Historic Overland Park

HISTORIC
OVERLAND PARK
An Illustrated History
A publication of the Overland Park Historical Society

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HISTORIC
OVERLAND PARK
An Illustrated History
Published by the Overland Park Historical Society
Co-sponsored by the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce Foundation
Historical Publishing Network
A division of Lammert Incorporated
San Antonio, Texas

❖
A 1912 view of Overland Park from a
water tower west of the Strang Line
Car Barn looking south across the
new community.
First Edition
Copyright © 2004 Historical Publishing Network
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Historical Publishing
Network, 11555 Galm Road, Suite 100, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (210) 688-9006.
ISBN: 1-893619-37-0
Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2004116985
Historic Overland Park: An Illustrated History
editors Norman Keech
Florent W. Wagner
contributing authors: Norman Keech
Ross Marshall
Ann Ogden
Florent W. Wagner
contributing writers for
“Sharing the Heritage”:
Eric Dabney
Michael Reaves
Historical Publishing Network
president: Ron Lammert
vice president: Barry Black
project managers: Lou Ann Murphy
Pat Steele
director of operations: Charles A. Newton III
administration: Angela Lake
Donna M. Mata
book sales: Dee Steidle
graphic production: Colin Hart
Michael Reaves
Craig Mitchell
John Barr
Evelyn Hart
PRINTED IN SOUTH KOREA
2 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

CONTENTS
4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
5 CHAPTER I early inhabitants, explorers & Indian missions
9 CHAPTER II overland trails in Overland Park
13 CHAPTER III bleeding Kansas
15 CHAPTER IV settlers, 1860s to 1900
21 CHAPTER V founding of Overland Park
35 CHAPTER VI development of the community
49 CHAPTER VII 1940-1960: the war and township years
63 CHAPTER VIII 1960-1980: incorporation & organization
73 CHAPTER IX 1980-2000: maturity
82 SHARING THE HERITAGE
141 SPONSORS
142 ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Contents ✦ 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Since the founding of the Overland Park Community, there had been no organized effort to identify, learn, or study the history of
this area. In 1981, Mayor Eilert and other civic leaders incorporated the Overland Park 2000 Foundation, a tax-exempt corporation
to identify, preserve and display this history, educate the public about it, generally provide for the social and economic welfare of the
citizens of Overland Park, particularly the historic center. The Foundation acquired the Strang Line Car Barn, the principal historic
building in the downtown area, restored it with public and private donations, displayed some of the historic artifacts inside and
concentrated on uncovering its history. The Foundation had a limited number of volunteer board members and no general
membership. It realized that identifying and preserving the history of the area and educating the public about it was a bigger charge
than it could handle with the limited Board. Foundation members instituted and served as incorporators of a new general membership
Overland Park Historical Society, another tax exempt corporation, which has taken over the task of identifying and preserving the
history, displaying this history, and providing a resource center about this history and headquarters for the Society. This is done at the
Strang Carriage House, 8045 Santa Fe Drive, downtown Overland Park. A special thank you is owed to Virginia Owen. She diligently
pursued the creation of the Overland Park Historical Society and obtained many of the charter members for the organization. Since
the Society’s founding in 1994, she has created programs and delights in presenting programs to tell everyone about the quality of life
in our community.
The whole community is greatly indebted to Radah P. Cox, an early resident in the new community of Overland Park. After her
family, home, and community interests, her passion revolved around collecting photos and historic documents of everyone and every
place in the surrounding area that she could collect and preserve. She did an excellent job. When she passed on, her son George Cox,
Jr., generously shared many of these photos and information with the Foundation at first, then with the Historical Society. These
photos and information have been invaluable. George Cox, Jr., also has spent many hours telling the history of the area to the
historians of the Historical Society and reviewing writings for accuracy. Next, George and Dorothy Breyfogle were very good at saving
pictures and had a gallery in their home. At the death of the survivor, Dorothy, a binder of these photos was given to the Historical
Society, which helped fill in many blanks. Tom Porter, the son of Earl Porter of dairy fame, shared many photos and much information
and reviewed the text of several chapters of this book for accuracy. Ann P. Ogden, daughter of Audley Porter, the other part of the
Porter dairy, also supplied many photos and much information as well as authored the chapter of this book on the pioneer families
and activities. Merle Davis, Lavern Ford, wife of Herb Ford, Sr., her son Herb Ford, Jr., Jo Ann Crouch, Robert Marty, the Docker
family, and many, many more individuals have given hundreds of photos and much information to the Society.
Phil Kline, Bob Anderson, Lyndus Henry, Ellis Witter, Robert Jennings and his son Jay, and the Frank Schepers family have been
very generous with sharing their pictures and information. One of the principal visionaries of modern Overland Park, businessman
Matt Ross, provided many pictures and eight tape recordings of information for the Township period and early incorporation years.
Don Pipes, City Manager for much of the incorporation period, spent hours being interviewed and reviewing writings for accuracy
about events. Mayor Eilert provided the most essential element of support at crucial times in the undertaking of the publication of
this illustrated history book as well as his seasoned expertise on the presentation of the material and correctness of information.
Retired police chief, Myron Scafe, spent months interviewing people who made, or directed, the events making this history and quality
of life since the incorporation of the City of Overland Park.
Many thanks to Ross Marshall, one of the premier experts on trails through this area, for his fine chapter on these trails. Norman
Keech, a very knowledgeable historian on the American Indians and history at the time of Kansas statehood, succinctly details the life
and myriad events of these periods in two chapters. Mary Kay Smith, a person with exceptional knowledge of Johnson County history
has authored many booklets for the Historical Society and has served as an advisor of this publication. Donald Inbody, past principal
of the Overland Park Elementary School, has done much scholarly work about this school, creating a booklet on the topic for the
Society, the basis of the text of this publication regarding this school. He also is the past editor of the Overland Park Historical Society
Newsletter, writing many articles and providing much information about early Overland Park history by including mystery pictures
for identification and information and in so many other ways. A special thank you also goes to Betty Dixon for the hours of expertise
she has given to this publication. Many thanks is owed to all of these people, and others who have so generously provided information
or artifacts for this publication.
All pictures and maps shown in the history section of this publication are the property of the Overland Park Historical Society, unless identified
otherwise in a caption about the artifact.
4 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

EARLY INHABITANTS, EXPLORERS &
INDIAN MISSIONS
BY NORMAN KEECH
The earliest food hunter-gathering immigrants came to the pristine North American continent
from Asia by crossing the Bering Straits west of Alaska. The archeological evidence indicates this
event occurred about 13,000 B.C.; other arguments place it at 40,000–25,000 B.C. The migration
spread into the eastern regions of North America and moved farther to the South American
continent. The date of their arrival in Kansas is set at approximately 9,000 B.C.
“Protohistoric” refers to a time shortly before and after the arrival of European explorers in the
New World. Tribes such as the Pawnee, Kansa, Wichita, Osage, and Comanche were known to
inhabit Kansas at this time.
In 1541, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led an expedition into the region, which would
eventually be named Kansas. Searching for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold in Cibola, he explored
southern Kansas and pushed as far north as the present day town of Lindsborg and perhaps farther
into eastern Kansas. This was the land of the Quivira and Wichita tribes. Disappointed that he found
no gold, he strangled his Indian guide and returned to New Mexico. Indian village excavation sites
have yielded fragments of chain mail and other pieces of armor indicating Coronado’s presence.
Father Juan Padilla, who had accompanied Coronado’s expedition, returned to the Quivira Indians
in 1542. After some time among the friendly Quiviras, Father Padilla determined to travel to a
country farther east. Traveling with several companions, they had not gone very far when they
encountered hostile Indians. Padilla’s companions escaped but he did not, being slain by many
❖
A re-creation of a Kansa Indian
Community Lodge at the Deanna
Rose Children’s Farmstead with an
individual family tepee located beside
the lodge.
Chapter I ✦ 5

❖
Shawnee Indian log cabin with Indian
family. The Shawnee Indians hunted,
fished, and planted corn, pumpkins,
potatoes and other crops.
arrows. Father Padilla was the first missionary
and martyr west of the Mississippi River.
In 1724, Captain M. Etienne Venyard De
Bourgmont discovered a Kansa Indian village
near present day Shawnee. The French
trader/explorer established a trading post at the
junction of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers for
trade with the Kansa Indians.
The year 1804 saw the Lewis and Clark
expedition pass through northeastern Kansas,
which was part of the Louisiana Purchase. Other
explorers passing through Kansas were Zebulon
Pike (1806), Stephen Long (1819-1820), and
John Fremont (1842).
The Kansa and Kaw names are from early
French traders. The Kansa name was dropped
when the Bureau of Indian Affairs started using
Kaw to prevent confusion between them and
other Indians located in Kansas. There are at
least 40 ways to spell the Kansa name. The word
means “People Of The South Wind”.
The Kansa Indians lived in central Kansas along
the Kansas and Saline Rivers. The tribe went
through many hardships throughout their history.
They ceded two million acres of land and relocated
southeast of Council Grove when the eastern
Indian tribes were being moved to Indian Territory.
The Kansa tribe went from a population of
3,000 in the eighteenth century to 600 in the
twentieth century. William A. Mehojah, the last
full-blooded Kansa, died in 2001. He graduated
from Kaw City High School, received an
associate degree in business administration from
Haskell Institute, and also attended Idaho State
University. After returning from World War II,
he served in many leadership positions with the
Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Another Kansa Indian of note, Charles Curtis,
was born January 25, 1860, in Eugene (now
known as North Topeka), U.S. Kansas Territory,
and was the thirty-first vice-president of the
United States (1929-1933), serving with
President Herbert Hoover. Charles Curtis was
half American/English, one-eighth Kansa
Indian/Osage Indian/Potawatomie Indian, and
one-eighth French, but while in public office he
never forgot his Indian heritage.
By treaty with the Indians in 1825,
thousands of Indians from the eastern part of
the United States were to be resettled in “Indian
Country”. The U.S. government gave the
Shawnee Indians 1.6 million acres of land in
eastern Kansas in exchange for their lands in
Missouri, eastern Ohio, Indiana and western
6 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Pennsylvania. Originally, the Shawnee occupied
Georgia and Tennessee.
In 1827, Colonel Henry Leavenworth
established Cantonment Leavenworth, the first
permanent white settlement in Kansas, to keep
peace in the Indian Territory and to protect the
travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. It was to become
part of the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Gibson
Military Road running along state and territory
borders from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Scott
and on to Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.
In 1828 the first band of Shawnee Indians
arrived in Kansas, after wintering at Cape
Girardeau, Missouri. No other people except
Indians were to live in the Indian Territory
with the exception of people working at the
Indian Missions and their families or someone
being the spouse of an Indian. The Shawnee
Reservation extended from the Missouri border
to as far west as Topeka and ranged from 25 to
30 miles wide and Johnson County became
their headquarters. Here they found an
abundance of timber and free-flowing springs
with gum trees lining the creeks, so they called
their new settlement Gum Springs, later to be
named Shawnee.
In 1830 a log council house was constructed.
Farming began in the area and the first wheat
was grown in Kansas. Daniel Morgan Boone, son
of Daniel Boone the famous Kentucky pioneer,
was the first American farmer in Kansas.
A smallpox epidemic killed some members
of the Shawnee Tribe as well as people of
the Kickapoo, Delaware, Munsee, and
Wyandotte Tribes.
The Shawnee Indian Methodist Mission and
Manual Labor School was established in Turner,
Wyandotte County, in 1830 by Reverend
Thomas Johnson and in 1839 moved to its
❖
Above: Kansa Indian Charles Curtis
served as vice-president of the United
States during the Herbert Hoover
administration.
COURTESY OF THE KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Below: The Fort Leavenworth officer
quarters. c. 1870.
COURTESY OF THE KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Chapter I ✦ 7

❖
Above: Reverend Thomas Johnson.
COURTESY OF THE KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Below: Reverend Charles Bluejacket.
COURTESY OF THE KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
current location at 3403 West Fifty-third Street
in Fairway. The Methodist Mission contained
2,000 acres and 16 buildings, including mills,
shops and factories where several thousand
Indians were taught agriculture, manual trades
and domestic arts until 1862 when it was closed.
Methodist Missionary Thomas Johnson, who
arrived in Kansas in November 1830, strongly
believed in assimilating the Shawnee Indians
into American society. His plan involved
religious teaching, agricultural improvements,
and creating boarding schools, which he
believed would “civilize” the Shawnees by
destroying their tribal bonds. He had charge of
the school from 1830 to 1841 and from 1847 to
1862. In 1855 and 1857 he served as president
of the Kansas Territorial Council, which was the
upper legislative body. He was shot and killed in
1865 while living in Kansas City, Missouri.
Johnson County was named for him.
Reverend Charles Bluejacket who worked at
the Mission came to the area in 1832, a boy of
sixteen who had recently converted to
Christianity in a mission school in Ohio. His
qualities were immediately apparent and he was
selected as an interpreter at the Shawnee
Methodist Mission. Those who knew him
described him as a faithful and courageous
Christian, well bred, self possessed, intelligent,
and a person of great character. He was also a
chief of the Shawnee Tribe.
The first Shawnee Indian Baptist Mission was
established in 1831 through the efforts and
influence of Reverend Isaac McCoy. Its location
was at present-day Fifty-fifth and Walmer in
Mission where a marker has been placed. In
1833 Jotham Meeker came to the area from
Michigan, bringing the first printing press to
Kansas. He printed the first newspaper in the
state of Kansas, the Shawnee Sun, which was also
the first newspaper in the Shawnee language.
The Mission was abandoned in 1855.
Nearby, the Shawnee Quaker Mission was
established in 1834 and remained open until
1870. Its location was at present-day Sixty-first
and Hemlock in Merriam where a marker has
been placed.
By 1854, a new treaty had been negotiated,
with the Indians selling back to the United States
all of the land with the exception of 200,000
acres reserved for their homes, amounting to 200
acres for each member of the tribe. In 1854 the
Kansas Territory was opened for settlement. The
Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed and signed by
President Franklin Pierce. The Kansas Territory
was opened up for white settlement.
From November 24, 1854, to June 27, 1855,
and from July 1855 to Spring 1856, the
Shawnee Methodist Mission served as the
capital of the Kansas Territory.
8 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

OVERLAND TRAILS IN OVERLAND PARK
BY ROSS MARSHALL
Thousands of travelers in the nineteenth century crossed through today’s Overland Park as part of
the westward movement of our nation. Instead of suburbs, residential streets and wide concrete
highways, our city was once open prairie interrupted only by creeks, a few trees and the rutted
wagon roads that carried trappers, traders, emigrant families, freighters and even missionaries to their
destinations in Santa Fe, Oregon, California and other western locations.
In recent years, several of the wagon roads that coursed through Overland Park have been
designated by the United States Congress as National Historic Trails, under the 1968 National Trails
System Act, because of their national significance.
• The Santa Fe Trail: Designated by Congress in 1987, the Santa Fe Trail runs from Franklin,
Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. It “officially” began in 1821 when William Becknell led a small
trading party west from Franklin and ended up in Santa Fe, which was then a part of Mexico. Mexico
had just won its independence from Spain that year and immediately removed the trade barriers that
the mother country had erected for its former province. Although during most of its sixty-year useful
life it was a commercial trade route, many emigrants also traveled this trail to the New Mexico
Territory and California, and it was heavily used by the U.S. military in the 1846-48 Mexican War.
• The Oregon Trail: Designated by Congress in 1978 in the first group of trails admitted under the
1978 amendment allowing Historic Trails into the System, the Oregon Trail was first used by the
mountain men in the fur trapper era in the 1820s-30s. Missionaries to Oregon traversed the trail
in the late 1830s followed by the first substantial wave of emigrants as part of the Great Migration
of 1843. Wagon trains would outfit and initially follow the Independence and Westport Routes of
the Santa Fe Trail in April or May and begin the nearly two thousand mile trek to the Oregon
Territory, arriving in September after a journey of four to five months. This migration was basically
families who were drawn by the prospect of obtaining inexpensive fertile land, mostly in the
Willamette Valley in Oregon.
❖
A view looking southwest from
Metcalf just north of Johnson Drive
toward Shawnee Mission North High
School. The California Road from
Westport to Lawrence crossed here
heading west-southwest.
Chapter II ✦ 9

