Photo tour of the Hyde Park neighborhood in Kansas City (Jackson: section 8, apartments)

[WiseOwlSaysHoot]

The Hyde Park neighborhood is in Midtown Kansas City about 3 miles south of Downtown. It consists mostly of turn of the century structures.

Map of Hyde Park - with Central Hyde Park in grey:


This thread includes the traditional Hyde Park and not the nearby "Old Hyde Park" area, which is generally not considered part of "The Hyde Park" (I believe Old Hyde Park was traditionally known as Hanover Place - but was renamed during WWII due to the German affiliation)

Hyde Park is split into three sections: Central, North, and South.

We'll start with Central, which is most affluent section of Hyde Park, consisting of large single family homes on well manicured streets.


Central Hyde Park

























































Westport Middle School


It's Kansas City, so you need to have a fountain:


Looking out to Gillham Park




Flying a kite in Gleed Park












South Hyde Park

South Hyde Park has a blend of apartment buildings, bungalows, and Kansas City Shirtwaist homes, which are more densely packed than the stately lawns of Central.

Our first glimpse of the ubiquitous Kansas City Colonnade Six-Plex:













Go Royals!















South Hyde Park Bungalows:





Houses by Gillham Park




















Armour Boulevard

Armour is one the main thoroughfares through Hyde Park and divides Central from North HP. It is mostly larger, 1920s era hotel/apartments























North Hyde Park
Now we'll move onto my corner of HP - North Hyde Park. (maybe you'll see my house )












A little commercial strip in North Hyde Park



















Troost in North Hyde Park

[MOKAN]

Very nice. Even though I'm up and down Main and Warwick frequently, which can be pretty ghetto, I forget how nice of a neighborhood is just to the east across Gillham.

It's a shame all of the historic architecture that has been lost, but the area just west of Hyde Park, between Gillham and Main, once looked very much like these photos. And much of what was lost has been replaced by ugly, poorly-aging suburban-style apartment buildings. Luckily Hyde Park remains intact.

My question to you, WiseOwlSaysHoot, is this:
Is any gentrification or cleaning up occuring along Troost, where it serves as the eastern boundary of Hyde Park, or the blocks just across it? It's hard to imagine crossing Troost Ave and going from what is shown in your pictures to pure ghetto just by crossing the street.

If anybody's interested, here's a map of the area showing North, Central, and South Hyde Park:
Kansas City, MO - Google Maps

[kcmo]

Awsome photos. Did you take all those?

I still have relatives in Hyde Park and they love it. You couldn't pull them out of there for anything.

Well done.

[xenokc]

Great shots. Central HP has always been in good shape but recently N and S HP and even Amour have been improving. The cool art deco buildings along Armour used to be luxury hotels in the 20s/30s, which unfortunately turned into Section 8 apts over last few decades. Now Armour buildings are being restored to mostly market rate apts and developers are doing a good job completely gutting and restoring them. There are still a few Section 8 buildings along that strip that still cause some issues but huge improvements compared to 10 years ago when it was known as 'sex offender row'.

[WiseOwlSaysHoot]

Originally Posted by MOKAN

My question to you, WiseOwlSaysHoot, is this:
Is any gentrification or cleaning up occuring along Troost, where it serves as the eastern boundary of Hyde Park, or the blocks just across it? It's hard to imagine crossing Troost Ave and going from what is shown in your pictures to pure ghetto just by crossing the street.

There is some positive work being done. It's a big hill to climb, and sometimes it seems like two steps forward, one step back - but it's moving in the right direction.

Squire Park - the neighborhood just east of Central Hyde Park - is a fairly nice hood. I considered living there and looked at a couple houses before I ended up in North Hyde Park. I was told by one person that it is on par with what Central Hyde Park was like 20 years ago. (though I don't know how accurate that is) That gives me hope that it could be turning into something quite nice soon.

You can see some of my photos of Troost along North Hyde Park. There have been some artist studios and galleries going in there area over the last several years. There is also the beautiful, renovated "Alpha Historic Buidling".

There have also been quite a few positive announcements of developments and proposals for the Troost corridor that have come out just in the past few months that have me feeling better about the future of the street.

North of Hyde Park - there have been announcements that UMKC med school is building a $26 million development along Troost for student housing, etc. Truman Med also announced they are planning on building a full-service grocery store somewhere along Troost.

There seem to be a couple positive retail developments coming to Troost: A restaurant, Messy's is moving from 36th and Broadway to 32nd and Troost and St. Mark's is in the process of opening up a coffee shop at 37th and Troost.

Mac properties, who is doing all the great renovation work to the apartments along Armour, owns a building at Armour and Troost that they appear to be looking to start work on. They are putting a community garden behind that building (you can also see that in my photos) and they are also renovating some apartment buildings on Armour that are fairly close to Troost.

The Green Impact Zone - east of South Hyde Park - looks like it could finally be gaining steam, particularly with the efforts of the Make It Right Foundation to renovate the Bancroft school. There are also some smaller, grassroots organizations working along Troost and in the Manheim Park neighborhood in the Green Impact Zone, such as Emerald City. They seem to lack funding, organization and gravitas, but they do have a group of passionate people who are working make a positive change along Troost

[WiseOwlSaysHoot]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Awsome photos. Did you take all those?

Yes. Thanks! They're nothing compared your great work.

It's my first time using a DSLR - I'm actually just borrowing my buddy's old one. I'm not really sure how to use all the features on it - but I wasn't going for artistic greatness - just a documentation of the neighborhood.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by WiseOwlSaysHoot

There is some positive work being done. It's a big hill to climb, and sometimes it seems like two steps forward, one step back - but it's moving in the right direction.

It all sounds promising. It's good to hear of so many improvements along a relatively short stretch. Fox 4 indicates the grocery store you mention will be built on the vacant lot which is at the northeast corner of 27th and Troost, assuming they have their facts straight. That's a good central location for what is a fairly isolated group of neighborhoods and should compliment the Beacon Hill development, Martini Corner, and the residential development southeast of Crown Center along Gillham - all of which has taken shape in recent years.

I like to get ahead of myself, but I can't help but think once development really gets going again and with the Beacon Hill development, MAC continuing to improve Armour's historic buildings, Crown Center's southerly residential plans, the potential second phase of the streetcar through Midtown, and all of the smaller improvements, that one day the entire eastern corridor of midtown from Crown Center to Brush Creek will be Brookside-quality. That's nice to envision.

http://fox4kc.com/2012/01/11/truman-...n-food-desert/

Oh yeah, and thanks for the photos! Very nice. From this example, I think I can see that your work is very good. As for local urban photography, except for a couple of other well-known photographers, I don't think I've seen anything else as good.

[kanhawk]

What a beautiful neighborhood. Whenever I see old houses that size I always wonder what the utility bill is in the winter time. But if I have to ask, I can't afford it anyway.

[TabulaRasa]

Love Hyde Park...if we were to move back to the city, proper, that'd be my pick.

Love the inclusion of Central Presbyterian...cool building, inside and out. Several friends of mine on staff there.

[westender]

I'd never heard the expression "South Hyde Park" before. We always called it Sunny Slope. This is the area between Troost and Gillham, south of 39th Street.