Long ago on independence square (Blue Springs, Raytown: restaurants, beach, swimming lessons)

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

221 Clem's Buffet Clem Ogden

Clem's Buffet I do not recall. However, I am wondering if this is the Clem that had the "Clem's" out on 23rd Street and Northern Blvd. At one time it was Pyper's Place.

Best tenderloin sandwiches anywhere.

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Clem's Buffet I do not recall. However, I am wondering if this is the Clem that had the "Clem's" out on 23rd Street and Northern Blvd. At one time it was Pyper's Place.

Best tenderloin sandwiches anywhere.

Couldn't find another "Clem's" or Clem Ogden in 1950 but Pyper's Lunch Wagon in 1950 @ 1303 W. Alton, Lloyd & Ona Pyper, RD3.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

Couldn't find another "Clem's" or Clem Ogden in 1950 but Pyper's Lunch Wagon in 1950 @ 1303 W. Alton, Lloyd & Ona Pyper, RD3.

At some point in the fifties they opened Pyper's Place, a drive in, at or about the railroad tracks on 23rd just west of Noland. They had car hops for service. Then, the city came along and put a bridge over the tracks and may even have widened the street at the same time. That displaced their drive in so after a search they located out at 23rd and Northern. This move would have to have been some time in the sixties.

Eventually, the place became Clem's, now it is an Italian sandwich place, after having been closed for a long time.

I only liked their tenderloins. They also had brain sandwiches, something which I never tried. Their hamburgers were of the crumbly type. They had curly fries, also, and cherry coke. I don't know of any other place one could have gotten a cherry coke at the time except at Velvet Freeze or a drug store fountain.

[MRG Dallas]

1956- Pyper's Place 301 W. Alton

It is still listed in 59 and 60

Google Streetview still has the Clem's sign with the Coca Cola logo, a red and white drive-in restaurant type building, right across from Metcalf State Bank.

[pearjas]

It's so interesting to hear what those buildings used to be. I've probably said this a lot, but it sure sounds like the square was quite the place to be! I do believe personally that it's making a comeback, though...but the big chains (at least for now) won't be located on the square due to who's calling the shots. So far, the only chain located on the square is a Yogurtini, which just started less than a year ago which is right next door to Updog.

I have a curiousity question... 321 West Lexington used to be the Examiner Building until 1980. It is now the Jackson County Assessment Department building. Does anyone know how long it's been a Jackson County building, and if there was anything located in between?

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

In the 1949 to 1950 timeframe my third grade class at McCoy grade school was bused to the Independence ice cream plant.


There we were given a guided tour of the operations. This was certainly a treat for us as we got to see how HyGrade ice cream was made, packaged, and shipped out in their trucks to the local grocery stores.

At the end of the tour we were each given an “Eskimo Bar,” ice cream novelty which I believe the local place was licensed to manufacture.

The ice cream plant was at South Willis and West Hayward. The building is still there but someone else is using it. You can still see the weathered HyGrade lettering on the side of the building. The plant was less than a mile from the Polly’s Pop plant.

Another third grade bus trip we made was to the Wonder Bread plant in Kansas City. I don’t have a clue as to where that was at but I do recall driving by that place many times after I graduated from high school. Based on the ice cream trip we felt we were going to get a treat after the tour, and my mouth was watering for a chocolate Hostess cup cake with cream filling. But, we each got a slice of white bread. It was right off the press, though, and I can still remember how good it tasted.

The old reliable Pace School Bus service provided the transportation for both trips. None of us at McCoy had ever ridden a school bus before. Everyone walked to McCoy in those days.

On West Hayward and Cottage Street, not far from the HyGrade Ice Cream plant was the Independence Stove and Furnace manufacturing.

I never set foot in the place but it started up in the 1890s casting stoves, furnaces, and miscellaneous iron items.

In the 1920s they sold ten thousand stoves and two thousand furnaces on an annual basis.

I think they were still in business in the early fifties, at least.

That manufacturing building is still there in good shape and one can still read the white lettering on the side of the building.

[SilverDoc]

I was asked a question by my friend and neighbor about Noland Road, south of 40 highway. He asked me whether or not Noland Road and the railroad in that vicinity has changed it's route since the 1930's. Anyone have any idea or comment on this?

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by SilverDoc

I was asked a question by my friend and neighbor about Noland Road, south of 40 highway. He asked me whether or not Noland Road and the railroad in that vicinity has changed it's route since the 1930's. Anyone have any idea or comment on this?

I lived very near those tracks for many years and to my knowledge, they are still operational. At least since the mid-60s Noland Rd and the RR hasn't changed. Back to the 30s is way before my time . Just for fun a few weeks ago I traced them on Google Maps and they led me into Lee's Summit then thru Sedalia, Jeff City, Hermann and into St Louis. Yesterday ironically I traced them thru KC, by Van Horn HS and on into NE where they get lost in a maze of tracks.

[WCHS'59]

In 1905, the Independence Ice and Cold Storage Company started up completing a new plant with a capacity of 50 tons of ice per day. The plant capacity was increased to 80 tons per day in 1916. There is a brick building on Willis Street immediately north of the old ice cream plant, which has a fenced in dock that I believe was the ice company.

At home, we had an “ice box” to keep our perishables cool. The Independence Ice plant truck came through our neighborhood on a regular basis. The ice man toted a large chunk of ice held with large tongs. He carried the ice block on a heavy leather apron spread across his shoulder. He would bring the ice in and put it in the top of the box.

In the meantime my mother would have to regularly empty the water from a pan below the ice box.

This went on until we purchased a Frigidaire refrigerator. This refrigerator cost around $300 (about $2,800, today) and held a huge 7 cubic feet in the cooling area. Most of the refrigerator bulk consisted of the compressor.

This was quite an improvement over the ice box and there was even a small across the top freezer compartment that could only be opened after the main door was opened. We could fill trays with water and make ice cubes and could store ice cream for the first time.

But the freezer compartment would literally consume itself with frost over a very short period. My mom would have to disconnect the refrigerator, open the main door and then prop open the freezer door and direct a fan into the freezer compartment until all the frost melted—making a literal mess with all the water that needed to be mopped up. Carefully using an ice pick could help speed up the deicing process.

Today’s freezer compartments automatically do this defrost procedure without human intervention.

[WCHS'59]

Anyone know the status of Doutt’s Lake?

I never went swimming there but knew a lot of kids who did.

I had heard that the lake was closed and the land was going to be redeveloped. A 2009 Examiner article says that the project was proposed in 1997.

I don’t even know how one got there, only that it was just south of 23rd Street and just west of Noland Road.

MRG, do you know where this lake was? I found a lake at the foot of Main and Liberty Streets. It seems to have some access from a business area on Noland Road around Auto Zone near Gudgel.