The Line Creek Loudmouth

1942? Downtown Parking Map

This town and parking.........such a long obsession even in 1942.  I found a map of downtown parking facilities labeled as 1942.  While not as interesting as my post about 1944 downtown KCMO ownerships, it still is a nice snapshot in time before traffic engineering started tinkering with urban America.  I think that the map is older than 1942 because it appears that it doesn't reflect KCMO City Hall between 11th and 12th and Oak and Locust.  It also appears that Municipal Auditorium doesn't take the block between 13th and 14th and Central and Wyandotte.

They had someone go out and count all the spaces I am assuming.

It seemed like parking was more prevalent in the area around Municipal Auditorium.  Also, there was not an abundance of surface parking lots which meant a lot of buildings had to be bought and torn down to build I-670 just north of 15th Street.

 

You can download the whole 75MB file and zoom around and try to guess the age of the map.  If you think you can figure it out, drop me a line.  My tiny laptop isn't very easy to zoom around and guess myself.

Download 1942-DowntownParkingFacilityMap

 

1930's Mobil™ Missouri Map

I found a copy of a 1930's Mobil™ map of Missouri.  Here is what the Kansas City area looked like way back when.

Note how the world ended about 75th Street (before freeways).  Lee's Summit and Olathe were train stop blips.

Here is what the Northland look like.

I found it interesting the Barry Road was lettered as Route T from US 71 out towards Weatherby Lake.  I didn't realize the section from US 71 over to Indiana was Route A nor the section from Indiana to Liberty was Route H.  Route 1 was Route J.

US 65 from Springfield to Branson was quite "squiggly."

You can download the entire 43MB PDF here.

Download 1930s-Mobil-Missouri

Staycation in 1944 Downtown KCMO

Looking for a place to get away this weekend since it's supposed to be rainy?  Take a staycation to 1944 downtown KCMO and look around and imagine doing some shopping and eating.

The map has a nice legend showing the type of business.

I could spend some time doing a bunch of screen shots of things I find interesting but I think I'll let you explore it on your own.  I did find the part of the map with "The Junction" interesting.  "The Junction" looked like this:

Here it is on the map between Delaware and Main at 8th Street.

Here is a more zoomed in shot.

Download the 50MB file and explore downtown on your own this weekend.

Download 1944-DowntownLandUse-Ownerships

Kansas City in 1962

I scanned an old 1962 Phillips 66™ map of Kansas City.  I've got nothing to comment on because I've only got one hand free to type with and a teething baby in the other so enjoy and note anything you see interesting in the comments.

North of the River.

 Midtown.

 Sightseeing guide.

By the way, baby like trains and Aerosmith.......who get the song credit.

 

 (which when I was a kid used to think the song was Jimmy cracked corn all night long)