West Bottoms - select highlights
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Description
note: Note comprehensive. A example of select highlights on TheClio.com
1. The "French Bottoms" - Early Day Kansas City Historical Marker
Commonly referred to as the West Bottoms, the French Bottoms was the general location of the French speaking village of Chez les Canses, the first permanent White settlement in the modern day Kansas City. First settled in 1799, the village only stood for a few decades before being washed away by a flood in 1844. Into the late 1800s, this area became a commercial hub with the newly built Union Depot and stockyards. This historical marker was removed in 2018 for new construction at this location and is awaiting a permanent home.
2. The American Royal Museum and Visitors Center
A Kansas City tradition since 1899, the American Royal sponsors rodeos, livestock shows, BBQ contests, ranch camps for children, and other exhibitions and competitions. The organization also offers tours of its museum as well as educational programs and community entertainment.
3. West Bottoms and The Wettest Block in the World
9th Street between State Line and Genessee on 9th Street was known as “The Wettest Block in the World” fthe wettest block in the world following Kansas prohibition with 23/24 buildings on the north and south side of 9th Street being saloons or liquor stores.Building at SW corner of 9th and State was constructed by Pabst Brewery in 1911. St Louis Ave and State Line, about a block south, was home to Joseph Schlitz Brewing depot.
4. West Bottoms: Hell's Half Acre
People referred to Kansas City's West Bottoms neighborhood as "Hell's Half Acre" around the turn of the twentieth century because of its crime, bars, brothels, and otherwise bad reputation. The community started as Kansas City's first African American enclave and later home to European immigrants. Both groups mainly worked as low-paid laborers. Many took part in constructing the Hannibal Bridge, the first railroad bridge across the Missouri River. The bridge opened on July 3, 1869, and became a critical component of the city's growth, especially its meatpacking industry. However, the neighborhood transformed into a place for outlaws, prostitutes, and gangs, eventually pushing out the African Americans and immigrants by the early twentieth century.
5. Frontier Railroads in Kansas City Historical Marker
This historical marker in Kansas City's West Bottoms district shares the history of the first railroads that transported goods and people through Kansas City in the 1860s and 1870s, culminating with the construction of Union Depot which operated from 1878 to 1915 and its replacement, Union Station. In 1863, Lawrence and Kansas City were connected by a new line operated by the Union Pacific. After the Civil War, this part of Kansas City was selected for the first railroad bridge to cross the Missouri River. Within just five years of the completion of the Hannibal Bridge, there were five railroad companies operating in the West Bottoms including the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, Missouri Pacific, St. Louis-San Francisco, and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. These railroads led to the rapid development of the West Bottoms area and connected Kansas City to markets across the country. As a result, Kansas City was able to "grow into more than just a way station for livestock" - it became a hub of transport for live cattle, meat, and other agricultural products by way of the railroads.
6. Old French Kansas City Historical Marker
Kansas City was first officially incorporated as a town in 1850, but for several decades prior it had been an area of settlement for Frenchmen. Traders in St. Louis and along the Mississippi River had long used the Missouri River as a westward route to trade goods with the Native Americans. Kansas City sits at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers and is a natural crossroads of traffic, making it ideal for settlement. French people's presence in the region long outlasted the French state's presence which mostly left by 1763.