❖
Above: A view looking southwest from
Antioch at about 150th Street. The
Independence Route crosses here
going southwest.
Below: A view looking southeast at
Oak Park Mall from Ninety-fifth and
Quivira. The combined Westport
Route courses to the southwest
through this intersection.
• The California Trail: Beginning with the
Bidwell-Bartleson Party, who left from this area
in 1841, emigrants began to respond to the
opportunity to obtain large tracts of dry, but
fertile, land in California, then still a province
of Mexico. Mexico welcomed Americans, if
they would become Mexican citizens and be
law abiding. The news of the Donner-Reed
Party tragedy in 1846 nearly halted overland
emigration. But with the discovery of gold in
1848, ’49ers filled the trail in an
unprecedented migration to not only the new
U.S. California Territory, but also to the
Oregon Territory. This migration lasted for
over thirty years, even past the completion of
the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.
The fourth National Historic Trail in our
metropolitan area is the Lewis and Clark Trail,
designated by Congress in 1987. The Trail is
defined as the route the Corps of Discovery
traveled, under the leadership of Meriwether
Lewis and William Clark, in 1804-06 to explore,
survey, and record the vast lands and resources
contained in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, bought
from France by President Thomas Jefferson. The
route was almost completely on rivers; in our area
they traveled the Missouri River. The bicentennial
anniversary of this trail will be a national
celebration during the years of 2003-2006.
In the Kansas City area, the Santa Fe, Oregon,
and California Trails followed the same routes
from the outfitting points of Independence,
Westport Landing, and Westport across the
border into present-day Johnson County, Kansas.
The Santa Fe Trail began first and its routes
through our area were later used by the Oregon
and California wagon trains. Just southwest of
Gardner, Kansas, the Independence and Westport
Routes met and near the same location, wagon
trains to Oregon and California left the older
Santa Fe Trail which continued on southwest, and
headed northwest toward present-day Lawrence
and Topeka.
In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal
Act of 1830, which called for the removal of all
eastern tribes to the “Permanent Indian Frontier,”
which was the land west of the western border of
Missouri. This land throughout the great-plains
west to the Rocky Mountains had been called the
“Great American Desert” by early nineteenthcentury
mapmakers. Present-day Kansas,
including Overland Park, was therefore Indian
Territory until the passage by Congress of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which opened the
territory to non-Indian settlement.
During the prominent years of the wagon
traffic through Overland Park, the trail was free
to follow the most natural way, sticking to the
ridges and avoiding creeks as much as possible.
After 1854, farms, fences, and county roads
began to appear which affected the natural route
of the trails. However, by the mid-1850s,
Oregon and California travelers were going
farther up the Missouri River on steamboats and
the outfitting points moved from Independence
and Westport to St. Joseph and Council Bluffs.
Overland Park would see few additional
emigrants to Oregon or California, but the Santa
Fe wagons would continue to use the local
routes to haul freight for another fifteen years.
The Independence Route of the Santa Fe-
Oregon-California Trails began in Independence
and traveled south on the Blue Ridge. Near Red
Bridge Road, after 1840, the trail descended this
ridge, crossed the Big Blue River and entered
10 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Kansas near today’s 123rd Street. The route
continued west-southwest for about three miles,
entering the city limits of today’s Overland Park
at about 139th and Nall. Four miles west at
about 154th and Quivira at the old Morse
village, the trail entered the city limits of Olathe
and continued on toward the historic Lone Elm
Campground near 167th and Lone Elm Road.
The route continued on west-southwest to its
junction with the Westport Route as mentioned
above, near U.S. Highway 56 and 183rd Street
southwest of Gardner, Kansas.
The Westport Route of the Santa Fe-Oregon-
California Trails traveled from Westport Landing
situated along the Missouri River between
Delaware Street and Grand Avenue, which
included some of the original town lots of the
Town of Kansas. The route went south down the
Main Street-Grand Avenue-Broadway Street
corridor to Westport. Two alternate routes from
Westport were used. The north alternate went
basically west on Westport Road, entering
Kansas at about Forty-fifth Street and State Line
Road. It continued west-southwest through
Westwood, Roeland Park just north of Fairway’s
historic Shawnee Indian Mission, through
Mission and entered Overland Park at the
eastern edge of the cloverleaf ramps at Metcalf
Avenue and Shawnee Mission Parkway.
The south alternate of the Westport Route went
south along the Wornall Road corridor and entered
Kansas at about Sixty-ninth Terrace in Mission
Hills. It passed through Harmon Park in Prairie
Village and entered Overland Park at Eighty-third
and Outlook. Continuing on west it met up with
the north alternate just west of the Johnson County
Library at about Eighty-eighth and Mastin. The
combined route left Overland Park and entered the
city limits of Lenexa at Ninety-fifth and Quivira.
The Westport Route crossed Flat Rock Creek at
103rd and Noland Streets, continued southwest
along the I-35 corridor, passed just east of the
Olathe Courthouse, passed through the Elm Grove
Campground at Cedar Creek and U.S. Highway 56,
and through the town of Gardner before meeting
the Independence Route as described above.
The California Road left Westport and linked
up with the Oregon-California Trail at
Lawrence. The California Road left the north
alternate of the Westport Route at about 57th
and Riggs in Mission and coursed west through
a narrow neck of Overland Park from Metcalf
Avenue to Lowell Street along Johnson Drive.
The trail continued on west through Merriam,
past the Gum Springs in Shawnee and passed
through Desoto on its way to Lawrence.
The Fort Leavenworth Military Road was built
by the United States Army in the late 1830s to
carry patrols and supplies north and south
between a string of forts along the edge of Indian
Territory. The Road came from Fort Leavenworth,
crossed the Kansas River at the Grinter House and
Ferry at about Seventy-eighth Street in Kansas City,
Kansas, passed close to Gum Springs (which is
near Sixtieth and Goddard Streets) and entered
Overland Park near Sixty-eighth and Antioch. It
continued on southeast, crossing the north
alternate of the Westport Route at about Seventyfifth
and Lowell Street and the south alternate at
Eighty-fourth and Lamar, leaving Overland Park at
about Ninety-ninth and Mission Road. It followed
very near the state line to Miami County and on to
❖
Above: A view looking west-southwest
from Metcalf just south of Eighty-third
Street. The South Branch of the
Westport Route went along this line
of sight.
Below: A view looking south at the
Johnson County Central Resource
Library located at Eighty-seventh and
Farley. The North Branch of the
Westport Route goes southwest
through that intersection. The South
Branch goes through this parking lot.
The two branches met just southwest
of here.
Chapter II ✦ 11

U.S. 69
Lone Elm
Campground
❖
LEGEND
Santa Fe, Oregon,
California Trail from
Independence
Leavenworth/Ft. Scott
Military Road
Santa Fe, Oregon,
California Trail from
Westport
California Road,
Westport to Lawrence
Strang Line
Interurban Railroad
Olathe
Above: A map of the historic trails
through Overland Park.
Right: The Daughters of the American
Revolution in the middle and late
1900s purchased and placed granite
markers along the established route of
the Santa Fe Trail. This marker was
placed at Eightieth and Santa Fe in
1906. It was moved to the northeast
corner of this intersection when Santa
Fe Drive was paved with bricks as
part of the Kansas City-Olathe Road
in the middle 1920s.
Pflumm Rd.
Pflumm Rd.
Shawnee
Lenexa
Quivira Rd.
Flat Rock Creek
Campground
Quivira Rd.
U.S. 69
Switzer Rd.
Switzer Rd.
Merriam
I-35
Antioch Rd.
OVERLAND
PARK
Antioch Rd.
179th St.
183rd St.
47th St.
Mission
Rosland
Park
Fairway
Johnson Dr.
Prairie
Village
Mission
Hills
119th St.
LEAWOOD
Fort Scott and forts farther south. Some Oregon
and California wagon trains (including Francis
Parkman’s in 1846) went from Westport to Gum
Springs and north to Fort Leavenworth on the
Military Road.
The overland emigrants kept many diaries,
numbering in the thousands, which give us an
immense record of their travels and what they saw
and experienced. In Johnson County, Kansas,
such sites as the Quaker, Baptist and Methodist
Shawnee Indian Missions were frequently
mentioned, along with the Lone Elm and Elm
Grove Campgrounds. However, few diaries failed
to mention crossing the Missouri state line and
entering into Indian Territory. Not only were they
essentially leaving their country, but they were
entering unknown lands with up to two thousand
Metcalf Ave.
Metcalf Ave.
Nall Ave.
79th St.
87th St.
95th St.
Nall Ave.
127th St.
135th St.
143rd St.
151st St.
159th St.
103rd St.
167th St.
Mission Rd.
I-435
State Line Rd
miles to go. This was a scary thing and was not
taken lightly by the emigrants. They would see no
organized non-Indian settlements until they
reached Santa Fe, Oregon, or California, except
for two or three U.S. Army forts.
As the Independence and Westport Routes
coursed through Overland Park, the travelers
were beginning to enter the so-called “treeless
prairie.” As the trails left the grassy wooded
lands near the Missouri border, no longer would
they travel on the ridges to avoid the rivers and
creeks. The routes became drier and needed to
follow the rivers in order to have grass, water
and wood, the three basic necessities for
sustaining life on the trails.
The overland wagon roads carried people
with their hopes and dreams, and certainly their
fears. Adventure, success and failure, and even
life and death were a part of this vast westward
movement. These historic trails are not just lines
on a map or ruts across the landscape, but a
reflection of the will of the human spirit to meet
life’s challenges and achieve great things.
The result was the assimilation into the United
States of the Oregon, New Mexico, California and
Utah Territories, along with all the rest of our
western states. Vast new resources, lands and
economic growth were added to our country
which has enabled us to be the world power we
are today, leading the pursuit of freedom,
democracy and opportunity for the whole world.
No other event in the history of the world
compares to America’s westward movement
whereby nearly half a million people traveled
overland up to two thousand miles in order to
establish new homelands. And it was completed
in only about four decades! Overland Park
shares in this marvelous national heritage.
12 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

BLEEDING KANSAS
BY NORMAN KEECH
The Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 opened the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to settlement
and gave the resident citizens the right to vote whether Kansas should be a slave state or free
upon entering the Union. On March 1, 1867, Nebraska entered the Union under peaceful means
as a free state. In order for Kansas to enter the Union, it was by far a more difficult matter. The
border between eastern Kansas and western Missouri became a dangerous place to live. Kansas
Jayhawkers and Missouri Bushwhackers raided both sides of the state line, creating a state of paranoia
and confusion.
Border Ruffians and Bushwhackers were Missouri’s pro-slavery guerrillas. They were noted for
ambushes, plunder, arson and murder. In the 1850s, having crossed into Kansas, Border Ruffians and
Bushwhackers promoted their cause and raided many communities.
Samuel J. Jones, sheriff of Douglas County, Kansas Territory, led a large posse of men in an attack
on Lawrence in 1856 under the guise of upholding the law. He also led other attacks on Free Staters.
William Quantrill formed his own group of guerillas, which included the future outlaws
Frank and Jesse James, Bill Anderson, and Cole Younger. Quantrill’s guerillas fought and slew
Union soldiers and Free Staters along the Kansas and Missouri border. His most notorious attack was
against Lawrence, Kansas, in August 1863 when he and 350 of his raiders killed 150 unarmed men
and boys and burned most of the town. “Bloody Bill” Anderson eventually broke away from
Quantrill’s force and led his own band of guerillas on looting and killing expeditions.
On the Kansas side of the issue were the Abolitionists, Jayhawkers and Redlegs. They also were
noted for ambushes, plunder, arson and murder, as well as creating havoc. Redlegs wore red leggings
for identification.
The abolitionist John Brown led several attacks on Kansas pro-slavers and Missouri Bushwhackers
but is more known for his raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. “Old John” Brown and his sons, using
❖
Bleeding Kansas. This mural is in the
Kansas Capitol building and was
completed in 1940 by John Stewart
Curry. The central figure is John
Brown who is surrounded by free-state
and proslavery forces. The two figures
at their feet represent the 1.5 million
Civil War dead and wounded. During
this turbulent Territorial era, Kansas
became known as “Bleeding Kansas.”
COURTESY OF THE KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Chapter III ✦ 13

❖
The “Immortal Ten.” Dr. John Doy, an
abolitionist and conductor on the
Underground Railway, was taking
thirteen men, women, and children,
who were runaway slaves, north into
Nebraska. The slaves, Doy, his son
Charles, and a wagon driver named
Clough encountered trouble when they
were twelve miles outside of
Lawrence, Kansas. They were taken
prisoner by Benjamin Wood, mayor of
Weston, Missouri, along with a
professional slavecatcher named Jake
Hurd, who led an armed posse. The
wagon driver was soon freed, but Dr.
Doy and his son were held in Platte
City, Missouri, through the winter.
Three of the black men were savagely
whipped and sold back into slavery.
The women and children also were
sold. In St. Joseph, after months of
delay, the Doys were finally charged
with aiding a Missouri slave to
escape. Charles Doy was acquitted,
but his father was sentenced to five
years at hard labor. In the meantime,
anti-slavery leaders in Lawrence
asked James B. Abbott, a supporter of
the Underground Railroad, to lead
fifty men on a raid to free the Doys.
Abbott responded calmly, “I will try to
find nine good men.” By deceiving the
jailor, they effected the escape without
firing a shot and returned with the
Doys to Lawrence.
COURTESY OF THE KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
short-swords and their own brand of pike-like
spears, were as bloody as any other participants.
James H. Lane came to Kansas in 1855 and,
being active in the U.S. military and
government, became one of the leaders of the
Jayhawks. He and Charles Jennison led men on
many raids in Missouri burning and looting. At
the end of the Civil War, Jim Lane served as a
United States senator for two years after which
he committed suicide.
In 1858, Abraham Lincoln made political
visits to the town of Leavenworth and
northeastern Kansas to speak against slavery.
Raids by initiative and retaliation raged
along the border counties giving the name
of “Bleeding Kansas” to the area; Johnson
County was not to be left out. The town of
Spring Hill was raided twice by Missouri
Bushwhackers. Aubrey (the present day
intersection of Metcalf and 199th Street) was
raided five times. Quantrill’s guerillas raided
Olathe once, in September 1862, and the town
of Shawnee was raided twice, being virtually
destroyed in October 1862. Gardner was
raided twice.
The village of Oxford was a community
located at what is now 135th and Mission Road.
In a fraudulent vote for or against slavery, over
1,600 votes were cast out of a possible 200 votes
in the whole township.
On January 29, 1861, Kansas was admitted to
the Union free of slavery as the thirty-fourth
state. The state’s motto was “Ad Astra Per Aspera,”
which is Latin meaning “To The Stars Through
Difficulty”. In the year 2002, the statue of a
Kansa Indian named “Ad Astra” was placed at
the top of the Kansas state capitol building. He is
shown shooting an arrow to the north star.
On April 12, 1861, the Confederates fired on
Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and the Civil War
was started.
During the Civil War the Shawnee Indian
Methodist Mission, sometimes called “Johnson’s
Mission”, served as housing for Kansas troops
and a deployment area during the Battle of
Westport in late 1864. The raids in the area had
become so fierce that many Kansans and
Missourians joined the army in the belief that it
was safer than staying home.
The Battle of Mine Creek was fought October
25, 1864, near Pleasanton, Kansas. It was the
largest battle involving Union and Confederate
cavalry troops west of the Mississippi.
In April 1865, General Robert E. Lee
surrendered at Appomatox, Virginia, ending the
Civil War. Johnson County finally had peace after
years of “Bleeding Kansas” border wars. Soldiers
and people who had moved away during the war
returned to resume farming and business
ventures. Immigration was also on the increase.
14 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

SETTLERS, 1860S TO1900
BY ANN OGDEN
With the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, the area that was to become Overland Park
was open to white settlers for the first time. Indians had long been in the area, and wagons going to
the Spanish southwest for trade had been following the Santa Fe Trail since 1822.
The winter of 1857-58 was the mildest on record, according to the “History of Johnson County”
in the 1874 Johnson County Atlas. The ground didn’t freeze, allowing settlers to plow, break prairie and
perform “other farm work with as much ease as in summer.”
After this idyllic weather, settlers, including those who arrived after hearing glowing reports, were
soon greeted with, in addition to pre-war political strife and anxiety, a severe drought. From June
19,1859, no rain heavy enough to soak the soil fell until November 1860. Vegetation mostly dried
up. The only food available for cattle and horses was hay first cut from prairie grasses, which had
grown well in the spring, and then dried by the hot winds. Greatly discouraged, many left the area.
However, weather conditions improved, and so did the outlook. The sectional map of Johnson
County in the 1874 Johnson County Atlas described the county as “mainly a beautiful undulating
prairie with abundant water, timber, and good building stone. It has four railroads in operation,
affording excellent shipping facilities. Good Schools and Churches abound.” The population of
Shawnee Township (later Shawnee and Mission townships) grew almost 150 percent, from 987 to
2,451, in the ten years separating the 1860 and 1870 census reports. The county’s population stayed
relatively stable at around 13,000 from the latter census through the rest of the 1800s.
During that time, there was another disastrous period. The country was hit with a financial panic
in 1873, and local crops were unusually light. This was followed in 1875 by another drought,
❖
The Louis D. Breyfogle, Sr. farmhome
at Eighty-sixth and Metcalf. The
Breyfogle children in the front yard
are (from left to right) Elmora, Hilma,
and Mary on steps, and Louis Jr., and
George in yard.
Chapter IV ✦ 15

