A fast-growing frontier community transformed itself into a beautiful urban model of parks and boulevards. In 1893, East Coast newspapers were calling Kansas City the filthiest in the United States. The drainage of many houses emptied into gullies and cesspools. There was no garbage collection service, and herding livestock through the city was only recently prohibited. Through the diligent efforts of a handful of recently arrived citizens, political, financial, and botanical skills were successfully applied to a nascent parks system. Squirrel pastures, cliffs and bluffs, ugly ravines, and shanties and slums were turned into a gridiron of green, with chains of parks and boulevards extending in all directions. Wherever the system penetrated well-settled localities, the policy was to provide playgrounds, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, pools, and field houses. By the time the city fathers were finished, Kansas City could boast of 90 miles of boulevards and 2,500 acres of urban parks.

A collection of photographs documenting the founding and development of Kansas City's parks and boulevards from the late 1800s, as part of the City Beautiful movement.

Hyde Park, located on Westport's outskirts south of early Kansas City, was the first stop on the long trek down the Santa Fe Trail. Good pasture and a natural cave spring were early attributes. During the real estate boom of the 1880s, the area was platted, but the crash of 1888 intervened, and only a few houses were built. By 1900, with the recovery of the economy and the development of Janssen Place as a private street, the area became the preferred community for Kansas City's wealthy. The architectural style is Queen Anne, Prairie School, Neo-Georgian, Colonial Revival, Kansas City Shirtwaist, and Shingle. These homes glitter with original brass fixtures, lead and stained-glass windows, and oak, mahogany, and walnut interiors. Some of Kansas City's most famous and notorious have lived in Hyde Park, from wealthy businessmen and entertainment stars to serial killers.

Born and reared on the outskirts of Kansas City in Olathe, Kansas, Jesse Clyde Nichols (1880-1950) was a creative genius in land development. He grew up witnessing the cycles of development and decline characteristics of Kansas City and other American cities during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These early memories contributed to his interest in real estate and led him to pursue his goal of neighborhoods in Kansas City, an idea unfamiliar to that city and a rarity across the United States. J.C. Nichols was one of the first developers in the country to lure buyers with a combination of such attractions as paved streets, sidewalks, landscaped areas, and access to water and sewers. He also initiated restrictive covenants and to control the use of structures built in and around his neighborhoods. In addition, Nichols was involved in the placement of services such as schools, churches, and recreation and shopping areas, all of which were essential to the success of his developments. In 1923, Nichols and his company developed the Country Club Plaza, the first of many regional shopping centers built in anticipation of the increased use of automobiles. Known throughout the United States, the Plaza is a lasting tribute to the creativity of J.C. Nichols and his legacy to the United States. With single-mindedness of purpose and unwavering devotion to achievement, J.C. Nichols left an indelible imprint on the Kansas City metropolitan area, and thereby influenced the design and development of major residential and commercial areas throughout the United States as well. Based on extensive research, J.C. Nichols and the Shaping of Kansas City is a valuable study of one of the most influential entrepreneurs in American land development.