Long ago on independence square (Lee's Summit, Lexington: houses, theater, automobile)

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

What year was that from?

I noticed the vertical advertisement to the right mentions the intersection of Van Horn and Sterling.

Oops! I forgot to mention this directory was from 1926.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

In 1912 the only two theaters listed in the directory were The Lyric at 209 W Lexington and the Airdome at 306 W Maple. Under Opera House there is only listed the Music Hall at 206 W Maple.

The next available directory is 1926. By then the above listed venues are gone, and these have replaced them:
Electric 215 N Main
Elliott 117-19 W Lexington
Elms 11010 E 15th, Maywood
Fairmount 10809 Independence Ave
New Lewis 325 W Maple

Here is another interesting theater, the Fairmount at 10809 Independence Avenue.


That address today is on the south side of the segment of Independence Avenue that is dead end at the double rr tracks coming from the West. The assumption is that Independence Avenue might have had a bridge across those tracks at one time. However, the topography on the south side does not look like it could have held any businesses, but that side might have been built up with soil to support the US 24 bridge diverging south of the Independence Avenue dead end segment.


The same poster providing the info on the Elms Theater also said, “The Fairmount Theater was located on Independence Avenue (now 24 Highway) - the address changed in the 1930s when the streets were renumbered, but it was at the SE corner of Independence and Ash. It was the Fairmount Theater from around 1924 to around 1936; by 1938, the name it had become the Byam Theater and remained so until at least 1950.”


I am thinking the Fairmount Theater shown at 10809 was actually located at the Fairmount Lake. As far as I know the Byam Theater in Fairmount was designed and built new in 1937 by F.L. Byam who owned the drug store at Ash and Independence Avenue. The narrow entrance to his theater was just to the west of the drug store on Independence Avenue and there was a short walk through that entrance to the auditorium that was built behind the drug store and had the east wall fronting on Ash Avenue, which is still there.


The Byam was still going when I was in high school and I think it closed in 1960.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Here is another interesting theater, the Fairmount at 10809 Independence Avenue.


That address today is on the south side of the segment of Independence Avenue that is dead end at the double rr tracks coming from the West. The assumption is that Independence Avenue might have had a bridge across those tracks at one time. However, the topography on the south side does not look like it could have held any businesses, but that side might have been built up with soil to support the US 24 bridge diverging south of the Independence Avenue dead end segment.


The same poster providing the info on the Elms Theater also said, “The Fairmount Theater was located on Independence Avenue (now 24 Highway) - the address changed in the 1930s when the streets were renumbered, but it was at the SE corner of Independence and Ash. It was the Fairmount Theater from around 1924 to around 1936; by 1938, the name it had become the Byam Theater and remained so until at least 1950.”


I am thinking the Fairmount Theater shown at 10809 was actually located at the Fairmount Lake. As far as I know the Byam Theater in Fairmount was designed and built new in 1937 by F.L. Byam who owned the drug store at Ash and Independence Avenue. The narrow entrance to his theater was just to the west of the drug store on Independence Avenue and there was a short walk through that entrance to the auditorium that was built behind the drug store and had the east wall fronting on Ash Avenue, which is still there.


The Byam was still going when I was in high school and I think it closed in 1960.

A renumbering of the addresses probably also accounts for the discrepancy on the 15th street businesses.

In my day the drugstore in Fairmount was on the SW corner of Independence Ave & Ash. Was an earlier druggist across Ash?

Looks like we need to dig deeper!

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

A renumbering of the addresses probably also accounts for the discrepancy on the 15th street businesses.

In my day the drugstore in Fairmount was on the SW corner of Independence Ave & Ash. Was an earlier druggist across Ash?

Looks like we need to dig deeper!

The drugstore was on the SW corner in 1960 and was on that corner in 1937 when the Byam opened. I think he meant SW rather than SE. The southeast corner held the Gilmore Building which had upstairs apartments--but who knows maybe there could have been a theater at one time long ago and maybe the Gilmore replaced it. That is the area that has been/is being razed for the Truman Medical Center.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

A renumbering of the addresses probably also accounts for the discrepancy on the 15th street businesses.


Looks like we need to dig deeper!