❖
Above: T. C. Porter farmhouse at
Sixty-ninth and Mission Road. Porter
came to Johnson County in 1858.
Below: The John Goode farmhouse at
Ninety-ninth was west of Metcalf
about a quarter of a mile and was
accessed by a farm lane to Metcalf.
although a good wheat crop was harvested
before the dry weather came. But this drought
was accompanied by a grasshopper plague that
came on suddenly, appearing first as a yellow
cloud on the horizon. Masses of grasshoppers
covered everything. They stripped the leaves off
all the vegetation and devastated cornfields and
pastures. The next year the grasshoppers
hatched in large numbers but left in time for late
plantings. Elizabeth Barnes, in Historic Johnson
County described that season as “one of the most
bountiful in the history of the state.”
The area remained heavily agricultural for
the remainder of the century. Farm work was all
done using hand tools and wooden plows with
metal tips. A team and wagon completed the
basic farming essentials. Corn was the great
staple, but wheat, oats, potatoes, other
vegetables, and hay also were grown. Area
orchards produced many bushels of fruit. Other
farmers raised livestock, then drove the animals
across the countryside to the Kansas City,
Missouri, stockyards. Other important products
were milk and butter. Without refrigeration
as we know it, fruits and vegetables were
preserved by drying and meats by drying or
smoking. In the summer, milk and butter were
kept cool in the well or a spring or with large
blocks of ice that had been cut from streams in
the winter and kept protected under thick layers
of straw.
Honey was another product. John Conser,
whose name is prominent in Overland Park’s
history, won many blue ribbons for the honey
his bees produced. He became a part of the
community when he bought some 83 acres east
of Metcalf (then known as Washington Cross
Road) between Eighty-first and Eighty-third
Streets shortly after the coming of the Kansas
City, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railroad in 1867.
That area around Metcalf was known as the
Glenn Community, probably named after G. W.
Glenn, who owned eighty acres west of Metcalf
from Seventy-fifth to Seventy-ninth. From 1868
to 1895 the Henderson family operated the Glenn
post office from their farm home at about Seventyeighth
and Metcalf. Mrs. Sara Henderson,
postmistress, was assisted by her daughter, Ida.
The Glenn post office received and sent out mail
through the Merriam post office, which had access
to the Frisco Railroad. Deliveries between the two
postoffices were by horseback, and Glenn
Community patrons picked up their letters and
packages at the office, a wardrobe inside the
Henderson farm home.
16 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

In spite of their difficulties, or maybe because
of them, settlers found time for social activities.
Sunday School picnics, oyster suppers, barbecues,
box suppers, and square dances were
greatly anticipated. The charivari was a noisy
occasion when the entire community gathered
at the home of newlyweds. They arrived with
refreshments while the couple slept, tooting
horns, banging on pans, ringing cowbells—
anything to waken the couple for their party.
Sometimes gatherings were to exchange
work, as in a house raising, or to help with
plowing, planting, or harvesting. These were
daylong activities, with the women working
together in preparing huge noon meals and
early suppers, while the men did the outdoor
work. At quilting bees women gathered around
a large frame and visited as they quilted the
hostess’s hand-pieced tops.
Education was important from the beginning.
The earliest schools were the Baptist, Methodist,
and Quaker missions for Indians. The first
territorial legislature enacted laws in 1855
providing for free schooling for children from 5 to
21 years of age. In 1861, when the Wyandotte
constitution was adopted, schools came under a
county superintendent, with a state
superintendent charged with general supervision
of state school funds and educational interests. The
framework for public schools was in place.
However, the first schools in the area were
voluntary and financed by subscription. The
forerunner of Overland Park Elementary School
was of this type. Ed Burke, an Irish immigrant
and surveyor by trade, provided the land for
and headed a group that established the
Pleasant Prairie School.
The school opened sometime around the end
of the Civil War, approximately between Eightyfifth
and Eighty-sixth streets at about Grant.
Students paid $23 a year to attend, probably for
eight months. The first teacher was Octavia
“Tavie Ann” Porter, who rode to the school by
horseback from what is now Sixty-ninth and
Mission Road, about a ten-mile round trip.
From about 1866 until 1873, the school met
in a 16x24 foot building purchased in Shawnee
and moved. In 1873 it was organized as School
District 38 and on March 27, $1,500 in bonds
was voted for a new building. Described as
“roomy and comfortable,” the new frame
❖
Above: Wood frame schoolhouses such
as this served the school children in
Mission Township school districts from
1865 to the 1910s.
Below: Henry Coppock bought Indian
Graham Rogers’ farm in the late
1850s and made it into a show farm
as documented in the 1874 Johnson
County Atlas.
Chapter IV ✦ 17

❖
Elijah Chase, related to the Chase
banking family of New York, came to
Kansas to serve in the Quaker Indian
Mission at Sixty-first and Hemlock.
He taught the Indians at the Mission
to plant row crops and introduced
them to sweet potatoes. When the
Mission closed, Elijah Chase stayed
here building a substantial brick
residence at Seventy-second just east
of Antioch, which still stands today.
building, with outdoor toilets behind it, housed
eight grades. The school remained there until
1909, when it was moved to its present location
at Eighty-second and Santa Fe and renamed
Overland Park Grade School.
Prior to 1888, students in the county
attended as long as they were willing or able.
Beginning that year, those who passed a
countywide examination took part in a
graduation ceremony and received a diploma.
The first graduates of Pleasant Prairie were
Grace, Lizzie, and John Breyfogle and Agnes and
David Park, and the school board officers were
L. W. Breyfogle, Archibald Park, and John Coe.
School District 1 grew from Scarritt’s Chapel
established in 1857 as a church and school
south of 103rd Street, approximately at Metcalf.
As farm boundaries and regular roads became
more prevalent, children could no longer ride
across the open land and distances became too
great, according to Linwood School: A Century of
Spirit. As a result, Scarritt School split in 1868.
The new school, “The Little Brown School
House” built on the northeast corner of Ninetyninth
and Mission Road, was the first in Linwood
District 1 and also was used for church services
and community activities. When the building
burned in 1883, it was replaced with a larger one
and the name Linwood was adopted. On
February 8, 1893, another fire took that building.
It was insured for $600, and the furniture for
$200. With no suitable room available, the
patrons decided at a meeting February 11 at the T.
S. Staver home, to dismiss the teacher, Mr. W. O.
Staver, paying him $80 (two months wages), and
to start school a month earlier in the fall.
In The Settlement of the Stanley Area, Ernest
Kellogg recalled the first school he attended in the
spring of 1868 as “a log cabin located on the
southeast corner of the farm owned by J. L.
Young…. In those days our school laws provided
for a spring or summer term of three months. In
time for the fall term of 1868, which lasted four to
five months, a building was erected in the area of
Stanley…. (It) was of box construction, broad
boards nailed up and down on the frame. The
room was open from floor to roof, no inside walls
or ceiling... Miss Victory Quarles was our first
teacher, sister of W. T. Quarles.”
In all the area schools, teachers were paid a
higher monthly wage for the fall-winter term
than for the spring one. This two-term system
lasted until about 1888, when it was replaced
with a single term of eight months.
Churches ranked alongside schools in
importance. However two that later formed the
basis of present-day Overland Park Presbyterian
Church might not have come to Kansas had
it not been for an incident of the Civil War.
A war department order forbade ministers
from conducting services in Missouri unless they
first took an oath of allegiance to the Union. Many
who were loyal to the Union refused, considering
“the order unjust, uncalled for, and an affront to
18 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

❖
Left: The Antioch Cumberland
Presbyterian Church at Seventy-fifth
and Antioch in the old Quaker
cemetery, was built in 1873.
Below: The Corinth Cumberland
Presbyterian Church at Eighty-third
and Mission was built in 1872
Chapter IV ✦ 19

❖
The John Marty farmhome at
Seventy-fifth and Santa Fe, was built
about 1900. American Legion Post
370 stands at this location today.
the church,” as Edgar A. Porter stated in a
Historical Sketch of the Overland Park First
Presbyterian Church celebrating the Church’s
twenty-fifth anniversary in 1936.
In this group was the Reverend J. W. Morrow,
minister of the Westport Cumberland
Presbyterian Church, which had two elders
living on Mission Road: T. A. Lewis at Sixtyseventh
and Thomas Carson Porter at Sixtyninth.
The church began meeting in a nice grove
between the houses in good weather, and
alternating between the homes in poor weather.
Following a series of revival meetings in
1869 at the Dyche School, now Corinth,
Morrow organized a church out on the prairie in
1870. With one hundred charter members, the
new Corinth Cumberland Presbyterian Church
erected a substantial brick (not stone, as
mistakenly pictured and noted in the 1874
Atlas) church, 33 by 56 feet, at a cost of $4,600
the following year. Made on the three-acre site,
the first bricks were not fired right, and they
had to be done over. The church was dedicated
January 7, 1872, free of debt.
On the third sabbath of February 1872,
Reverend Morrow began a series of meetings at
Marty School (about Seventy-fifth and Lowell),
“which resulted in much great good, with
twenty-nine accessions to the church,”
according to the 1874 Atlas. The new members
had been Quakers, closely associated with the
Quaker Mission near Sixty-first and Hemlock,
but were without a church then. They did have
The Pioneers Cemetery at Seventy-fifth and
Antioch, on land that had belonged to Elijah
Chase. Chase, a descendent of the New York
banking family, taught agriculture at the Quaker
Mission. In the second in the series on Johnson
County landmark homes in The Sun
Newspapers, Audley Porter reported that Chase
passed up the opportunity to select a site for his
uncle, Ezra Cornell, to establish an agricultural
school here. Cornell University later was
founded in upstate New York.
On September 14, 1873, the Antioch
Cumberland Presbyterian Church dedicated its
new 28-by-46-foot frame building, costing
about $2,000, on the two-acre cemetery site on
Antioch. The two churches shared the minister
on alternate Sundays, with the fifth Sunday of
any month being a vacation for the churches
and the minister. About a quarter-scale replica
of the Antioch church now stands there.
Both the Antioch and the Corinth cemeteries
not only have graves of many well-known
pioneer families, but also are still being used.
20 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

FOUNDING OF OVERLAND PARK
BY FLORENT WAGNER
At the beginning of the twentieth century the area around Seventy-ninth Street and the old
Military Highway was the location of many successful farms, a general store and a renowned honey
producing farmer. The general store was at the northeast corner of Seventy-ninth and the Military
Highway. It was run by Grant Conser, who handled every need of the surrounding farmers for
machinery, equipment, household goods, clothing and a general store line. Grant’s father, John
Conser, continued to own a small acreage at Eighty-third Street directly south and was still known
far and wide in several adjoining states for his prize winning honey.
Conway Holmes ran a very successful Guernsey dairy farm. The Gruber, Hoge, Marty, Proctor,
Breyfogle, Henderson, Metcalf, Watson, Jessup, Barthol, Goode, Coe, Phillips, Moody, Wedd, and
Voigts families ran some of the most successful farms in Johnson County. A. M. Wood, a farmer from
LaHarp, Kansas, moved to the area in 1908. Wood went into the real estate and insurance business
in the new community founded in 1906. His sons continued in farming.
In 1903, Grant Conser started the Home Telephone Company. He had seven or more lines that he
operated from his general store. When he moved to Eightieth and Santa Fe Trail Boulevard, the telephone
company was still in the store. Another competing telephone company called the Enterprise Telephone
Company was also started in the area. This company was bought out by the Home Telephone Company.
The Home Telephone Company continued to operate in Overland Park until it became part of the AT&T
system, ultimately becoming part of the SBC System. The Home Telephone Company operated out of a
two-story house on the north side of Eightieth Street east of a lumber company across the street from the
Overland Park State Bank. This two-story house was moved in 1953 or 1954 to the northwest corner of
Eighty-fifth and Metcalf where it stands today. Ida Morrison, Mildred Docker and many other
switchboard operators gave exceptional service to the telephone subscribers for years.
❖
Eightieth and Santa Fe did not exist
in the early 1900s when William
Strang bought the first six hundred
acres for his new town. It was all
pasture and crop land with a few
hedges serving as farm boundaries.
Chapter V ✦ 21

❖
Right: A 1902 plat map of Mission
Township, Johnson County, Kansas
showing the land owned by various
farmers and landowners. The outlined
area on the left side of the map
represents the six hundred acres
William B. Strang purchased to build
his new Community in 1905.
Below: When Grant Conser’s first
store in downtown Overland Park
burned in 1911, Conser moved the
Home Telephone Company office and
switchboard to a two story house he
built on the north side of Eightieth
Street catercorner across the street
from the Bank.
Opposite, top: The construction of the
Missouri and Kansas Interurban
Railway Company line in 1905-06.
Horses and mules graded the roadbed
where oak ties were laid and seventypound,
iron rails were spiked to the
ties. The man on horseback at
the right may have been William B.
Strang, owner of the Line, supervising
the construction.
William B. Strang, a railroad developer and
builder, living in New York City, was visiting his
mother in Kansas City during the 1903 major
flood of the Kansas River in the business and
residential areas of the city. Strang decided he
would build a new community that would be
flood free, easily connected to Kansas City and
Olathe by an interurban line he could build, and
the community would serve as Strang’s home
and retirement.
For two years William B. Strang had looked
all over the Kansas City area and finally decided
on the land around Seventy-ninth and the
Military Highway. In November 1905, Strang
optioned 240 acres from Frank Gruber, forty
acres from John Marty, and 320 acres from
Charles O. Proctor, south of Seventy-ninth to
Eighty-seventh Street west of the Highway.
Strang had already started building an
interurban railroad line from the Frisco tracks in
the center of Lenexa back northeast to where he
optioned this six hundred acres of land, and on
northeast along the Santa Fe Trail to Kansas City,
Missouri. Some of the farmers along the route
like John Marty, gave Strang an easement across
their land provided he built anything but a steam
locomotive line.
Railroad builders of this era had three types of
power to move the big railroad engines and heavy
cars - steam, the major, long over-the-road force;
gasoline, which had great power at high speeds
but required excessive gearing and clutching to
start heavy loads; and electricity, either a third rail
or overhead trolley. The third rail was expensive
Opposite, middle: The “Ogerita”. the
Strang Line’s first self contained
railroad car, with gasoline engine tied
to a generator in the car, feeding
electricity to batteries on the car,
drawing electricity to drive motors
on the wheels of the car. Strang
incorporated many innovative
patents he owned building this car, the
forerunner of our modern diesel
locomotive.
Opposite, bottom: The “Marguerite,”
named for Strang’s wife, Margaret, a
larger more conventional selfcontained
car. Note that there is no
overhead trolley or wire, but large
muffler pipe on top of car.
22 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

and very dangerous at intersections and if
contacted with either side rail. The overhead
trolley required expensive copper wire. Strang
had been working with several electrical
manufacturers and the J. G. Brill Company of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a division of the
Pullman Company to develop a special railcar.
This car contained an engine connected to a
generator, which ran the electricity to batteries in
the car and drew on these batteries to run electric
motors on the wheels of the car. Strang patented
a number of innovative ideas on such a railcar,
including using the battery energy to start the
gasoline engine. Many of his ideas and principles
are used on our modern diesel locomotives.
Strang made history when he brought his first
car, named the “Ogerita” for one of his nieces,
from Philadelphia to Overland Park in February,
1906. He stopped at all of the major railroad
centers along the route through Pittsburgh,
Toledo, Chicago, and St. Louis to Kansas City to
show his innovative new railcar to railroad
owners. The car was very efficient averaging a
cost of forty-three cents per mile to operate and
performing excellently for all to see.
Strang used the “Ogerita” to help build the
track for the Missouri and Kansas Interurban
Railroad Company connecting to the Frisco
Railroad by a siding at Lenexa, Kansas. The
railroad bed was graded adjoining the Frisco tracks
on the south as both lines headed east from
Lenexa. As the Frisco tracks curved north, the
“Strang Line” as the line was popularly known,
continued more east, located between Eightyeighth
and Eighty-ninth Streets when it crossed
Switzer Road, continuing on largely straight east
until about one-half mile west of Antioch where
the line curved more northeast along the old Santa
Fe Trail public road. Incidentally, Strang had the
old public road vacated and replatted to run
adjoining his line on the north and west of the line.
The “Strang Line” curved slightly northeast to
straight north between Seventy-ninth and
Eightieth Streets continuing north on John Marty’s
property to Seventy-first Street, then curving a
little west between Seventy-first street and Sixtyseventh
Street, going straight north from Sixtyseventh,
crossing the old Highway 50 and on to
Sixtieth Street. There the line curved northeast and
crossed the old Military Highway about Fifty-ninth
Street, just north of Johnson Drive, wound along
the ridge between Fifty-eighth and Fifty-third
Street and Lamar where it crossed in a northeast
direction continuing northeast to Fifty-first Street
about Beverly Street, straight east along Fifty-first
Street across Roe then winding along the ridge to
Forty-seventh and Wyandotte County Line,
crossing the northwest corner of Forty-seventh
Chapter V ✦ 23

