What A Difference A Day Makes....

The 110-year-old Colonnade above familiar to all who grew up or now live in Northeast KC. It's getting some much needed TLC from neighborhood residents and KC Parks and Recreation. Below... a TINY part of the trash and brush cleared off the hill behind the structure.

Above... before the clearing... below.... after the clearing. 20 neighborhood folks helped along with a crew of 7 from Parks and Rec...

Below... the view now from Cliff Drive.

The view up (south). Below, some branches and brush remain to be picked up by Parks and Rec Monday. Chainsaws, pruning sheers, and elbow grease used in large amounts.
All the stumps of the invasive bush honeysuckle and scrub trees were coated with a chemical which moves down to the roots so we don't have to do this again....There's still more work to do. More brush clearing, graffiti removal and stair restoration... but a huge beginning has been made. We WILL reclaim our neighborhood.

ScarrPendleMound--or, Today's Bike Ride

I try to ride the bike several times a week and generally travel amongst Indian Mound, Pendleton Heights and Scarritt Renaissance neighborhoods... which I have shortened to ScarrPendleMound. Lot's of nicely maintained homes and yards and just enough hills to make for a goodly amount of exercise. Today was much nicer with lower humidity.




Above home glows in the dark....I like how the "Beware of Dog" sign matches the house color.
There is probably an excessive amount of Day Lilies posted here but they are in bloom now.



I like symmetry....

Above and below homes on adjoining lots elegantly planted.


Homes of all sizes live in our hood......

Above the Concourse Fountain with St. Anthony's in the background. Below, an Indian Mound home on Van Brunt Boulevard. Tomorrow... the other half of the ride.

Only Surviving Images of the Scarritt Home

The Reverend Nathan Scarritt owned a home in Westport (still standing) where he resided until the Civil War threatened the peace of that small burg... he then moved to property he owned in what is now the Historic Northeast part of Kansas City where he built a log cabin. His property then was outside the city limits of the young town and in the early 1870's he desired a better place to live and commissioned the building of a home at what is now the Northeast corner of Sunrise Drive and Gladstone Boulevard. Behind the home down the hill was a pond and springs dotting the area across from the home (still exist) were used by the family to keep butter and some other perishables cool. The picture above is an architects watercolor painting of what the finished house would look like... it's dated June 20th, 1872. Below is the only known photograph of the house dated somewhere in the 1870s. Only one mantelpiece was salvaged from the mansion and it is currently in the Scarritt/Royster home, built 1897, just two blocks west of this site. The name of the architect is in the lower right corner but can't be read.... need CSI to do their thing.
Looks like the carriage house is in the rear attached to the main building and there appears to be a hot house on the side. It's impossible to say for sure which way the home faced... although, IF that is present day Gladstone Boulevard in the foreground the house faced either west or north... I'd bet on west...

There are no visible remains of this home now.... it would be fun to do amateur archeology on the site but I think the present occupants of the three homes there now would probably object.

Sunset at Scarritt Point

View from Historic Northeast Kansas City looking west toward downtown.

Layers and wiggly contrails made an impressionist sundown.

The gray limestone of the Museum glows with the warmth of the late afternoon.


Warmer weather with longer days.... despite this weekend they will be here soon.

Upstairs at the Longs

The grand staircase in Corinthian Hall takes one to the second floor the third floor was accessed by staircases of lesser grandeur but still beautiful. An elevator was also installed in the 1910 mansion. The home has 70 rooms and when the Longs lived there a staff of 24... mostly Scandinavian and German servants. When the building was converted to a public space as a museum, much of the interior was gutted.... walls removed.... for exhibit space. The process has begun to restore it to pre-museum condition.
The house sits on limestone bedrock with a steel beam and concrete foundation. In one-hundred years there has been no settling. Interior walls are 18-24 inches thick throughout the house. Note the walls below are three courses of bricks thick.

Interior walls were removed and where they used to be can still be seen on the floors. New HVAC and electrical is being installed now. All new windows went in over the summer.



Looking north the Carriage House is visible through the windows. The door opens out on a balcony.

One of the new doors that opens onto the front balcony of the house.
Most of the fireplace mantels are gone.... either taken by the family for use elsewhere or sold and cut out during a two-day auction after Mr. Longs' death in 1934.


A large bathroom on the second floor... only the tiled walls give the use of the space away.
Above, one of the few surviving mantels in the upstairs.
View out of the front bedroom windows. Shown is the Edward Steven's home, built in 1902. Mrs. Stevens was the only person R.A. Long approached about buying her property who refused to sell. He wanted to either move the house or remove the house to improve the view.
Above... old time visitors to the Museum will remember the Igloo. You can see a outline of where is was in this room. It was very popular amongst young visitors (older ones too) because it was interesting and because it was the only air-conditioned room in the Museum.
Not a bad view. Looking west over Cliff Drive during last Sundays' snow.
Above, remnants of another bathroom.

Above... an original elevator that operated from the third floor to the attic... for hauling up of items for storage or furniture.... still works.
Above, the Carriage House in back with the servants quarters on the right. The William Chick Scarritt House can be seen behind the Carriage House... itself in the process of renovation.

Guest rooms were on the third floor... above... and an iron stairway to the attic, below. Thursday I will have views of the attic and some shots from the roof.
This house cost 1.5 million dollars.... including land acquisition, clearance and construction.

Mr. Long was worth roughly 40 million dollars in 1920... equivalent to 500 million today.

Side stairway looking down from the third floor to the first.

Excellent hard hat tours of the building are given each month.... google "Friends of the Kansas City Museum" for more information on those.