Squier Park Historic District

About this property

Squier Park is a historic neighborhood in midtown Kansas City, Missouri, USA. It encompasses sixteen blocks bounded by Armour Boulevard on the north, 39th Street on the south, Troost Avenue on the west, and Paseo Boulevard on the east. It is primarily a residential neighborhood, with businesses along Troost Avenue. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2012. The neighborhood was developed between 1887 and 1915 by James J. Squier, and his son-in-law, Robert V. Jones. Because of its development along city transportation lines, Squier Park is considered an early streetcar suburb. == James Squier, Robert V. Jones and early development == James J. Squier was born in Pennsylvania in 1836. He managed a hardware store in Cambridge, Ohio with his father in 1856 before moving to Chicago to open another store. In Chicago Squier began a highly successful career in cattle. In 1872 Squier moved to Kansas City to work as a cattle buyer for the Fowler packing house and eventually amassed a great fortune. Squier, along with several other wealthy Kansas Citians, founded Citizens' National Bank in 1882. In 1889, he founded Interstate National Bank, both primarily cattlemen's banks. Squier was known throughout Kansas City as a banker and capitalist. Squier took pride in the country estate he built shortly after purchasing land between 36th and 41st Streets, Troost and The Paseo, outfitting it with a suitable residence, formal landscaping, a fishpond and deer park. Squier was aware that the Kansas City limits were moving further south and east, closer to his property. Seeing an opportunity, Squier began to divide his land into lots in the hopes of creating a residential development. But by 1900 only a small number of lots had dwellings constructed upon them, mostly north of what is now 37th Street. James J. Squier died in 1900, leaving his estate to his wife and only daughter, Cora. Squier's wife, Mary, remained in the manor house, while Cora moved to the East Coast for education and society. There she met Robert Valentine Jones, a successful residential developer, whom she married in 1902 in a ceremony at Squier Manor. The couple lived in Philadelphia before returning to Cora Squier Jones' estate in 1908. Although most of the property had been subdivided 1887, the lots still stood empty. Inspired by the opportunity, Jones formed a real estate and mortgage company, the Manheim Realty & Investment Company, in 1908. Through the company, Jones developed a new plan to subdivide the land between 37th Street and 39th Street. Jones envisioned a cohesive neighborhood where the street layout responded to the topography of the land rather than the rigid orthogonal city grid. He wanted each house to have a unique design and to stand at the center of a spacious lot. He worked with a variety of prominent Kansas City architects, as well as builders and homeowners to design high-style dwellings throughout the subdivision. As a result, many of the homes south of 37th Street were constructed in 1909 and 1910. Construction continued steadily throughout the 1910s and into the 1920s. Many of the Manheim Realty & Investment Company homes contained such luxuries for the time as hot water heat, sleeping porches, and multiple bathrooms.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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