❖
Above: The Strang Line’s “Ogerita”
pulling two open-air trailers hauling
patrons to a festive occasion in
Overland Park.
Top, right: A Strang Line map of the
interurban line in Kansas and
Missouri.
Below: The Strang Line Car Barn at
Seventy-ninth and Santa Fe about
1910. The original building was 60 by
100 feet, shown on the right half of
the picture. A 40-by-60-foot addition,
shown on the left of the picture, was
added in 1908 to house two Buckeye
electricity generators.
and Mission Road, winding northeast through
Rosedale to Forty-first and State Line. Kansas
University Medical Center was not there in 1906,
but Strang built the Olathe Boulevard on the north
side of his line, which is the south boundary of the
Medical Center today. Strang engineered his line to
hug the ridge between Brush Creek on the south
and Turkey Creek on the north thereby avoiding
any bridges or culverts on his line that might be
washed out by a flood.
In August 1906 the Strang Line received the
second of its new cars, the “Marguerite” named
for William B. Strang’s wife, Margaret. It was 62
feet long and heavier than the “Ogerita,” a real
workhorse for the line. In the spring of 1907, the
“Geraldine,” named for another niece, arrived. It
was a general trolley car. That fall the fourth car,
the “Irene”, was delivered to the Strang Line.
This was the first railroad car with steel siding
and carpeted floors with wicker and plush
seating, a drawing room rolling down the rails.
The Strang self-contained cars performed
very economically, but if the cars were heavily
loaded or pulling open trailers as they often did
to auctions and special activities, the cars stalled
and delayed everything. The gasoline engines
needed maintenance and few mechanics were
available. Finally, in the winter of 1908-09 the
line was converted to an electrified overhead
trolley line at a cost of $800,000.00. Strang had
gas wells on property he owned. He piped this
gas into the car barn he had built at Seventyninth
and Santa Fe. This car barn built in 1907-
08 was 60 feet wide by 100 feet long. Then in
1908-09 Strang added a 40 by 60 feet addition
on the south end of this Car Barn to house two
50,000 Watt Buckeye generators. These provided
electricity to the Line as well as to churches
and schools along the Line and residences on
the east side of Olathe. Strang’s gas wells continued
to serve the generators until about 1915
when they were exhausted. The Strang Line
contracted with a new electric company, which
later was merged into Kansas City Power and
Light Company, to buy electricity. This became a
major impetus for Kansas City Power and Light
Company to enter the Johnson County market.
They got an easement along the Strang Line
right-of-way, which became one of their major
high-lines into Johnson County. Kansas City
Power and Light serving the east side of Olathe
today may have resulted from Strang’s activities
with the power company. The power company
had so much activity in the Johnson County
area that the Kansas Division of Kansas City
Power & Light Company moved from
Wyandotte County to Overland Park in 1924.
24 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

❖
Above: William B. Strang, railroad
developer and builder who lived in
New York City in 1900s. He came to
the area to found a flood free
community and retirement for himself.
When the Strang Line converted to the overhead
trolley, three of the first cars were sold to
other lines. The “Marguerite” was converted to a
freight car by Ben Sopher, a contractor in Lenexa.
The “Marguerite” served the Strang Line for the
rest of the Line’s life, hauling freight or pulling
freight cars like coal, lumber and grain cars.
The Strang Line made its first official run as an
interurban line May 20, 1906. The Strang car left
Lenexa, made a short stop at Overland Park, and
arrived at Forty-first and State Line 27 minutes
later. It took twenty-three minutes coming back
to Lenexa. The fare from Lenexa to Kansas City
was fifteen cents round trip. In 1909 at Forty-first
and State Line, tracks were built to the Kansas
City street car line at Thirty-ninth and traveled on
City street car tracks to downtown Kansas City.
The Strang Line then started pushing south
toward Olathe, Kansas. The road bed was graded
adjoining the Frisco right-of-way on the east
side of the Frisco tracks from 110th to 127th,
then straight ahead as the Frisco curved west,
the Strang line going south to 135th Street,
there turning west on the south side of Santa Fe
Street. In the fall of 1906 the Strang Line’s
southern depot was at about Santa Fe and
Ridgeview. A carriage hauled patrons to downtown
Olathe. In 1907 Strang got permission to
cross the Frisco tracks and go west on Park
Street one block south of Santa Fe Street to the
Strang station in a restaurant building just west
of Johnson County Court House. A “Y” turnaround
was the end of the line just across a
courtyard from the Olathe Santa Fe Depot.
William Strang realized he needed something
to attract people to the new community he was
building. At the same time he was building
the Overland Park Depot he built a dance hall
he called Santa Fe Trail Hall. In August 1906,
after the opening of his Overland Park Depot,
Strang platted six subdivisions in this new
community, Overland Park. The subdivisions
were Overland, Overland Park, Overland Lots,
Left: Two Buckeye electricity
generators inside the forty-foot south
addition to the Strang Line Car Barn,
operated by gas from wells on some of
the six hundred acres Strang
originally bought. Tom Linn, Leo
Davis, and other electrical engineers
are in front of the generators.
Below: The “Marguerite” was
converted to a freight trolley car when
the Strang Line was changed to a
trolley line. The “Marguerite” was
stopped across Eightieth Street and the
farmer backed his wagon up to the
car to unload his grain or produce
directly into the freight car.
Chapter V ✦ 25

❖
Above: Margaret Strang, wife of
William B. Strang.
Top, right: Tom Riley and his “righthand”
man, Bill George at the Olathe
Strang Line Depot. George ran the
right-of-way maintenance crew for the
Strang Line.
Below: A view of Overland Park
suburban homes on large half-acre or
acre lots, with room for a barn and
chicken house for a cow and chickens.
Opposite, top: A Fourth of July
celebration at Overland Park in
1906-1907. Note the man on the
right with a walking-stick cane
containing a U.S. Flag.
Opposite, middle: Strang Line Depot
at Overland Park when first built in
1906.
Overland Summit, Overland Hill and Overland
Heights. The subdivisions carried restrictions
about the minimum costs of a house, hooking
on gas lines when they became available, and
the location and size of outbuildings on a lot
other than the principal residence. Strang created
one of the first suburban communities in the
metro area. He had some small lots in the downtown
area, but he generally wanted to sell a family
a half an acre or acre lot to have room for a
barn and chicken house with plenty of garden
room. The idea was to ride the Strang Line to
shopping or work in the downtown metro area
and home on a high, cool ride to their residence
in Overland Park where they could live in parklike
surroundings, raise their own vegetables,
have fresh milk and butter and fresh eggs and
home fed chicken dinners.
William Strang built Santa Fe Trail Hall, and
started promoting dances every night of the
week and especially Friday, Saturday and
Sunday. He had his real estate agents at every
dance urging visitors to locate in his new community
by buying lots here. The land and lot
sales were handled by a separate corporation,
called the Strang Land Company. William B.
Strang and his wife Margaret were the major
owners and controllers of this company, but
Thomas Riley was the vice president in charge.
The Land Company held its first auction with
one free lot in September, 1906, with Col. Andy
James as auctioneer. Many auctions were held in
the next few years. These were major public
events with a festival atmosphere. One weekend
$30,000.00 of land and lots were sold.
William Strang bought other land along his
railroad line and platted more subdivisions—
Southridge, Morrison Ridge 1 and 2, Tower
Grove, Eleanora Heights, Milburn, MoKaw
Highlands, Shawnee, and many others,
including Westlake. He needed riders for his
interurban line to be successful. His
developments increased the price of land in
northeast Johnson County from $250.00 per
acre to $500.00 per acre and even up to
$1000.00 per acre for some land. The main
growth in the northeast part of the county
centered around the Strang Line and another
interurban called the Hocker Line which went
as far west from Kansas City as Zarah, Kansas.
The interurbans were an easy, faster means of
transportation to the metro areas, the rail route
transporting passengers from Kansas City to
Olathe in about an hour and from Kansas City
Opposite, bottom: Strang Line
Overland Park Depot with Santa Fe
Trail Hall in the center between tracks
and Santa Fe Trail Drive, with the
first commercial store building under
construction, on the left.
26 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

to Overland Park in about thirty minutes. The
horse and buggy or wagon took about three
hours to get from Overland Park to the city.
The Strang Line Depot in Overland Park and
Santa Fe Trail Hall were completed as the first
buildings in the new community. At the same
time a rock building was being built on the
northwest corner of Eightieth and Santa Fe Trail
Road which became a grocery, confectionary and
tobacco shop and part of it housed the Strang
Land Company office. These businesses were
lighted by gas, but heated by wood or coal in potbellied
stoves or furnaces. The Depot and later
Strang Line office is hidden inside the Suburban
Decoration shop today with their west show
room built over the railroad-loading platform.
Santa Fe Trail Hall was first located north of
Eightieth Street in what is now the center of
Santa Fe Street. It was 27 feet wide by 60 feet
long. By 1909 it was moved on the east side of
the Strang Tracks, directly north of the Depot
and a bandstand was built in its place. In 1913
this building was torn down and the maplespring
dance floor was moved to a new pavilion
Strang built in the new Aviation Park and Field
at the southwest corner of the new community.
Strang quickly talked Grant Conser into
locating his general store in the new community
at the northwest corner of Eightieth and Foster.
Conser built a wood frame two story building
here in 1907. Conser had also purchased other
lots around downtown Overland Park, some on
Santa Fe, and some on the new Conser Street.
George Howell, a very successful blacksmith
moved his business to Overland Park. Nearby a
stable was built. A restaurant was built to feed the
people not bringing a picnic lunch to the
auctions, festivals and attractions Strang
promoted. Strang built a grandstand and baseball
diamond by his trolley line car barn at Seventyninth
and Santa Fe. Baseball was the relatively
new game at this time and was threatened with
fines as a violation of the Blue Laws, if played on
Sunday, but soon it was declared not to be such a
violation by the Supreme Court. William B.
Strang being always an entrepreneur and
promoter, had his real estate agents at these
activities trying to sell lots, and that they did.
By early in 1910, A. M. Wood had built a two
story building on the southwest corner of 80th
and Foster to house his real estate and insurance
business, grocery, office supplies and gift stores
on the main floor with dentist office and rooms
upstairs. In 1910 Strang convinced the Post
Office Department to open an Overland Park
office, which first was located in the northwest
corner of the Wood Building, later across the
Chapter V ✦ 27

28 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK
street in the Conser Building. A feed store was
started, and plumbing, decorating, and carpenter
shops were opened. In 1910 the Overland
Park Bank was incorporated with William
Strang, prominent farmers and Olathe bankers
and businessmen as incorporators. The bank
started building a brick building at Eightieth
and Overland Park Boulevard directly across
and east of the Strang Depot. Formal dedication
was held in July 1911, with gifts of cigars for
the gentlemen and fans for the ladies.
When a new community is started, the most
important thing is to attract people to buy lots
and build homes. William Strang was a promoter
par-excellence. Dances and baseball games
drew crowds. Auctions of lots and festivals drew
large attendance of local farmers and other community
residents as well as large numbers from
both Kansas Cities when the Strang Line offered
one low price for a round trip ticket to Overland
Park and back home as well as admission to
some activity or event.
The newest exciting thing for people was
aero activities—ballooning and aeroplaning.
The promoters of the Kansas City Priest of
Palace Festival tried to get Charles Hamilton,
who flew the plane that had won the
International Air Race at Rheims, France to
come to their festival. Hamilton flew this plane
from his farm near St. Joseph, Missouri. He
asked the festival promoters $1,000 per day to
bring and fly this plane at the festival. The promoters
would not pay this amount. William
Strang convinced Hamilton to load his plane on
a freight car, and bring it to the Strang Car Barn
in Overland Park. He then reassembled the
plane and Strang promoted the first public
flight west of the Mississippi River from a field
east of the Car Barn. This flight was made
December 23, 1909. Flights were promoted
from this field for the next two weeks, until
Hamilton’s engine broke.
A hangar was constructed by the grandstand,
which had been used for baseball fans, just east
of the Car Barn. This airfield served for the next
year for many aviators, both demonstrating
their flying machines and for cross-country
flights. Aviators in Wright Brothers’ planes, Bob
Fowler, Perry Rogers, Charles Hamilton, and
DeLoyd Thompson all brought their machines
to Overland Park, Kansas. The record for

❖
Opposite, top: Santa Fe Trail Hall was
built west of the Strang Line tracks,
then torn down and moved directly
east across the tracks. At the far left is
Claude Mill’s house and in left
background is the Tom Linn Victorian
residence.
Opposite, middle: George Howell’s
blacksmith shop opened in the new
Community before 1910.
attaining 500 feet above the ground was
established at the field east of the Car Barn in
1909, but it was not given official recognition
because Charles Hamilton was not a member of
the Kansas City Aero Club, and after his falling
out with Kansas City about the Priest of Palace
Festival, the Kansas City Aero Club would not
certify the record.
“Aeroplanes” of the 1910 era were very
flimsy, light vehicles built of bamboo and
rubberized silk on the wings, with small engines
and a limited amount of gas carrying capacity.
They could only carry enough gas for ten
minutes flying time and the maximum speed
was 45 to 50 miles per hour. They could fly
about 4 miles each flight and every time they
went up, something on the plane would break.
Aviators traveled with their mechanics and if the
plane got up and down without a major crash,
while the pilot regaled the audience with flying
stories, the mechanic tried to get the plane
flyable again. If the mechanic was successful,
the aviator tried to get the plane in the air again,
but wind drafts and other conditions might not
always accommodate this.
Over the winter of 1910-11 Strang moved
the grandstand and built a hangar in a vacant
area south of the Overland Park School. Strang
had an 80 acre tract that he developed into
Aviation Field and Park running south of the
Interurban Line to 87th Street from Lowell on
the west to Foster on the east. He built an open
grandstand south of the covered grandstand on
the west side of the field. Early in 1913, Strang
Opposite, bottom: The A. M. Wood
building located at the southwest
corner of Eightieth and Foster, while
the building was under construction,
1910. Wood is pictured with one of
his sons.
Above: Overland Park State Bank was
chartered in 1910 and opened its new
building in July, 1911. The William B.
Strang residence was just down the
Street on Eightieth, east of the Bank,
on the left of the picture.
Bottom, left: Hot-air balloon rising
over Overland Park field with
parachutist and his parachute below,
which he could release from the
balloon when he reached a certain
height, and slowly descend to the
ground.
Bottom, right: Charles Hamilton’s
Curtiss Pusher bi-plane flying over
the snow at the field east of the Strang
Line Car Barn on December 23,
1909, the first public show of an
aeroplane west of the Mississippi
River. The record for attaining 500
feet above the ground in a manned
flight was set right here from this field
at this time.
Chapter V ✦ 29

uilt South Killarney Lake at 87th and Foster. At
the same time he built West Killarney Lake at
78th and just east of Antioch. This lake later
became Young’s Lake and Pool.
Santa Fe Trail Hall was torn down and the
maple-spring dance floor was moved to a new
pavilion building at the north end of Aviation
Park. It had a stage, large windows that raised to
the ceiling, porches on three sides and two
spotting towers. A baseball field was laid out in
front of the grandstands. Tents were located
down by South Lake and Strang Land Co.
started advertising events promoting the park.
One could stay in the tents Friday night, hunt,
fish, swim and play all day Saturday, go to a
dance or stage show Saturday evening, stay in
the tents that night, attend baseball games
Sunday morning and enjoy an air show—hot
air balloons and aeroplanes—that Sunday
afternoon. After the airshow they could hop on
one of the Strang trains, a trolley car pulling
several trailers, going home Sunday evening
relaxed and refreshed for work Monday.
The U.S. Army held maneuvers at Strang
Park some years—the Red and Blue Armies
simulated engagements in the area. Army Air
Corps pilots were trained at this field in the
middle 1910s. The Johnson County Fourth of
July Celebration moved from Olathe to Aviation
Park in 1913. The park was contracted to the
Overland Exposition Company in 1915 to
build a two mile oval auto race track with a
three-quarter mile horse race track inside, an
80,000-seat grandstand with meeting and
convention accommodations underneath, but
this was never built in Overland Park. In 1919
the eighty acres were contracted to an aviation
company. They were going to get a mail contract
and build a 75-passenger, four-engine plane.
These plans fell through and the Parkland was
platted as Overland Acres in 1920, a new
residential subdivision.
Early in 1910 the Conser store burned and
Grant Conser immediately rebuilt, this time of
brick with some nice decorative brick accents.
The building still stands today. It is known as
the Dragon Inn. When it was rebuilt, it served as
Conser’s General Merchandise Store on the main
floor, with professional offices, rooms and
Conser Meeting Hall on the second floor.
A stable in Overland Park was closed. In 1911
the first stone commercial building burned. It was
rebuilt as a two-story brick building. A grocery
store and drug store were on the ground floor and
dentist offices and apartments were on the second
floor. The building was now owned by Herman
Voigts and remained in the Voigts family until
1998. In 1911 Homer Breyfogle bought a lot on
Santa Fe Trail Street and built a hardware store for
Frank Keyser and wife. Keyser sold the hardware
store in 1914 to Leonidas Cave, a two term sheriff
30 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

