My assigned area is between Lexington Avenue and Amie street, in the Historic Northeast neighborhood Pendleton Heights. I have rented in this neighborhood for 10 + years,  it was interesting to dig into some demographics.

Something I have suspected recent years is the reality that I will soon be priced out of the neighborhood. This year an $85,000 house that my boyfriend and I were interested in sold for CASH the day it hit the market. My census studies confirmed this for me. The rise in home value has nearly doubled from 2000-2010, while the median income has remained stagnant. This trend is not reflected in the KCMO area as a whole.

The blocks between Amie and Lexington along Prospect are entirely residential, aside from Garfield Elementary School and a small church. Many of the original dwellings in this area were expansive single family homes, featuring Victorian architecture. The neighborhood that these blocks are contained within, Pendleton Heights, is often referred to as Kansas City’s First Suburb.

The era that saw the most structural residential change was between 1909-1925. Larger lots were divided to accommodate housing for an influx of immigrants and soldiers returning from WWI. This increase in density is reflected in the following two figures, a section of the Sanborn Map from 1909(Figure 1), and a section of the Kansas City Atlas, 1925 (Figure 2). Note the multi family structures, just south of Amie Street built on an empty expanse. This apartment complex, Amie Court remains today. (Figure 3).

Figure 3