Roe Family Homesite

Now part of an interchange connecting Johnson Drive and Roe Boulevard to Highway 169, this was the location of the home of John and Mary Roe, namesakes of Roeland Park. The home was known locally as the "Cedars of Merriam" and was built in 1890. The estate was a fixture in the area until it was demolished in 1958 to create the highway interchange. The Roe family sold 280 acres to developer Charles Vawter in 1937. Vawter named his development Roeland Park, and fourteen years later, that name was chosen for the newly incorporated suburban city.

Born in 1823 in County Meath, Ireland, John Roe immigrated to the United States in 1850. Five years later, he married Mary Roseanna Clarke, the daughter of Irish immigrants. In 1857, John was granted a homestead patent in Daviess County, Missouri, where the couple soon moved and started a family. They eventually had six children. John farmed corn and raised cattle. The farm prospered, and the family purchased additional land, including hundreds of acres in Saline County, Missouri.

    In 1882, John purchased 260 acres in northeast Johnson County, Kansas, from Alexander Johnson, the son of Shawnee Methodist Indian Mission founder and county namesake Thomas Johnson. Roe began a cattle ranch for both the Kansas City and Chicago markets. When the cattle were ready for market, they were driven down what is today Johnson Drive to the rail terminal in Merriam. Over the next few years, Roe purchased more land from the Johnson family until he owned about 1600 acres, including most of the land of what is today Roeland Park.

    In 1890, the Roe family moved to Johnson County, Kansas, and John began construction of the family home at what is today the northwest corner of Johnson Drive and Roe Blvd. The two story, sixteen room Roe home, named “The Cedars of Merriam,” was a fixture of the area for more than 60 years. John Roe was an advocate for the development of northeast Johnson County and lobbied the county government to build good roads and bring utilities such as natural gas and electricity to the area. In 1906, he granted an easement across his property to the Missouri & Kansas Interurban Railroad (known locally as the Strang Line) recognizing the centrality between infastructure and development.

   After the death of John Roe in 1920, the cattle operations ended, and the Roe children found themselves “land rich and cash poor.” Little by little, they began to sell off pieces of the farm to pay the taxes on the rest. They also began giving sections away, including five acres for the construction of St. Agnes Church and School and the original Roeland Park pool site at 47^th and Roe Lane. In 1937, developer Charles Vawter purchased 280 acres north of the Roe home for a development he named Roeland Park in recognition of the influence of the Roe family. In 1951, the name was chosen for the newly incorporated City of Roeland Park, which occupies much of the original Roe farm.

     The Roe family home was torn down in 1958 to make way for a cloverleaf interchange at Johnson Drive and Roe Boulevard.

"Land Now Worth $20 a Foot Up Acquired for $150 an Acre in 90's." Kansas City Times (Kansas City) July 24th, 1945. , 4-4.

John, Scott R.. Roe'ling Through the Years in Roeland Park, Kansas. Roeland Park, KS. Self Published, 1996.

Roeland Park: A community of "More than ordinary value". Album, vol. 10, no. 3. Published June 1st, 1997. https://jocohistory.org/digital/collection/alb/id/223/rec/1.

Stump, Kathy. Robert Vawter Oral History #55, JOCOHistory.org. September 20th, 1995. Accessed September 9th, 2024. https://jocohistory.org/digital/collection/oralhist/id/155/rec/1.

Wolff, Chris. Roe Family Portrait JCM2004-23-1 Proof. Submitted to Johnson County Historical Society 2022