❖
Opposite, top: Aeroplane hangar built
by William Strang north of the
grandstand Strang had built just east
of the Strang Line Car Barn in the late
1900s. The area east of the Car Barn
served as the first airfield west of the
Mississippi River.
Opposite, middle: A Wright Brothers
Model “B”, a pusher type of aircraft
with the propellers behind the wings, at
Aviation Park and Field about 1912.
of Johnson County who lived in Overland Park
and worked as a conductor on the Strang Line
before he was elected Sheriff. Lon Cave returned
to Overland Park at the end of his second term,
owned the hardware store for a year and a half
and sold the business to Frank Schepers who ran
it as a hardware and tire store and garage for some
years. Business was booming in the new Overland
Park community. The aviation activities and other
promotions brought thousands of visitors, and
with the Strang Land Company agents circulating
in the crowds, many people went home lot
owners in this new park-like community.
A Presbyterian church had been founded in
1872 at the intersection of Seventy-fifth Street and
Antioch Road. This church was having difficulty
in 1910 and 1911. Another presbyterian church
at Corinth, Mission Road at Eighty-third Street,
had difficulties. The Antioch Church closed and
in 1911 many members started a new Overland
Park Presbyterian Church, meeting a few times in
homes, then the Overland Park Grade School and
finally meeting in Conser’s Hall as membership
grew. The Corinth Church joined their Overland
brethren that same year. This church grew and
they were able to erect their own church building
at 8109 Overland Park Boulevard in 1913. They
met there for seventeen years, then built a larger
church just north across Eighty-first Street on
Overland Park Boulevard in 1930. Reverend
Waters shepherded the congregation for many
years beginning in the 1930s, to the 1960s,
through hardship and great growth.
In 1913, a flying school, aeroplane repair
hangars and an aviation mechanics school were
established at Aviation Field. Male and female
instructors were available to encourage
everyone to learn to fly. Robert Fowler was in
charge of the school and demonstrated his flying
prowess at air shows all over the Midwest.
Opposite, bottom: A photo taken from
about two blocks east of Robinson at
about Eighty-fifth Street and showing
the first Overland Park School,
Aviation Pavilion, and Grandstand.
Left: Aviation Pavilion built by
William B. Strang in 1913 at Aviation
Park and Field. It had a stage, large
windows that rose into the ceiling,
verandas on three sides and spotting
towers on the north end.
Bottom, left: Grant C. Conser’s first
wood frame store burned down in
1910 and was rebuilt as this two story
brick building at Eightieth and Foster.
Conser’s Overland Mercantile
Company was on the ground floor.
Bottom, right: A 1915 picture of the
Voigts Building, built after a 1911 fire
had burned the first rock store
building in the community.
Chapter V ✦ 31

❖
Top: Tom Riley, General Manager of
the Strang Line, standing by the
granite marker installed by the
Daughters of the American Revolution
in 1907 to mark the known route of
the Santa Fe Trail. This marker was
first west of the Overland Park Depot,
then moved in the 1920s, when Santa
Fe Street was improved, to the
northeast corner of Eightieth and
Santa Fe Street, where it still stands.
Middle: The First Overland Park
Presbyterian Church building was
erected in 1913.
Bottom: Homer Breyfogle bought the
tract of land just north of Howell’s
Blacksmith shop and built a 25-by-
100-foot store which Frank Keyser and
his wife rented for a hardware store in
1911. Keyser sold the hardware store
to Lon Cave who later sold it to Frank
Schepers. Schepers later sold the
hardware part of the business, but
retained the tire sales and garage and
built a large garage five or six doors
north for this business.
Newspaper articles extolled a fine mechanic
shop and airplane factory at Aviation Park and
Field. Training pilots for the Army Air Corps
was ending. Barnstorm aviators were very active
in the late 1910s.
The Strang Line was so successful in 1913
that the Strangs gave the general manager, Tom
Riley, affectionately known all along the Line as
“Captain Riley”, a $300 gold watch—the
equivalent of a year’s wages for many people.
The Line provided free passes to all clergy, the
high school bands and athletes, and maybe too
many as the government railroad authorities
stopped the Strang Line from giving so many
passes. Scheduled runs accommodated most
patrons and a special run left Overland Park at
5 p.m. for entertainment venues in Kansas City,
Missouri, particularly since Kansas was dry at
this time, even before Prohibition.
Ed Blair’s book, Johnson County, published in
1915, reported that Overland Park had “natural
gas, electric lights, septic tank sewerage, twenty
miles of graded streets, shade trees and about
100 buildings.” The community had a lumber
yard, bank, two restaurants, drug store, two
general stores, hardware store, coal and feed
store, feed barn and livery, blacksmiths, real
estate and insurance offices, an attorney, a
physician, Home Telephone Company, post
office and barber shop.
The second church in the community was
started by the Baptists in 1914. They purchased
some lots at the southeast corner of Eightieth
and Conser. They met first in Conser’s Hall, then
in the late 1910s started building on the
purchased lots. The basement area of what
would be their church served the congregation
for years. They did not have the building wired
for electricity. However, when the Overland
Park Elementary School burned in 1920, some
of the lower grades used the church’s basement
room as classrooms and the rent provided the
funding to add electricity.
One of the important elements of any
good community is a good school or schools.
There was the Marty School, District 61 at
Seventy-fifth and Lowell, but Strang could
not convince this school district to move to his
new community.
District 61 was founded in 1868 as a
subscription school on an acre donated by Jacob
Marty. But there was another district, District
38, called Pleasant Prairie School, located at
Eighty-fifth and Grandview. This District had
been founded in 1865. Both were still one-room
wood frame schools in the early 1900s. Strang
donated land and District 38 moved to his new
32 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

community in a new stone two room building,
just as District 61 moved west to Seventy-fifth
and Grandview, building a new two room stone
and frame building subsequently called Antioch
School. There was no indoor plumbing - toilets
were outdoors in two wooden structures behind
the buildings. In the Overland Park School,
District 38, water came from a well in the front
yard. A two-room addition to the Overland Park
School was completed in 1916. Enrollment
gradually increased from 78 students in 1913-
1914 to 122 students in 1921. A high school
was started in 1916 with 10 students.
In 1895, George Metcalf, a cattleman and
entrepreneur, who had established banks in
several states decided to locate close to the
Kansas City metropolitan area. He selected
eighty acres at the northeast corner of Seventyfifth
and the Military Highway running a halfmile
east on the north side of Seventy-fifth
Street. He built a comfortable house on this
eighty acres and commuted to his office in
Kansas City, possibly many times by the Frisco
Railroad roughly two miles west of his farm. He
was involved in many of the activities and clubs
of Kansas City and very possibly met William
Strang through such clubs. Whether he was the
one to get Strang to buy the six hundred acres at
Seventy-ninth and the Military Highway is not
known. But one thing is clear - that William
Strang liked Metcalf very well because he named
the street on the eastern boundary of his new
plats in 1906 “Metcalf Avenue.” In addition, the
Strang Line built a waiting station called
“Metcalf” just north of Seventy-fifth Street on
the Strang Line. Strang preferred larger lots in
his new suburban community and in 1908
Metcalf platted his eighty-acre farm into
approximately three acre lots. Other developers
who platted their farms created and sold
small lots such as one would buy in the cities at
that time.
In 1908, A. M. Wood bought one of these
three-acre lots. He later sold it and moved to
Seventy-ninth Street. Other lots were sold by
Metcalf and in 1913, Dr. L. L. Uhls, one of the
foremost physicians of Kansas, ex-president of
Kansas State Medical Society, and superintendent
of the Kansas Hospital for the Insane at
Osawatomie, left the hospital and bought ten
acres of land from Metcalf on both sides of
Seventy-fourth Street and Metcalf. As soon as he
had the first building completed he opened his
❖
Left: The first Overland Park
Elementary School, a rock building
built in 1909 on land donated by
William B. Strang to the Pleasant
Prairie School District No. 38. This
school had been in the vicinity of 85th
and Grant since 1865 when this
subscription school was started.
Bottom, left: Aviation Park and Field
office built about 1913, converted to
the headquarters of the Overland Park
Movie Company in 1916. The office
was located at about Newton and
Santa Fe. The building later served as
the Morrison home when a second
floor was added to the structure.
Below: George Metcalf, a retired
banker and cattleman who bought
eighty acres at northeast corner of
Seventy-fifth and old Military
Highway. Metcalf Avenue may be
named in his honor.
Chapter V ✦ 33

❖
Above: An Overland Park Movie
Company photographer at Aviation
Park in 1916.
Below: The movie production of
Where Pigeons Go to Die showing
some props built by the lake at
Ninety-fifth and Metcalf. Michael
Landon is in the center, with his
director’s chair with other
production members.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
hospital and sanitarium. He added buildings,
built his own story and a half home and beautified
and improved the grounds. He ran a very
successful hospital and sanitarium here for years.
In the middle 1910s, William Strang built an
office for Aviation Field and Park, located at
about Newton and Santa Fe Streets, where the
Armed Services Recruiting Station is today.
Aviation Field and Park records and supplies
were handled at this office. When the aviation
activities waned, Strang converted this office to
the headquarters of the Overland Park Movie
Company. Some aviation training films had been
shot in Overland when the Army Air Corps
aviators were training at Aviation Field. The
brillant blue skies and bright sun greatly
facilitated movie making. Strang wanted to
make Overland Park the “Universal City” of the
movie industry. He shot one movie with
available props of an automobile, railroad
handcar, trolley and area church, about getting
the groom to the church on time for his
wedding. Strang starred two of his nieces as
nurses in the next film about an aviator crashing
and the two nurses rushing up to save the
aviator, but the actor aviator was so shy, the
nieces started laughing so hard that they could
not complete the shooting of the movie that day.
This movie never got completed. The film and
movie equipment were stored in Strang’s
Carriage House and hauled out to the dump in
1934, when Tom Riley bought the area known
as the Santa Fe Commons from Mrs. Strang’s
heirs, after her death.
The next movie shot in Overland Park, Where
Pigeons Go to Die, starred Michael Landon and
was filmed at the west side of the lake at Ninetyfifth
and Metcalf in 1989. Much more movie
production activity was promoted at the turn of
the twenty-first century.
In 1915, William Strang planned to build a
larger estate closer to his Overland Park Depot.
He enlarged this Depot and moved the Strang
Land Company into a new office there. He built
a carriage house and garage just three hundred
feet south of the Depot. However, Strang’s
health was failing and he never started building
a larger mansion by the carriage house.
Aviation activities declined in Overland Park
because the aviators were busy preparing for
World War I. The war started. The United States
joined the war, which interrupted many things.
After the end of World War I, some of the
leading aviators, who served as Air Corps
officers, returned to Overland Park and used
Aviation Field as their location for barn storming
flights that became a leading entertainment in
the 1920s.
34 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMUNITY
BY FLORENT WAGNER
At the beginning of the third decade of the twentieth century the Overland Park Community was
firmly established as an important trade and residential community for much of northeast Johnson
County. The Mission Township area of the County ran from State Line Road on the east to Antioch
Street on the west, the county line on the north to 107th Street on the south. The Strang Line
bisected this area and subdivisions had been developed all along the line. But away from the Line,
most of the land was used for agriculture-grain, hay, dairy and cattle farms abounded.
One night toward the end of January, 1920, the 1909 Overland Park Elementary stone
schoolhouse burned. The community quickly pulled together and found places for classes. The
elementary students met in the basement of the Baptist Church. The high-school students met in
Conser’s Meeting Hall and rebuilding of the school started immediately. The new brick building was
ready for use in the fall of that year. It had two stories and a basement with limited indoor plumbing.
The elementary school was on the first floor, high school on the second floor, and eating space and
gym in the basement. Sometime in the late 1920s an annex was built to accommodate increased
enrollment. Even after discontinuance of the high school in 1927 after the Shawnee Mission Rural
High School was opened in 1922, enrollment continued to increase. Enrollment had increased to 307
in 1928-1929. In 1921, Mabel Harrison came to the school as a teacher and within a few years she
became principal and continued in that position until her retirement in 1958.
In late fall of 1920 the A. M. Wood building burned. A wood frame and stucco building, it
was completely destroyed. Wood sold the building’s land to John and Mary Knox who built
❖
A picture of downtown Overland Park
looking north from just south of the
Strang Line Depot, c. 1910. From left
to right are the first rock store, stable,
blacksmith shop, Leo Davis’
Dreadnought Tire store, Strang Line
Car Barn in far background,
bandstand, Lon Cave’s house,
restaurant, Santa Fe Trail Hall, and
the Depot.
Chapter VI ✦ 35

❖
Above: The Overland Park
Elementary School burned on
January 20, 1920.
Below: The brick school built when
first rock school burned in 1920. It
accommodated the Overland Park
High School on the third floor, the
elementary school on the second
(main) level, and gym and hall at the
ground level.
a brick building similar to Wood’s. Grocery
and retail stores occupied the first floor
and the second floor was used as a hotel.
Wood had purchased lots south of the corner
building on Foster Street and around a
curve on Santa Fe at Eightieth Street. A small
building was built which may have served as a
restaurant south of the hotel. Then additional
buildings were erected by others and later
bought by Wood. These buildings served
as grocery, drug, and dry goods stores and
Wood’s real estate and insurance office in the
1920s through the 1950s. Wood was the
landlord of these buildings until his death
in 1960.
William Strang’s health was failing and he
made more and more efforts to treat his illnesses
including frequent trips to Excelsior Springs,
Missouri. He was at the Elms Hotel at Excelsior
Springs on January 13, 1921, when he had a
massive heart attack and died. His death was a
great blow to this community and the town
closed down as did the Strang Line for his
funeral. He was buried in the Lenexa Holy
Trinity Catholic cemetery and Mrs. Strang
started planning for a mausoleum for his
memorial there, probably the only mausoleum in
northeast Johnson County at the time.
The Overland Park Community was now firmly
established—a new school, many businesses, a
bank, two churches and a lumberyard, many
professionals, such as doctors, dentists, carpenters,
stonemasons, engineers, plumbers, building
contractors, plasterers, painters and decorators.
Many residents found the quality of life in this
community to be much improved over life in the
big cities. With good transportation by the Strang
Line these residents and businesses could easily
commute to the cities for shopping, jobs, and city
products and goods, which could be sent to
Overland Park on the Strang Line that afternoon.
The line pioneered home and business pick up
and delivery of freight. The line bought some Ford
Model T pickups to handle their pickup and
delivery business. The franchise area was all of
Mission Township and part of Oxford Township to
Stanley, Kansas.
36 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Disaster struck the Strang Line on February
11, 1925, when a huge fire destroyed the Strang
Line Car Barn and most of the line’s cars,
trailers, equipment and parts. Only three cars
survived—two passenger cars and the
“Marguerite.” Tom Riley, the general manager,
contracted with the Kansas City Transit Co. for
cars and maintained the regular schedule the
next Wednesday morning and thereafter. Tom
Riley ordered new cars from the J. G. Brill
Company, of St. Louis, Missouri, a third
generation of cars, larger and more modern but
still painted the Strang Line bright red. These
new cars served the line until its end in 1940.
Mission Township had no high school until
1916 when a small one started at Overland
Park. Many students of the area rode the Strang
Line to high school in Rosedale or Olathe, or
even Kansas City, Missouri. Finally the
township residents voted a bond issue to build
a high school at about Fifty-ninth Street and the
north end of Santa Fe Street adjoining the
Strang Line tracks. Every afternoon the Strang
Line would back a car up to the Shawnee
Mission Rural High School to pick up students
when classes were dismissed for the day.
Shawnee Mission Rural High School opened in
the fall of 1922.
About this same time a new barrel-roofed
building was built north of the hardware store
to house the Groom Ford dealership. Frank
Schepers had sold the hardware business but
❖
Above: The Strang Mausoleum in the
Lenexa Catholic Cemetery. This was
the only mausoleum in northeast
Johnson County when it was built.
Both William and Margaret Strang are
buried here. Margaret ordered the
mausoleum with bronze gates, which
were stolen during World War II and
replaced with the iron gates. Margaret
also ordered the marble statues and
architectural elements from Italy to
distinguish the mausoleum.
Left: A third-generation bright red car
of the Strang Line at Main by the
Union Station in the 1930s.
Chapter VI ✦ 37

