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Preface
- University of Missouri Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
pREFACE This study of J. C. Nichols and the beginnings of planned residential development in the United States is based on original research using available company records from the J. C. Nichols Company , the Roland Park Company records at Cornell University, and the verbatim Proceedings of a series of annual conferences held in 1917-1919 on expensive subdivisions and chaired by Nichols. The author was not able to utilize the business records of the J. C. Nichols Company. According to J. Clyde Nichols, Jr., most of the personal correspondence ofNichols for the period under study was destroyed after his death in 1950 by his secretary. A small portion of Nichols's personal correspondence with his children during the 1940s is available at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University ofMissouri-Kansas City. The Western Historical Manuscript Collection has done a significant work in microfilming the company scrapbooks and obtaining the existing personal records ofNichols from the Nichols Company. The scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, some copies of legal documents on land development, personal recollections ofthe compiler , Mrs. Faye Littleton (a long-time company employee), and many examples ofcompany brochures and promotional materials. It must be noted that the available sources tend to portray Nichols in a favorable light. The scrapbooks, advertisements, and newspaper clippings all fall into that category. This study focuses on Nichols's role in urban development and therefore uses these mostly positive assessments for their contributions to understanding development sequence and city growth patterns. Other sources, such as the Grantor List and Plat Book records, are neutral with regard to Nichols. The Proceedings ofthe annual conferences ofthe Developers of High Class Residential Property for the years 1917, 1918, and 1919 are actually more neutral than might be initially apparent. These documents were distributed only to the men actually present, with the provision that the documents were not to be shown to anyone but their most important employees. The Cornell Library acquired them directly from one of the participants, Robert JemiIX x PREFACE son ofBirmingham, Alabama, more than two decades after Nichols 's death. Ifthe Nichols Company retains its copies ofthese documents , they were not made available. As a result ofthe anticipated restrictions on the use ofthe Proceedings, the participants were quite candid in their comments. Using so much material from sources favorably disposed toward Nichols could conceivably create an aura of sainthood around the principal actor. The focus here, however, is on viewing Nichols's work in the context ofhis own time and in comparison with similar developments during the pre-World War I period. What follows is not presented as biography, although biographical components necessarily form part ofthe analysis; rather, it is presented as a study ofa firm that was a pioneer and synthetic catalyst in developing a method ofhomebuilding and land subdivision that came to dominate the North American urban scene in the late 1940s and 1950s. Othersources utilized include the NationalRealEstateJournal and additional resources available in the Library ofthe National Association of Realtors in Chicago, along with an extensive survey of tQ.e company advertisements in the Kansas City Star between 1903 and1950 . This time frame was chosen to commence with Nichols's first residential construction and to conclude with the developer's death in February 1950. These company advertisements were almost always placed in the Sunday issue of the paper after 1908, as were articles ofrelevance to real estate activity in the Kansas City area. The newspaper search focused on these Sunday listings. After 1940, the company did less specific advertising for individual subdivisions on the Kansas side. This book is a revision of the author's dissertation (cited in the bibliography), which was defended at the University of Kansas in May 1986. Serious students ofthe city building process and Nichols 's place in that process will want to consult the dissertation for its more complete explanatory notes on certain subjects. The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance ofthe staffofthe Western Historical Manuscript Collection, the National Board of Realtors Library, the Manuscripts and Archives Section ofthe Olin Research Library at Cornell University, the support staff of the Llano Estacado Center for Research and Advanced Professional Studies (LECAPSR) at Eastern New Mexico University, and the [3.236.234.62] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:18 GMT) PREFACE Xl public relations staff ofthe J. C. Nichols Company. Their help and direction are most appreciated. All ofthe illustrations in this book are reproduced courtesy ofthe Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University ofMissouri -Kansas City...