Deeper digging has been done! The Sanborn map covering 1917-45 shows both the old and new addresses for that section of Fairmount. It appears that Sanborn started with a base map in 1917 and then made paste-on updates to it over the years up to 1945. The businesses on the right show to be in the 109xx block, while adjacent to them on the left is the 103xx block. It is clear that a pasteover has been done on the SE corner of Independence & Ash, thus there could have been a movie theater there that was later remodeled extensively or replaced by a newer structure.




EDIT: Upon further study I see that the corner building on the west side of Ash has been renumbered as 10829, thus the old theater was west of that.

[WCHS'59]

This photo shows the narrow walkway of the 1937 Byam Theater looking north from the Independence Avenue entry back to the east-west laid out auditorium behind the drug store. The drug store is on the west wall of this entry. The box office was apparently just behind the camera.

Across the street on Ash those buildings have been torn out. I was surprised to see an updated Google today that shows grass growing in place of the buildings that were there. The aerial shot shows newly moved ground.

Also shown on Google ground view is the new Truman Medical Center that was built on the other end of the block at Hardy and Independence Ave. Just west of it is one single dilapidated building right in the center of the block occupied by a lawyer. If I read the Examiner story correctly, that whole block is supposed to be occupied by the Truman Medical Center.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

In 1912 the only two theaters listed in the directory were The Lyric at 209 W Lexington and the Airdome at 306 W Maple. Under Opera House there is only listed the Music Hall at 206 W Maple.

The next available directory is 1926. By then the above listed venues are gone, and these have replaced them:
Electric 215 N Main
Elliott 117-19 W Lexington
Elms 11010 E 15th, Maywood
Fairmount 10809 Independence Ave
New Lewis 325 W Maple

The Elms becomes a bigger mystery. 11010 would be on the north side. If the current Truman Road was the location it would be west of and across from the later Maywood Theater/Bowling Alley.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

The Elms becomes a bigger mystery. 11010 would be on the north side. If the current Truman Road was the location it would be west of and across from the later Maywood Theater/Bowling Alley.

Chuckle, and if the Sanborn map is 1917-1945, they show the name of the street as "Truman Road (Van Horn).

Based on some 1949 news reports I once saw, Truman Road was not officially named until 1949.

Kind of difficult to wedge 15th Street in here at a point in time. Perhaps the current day Truman Road was Van Horn to Sterling in 1926. Maybe 15th Street from Sterling west was changed to Van Horn at some point. If so, not sure what the "real" 15th street two blocks south would have been called. Walnut becomes 15th at about Forest so maybe the western portion of Walnut was renamed to 15th, yada, yada, yada.

Also, the Van Horn mansion was about a half mile west of the map location and you would have thought if someone named the road Van Horn, they would have it named Van Horn going by that mansion, etc., etc.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Chuckle, and if the Sanborn map is 1917-1945, they show the name of the street as "Truman Road (Van Horn).

Based on some 1949 news reports I once saw, Truman Road was not officially named until 1949.

Kind of difficult to wedge 15th Street in here at a point in time. Perhaps the current day Truman Road was Van Horn to Sterling in 1926. Maybe 15th Street from Sterling west was changed to Van Horn at some point. If so, not sure what the "real" 15th street two blocks south would have been called. Walnut becomes 15th at about Forest so maybe the western portion of Walnut was renamed to 15th, yada, yada, yada.

Also, the Van Horn mansion was about a half mile west of the map location and you would have thought if someone named the road Van Horn, they would have it named Van Horn going by that mansion, etc., etc.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the last map ran from 1917-1957, thus Truman Road would be correct. Just barely visible on the pasteover "Truman Road" you can make out the underlayer "VA" just left of "Road".

The Elms was indeed on the 15th Street that runs several blocks south of Truman Road. In the 15th Street listings for 1926 that I posted earlier it shows the Elms Theater. Also shown is the Maywood Baptist Church at the intersection with Northern Blvd. This map shows that church...

[WCHS'59]

Google Earth:

Cruising down Noland Road at 35th Street shows the new Walmart Grocery that replaced the entirety of Gaslight Square shopping center. However, turning east at 35th Street from Noland shows the old Gaslight Square.

The aerial shot shows the Walmart.