❖
Above: Frank Schepers Overland
Park Garage was built in the early
1920s and served his tire and auto
repair business until purchased by the
Kansas City Power and Light
Company for their garage.
Below: A Ford Model “T” pickup used
by the Missouri and Kansas Railroad
Company to handle the Strang
Line’s pick-up and delivery of
freight service.
COURTESY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
MUSEUM SYSTEM.
kept the tire and car repair part of the business
and built a similar barrel roofed building toward
the middle of the block between Seventy-ninth
and Eightieth Streets on the west side of Santa
Fe Trail Street. He also bought three acres of
land, a triangular-shaped tract west of the
corner of Metcalf, Eighty-third Street and
Overland Park Boulevard. Frank Schepers built
his home on part of this tract but reserved the
Metcalf and Eighty-third Street part for a
Standard Oil service station he was building,
possibly the first auto service station in Johnson
County. Prior to this gasoline and fuel were sold
at the hardware and tire stores. This station had
the first free standing fuel pumps with the
lighted crown globe on top. It was a one-room
building with a covered area over the pumps.
Another building was added on the north, then
rebuilt and enlarged and then a new modern
station was constructed in 1951 and continued
as a Standard Oil station until in the 1980s.
In the middle 1920s, Herb Ford, Sr., a
contractor and builder from western Johnson
County, Kansas, moved his business and family
to Overland Park. He became an excellent
builder of houses, commercial and public
buildings, churches, and schools throughout the
area. He was a close friend of J. C. Nichols, a
commercial and residential developer of Kansas
City, Missouri, and built many buildings and
houses for him.
More and more people moved to the
Overland Park Community in the early 1920s.
Some new churches were started. The Christian
Science group was started in 1923 and built the
basement where they met for eighteen years
until the wood frame church was built above it
in 1941. The Scientists rented several different
business buildings for reading rooms during the
years. St. Mark’s United Methodist Church
started building their first Church in 1923, in
the Tower Grove Subdivision, a Strang
subdivision at the north end of the Community
at Sixty-fourth and Floyd Street. The
38 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

congregation moved to Sixty-fourth and Santa
Fe Street in the 1950s into a large complex with
classrooms and supporting offices, and meeting
rooms surrounding the church.
The year 1924 was a banner year for the
Overland Park Community. Elizabeth B. Arthur
started the Overland Park Herald, a weekly
newspaper for the area. She first used the Strang
carriage house at 8045 Santa Fe as a newspaper
office. Sometime later the office moved to a
wood rectangular building southwest across the
street near the corner of Santa Fe and Conser
Streets. Some years later the newspaper was sold
to the Neff family who moved it to their
publishing office in Mission. The name was
changed to the Johnson County Herald.
This same year Kansas City Power and Light
Company decided to move their Kansas division
to the Overland Park Community. They built a
retail office 25 feet wide by 100 feet deep on the
west side of Santa Fe Street in the middle of the
block between Seventy-ninth and Eightieth
Streets. The power and light company was
building lines all over the area emanating from
the Strang Line right-of-way, which served as the
easement for one of their main high lines. They
expanded their buildings and offices and by 1926
they had seventy-six employees working there.
They bought Frank Schepers’ tire store and
converted this to a garage. In the 1930s they
filled in the vacant space between their original
office and the Groom Ford dealership, then built
a larger garage west across Foster. We believe
possibly every third family in Overland Park had
one or more family members working for Kansas
City Power and Light Company, either directly or
through service for them. In 1939 a new canopy
united all their buildings on Santa Fe. At the top
of the roof they placed a neon sign advertising the
Kansas City Power and Light Company, which
could be seen from Seventy-fifth Street and State
Line Road. In 1961 the Kansas City Power and
Light Company moved their offices, garages and
pole and equipment yards to a much larger
location at Eighty-seventh and Nieman.
❖
Above: The first Standard Oil service
station in Johnson County, built by
Frank Schepers in the 1920s at
Eighty-third and Metcalf, a one room
building with cover over the service
area and three gas pumps with
crown globes.
Below: First Church of Christ Scientist
frame church built in 1941 above the
basement church they had used since
1923, when they were started in
Overland Park.
Chapter VI ✦ 39

❖
Above: Kansas City Power and Light
Company offices and garage in the
1930s at 7924 Santa Fe. They
continued to enlarge this facility,
moved the garage west across Foster
Street, and served Kansas Division
customers here until 1961.
COURTESY OF KANSAS CITY POWER AND LIGHT
COMPANY ARCHIVES.
Below: The so-called “Flat Iron”
building at the intersection of Santa
Fe and Conser. It was first a
commercial building, then in the late
1920s, it served as the office for the
Overland Park Herald for some
time until the Herald was sold to the
Neff family.
Several young men of the Overland Park
Community served in World War I. One of these
young men, Dwight Cowles, the son of L. C.
Cowles who had a small acreage south of
Eighty-third Street, was the first Overland Park
citizen killed in World War I, in Belgium. The
1920s were prosperous and patriotic times
and the American Legion was expanding. A
group of citizens requested that a post be
established in the Overland Park Community
and a charter was granted to the Overland Park
Dwight Cowles Post 370 in 1923. They
purchased a little house on the east side of
Foster Street just south of Seventy-ninth Street,
a parking lot today. This served as the “Legion
Hut” for many years until about 1953 or 1954
when the American Legion built a much larger
building at Seventy-fifth and Conser Streets on
the old John Marty farm.
The “Legion Hut” was moved by a group of
sportsmen to about 167th and Antioch as a
private club.
A carnival was held late each summer on the
vacant ground around the Legion headquarters
to raise funds for the Legion and other
community services. One of the community
services was the volunteer fire department. It is
believed that a volunteer fire department was
organized about 1919. An old Model T Ford
pickup was modified by Frank Schepers, George
Cox, Roscoe Campbell and Herman Lee, to
accommodate two 50-gallon chemical water
tanks, some hose, a ladder, and a few tools. The
original truck was kept at Schepers’ automobile
service garage near 7918 Santa Fe from 1922
until about 1930. George Cox was the first chief
of this volunteer fire department.
Some of the volunteer members in the 1920s
were J. C. Mills, George Cox, Roscoe Campbell,
Frank Schepers, Jim Morrison, Jim Broockerd,
Herman Lee, and Ren Brown, among many
other citizens and business owners.
Margaret Strang’s brother, George Riley
Morrison, was living in the Frank Gruber
farmhouse at Seventy-eighth and Antioch when
William Strang built a sixty-five-acre lake Strang
called West Killarney Lake on the Gruber farm
between Seventy-seventh and Seventy-eighth east
of Antioch. This farm was part of the original six
hundred acres Strang purchased when he founded
his new community. The Morrison family
continued to live on this farm near the Lake after
Mr. Strang died. In 1924 this farmhouse burned to
the ground and Mrs. Strang built living quarters
40 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

for the Morrisons on a new second floor above the
Aviation Park and Movie Company office. Mrs.
Strang sold the Lake and land immediately around
it to the J. H. Young family. They maintained the
Lake and it became one of the local favorite
swimming, fishing and ice-skating places in the
community. In the 1930s Young built a regular
swimming pool south of the Lake. This pool
operated for years, even after the Lake dam
flooded out many times and finally about 1957,
was not rebuilt. The Young Family sold the pool
and seventeen acres around it, for $17,000, to the
City of Overland Park in 1962, when the City
rebuilt the pool and surrounding park, which
continues to be used and known today as Young’s
Park, at Seventy-seventh and Antioch.
Another lake was built on the west side of
Antioch on this same drainage area called
Nagawicki Lake. It had some cabins around it
and a recreation hall. This lake and facilities were
later purchased by the Nazarenes, as a retreat for
their members and for some Boy Scout activities.
When the Voigts building burned in 1927,
Dr. C. A. Abbott, the dentist whose office was in
the building, took more interest in fire
protection, and in 1930 was named chief of the
fire department and insisted the department get
better and proper fire trucks and equipment,
which it did. Bingo games at the carnival and
the annual firemen’s dance were the principal
fundraisers for the volunteer fire department.
The Strang Line refinanced their debt in July
of 1919 with two mortgages on the Line assets,
one for $500,000 and a second mortgage for
$300,000 on the same assets. They had issued
bonds to obtain the funds. For some reason the
Strang Line did not pay interest as required on the
second mortgage bonds from January 1927 until
the second mortgage was foreclosed, February,
1929. The line’s assets were sold on the Johnson
County courthouse steps April 13, 1929, to a
Henry C. Flowers for a purchase price of $50,000,
subject to the first mortgage. Flowers really
represented Thomas Riley, the general manager of
the line, and some of his friends. Now Tom Riley
and his friends owned the Strang Line. Tom Riley
was appointed to continue as general manager,
and the line continued to offer regular passenger
schedules from Olathe to Kansas City and return
as well as freight hauling. The line brought a
refrigerator car to haul perishables to the Kansas
City market from farmers along the route in 1931.
The freight service became a more important part
of the business as passenger usage decreased
during the Depression. This refrigerator car and
the Marguerite were the only freight cars the
Strang Line ever owned. The Marguerite was used
to move thousands of freight cars along the line
particularly coal, feed, and building material cars.
Building materials were hauled to the
lumberyards along the line and to help build a
new Bell Memorial Hospital at Thirty-ninth and
Rainbow Streets, which became part of the Kansas
University Medical Center. The Marguerite also
❖
Above: Dwight Cowles, son of L. C.
Cowles. Dwight was the first
Overland Park citizen killed in
Belgium during World War I, at the
Battle of the Bulge.
Below: This small house was
purchased by American Legion Post
#370. The Legion added to the house
and this served as its headquarters
from 1923 to the middle 1950s.
Chapter VI ✦ 41

❖
Above: A Model “T” pick-up, such as
the one on the right, was modified by
the four men shown in this picture to
become Overland Park’s first fire
truck with two 50 gallon chemical
water tanks, some hose, ladders and
tools. The men who did this work
were Frank Schepers, Herman Lee,
Roscoe Campbell, and George Cox.
Cox became the first Volunteer Fire
Department chief.
hauled many hundreds of coal cars for coal yards
along the Line. There may have been a coal-fired
electricity generating plant located about Fortieth
and State Line.
In 1923, Mrs. Strang sold the Aviation
Pavilion to L. C. Cowles, a farmer. He opened a
feed mill in the building and bolted milling
machines to the maple floor. Cowles ran the mill
for a short time, then sold it to a Lenexa family,
who, in 1926 sold the mill to some new
Overland Park residents—R. M. Jennings and
his wife, Ola. The Jennings family ran the
business as the Aviation Mill feed and coal store
and sold general merchandize such as seed,
garden tools, and paint. The feed store
continued for years and was modernized
extensively in the 1930s. Some hay was stored
in the building which combusted and burned
the building down in February, 1943. The land
was vacant thereafter for a number of years.
In the 1920s the Hodges Brothers
lumberyard in Overland Park was moved from
Robinson and Santa Fe Street to Seventy-ninth
and Santa Fe Street, immediately east of the
Right: Young’s Lake washed out many
times in the 1940s and 1950s until
1957 when the lake was not rebuilt.
COURTESY OF SUN PUBLICATIONS, INC.,
JOHNSON COUNTY... PICTURES FROM THE PAST.
42 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Strang Line Car Barn and tracks. A new brick
building was built for the office and retail
showroom and larger sheds for lumber and
building supplies between Seventy-ninth and
Seventy-eighth Streets, north of the new office.
Sometime in the 1920s and 1930s the
Cowley Lanter Lumber Co. built a lumberyard
and office just east of the Strang Line right-ofway
north of Eightieth Street across the street
from the Overland Park bank.
In the mid-1920s the old Kansas City-Olathe
Road was paved with paving bricks. On July 4,
1925, a contest was held between two of the chief
bricklayers. A man named Jim Brown, an
American Indian, laid seven thousand bricks in
six hours. His competitor laid six thousand bricks
in the same period of time. About 1927, American
Indian Jim Brown was hired by John Breyfogle to
lay bricks on Metcalf Avenue, which was Highway
69, from about Sixty-third and Metcalf to
approximately the south end of Oxford Township.
After World War I, Kirk Wood returned from
the War. During the war, Kirk’s brother, Frank,
had purchased some dairy cows and was milking
them. Kirk and Frank went into business
together as the Wood Brothers Dairy. In the l930s
they had seven milking hands, seven or eight
dairy delivery routes and with the two brothers,
some farm laborers and office help easily
supported twenty or more families. Their dairy
was located on the north side of Seventy-ninth
Street between Nall and west of Lamar Street, one
of the largest dairies in Johnson County.
The T. C. Porter family had been dairying at
Seventy-first and Mission Road for years. They
were a pioneer family in Johnson County.
Porters sold their Mission Road farm to J. C.
Nichols in 1928 and over the next several years
moved their dairy to Ninety-first and Antioch
Road. Two brothers, Audley, with some college
courses, and Earl, who had graduated from
Kansas State University, applied new
technologies to farming (they built terraces on
the newly acquired land including the only
terraced pastures in Johnson County) and built
the most modern barns and milking houses.
They ran a very successful dairy business for
many years.
On March 20, 1932, two Hoge brothers,
Wilbur and Royce, who were farm boys from
❖
Above: Dr. C. A. Abbott at the wheel
of the 1930s Overland Park Fire
Truck. Dr. Abbott took over the
department as chief and insisted that
the department get better equipment
than the old Model “T” which had
been converted to a fire truck.
Below: The Aviation Pavilion was
converted to a mill, feed, and coal
store in 1923, then bought by the
R. M. Jennings family in 1926 and
continued as a mill, feed and coal
store until it burned in 1943.
Chapter VI ✦ 43

❖
Above: “Indian Jim” Garfield Brown,
a prize-winning bricklayer, laid bricks
on both Kansas City-Olathe Road and
Metcalf Avenue, maybe as far south
as the south edge of Oxford Township.
COURTESY OF THE SUN PUBLICATIONS, INC.,
JOHNSON COUNTY…PICTURES FROM THE PAST.
Right: The Wood Brothers Dairy
milkmen are pictured with the two
Wood brothers, Kirk and Frank, in
front of the Dairy’s delivery trucks, on
the farm on Seventy-ninth Street. The
Wood brothers are also pictured with
their route delivery men, in front of
seven or eight trucks.
the area, obtained their college education and
mortuary training and started the Hoge Funeral
Home on Santa Fe. They rented Charles
Pinkham’s house on the west side of Santa Fe.
They purchased the house, expanded it, closed
in all the porches and finally outgrowing the
house, tore it down and built a new and modern
funeral home in 1966. This funeral business was
purchased by the McGilley Funeral Chapel
System in June 1977, and continues to serve the
community today.
During the summertime in the 1930s, people
did not have any extra money to spend. These
Depression years were extremely hard times.
The children were out of school and some of the
business people of Overland Park conceived the
idea of showing movies on Saturday evenings.
Overland Park had no movie house but the
movies could be shown on the sides of buildings
that had a vacant lot next to their building.
Hodges Lumber Company supplied long
planks, which were set on building blocks for
seats. This may have been done, first on the
south side of the Knox building. Certainly the
wall on the north side of the Kansas City Power
and Light garage and sometimes one of the walls
of the Hodges Lumberyard buildings may have
been used for this purpose. Many a Tom Mix or
Mary Pickford movie entertained the children
and adults.
Perhaps these movies of rodeos and carnivals
impressed some of the area children. Henry
44 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Harpool worked at the Kansas City stockyards
and lived in Overland Park. He started riding
with some of the children on Sunday afternoons
in the early 1930s. He taught the children how
to rope stock and do some rodeo tricks and kept
expanding the tricks he taught them as the
group of children grew. The whole group
numbered about 35 children from 8 to 18 years
of age and they decided to call themselves the
Santa Fe Trail Riders. Henry Harpool brought
some of the leading rodeo movie stars and trick
riders who were in Kansas City out to
demonstrate new tricks to the children. The
children practiced summer and winter even
practicing roping in the Porter dairy barn.
The Santa Fe Trail Riders became so good
they were invited to put on shows and won
many prizes in the area. Loula Long Combs
invited the group to her farm for a show. Some
of the members were Bobby Cox, Hans Prinds,
Shorty Prinds, Tom Porter, Clinton Daly, Mary
Mills, Jane Abbott, Betty and Debbie England,
Lawrence and Chester England, and J. W.
Stoker. These and many other children were
some of the very successful prizewinners. J. W.
Stoker went on to become one of the most
successful professional trick ropers in America
and has been inducted into the National
Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Metcalf Avenue became U.S. Highway 69,
one of the major highways running north and
south in the middle of the United States.
In the late 1930s, two lodging places were
established on U.S. Highway 69—Long’s tourist
court at Seventy-eighth and Metcalf and Annette’s
tourist cabins at Eighty-first on Metcalf—both on
❖
Left: An aerial view of the Porter
Dairy Farm at Ninety-first and
Antioch. Ninety-first Street is the
wider, gravel road on the left of the
picture; Antioch is the thin line across
the center of the picture. Note:
modern barns, buildings and
terraced pasture.
Below: Charles Pincomb house
purchased by Royce and Wilbur Hoge
for their funeral home.
Chapter VI ✦ 45

❖
Above: J. W. Stoker went on from the
Santa Fe Trail Riders to national fame
for trick roping, and has been
inducted into the National Cowboy
Hall of Fame.
Below: Santa Fe Trail Riders.
the east side of Metcalf to catch the incoming
traffic to the metropolitan area.
North of these two tourist stops was located
the Wagon Wheel Restaurant on the east side
of Metcalf in the Seventy-seventh to Seventyeighth
Street block. This restaurant was owned
and run by Herb Wisner. It was a sit down
to table with menu establishment, the first of
its type since the Strang era restaurant on Santa
Fe. There’d been for years an ice-cream-soda
fountain type of establishment in part of
Fern Jessup’s drug store, and later in Swarner’s
drugstore, on the northwest corner of Eightieth
and Santa Fe, in the Voigts Building. A
soda fountain was located in Horning’s Drug
Store when it opened. Strang’s original restaurant
located on the east side of Santa Fe Street north
of Eightieth was still in business in the 1930s.
Charles Fatino became the general manager
of the Milburn Country Club in the 1930s. The
depression caused enormous hardships for the
club. At times Charlie Fatino lent his own
money to keep the club going.
Many professionals had come to Overland
Park, such as doctors and dentists, including Dr.
C. A. Abbott, Dr. Donald Young, Dr. Larry Leigh,
Dr. R. D. Grayson, Dr. Rhodes, and Dr. Tolle.
They had offices at one time or another in various
buildings: the Conser Building, Knox and Voigts
buildings, and residences in the area, and all
seemed to have plenty of business and were well
liked in the community. A wholesale greenhouse
was built by the Lotz family on the southwest
side of the town, supplying flowers for many of
the retail florists in Kansas City. In 1941, this
greenhouse business was purchased by the
William Dalton family. Over the next several
years they converted the building into a retail
florist business, which would serve the area into
the twenty-first century. North of Overland Park
Drive was the Baldwin family property. They were
well known for raising homing pigeons and
continued to do this into the 1950s.
Hal Stonebrecker, an architect in the
Overland Park area, had an office over the post
46 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

