Lawrence, but residents of Shawnee were also victimized by Quantrill and his raiders. This historical marker outside of Shawnee's City Hall shares two attacks on Shawnee which occurred on October 17, 1862, and a second that occurred just prior to the more famous Sack of Lawrence in the summer of 1863.

Quantrill's Raid on Shawnee Historical Marker

Old Shawnee Town was founded in 1966 by the Shawnee Historical Society. At that time, an historic jail building was moved to a 3-acre park site in order to save it from demolition. Over the following decades, more historic buildings were relocated to the site. In 1998, the historical society transferred ownership to the City of Shawnee, which has since provided more professional staff and funding to repair some structures. A strategic plan initiated in 2004 changed the museum’s interpretation era from early frontier years to 1920s agriculture and life in a small Midwestern town. [1] The shift to a 20th century interpretation plan allows the museum to focus on a lesser told, more unusual storyline than the typical pioneering era of many museums. The museum was therefore renamed Shawnee Town 1929.The first phase of the new museum’s revitalization was the opening of the Truck Farm in 2013. [2] Shawnee was known as a truck farming community, from which vegetables, fruits, and flowers were shipped to the Kansas City Market. [1] The living history farm consists of a farmhouse, market shed, barn, smokehouse, garden, and chicken coop. The 1877 farmhouse originally belonged to the Hart and DeCaeney families and was moved to the site from 75th and Quivara Streets. [1] A 1927 Nash sedan is on permanent display in the garage. [2] The inside of the home and other outbuildings has been restored and furnished with period pieces. Living history interpreters dress in period clothing and conduct programs during the summer months and for school groups. The interpreters cook on the farmhouse wood stove, plow the fields, and lead visitors through daily chores like doing laundry and feeding the chickens. [3]Shawnee Town 1929 is still in a continuous process of development. In addition to the farmstead, there are plans to reconstruct the town center. Visitors can already see the City Jail (previously mentioned as the first building saved in 1966), as well as the Bousman Barber Shop, Yotz Typewriter Repair Shop, William Garrett &amp; Sons’ Grocery, Dr. Charles Bassler Undertaking Establishment, Harmony schoolhouse, a gas station, a Chevy car dealership, and a firehouse. Future plans for the farm town businesses include a drug store, dry goods store, state bank, and an “all-electric” store, where new electrical appliances like toasters and vacuums could have been purchased. The museum also hopes to eventually provide a trolley to replicate the interurban streetcars from the time period. [3,4]Under a heading of “Future Plans,” the official website of Shawnee Town 1929 states:New interpretive offerings, educational programs, and museum exhibits emphasize three major historical themes: Shawnee’s role as a farm town supporting area farmers; the strength and resilience of community spirit in Shawnee through difficult and prosperous times; and the effects of transportation on Shawnee as a link between points to the west and the urban center of Kansas City and beyond. [5]

Shawnee Town 1929 is an outdoor living history museum devoted to portraying life in a small Midwestern farming community in the 1920s. The family-friendly museum has a working truck farm as well as a recreated small-town center with historic Shawnee businesses. Interpreters guide visitors on tours and through interactive demonstrations. The mission of the museum is to allow visitors to experience what a typical day was like in the 1920s in the farming community of Shawnee. 

