Long ago on independence square (Kansas City, Lee's Summit: salon, camping, train)

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

My Beloved went to school with Paree Pyper of the Pyper family. She remembers when they introduced curly fries to the area.

Another great place for curly fries in the fifties was Browns Cafe, perhaps three doors or so north of Katz on Main Street.

[SilverDoc]

[quote=Mad Anthonie;25895501]My Beloved went swimming there in about 1964-5. It was closed by 1980, but the large slide was still in place.


I found the site where Dallas got that info, but it is incorrect. Doutt's Lake was never used for drinking water, unless the Doutt family used it. Independence water has come from artesian wells in the Missouri River Valley for many years. The area drained by the lake is very small, as that area is along the "city divide". Roughly east of Noland drains to the Little Blue River, west of Noland to Rock Creek. The dam is owned by the UPRR, as it is their railbed, but I'm pretty sure the lake is privately owned.

My Beloved is pretty sure access to the lake was from Francis, with parking on the property.

Frank Goodman, engineer of the Independence Ice and Creamery Company, recalled that Bob Turrner Sr., maintained the first ice on Spring Branch Road (Truman Road) near the rock crusher. ( Stewart Sand And Material) He got his ice from McCoy Lake, later known as Doutt's Lake.

[WCHS'59]

Hope someone is taking photos of the Santa-Cali-Gon Festival and can post them.

I understand the festival was shut down at five o'clock yesterday (Friday) because of the weather.

[Mad Anthonie]

The sun has returned to Independence!

Time for another mystery photo from the past. This one is from 1983.



Good luck!

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

The sun has returned to Independence!

Time for another mystery photo from the past. This one is from 1983.



Good luck!

Ok I'm going to take a semi-calculated guess, not being so familiar with that part of town . . . but presuming the photos are somewhat related, I'll say the tracks along the boundary of Drumm Farm, looking N/NW. There is a dome-like feature on the horizon, so I'll say that is RLDS Auditorium. And right below it looks like a light-colored standalone church. Google Maps shows a Baptist church along 23rd that would fit into the angle I'm thinking of.

So that's my final answer

[WCHS'59]

This is my first guess and I have not been able to come up with anything else although that dome or arch does throw me off. This is a tough one but MRG and I seem to be in the same ballpark but looking in different directions.

First assumption: The houses look curiously like those in Glendale Gardens that back onto the former GM&O railroad tracks, which are now the Gateway Western RR tracks.

Second assumption: If the first assumption is correct, the bridge abutments might be the footing remnants of the old two-lane bridge on Lee’s Summit Road going over those tracks.

It seems to me a quarter-mile section of the two-lane Lee’s Summit Road was closed at one time due to the bridge over the tracks becoming unsafe. For several years, traffic was rerouted along a short stretch of Kiger Road going south under those tracks. This is the area where the genealogical library is now. One then exited Kiger turning east on 35th Street and going about three-tenths of a mile to get back on Lee’s Summit Road.

With the subsequent widening of Lee’s Summit Road, a new four-lane bridge was built at the location of the old bridge and the short formerly closed section was widened and reopened.

This is the only scenario I can come up with, but the housing in the background of the photo seemingly does not look like the uniform ranch houses of Glendale Gardens. Also, throwing me off is the fact I cannot see the remnants of the two-lane Lee’s Summit Road.

[WCHS'59]

When I was a kid maybe seven or eight years old, there were two things I hated to see come into the neighborhood, especially on a hot summer day.

One of those unwanted intrusions was the Independence city garbage truck. Back then, everyone on our residential street and probably most of the residents in the town had a septic tank, although there were still many outhouses in town. No one had a garbage disposal and everyone put their leftovers and other biodegradable stuff in a large covered galvanized garbage can sitting outside somewhere. Ours was just outside the kitchen.

This garbage can would have been similar to what my granddad called a slop bucket that he would carry out to his hogs each evening. It was my job to take the garbage out after each meal and put it in the can.

The garbage man picking up the contents of the galvanized pail was always a black man (I did not learn the significance of that until several years later) and he would carry a stinking tub of some kind back to our galvanized garbage can. He would empty the galvanized can into his tub, hoist it up on his shoulder, take it to the truck, and throw it in with everything else that had been picked up that day.

Everything stunk to high heaven and no one had to tell anyone else that the truck was in the area. The smell permeated the entire neighborhood. Although, it did not seem to help with the odor, the truck storage area was covered and had a small door to throw in the stuff. It seems to me the contents of the truck were taken somewhere to an industrial facility, cooked, and then fed to pigs.

I recall one time looking in our garbage can and seeing maggots everywhere. At some point, sewers were installed in the neighborhood and then it seemed everyone got a disposal and eventually the city wide garbage service was stopped.

This was progress: the garbage service went the way of coal deliveries for heating. I think the garbage truck quit running in our neighborhood before the fifties had ended.

The other unwanted intrusion was when the diaper man came into the area.

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Another great place for curly fries in the fifties was Browns Cafe, perhaps three doors or so north of Katz on Main Street.

It looks like it might have been next door to Katz.......or at least the Katz Building. N. Main 1960:

201 Katz Drug Co.
203 Katz Building (several offices, including Burrus & Burrus lawyers)
205 Brown's Grill
1/2 John D. Brown (presumably the owner, I noted several entrepreneurs lived at or very near their businesses)

206 Interstate Securities Co.
207 Robt Sturges, optom
208 House of Fabrics
209 Royal Recreation Billiards
211 Snow White Bakery
213 Gateway Sporting Goods, Associate Store No. 1
214 Holman Beauty Salon/Crown Beauty Salon
215 Sudora Beauty Salon (note the salons!)
216 Guy Hinkle Auto
223 Fire Dept. HQ/Fire Dept. Station No. 1

[MRG Dallas]

At one time Guy Hinkle was an Edsel dealer at 218 N. Osage. There is a series of 5 images on an Edsel memories website of a yardstick with the name, address and slogan "Edsel - Sets a New Measure of Value"

Guy Hinkle Edsel - Independence, Missouri

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

The sun has returned to Independence!

Time for another mystery photo from the past. This one is from 1983.



Good luck!

HA! Now that I look at a close-up of MAD's pic, I think the "dome" is actually part of the brush in the foreground. I wondered why it was not of a green color, and now I know, duh. That completely throws my theory off. I'll leave it to the rest of you to solve the riddle.