❖
Left: Drs. R. L. Grayson and
Lawrence Leigh used this house as
their office for years, until a new
building was built in the 1960s.
Below: New Presbyterian Church
under construction late in 1929 and
early 1930 north of Eighty-first on
Overland Park Boulevard.
Chapter VI ✦ 47

❖
The Overland Park Elementary
School was extensively remodeled in
1938. Herb Ford was the general
contractor and school board members
and citizens supervised the general
work and did much of this work.
office in the Fleming Building and other places
for years. He may have had some connection
with The Cowley Lanter Lumber Company.
In 1935 the Depression had drastically
affected the Strang Line. As ridership was
substantially reduced because people were not
commuting to so many jobs in the cities, this
caused the Line to default on a second mortgage
bond issue. This mortgage was foreclosed and
Tom Riley and a group of his friends again
bought the Line from the bankruptcy sale for
$50,000. It did not change anything on the Line
as Riley had been the general manager and
continued all schedules and retained all
employees. They had one less interest payment
to make after the foreclosure. This kept the line
running for some years.
In 1929, the Presbyterian congregation, the
first church in Overland Park outgrew the
original stone building constructed in 1913.
The church bought land on the north side of
Eighty-first Street on Overland Park Drive and
started building a larger church and ministry
buildings. This was completed in 1930 and the
old church building was sold to Masonic Lodge
No. 436 which had been chartered on March 1,
1923. With enormous hardship the Lodge made
payments on the building and survived through
the depression and continues as a strong Lodge
in the twenty-first century.
During 1934 the Church of God (Assemblies
of God) congregation was started with meetings
in the Masonic Lodge until September 1935
when a church was built at Eighty-first and
Lowell Streets on the northeast corner. This
building served them until 1957 when they
moved to Seventy-fifth Street and Lowell.
By 1937 enrollment in the Overland Park
Elementary School had increased to 404
students. A kindergarten was started in 1935,
possibly one of the first in Johnson County.
There were twelve teachers in the school. In
1938 the 1920s building was extensively
remodeled and additional rooms were added. A
$70,000 bond issue was approved for this, a
remarkable feat considering the area was just
coming out of the depression. The building was
completed by local labor with Herb Ford
serving as general contractor and school board
members supervising the construction. No WPA
funds were used as had been done with most
public buildings of that era. In that fall term of
1938 the school served 443 students.
By the end of the Depression, about 1939,
Overland Park had many businesses, several
grocery stores, many garages, tire and machine
shops, Kansas City Power and Light Company
office, hardware, one bank, five churches, hotel,
feed and coal businesses, real estate and
insurance offices, three or four medical offices,
one or more lawyers, restaurants and all kinds
of tradesmen and businesses. The only cloud on
the horizon was a foreclosure on the first
mortgage bonds of the Strang Line, which was
filed on June 29, 1939. Frank Bates, Esquire,
was appointed as master commissioner of the
line, which was still running its passenger
schedules and hauling freight.
48 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

1940-1960:
THE WAR AND TOWNSHIP YEARS
BY FLORENT WAGNER
We did not know in 1940 that the 1940s would become World War II years. There were ominous
signs around the globe but the United States was staying as far as possible from any war. The 1940s
started for Overland Park with the Johnson County Court ordering a foreclosure sale of the Strang
Line on February 2, 1940. A sale was held on the courthouse steps, March 30, 1940, and Tom Riley
made the highest bid of $20,000 for all of the assets of the Line. He deposited $1,800 at the sale and
paid the balance of his bid by surrendering most of the outstanding bonds of the Line. The sale was
confirmed April 23, 1940, and Tom Riley surrendered all the bonds except eight to complete the sale.
The court also confirmed the assignment by Riley of the purchase contract to H. E. Salzberg
Company of New York, salvage people. The last passenger run was July 10, 1940. Freight continued
to be hauled until July 25 when someone stole hundreds of feet of the copper trolley wire one night
when the power was off.
A number of deeds were circulated between Riley, the Strang Corporation, Salzberg and some
others, but the Salzberg Company took all the rolling stock and rails as salvage. Tom Riley ended up
with the rail line real estate which basically was the car barn, the right-of-way between Seventy-ninth
and Eighty-first Streets on the east side of Santa Fe Street and the Strang Line Depot at Eightieth and
Santa Fe. By September 1940 Riley had sold the right-of-way and the Depot to the Breyfogle interests
through their straw party, Leone Dale. They resurveyed the right-of-way from Seventy-ninth to
Eightieth in 1941. The Breyfogle group consisted of John Breyfogle, Sr., his nephews and their wives,
George and Dorothy Breyfogle, and Louis D. and Alma Breyfogle. They formed the Breyfogle
Partnership. This group we believe had bought many of the unsold Strang Land Company lots.
❖
The Strang Line Car Barn covered
with ivy in 1940 following the Strang
Line’s bankruptcy.
Chapter VII ✦ 49

By now we were quickly plunging into the
Second World War. George Breyfogle had been
in the real estate and insurance business before
the war and may have built some houses, but
during the war almost all construction on
private residences and buildings was stopped
and all efforts were devoted to the war.
The Overland Park community was
somewhat unique in that it had never been
incorporated as a city in Kansas. The Overland
Park area had not received the sheriff’s attention
and the road improvements that areas closer to
Olathe received.
William Strang, the founder of the
community had envisioned and platted larger,
suburban lots for the residents. Some
speculators jumped into the lot sales along the
Line in a different township and platted some
small twenty-five-foot lots to sell to prospective
purchasers sight unseen far away from the area.
This happened principally in one small area and
lot sales were never very successful; their
gimmick was to give a free lot with every lot
purchased. But this subdivision was in Shawnee
Township, just west of Antioch, which required
sixty feet frontage for residential lots so that in
order to do anything with the two lots a party
owned, the party had to purchase an additional
lot at an exorbitant price. Johnson County
eventually stopped this scheme.
❖
Top: The Overland Park Strang Line
Depot in the 1940s.
Above: Strang Line Car Barn in
the 1950s with the tracks gone
and used by Reno Construction
Company as a garage for their
road equipment and later as Stan
Kupchin’s auto repair business.
Right: A view of the Knox Hotel at
southwest corner of Eightieth and
Foster in the middle 1940s.
50 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

J. C. Nichols, a residential and shopping
center developer, bought land in Mission
Township in 1914 next to the Missouri State
Line at Sixty-third Street and platted large lots
for his Mission Hills subdivision. Nichols also
purchased among other farms the Porter dairy
farm between Sixty-seventh and Seventy-first
streets on the west side of Mission Road in
1928. State legislators had to adopt legislation
allowing cities to adopt zoning ordinances and
legislatures in some of the states started doing
this in 1923. The United States Supreme Court
approved such zoning ordinances in 1926
as a legitimate exercise of police power, but
Kansas had no legislation authorizing county
government zoning.
In 1930, Rolla Coleman, an Overland Park
attorney, platted 130 acres he owned on the
westside of Mission Road between Fifty-ninth and
Sixty-third Streets in large 60-by-150-foot lots.
Other subdivisions were platted in the 1930s and
the Prairie Village subdivision was on the drawing
board. Coleman was elected Kansas State Senator
in 1936 and wanted to preserve the value of his
subdivision. He cooperated with Nichols to
introduce legislation to allow county township
zoning, particularly tailored to Mission Township,
emphasizing township involvement. The county
commissioners could designate the county
townships and districts to use zoning and
appointed a township zoning board. The township
board could make plans and maps on location of
new streets, alleys, ways, viaducts, bridges, parks,
parkways, playgrounds or other improvements,
transportation and communications facilities, and
the removal or relocation or enlargement of such
things then existing. The zoning board, with
the approval of the county commissioners,
had power to determine, restrict and regulate
the use of lands and could adopt regulations
governing subdivisions.
The Johnson County Commission designated
Mission Township District and appointed three
members to the Board, which was responsible
for building and maintaining the roads in their
area and recommending zoning to the Board of
County Commissioners, but the county
commissioners did not have to adopt the
recommendations. The first three Mission
Township Board members were Herbert Ford
Sr., William Laird, and Earl Ratcliff. They met in
meeting rooms on the second floor of the
Fleming building on West Eightieth Street.
Hal Stonebrecker designed many houses and
buildings in the area, most notably the two
castle-like houses at Eighty-sixth and Mission
Road. Home designing and building stopped
during World War II, but Stonebrecker may have
helped design wooden wardrobes and other
wooden articles to assist the military. These were
constructed in the buildings of the Cowley-
Lanter lumberyard, which had been closed prior
to the war.
The Strang Line right-of-way became a salvage
yard for the collection of metal for the war effort.
The local farm and community boys and young
men were drafted. This ended the Santa Fe Trail
Riders and hampered much of the dairy business
in the area, as many of the milking men and
deliverymen were gone. Country Club Dairy, a
dairy processing plant at Fifty-sixth and Troost in
Kansas City, Missouri, bought the Holmes
Guernsey Farm and made it into their show dairy
in Johnson County for many years.
Country Club Dairy started buying many of
the dairy farm businesses. They hauled the milk
in ten-gallon cans or bulk tanks to their plant and
processed it, selling the dairy products back on
many of the home delivery routes purchased
from the dairy farmers. This also was the
beginning of more extensive sales of dairy
products in the grocery stores.
Hugh and Mary White, cattle farmers from
Linn County, Kansas, came to Overland Park in
1941 and bought the Wolverine Dairy Farm on
the east side of Metcalf north of Eighty-seventh
Street. The couple and their four children
milked 60 to 80 cows at noon and midnight
every day, processing their milk and running a
fifty-mile delivery route with 150 customers
until 1948 when health problems forced the sale
of all milk cows and dairy equipment. The
family continued to raise cattle on the farm until
1951 when the farm was platted into the
Whitehaven subdivision. Hugh and Mary gave
Bob White, the oldest son, and his new bride,
Esther, a lot at Eighty-fifth and Metcalf. Bob
built the first ranch house in the subdivision.
Then Bob and Hugh started building other
houses for lot buyers in the subdivision.
All of these lots in the Whitehaven subdivision
were largely sold by 1957 and Bob and Hugh
❖
The first Mission Township Board
(from top to bottom): William Laird,
Herbert Ford, Sr., and Earl Ratcliff.
Chapter VII ✦ 51

❖
Top: Overland Park Elementary
School built a new single story
structure in 1951 for grades one
through three. This was located where
Aviation Pavilion had served the Park
during the 1910s and had continued
as Jennings Feed and Coal store from
the late 1920s until 1943, when the
Pavilion burned.
Middle: The Holmes Guernsey farm
was purchased by Country Club
Dairy and used as their show dairy
farm for a number of years in the late
1930s and early 1940s. Joe Mackey
used it for several years for stables
until it got too valuable in the 1960s
when it was developed as the
Greenbrier subdivision, north of
Overland Park City Hall.
Bottom: White Haven Motor Lodge
when first built and opened in 1957,
prior to the large sign and swimming
pool installation.
Opposite, top: Church of God
(Holiness) Church, built on the
headquarters campus in 1961 east of
Metcalf on Seventy-fourth Street,
where it is still located.
Opposite, middle: The Breyfogles
building, built for A.& P., was leased
as a Sears Roebuck Catalogue Store in
the mid-1950s.
Opposite, bottom: Hugh and Mary
White’s Dairy Farm at the northeast
corner of Eighty-seventh and Metcalf.
They purchased what had been the
Wolverine Dairy Farm in 1941.
This farm was platted as the
Whitehaven Subdivision in 1951
after the Whites closed the dairy
business and cattle business.
White decided to build a retirement business for
the parents and purchased some land on the east
side of Metcalf north of Eighty-first Street. After
over coming much community opposition to
another tourist court on Metcalf, Bob completed
the first thirty-four units of the White Haven
Motor Lodge and these units opened in 1957, the
first post World War II, first- class motel in the
community of Overland Park.
On February 24, 1943, the Jennings Mill,
Feed and Coal store burned. The R. W. Jennings
family had living quarters in the south end of
the building under the stage. Everyone got out
safely but the entire building and its contents
52 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

urned to the ground. The property was unused
until 1951 when the Overland Park School
District purchased the land to build a new
school for grades one through three.
The Uhls Clinic at Seventy-fourth and
Metcalf had closed before World War II. The
Kansas City College and Bible School had
bought the land and buildings and various
groups of religious friends stayed in the
dormitory of the school during the War. One of
the groups started holding prayer meetings in
the dormitory in 1942 and organized as a
Church of God (Holiness). They continued to
meet on school grounds for some years and in
1961 built a church on the school campus,
which continues today on Seventy-fourth Street
just east of Metcalf.
The Catholics of this area had gone to Lenexa
for church for seventy years or more. In 1943
the Catholic bishop of the Kansas City diocese
in Kansas selected a tree filled tract of land at
the southeast corner of Seventy-first and
Metcalf to build a Catholic church and school in
the Overland Park Community. A building was
erected, beginning in 1944, which housed the
church upstairs and classrooms for grades one
through eight on the ground level. The larger
church was built on the corner of Seventy-first
Street in 1962. The school was enlarged and a
convent and large rectory were added to the
plant in later years.
World War II ended in 1945. Building
supplies were hard to come by, but the
Breyfogles started pushing the building of
houses on the vacant lots purchased from the
Strang Land Company west of the Overland
Park school in the Overland Park, Overland,
Holmes Crest, Mo-Kaw Highlands, and
Shawnee subdivisions. They built $3,000
houses and advertised extensively. If a veteran
showed up at the Breyfogle real estate office
with $50.00 in his pocket they sold him a
brand-new house. Loans at 5 or 5.5-percent
made the payment about $75 to $90 per month
on most of these houses.
As housing was filled in around the
downtown area of Overland Park, the
Breyfogles purchased or developed other farms
around the community such as the Israel and
Louis Breyfogle home farm west of Metcalf
north of Eighty-seventh Street, the Garastana
Chapter VII ✦ 53

❖
Above: Queen of the Holy Rosary
Catholic Church’s first building
housing the church upstairs and
grades one through eight on the
ground floor in the 1940s.
Below: The Breyfogle Partnership Real
Estate office located in the Strang Line
Overland Park Depot in the 1940s.
The Partnership purchased this
property from Tom Riley who bought
all of the Line assets from bankruptcy.
Opposite, top: The 50 Highway Drive-
In on west Eighty-seventh Street. The
Christian Church held “drive-in”
church here for some years.
Farm at Seventy-first and Metcalf east to Santa
Fe, Overland View, a subdivision east of Metcalf
and south of Eighty-third Street, and Valley
View subdivision, south of Santa Fe west of
Hadley to Eighty-seventh Street, west to
Antioch. About 1949 Phil Kline bought one of
these new houses with 864 square feet in the
Valley View subdivision for $10,900.
The Breyfogles also realized that the new
residents needed additional shops and businesses
to provide for the needs of the new growing
families. They started building commercial
buildings on the old Strang Line right-of-way on
the east side of Santa Fe Street starting at the
north toward Seventy-ninth Street, building
south. A new hardware store, drug store, war
surplus store, liquor store and other stores were
built on the north half of the block in 1946-1947.
Some vacant space was left for parking and the
south end of the block was built about 1948-
1949 for an A.&P. grocery, Breyfogle’s office,
laundromat, dry goods store and Matt Ross’ Ben
Franklin Store. The center lanes of Santa Fe Street
had been paved with brick in the middle 1920s,
were overlaid with asphalt, but the angle parking
area was still unpaved. Now business and activity
was really booming in downtown Overland Park.
The Breyfogle Partnership used the Overland
Park Depot, part of their purchase from Tom Riley,
as their real estate office for several years. Zeb
Holland rented this building to open a restaurant
and rooms were built on the east side of the
Depot. Zeb ran the restaurant here for a short
time, but preferred a location twenty-five feet
south of the Voigts Building and soon moved
there. Breyfogles moved their offices to one of
their new buildings, north on Santa Fe Street for a
few years, then moved east on Eightieth Street to
a two-story house on the northwest corner of
Eightieth and Marty. The Oetting family, in 1953,
rented the Depot, built a new showroom over the
Depot loading platform, and continue in business
today as Suburban Decoration.
Dr. Tolle purchased the old Nicholson House
at the southeast corner of Eightieth and Marty
Streets and maintained an office there for years.
Dr. Bradford built a new clinic on the east end
of this same block on Eightieth Street. Drs.
Grayson and Leigh practiced on Santa Fe Street.
Dr. Young served the eye needs of the
community for years at various locations.
Arthur Jones, a prewar Shawnee, Kansas,
attorney opened an office in Overland Park. Elmer
Hoge had practiced law in Overland Park since
Opposite, middle: Glen Dickinson’s
Art Deco Overland Park Theater was
built in 1946-1947 at the northwest
corner of Eightieth and Floyd Streets.
The Christian Church met in the
theater when they were first founded
in Overland Park.
Opposite, bottom: The 1941 Ford
Overland Park Fire Truck was shown
by the proud volunteers at the
Overland Park Elementary School.
54 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

graduating from law school. Wilbur McCool had
started a practice here. Many lawyers who
obtained their law degree through the GI Bill
located in Overland Park. New lawyers, some
GIs, some not, coming into the community
within the next ten years included: Lyndus Henry,
Marvin Rainey, Robert Anderson, David Gilman,
Gwen Falkenberg, and William G. Gray. Many
other attorneys located here in later years.
Accountants, architects, engineers and
many other professionals and tradesmen, many
of them war veterans, got their start in the
growing community.
The volunteer fire department continued to
grow. In December, 1941, a new Ford fire truck
was purchased from a company in Minnesota.
Three men drove from Overland Park to
Minnesota to pick up this truck including
Harold Osborn, chief C. A. Abbott, and Cliff
Jones. The truck had an open driver’s seat and
each man could only drive about thirty miles
before becoming so cold he could not drive, so
the driver would change with one of the men
riding in the warm car. Hal Stonebrecker
designed a new fire station and Herb Ford built
this station in 1942-1943, at 7936 Foster, to
house the new truck and other department
trucks and equipment. Few public or tax funds
were available to buy equipment for the fire
department. The 1943 station served the
department until a new station with living
quarters was built at Seventy-fifth and Conser
on the old John Marty homestead in the 1970s.
Glen Dickinson, a Mission, Kansas, theater
owner built a unique Art Deco Theater in
Overland Park at 7200 West Eightieth in 1946-
1947, which was immediately successful and
served many functions for the community over
the years.
About 1950 the Christian church started a
congregation. They first leased space in the new
Dickinson Theater on Eightieth street. This
congregation started a drive-in church service at
the old 50 Highway Drive-In on West Eightyseventh
Street close to the Santa Fe railroad. This
drive-in church was very successful, becoming
possibly the largest drive-in congregation outside
of California. The Overland Park Christian
Church built its first church on the northwest
corner of Seventy-fifth and Conser in 1953 and
has continued to enlarge this complex.
Chapter VII ✦ 55

