J. C. Nichols and the Shaping of Kansas City: Innovation in Planned Residential Communities

Chronology

CHRONOLOGY The Lift ofJesse Clyde Nichols and the Development Sequence ofthe Country Club District 1880 Nichols is born in Olathe, Kansas, to middle-class farmer-merchant parents. 1887 Plat ofBismark Place is filed. 1902 Nichols graduates at the top of class at the University of Kansas and receives a one-year scholarship to attend Harvard University. 1903 Nichols receives a second bachelor of arts degree from Harvard and returns to the Midwest to look at land development possibilities . 1903-1904 Nichols and his fraternity-brother partners, the Reeds, operating as Reed, Nichols & Company, sell land and some completed houses in Kansas City, Kansas, just northwest of Thirteenth Street and Quindaro Boulevard. 1905 The first advertisements for Bismark Place in Kansas City, Missouri , appear in the Star. Plat for portion of Rockhill subdivision filed by W. R. Nelson's Rockhill Realty and Improvement Company. Nichols marries Jessie Miller of Olathe. They move into one of the first houses completed in the Bismark Place subdivision. 1906 Nichols forms financial alliances with Frank Crowell, Herbert F. Hall, and E. W. Shields (all grain merchants at the Kansas City Xlii XlV CHRONOLOGY Board of Trade), as well as a land development and sales agency agreement with Hugh Ward for the Sunset Hill section. Plat of Rockhill Annex is filed by the Brush Creek Park Land Company, which lists E. W. Shields as president and J. C. Nichols as secretary. This is the first newly platted area laid out by Nichols. 1907 Beginning with the Rockhill Place plat filed in this year, Nichols files deed restrictions on land use with the plat or on a separate but binding document. Rockhill Park is platted as the first Nichols subdivision with some streets following the topography rather than right-angle gridiron layouts. Rockhill Park Extension plat is filed. First section of conversion of Dodson "dummy" streetcar line from steam to electricity is completed. First shopping center is built at 55th and Brookside next to the newly completed streetcar stop. Nichols sells a five-acre tract to the architectural firm ofWilder,,& Wight. This marks the beginning of the trend toward architect:,. designed home construction in his areas. 1908 Announcement made ofcontrol of1,000 acres for residential development . Land sold to St. Theresa's so that the exclusive Catholic girls' school will relocate in the Country Club District, the name first applied to Nichols's developments in this year. Purchase of229 acres from the Armour family in Johnson County , Kansas, which will become Mission Hills. Nichols sets up his own real estate company, which henceforth bears his name in the title. Nichols named as a director ofCommerce Trust Company, thus establishing a long-held local financing and political connection. Country Side and Country Side Extension subdivisions (owned by Kate Yeomans and sold by Nichols) plats are filed and sales begin. Sunset Hill is announced as an exclusive subdivision although official plat filing is not done until 1909. CHRONOLOGY xv 1909 Founding of the Country Club Improvement Association, the first homeowners' association. Membership in the CCIA is voluntary . Southwood Extension plat is filed by Hall and Shields. They build large homes on this land, which is now the site of the Linda Hall Scientific Library. Rockhill Heights plat is filed. Southwood Annex plat is filed. Nichols's Missouri developments and holdings are included in a successful annexation drive to bring them into the Kansas City, Missouri, incorporated limits. Election is challenged in court. Actual annexation postponed until 1911. First lot sold in what will become Mission Hills. Restrictions amended for Rockhill Place subdivision to allow landowners the right to extend restrictions beyond the stated life of the restrictions by majority vote. 1910 Sunset Hill streetcar line commences service up what will become Ward Parkway. Construction approved for Mill Creek Parkway (now J. C. Nichols Parkway) as far as Brush Creek. Country Day School organized as a private school for boys. Originally housed in the old Wornall mansion on Wornall Road, Country Day later moved to a campus next to State Line at Ward Parkway, where it combined with Pembroke School to become Pembroke Country Day school. Wornall Homestead plat is filed by J. C. Nichols Land Company. First Country Club Ridge plat is filed by J. C. Nichols Realty Company. Cockin's Addition plat is filed by W. W. Cockins. This land is sold by Nichols on an agency contract. E. C. White School is established at 51st and...