Describing the seemingly complex intersection of 63rd Street, Meyer Boulevard and The Paseo, famed Architect and Urban Designer, Ted Seligson, refers to it as “the knuckle” of Kansas City’s boulevard system. Viewing the intersection from an aerial view, Seligson’s analogy becomes clear. The way Meyer Boulevard merges into The Paseo, then briefly runs parallel with 63rd Street, before finally turning back down into itself, looks like a person’s finger joints. The knuckle, which lies just East of The Landing (which was discussed in my last blog), is a node that various different land uses gather around. Not only is this the case for present day (currently a mix of residential, commercial and institutional uses surround the knuckle) but it has been the case for the past 100 or so years. This post will look at how the area immediately surround the knuckle has developed over time.

The earliest developments in the area were mostly single-family residences. These homes mostly originated along Tracy and Woodland Avenues, with some additional homes appearing on either side of The Paseo. Many of the homes on Tracy and The Paseo will remain intact through to present day, but the same can not be said for those on Woodland.

According to the 1925 Atlas of Kansas City, the present-day Landing site was formerly home to two large greenhouses known as “William L. Rock Flower Company.” These greenhouses would also not last long, as they would be sold to JC Nichols in the mid to late 1940’s who would go on to develop The Landing Mall (Kansas City Star, 1947).

Also, just Northeast of the knuckle, sat the Blue Hills Golf Club. This would remain an important part of the neighborhood up the site was redeveloped for a suburban-esque retail shopping center and neighborhood.

By 1963, more single-family residences had filled up the area Northwest of the knuckle and almost all of the houses that had been fronting Woodland Avenue had disappeared. Also, Convent of Christ the King, and some other institutional/office buildings sprung up South of 63rd Street. And The Landing mall was constructed on the former site of the two large greenhouses.

By the early 1990’s, the Blue Hills Golf Club was gone and replaced by the suburban-esque strip mall, a six-story office building and a three-story parking garage. Commercial pad sites began developing around the knuckle and other intersections along 63rd Street.

As of today, the area around the knuckle has not changed much since the early 90’s. The only major difference is the large additions to building at the Southeast corner of 63rd and Meyer. These buildings ultimately became the campus for the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, which is a public charter school.

While the structures and their uses surrounding the knuckle have changed in the last 100 years, there are some things that have remained the same. The first being some of the older, now historic, single-family homes on 62nd Terrace. The picture below shows these homes first in 1940, as part of the 1940 Tax Assessment photos, and then again in 2015 through Google Maps Street View.

These structures have remained relatively untouched during the almost 80 year gap that these photos were taken. The only things that have changed are expected renovations in older homes like these – materiality and landscaping.

The next set of photos, comes to the same conclusion. This commercial building, located halfway in between Tracy Avenue and The Paseo on the North side of 63rd Street has also remained relatively unchanged.

These historic photos show that while there have been some structures that have been around for the better part of the last 80 years, nothing compares to the longevity of the knuckle.