Kansas City
Kansas City names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Kansas City a city of Missouri TY
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Missouri TY, & city Jackson co., at the junction of the t the junct souri and Kansas rivers. It is on Ensas rivere boundary between Missouri and ween Miss sas, and is directly opposite Kansas ectly oppos Kan. Kansas City is one of the City in of important railroad centers of the road center States, and is on the Chicago and on the Chi the Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fe Topeka anos Chicago Great Western Vestern, the t Western Rock Island and Pacific, the and Pacinc Milwaukee and St. Paul, the Union St. Paul cific, and other railroads. One of er railroad largest Union stations in the stations States is used by several of these by severa roads. Four enormous bridges span enormous b Missouri River. In addition to . In addi facilities, there is transportation on e is transp Missouri River from Kansas City from Kan Louis. The street railway system of reet railwa city includes nearly 300 miles of nearly 300 Kansas City has greatly increased as greatly cent years, as an interurban an inter center. The city is situated on hills. The manufacturing and anufacturin sale districts are for the most part are for the the first, and are separated from the re separate tral, business or retail district, which on the second hill, by high igh bluffs. hill, by hi residential sections of the city are tions of ti the third and highest elevation. highest el is an excellent street system, consisting street sys of about 500 miles of paved miles of The notable public buildings include ablic buildin Union Station, city hall, court city hall Board of Trade building, Live Stock e building, change, Y. M. C. A. building, a C. A. bulld Hospital, and a number of handsome a number high schools. The educational The educa tions within a short distance include short dists University of Missouri, the University Missouri, th Kansas, William Jewell College, am Jewell College, and Baker University. There aker Univer comprehensive system of sive syste a schools, supplemented by special mented by Kansas City is notable for its park notable fo boulevard system. 50 miles of vard connect 2,600 acres of public 600 acres within the city limits. Kansas City limits. the distributing point for a vast g point for cultural region of the west and of the and it has large wholesale interests. e wholesale immense business is done in grain, ess is done stock, and meat packing. Kansas at packing. is the largest winter wheat market winter wh the world, and the second market in the second receipts of general grain in the seral grain States. Its grain elevators have a ain elevato pacity of over 18,000,000 bushels. 18,000,000 Inalso one of the most important hay cen- Important ha City ters. The total value of live stock se of live College marketed is over $200,000,000 annually. 000,000 an Bethany It also ranks first in the sale of yellow the sale of Pop. pine lumber, and third as a general lumgener ber center. In greater Kansas City are Kansas C nearly 1,500 factories. The products in The prod- , in 1914 amounted to $319,000,000. In that 0,000. Misyear the city ranked tenth in the value nth in the the of the manufactured output. In the city In t Kanis located the Federal Reserve Bank of Reserve B City, District No. 10, which includes the States ncludes the most of Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colo- Wyoming, United rado, one-half of New Mexico, one-half of New Mexico, one- Alton, Oklahoma, and one-fourth of Missouri. one-fourth of Mi , the There were in 1919 15 National banks. 919 15 National Chicago, The bank clearings in that year rings in that Chicago, amounted to $11,036,406,000. The total 036,406,000. The Paassessed valuation in 1920 was $288,774,n in 1920 was $28 the 416. The budget for that year was et for that yea United $4,153,500. rail- The first permanent settlement of Kannent settlement o the sas City was in 1820, by a company of 1820, by a compa railroad French fur traders. The town was laid The town wa the out in 1838 and was incorporated in was incorpora to St. 1850 under the name of Town of Kaname of Town of the sas. The name was changed to Kanwas changed to track. sas City in 1853. Pop. (1900) 163,752; Pop. (1900) 16 in re- (1910) 248,181; (1920) 324,410. (1920) 324,410. railroad
Kansas City the second city in size of Missouri
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the second city in size of Missouri. It lies at the western border of the state, between the Kansas River and the Missouri. There is some confusion in the popular mind as to names, for Kansas City, Missouri, is separated by the Kansas River only from Kansas City in Kansas. Both cities are on the Missouri. Historically, it is the point where the old Santa Fe route left the Missouri River for the West. The site was well known to hunters and trappers, but was brought first to public notice by the report of the Lewis and Clark Expedition . The earliest white woman, the wife of a settler, came here in 1800. A ferry was established across the Missouri River in 1828. The town was laid out in 1846. The site occupies a number of rugged bluffs. They have been leveled at enormous labor and expense. The history of the city is, of course, commercial. It is the metropolis of the Missouri Valley. It is the leading winter wheat market and the second live stock market in the world. There are enormous elevators and grist mills, slaughter houses and packing plants. The mills produce about 1,600,000 barrels of flour a year. The output of meats and meat products is about $150,000,000 a year. Kansas City is also a distributing point of importance. Telephone wires cross the Missouri by means of steel towers eighty feet high. Twenty railroads center here. Two hundred passenger trains and twice as many freight trains arrive and depart daily. Groceries, dry goods, implements, and machinery to the value of $100,000,000 are distributed annually. The trade is increasing rapidly. Like other enterprising Western towns Kansas City has an excellent system of public schools, a public library, a system of parks, and commodious public buildings. The population in 1910, according to a federal estimate, was 191,685.
Kansas City a city and countyseat of Wyandotte co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and countyseat of Wyandotte co., Kan.; at the juncseat of the misturandan and on the Missouri Pacific, the Union Pacific, and the Chicago Great Western railroads; opposite Kansas City, Mo., with which it has many business interests in common, especially the meat-packing industry. The two cities constitute the second largest livestock and meatpacking place in the United States. The city has also an extensive grain and flour trade, many elevators, large smelting and refining works, the shops of the Missouri Pacific, Union Pacific, and Rock Island railroads, iron and steel works and foundries. There is a fine system of parks and boulevards. There are trolley lines to Kansas City, Mo., Topeka, and Leavenworth, bridges ges across the Kansas river within the city limits, electric and cable street railroads, a system of water-works supplied from the Missouri river, National and State banks. The city contains the State ity conta stitution for the Blind, the Kansas University, Western University tern of Medicine and Surgery, and End Surger and St. Margaret's Hospitals. Igaret B (1910) 82, 331; (1920) 101,078. 1; (1920)
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The commercial machinery Collier's described in 1921 has largely been dismantled: the stockyards that handled over $200,000,000 of livestock a year shut down in 1991, and the Kansas City Board of Trade, long the world's dominant winter wheat market, was bought by the CME Group in 2012 and its trading floor closed the following year. The nearly 300 miles of street railway vanished by the 1950s, though a short downtown streetcar line reopened in 2016, and Union Station lost its passenger traffic before being restored in 1999 as a museum and science center with only a small Amtrak presence. What survives is the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, still the head of District No. 10 as described, and George Kessler's parks and boulevards, still the city's best-known civic feature. Population has risen from 324,410 in 1920 to roughly half a million, with about 2.2 million in the metropolitan area straddling the state line.
Written for this edition, 2026.