Shawnee Town 1929

The historic Craftsman-style bungalow house, built in 1927, exemplifies the dominant type of architecture found in single-family homes built in the United States during the early twentieth century. The home sits on land once occupied by the Shawnee nation, near the nineteenth-century westward trails, and as part of an evolving mid-twentieth-century suburb that supported segregation. The historical bungalow house sits on land once granted to Shawnee Indians via an 1828 treaty. However, the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails (the historic routes lie one quarter of a mile east of the LeCluyse house) emerged shortly thereafter. While some endured the journey, others migrated to Kansas and made it their home. By 1854, the Shawnees lost 1,400,000 of the 1,600,000 acres of their land to white settlers. Three years later, in 1857, land speculators founded Shawnee. Land prices rose quickly because of the quick and abundant purchases of Shawnee lots. Indeed initial lots sold for as little as $15.00, but a second land sale garnered $22,645 per lot for the speculators.One deterrent to the property boom involved the violent altercations among pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces during the Border War from the 1850s through the Civil War resulting from the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act. Kansas gained the nickname "Bleeding Kansas" due to the violence, which lasted into the Civil War. Indeed, William Clarke Quantrill and his pro-southern friends attacked Shawnee in October 1862, burning most of the downtown area, ransacking homes, and killing two residents. Tensions eased dramatically after the Civil War, allowing Shawnee to develop into a thriving town first tied to agriculture before evolving into a streetcar suburb and then an automobile suburb. Twenty-three percent of the town's population between 1880 and 1900 engaged in agricultural-related activities. Between 1908 and 1934, the Hocker Line, an interurban trolley, connected Shawnee with downtown Kansas City and passed within 150 feet of the LeCluyse House (constructed in 1927). Of course, buy the 1920s, the automobile's popularity grew considerably. Thus, the town slowly transitioned from a streetcar suburb into an automobile suburb. In 1927, William and Julia LeCluyse bought the first home in the newly created Shawnee Heights subdivision (they purchased the adjacent lot in 1928). Charles E. Rieke and his wife Antonia A. Rieke platted the subdivision on September 1, 1925. Rieke's parents came to the U.S (Baltimore) from Prussia in 1871. Charles's father was a fourth-generation woodworker and homebuilder, and he passed that knowledge down to his sons. Along with two of his brothers, Charles moved to Shawnee and built residential subdivisions, including Shawnee Heights. The historic home enjoys a Craftsman style, part of the Arts &amp; Crafts movement that gained momentum after World War I. The simpler Craftsman-style served as a response to the extravagant, machined, and mass-produced Victorian types popular during the Gilded Age. While "Craftsman" refers to the architectural style, "bungalow" is a specific form of house. Numerous "bungalow books" emerged during the 1910s, which led to an abundance of bungalow construction, usually consisting of one story or enjoying a second story built into a sloping roof with low gabled roofs. One year after the LeCluyse family purchased their home, deeds for houses purchased at Shawnee Heights included covenants that forbade the sale of homes in the subdivision to "colored persons," a policy that remained until 1942. Segregation existed elsewhere in the town, too. For instance, Shawnee Mission Rural High School opened in 1922, serving only white teenagers (until 1954, when the Supreme Court ended racial segregation in public schools). Meanwhile, Shawnee Grade School had opened during the 1860s to all students but changed its policy in 1910 to serve only white students. Black students transferred to a poorly-equipped, one-room schoolhouse in nearby Dunbar taught by Corinthian Nutter, whose home stood two blocks from the LeCluyse home.In 1946, Julia and William LeCluyse sold the historic home to Maurice Florence Soetaert, the niece of Charles Rieke. The house remains a private residence, but it also reminds of early- and mid-twentieth-century bungalow home construction. Charles and Antonia Rieke developed a residential community in Shawnee, with Julia and William LeCluyse buying the first home in 1927. Shawnee, a town name that speaks to its Native American past, transitioned into a Kansas City suburb by the time the community emerged. The homes included provisions that forbade selling them to Black Americans, reflective of the nearby schools that also became white-only from roughly 1910 through the 1940s.

The bungalow home located here was constructed in 1927, a time when Shawnee was a growing Kansas City suburb. The area was previously the site of an independent town, and prior to that, it was part of the 1.6 million-acre Shawnee Territory. The Shawnee were forced from the area in the mid-1850s, an era when the national debate over the extension of slavery came to the Kansas frontier. Along with the violence and uncertainty for landowners during Bleeding Kansas, the Civil War also slowed the town's development. However, by the late nineteenth century, Shawnee developed into a burgeoning agricultural town, especially once streetcars connected Shawnee to Kansas City thereby leading to suburban growth. By the 1920s, Craftsman-style bungalows like this became popular throughout the nation. It is also important to remember that suburban residential communities were intentionally segregated spaces with a network of laws and lending practices that restricted home sales to white residents. While Kansas high schools were open to all by law (other than Sumner High School in Kansas City Kansas), elementary schools were segregated in Kansas City which further exacerbated patterns of residential segregation that persist to this day in some parts of the metro area. This home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places owing to its preservation, allowing it to serve as a model of the Craftsman-style bungalow that was popular at the time.

Olathe, Overland Park, and Shawnee Kansas Driving Tour

Children of the Trails sculpture

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Additional Information