❖
Above: The Marty Memorial Fire
Station at Seventy-fifth and Conser,
on the old John Marty farm. The
station opened in 1976, the first
station in the city with living quarters
for the firemen.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Below: This building was built for the
U.S. Post Office by the Breyfogle
Partnership in 1954-1955. When the
Post Office moved to new, larger
quarters at Eightieth and Conser in
the 1960s, the building was rented to
NAPA Auto Parts.
The Lutherans formed a congregation in
Overland Park in the very late 1940s, first
meeting in the Overland Park grade school until
their first chapel was built in 1951. A much
larger church and supporting buildings were
added around the first chapel in 1971.
Baseball was a relatively new game when
William Strang first came to Overland Park. As
a matter of fact, some communities even
imposed fines for playing baseball games on
Sundays in the late l900s as a violation of the
Blue Laws. Strang had built a baseball diamond
and grandstand east of his car barn as a
promotional tool to bring people to his new
community. Soon thereafter the U.S. Supreme
Court declared baseball games did not violate
the Blue Laws and baseball became a standard
Sunday morning activity in Aviation Park. After
World War I local baseball shifted to a largely
school or intracity activity with some corporate
sponsors of teams. Ball fields were few and far
between in the 1920s and 1930s. Chris Segner
loved baseball and created a baseball field on
some land he had at Seventy-first and Nall in
the 1930s. His wife, Emma Segner, started and
ran a grocery store in 1926 just west of Seventyfifth
and Metcalf. She was a very successful
businesswoman. About 1940, Chris Segner
moved his baseball field to a Seventy-fifth Street
location just east of Metcalf. As the Seventy-fifth
Street property became valuable, Chris Segner
moved his ball field in the middle 1940s to a
field west of Metcalf south of Eighty-third Street
for a couple of years and about 1945 bought
some land south of Highway 58 and north of the
Strang Line right-of-way, near Grant Street. He
started building several baseball diamonds and a
grandstand. After World War II, lights and a
concession stand were added to the ballpark.
Chris ran the ballpark until his death in 1950.
His wife Emma sold the corner grocery store at
Seventy-fifth and Metcalf to Paul and Jean
Atkinson. It later became Paul’s Western Store, a
liquor store and a Standard Oil service station.
Emma ran Segner Field after Chris’s death until
her death in 1955. Thereafter the 3-and-2
Baseball Club came in to run the field and
expanded it to the south. Finally the activity had
grown so much that the 3 and 2 Baseball Club
moved their whole operation west on Eightyseventh
Street to Renner Road in 1963 where a
large, lighted multi-diamond complex was built
and still operates.
The Cowley-Lanter lumberyard buildings
were used after the war by the Wadsworth
Prefabricated Homes Company. They built all of
the walls, rafters, floors, and roofs of a house,
loaded these components on a truck and
shipped the prefabricated parts to a home site to
be assembled. This business continued into the
very early 1950s when the land of the
lumberyard on the east side of Overland Park
Drive north of Eightieth Street was sold to the
Breyfogle Partnership. Breyfogles built a store
for McDaniel Pharmacy where the lumberyard
had been.
The Home Telephone Company was sold to
the Southwestern Bell Telephone as part of their
system. In 1954, the house, which had served as
56 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

the telephone office since 1911, was moved to
Eighty-fifth and Metcalf, northwest corner, where
it stands today. Breyfogles built a new building
for the United States Post Office on the north side
of Eightieth where the telephone office stood.
Other buildings filled in between the Post Office
and McDaniels in the middle 1950s.
The Overland Park area of Mission Township
was again the subject of special legislation in the
state of Kansas to create what was now called an
urban township. New cities like Fairway, Mission,
Roeland Park, Prairie Village, and Leawood had
all broken off and incorporated as separate cities
in the late 1940s. The Mission Township
authority extended only in the township areas
outside the boundaries of any incorporated city.
These five new cities carved a substantial block
out of the Mission Township. The cities all had
their own police departments, city halls with
staffs, and controlled their own zoning. They
thumbed their noses at Mission Township saying
it would never amount to anything.
In 1952 the Kansas Legislature authorized the
creation of new urban townships. The Johnson
County Commission changed the name of the area
to the Mission Urban Township. In addition to
zoning, building permit activities and road and
street maintenance, the Urban Township Board
was empowered to provide for public safety,
particularly a police department, ambulance and
emergency services. The volunteer fire department
continued to provide services and was growing.
Chief Abbott had been called to the war in 1942
and relocated elsewhere after the war. Volunteer
member James Broockerd, who joined the
department in 1950, was elected chief in 1956 and
ran it extremely well for the next thirty-one years.
The Mission Urban Township called for an
elected board of five members. The first elected
members were: Matt Ross, John Barkley, Harold
Horn, Lloyd Roark, and Robert Knapp. They
started meeting in 1952. A police department was
started in 1953. Ben Casteel was the first police
chief, serving until April 1955, when John
Kenyon was appointed chief. He served until
1971. The Urban Township Board met in Walt
Fleming’s meeting hall, second floor of his twostory
building at 7331 West Eightieth. They used
the south end of the second floor. The police
department was on the north end of this floor and
by 1955 the police department had five police
officers. The Board determined that neither they
nor politics would have any bearing or influence
on the running of the police department.
Also on the second floor of the Fleming
Building was the engineering firm of Shafer
❖
Top, left; Segner Baseball Field in the
late 1940s showing the grandstand
and concession area.
Above: James Broockerd, joined the
Overland Park volunteer fire
department about 1950, was elected
chief of the department in 1956, and
was reelected chief for the next 31
years until he retired in 1987.
Below: Walt Fleming’s two story
building at 7331 West Eightieth
served as the Mission Township
Board headquarters and government
offices during the World War II
and the 1950s, even as the first
Overland Park City Hall in 1960
and early 1961.
Chapter VII ✦ 57

❖
Above and below: The old J. D. New
dairy farm was purchased by Glen
Dickinson about 1955. Dickinson
remodeled the old dairy barn and
painted it bright red converting it into
a restaurant and catering business
and large dance club in the hay mow
above, called the “Manor Barn”.
COURTESY OF THE SUN PUBLICATIONS, INC.,
JOHNSON COUNTY…PICTURES FROM THE PAST.
Opposite, top: Andy Klein’s Pontiac
dealership at Seventy-eighth and
Metcalf. It was built in 1951, the first
of the new postwar showrooms and
service buildings.
Opposite, middle: Overland Park City
logo at Shawnee Mission Parkway
and Metcalf, the northeast entrance
to the cty.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Opposite, bottom: Business buildings
in Overland Park about 1955. The
buses are on Foster Street north of
Eightieth. The Skelly station is on a
little triangle of land, which serves as
parking spaces for the law offices at
Eightieth and Foster today.
and Kline. Warren was added to the firm later.
They designed many of the new water and sewer
lines, drew many plats, and surveyed many lots
and areas for the hectic and extensive growth.
The William Strang home was torn down in
the late 1940s. The Jacobs family built shops on
the south side of the street about the east half of
Eightieth Street between Marty and Overland
Park Drive in the mid-1950s.
Glen Dickinson had been very successful in
the theater business, first in Mission, then
Overland Park, and other communities
throughout Kansas. In 1955 he purchased the
old J. D. New farm, the northwest corner of
Ninety-fifth and Metcalf. He converted the big
dairy barn to a restaurant and meeting rooms
called the “Manor Barn” and painted this “barn
red”. The pond on the corner was a popular
fishing hole. He started planning for a big motel,
which he built in the late 1950s, and in the early
1960s built the Glenwood Theater north of the
motel. First there was just one screen but in
later years he added three more screens, the first
of the multiplexes in Overland Park. He
enlarged the motel and built a convention
center, which seemed large enough at that time.
The motel restaurant was the most upscale
meeting place in Overland Park in the late
1950s and through the 1960s and 1970s.
When the Strang Line ceased to provide
public transportation, Continental Trailways, a
division of Union Pacific, acquired the
franchise. The Conser family converted their old
machine shop location to a bus depot. Buses
were parked inside on the Foster Street side of
the building and the ticket office was on one
end of the front and a short order counter on the
other end of the front of the building. After the
war many of the bus riders bought their own
cars and the bus routes declined.
Harvey Stockton worked for Grooms Ford
in the 1920s and Digges auto repair business
in the 1930s. He started his own auto repair
business on the west side of Foster Street
adjoining the new fire station on the north.
He continued to enlarge his business and
bought land going through to Conser Street for
storing cars from both a public and private
towing service. He finally added a frame
straightening shop, filling in the area between
the fire station and the Kansas City Power and
Light Company garage. This frame shop is still
operated by Stockton family members. Harvey
Stockton encouraged Pete and Dottie
McClenaghan to become partners with Sidney
Ashton who had opened an auto parts and paint
store in the old Conser Bus Depot after the War
to supply his and other auto repair businesses in
the area. McClenaghans had the right to buy the
rest of the business at Ashton’s death, which
they did.
58 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

The Overland Park Bank doubled its building
size in the late 1940s, but this space was still too
small and could not be expanded again. In 1953
they moved to temporary quarters on the
northeast corner of Eightieth and Conser while
they were erecting a new building with drive-in
windows at the southwest corner of Eightieth
and Metcalf, which they occupied in 1955.
In the 1950s, all of the leading grocery chains
and some individuals located grocery stores in
downtown Overland Park. Kroger rented a new
store in 1951, the first building south of the old
Strang Line Depot. In 1954, Thriftway Stores,
run by Frank Armonies and Floyd Day, two
successful grocers, rented a new store built by the
Breyfogles on the old Legion Hut property. The
IGA chain was at Eightieth and Foster. Milgram
Stores had a location downtown and in the late
1940s Breyfogles built a new store for the A.&P.
chain, the north end of their south group of
stores on the east side of Santa Fe north of
Eightieth. The Carters, Godells, and Turners had
been the three grocers in the 1930s and 1940s.
By this time the young growing families
supported six or seven grocery stores.
In the 1940s and 1950s a drug store was
operated by the Hornings, first in a new
Breyfogle building, then in an A. M. Wood
building near the junction of Sante Fe and Foster
Streets. Then Blocks came into the drug business
at the Horning location. They built a new store
on the east side of Santa Fe south of the Kroger
store, and Russells took over the drug store on
west side of Santa Fe. Block sold their drug store
to Shalinskys, and during this time, McDaniel
pharmacy had opened on Eightieth Street.
Cleaners, frame shops, gift shops, interior
businesses, barbershops and every other
conceivable appropriate business located in the
growing community.
During World War II new cars were not
manufactured. Used cars were at a premium.
Andy Klein, who spent his youth and early teen
years in Overland Park, started buying and
selling abandoned cars at a garage Frank
Schepers had at the north side of his service
station at Eighty-third and Metcalf. Andy became
a partner with Frank Ball in the Frank Ball
Pontiac dealership in Kansas City, Missouri, in
the mid-1940s. Andy Klein obtained the
Overland Park Pontiac dealership from Herman
Webber. Herman Webber previously had the
Oakland dealership in the area, but he had never
been a very active dealer and Pontiac was eager
for a young, aggressive dealer in the area. The
Pontiac dealership was operated out of the
Eighty-third Street location for a short time, and
relocated across the street from the Strang Car
Chapter VII ✦ 59

❖
Top: Jack Bear’s Cloverleaf Building,
one of several of the first multistoried
buildings at Metcalf and Shawnee
Mission Parkway (originally
Highway 50).
COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND PARK
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
Above: Just one of the many
industrial buildings in the
Congleton Industrial Park.
Barn, in the old Oakland dealership building,
7900 Santa Fe Street, in the late 1940s.
Andy Klein needed larger facilities for a
dealership and purchased land where the Glenn
Post Office, the first post office of the area, had
been located. He started building the first of the
post war dealerships with a large showroom, parts
and repair services, and the used car office, which
opened in 1951 at Seventy-eighth and Metcalf.
Joseph Davis, a resident in the area had an oil
jobber and delivery service hauling gasoline and
oil to six or seven service stations. He bought an
interest in a DeSoto, Dodge and Plymouth auto
dealership in Kansas City, Missouri, which he
then moved to the west side of Metcalf just
north of Eightieth Street in 1952. Next came
Charles Ryan Buick, later becoming Don Stein
Buick, O’Neill Oldsmobile and Shortman
Dodge. Metcalf Avenue in downtown Overland
Park was now automobile dealership row.
In the middle 1940s the Kansas Department
of Transportation decided Highway 50 going
through Mission, Kansas, was too congested and
started working to move this highway one half
mile south to run at approximately Sixty-third
Street. They angled it from Fifty-ninth Street at
Roe Avenue to Sixty-third Street at Nall, then
proceeded straight west. Where Highway 50
crossed Highway 69-Metcalf, the Kansas
Highway Commission decided to apply the
newest in intersection technology, building a
cloverleaf interchange in 1946-1947. This
became a great entrance to the northeast area of
Overland Park.
Jack Bear owned the southeast quadrant of
the cloverleaf and some years later requested
zoning to build several multi-storied office
buildings there. He received approval and built
several white brick, premium quality buildings,
the first of the multi-story buildings in Mission
Urban Township in the late 1950s.
Victor Regnier and his wife requested zoning
from Leawood for a strip shopping center on the
northeast corner of Ninety-fifth and Mission
Road. Upon approval the Regniers built the
north half of Ranchmart Shopping Center in
1958. Regnier filled in a lake and built Ninetyfifth
Street up with tons of dirt to make the
street somewhat level with the shopping center.
After Overland Park incorporated and the City
annexed the southeast corner of Ninety-fifth
and Mission, Regniers applied for and were
granted zoning to build the south half of
Ranchmart Shopping Center, which they
opened in 1968.
About the same time as the Bear and Regnier
development activities were going on, Tom
Congleton, a developer, had 140 acres of land
just east of the new I-35 Interstate Highway.
This land was between I-35 and Quivira Road,
from Eighty-ninth Street south to almost
Ninety-fifth Street. He requested the first
industrial park zoning for this land, received it
and built many quality industrial buildings in
his Congleton Industrial Park. While doing this
he tried to limit this park for industrial
buildings, but had so many requests for office
buildings, this determined his development
activity in the future. All of this zoning of
commercial activity in Mission Urban Township
was granted basically to broaden the
commercial, real estate tax base for the area. The
zonings were strongly opposed by some of the
60 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

downtown Overland Park interests, but once
these zonings opened the door, the stage was
set and pressure was building to make Mission
Urban Township into a city to control its
own destiny.
Milburn Country Club was growing as
successful businessmen and professionals
moved to the area. Charlie Fatino was still the
Club manager but the club no longer needed
loans from Charlie to survive. Charlie set his
sights on building a new two-story building on
Eightieth Street just west of Metcalf. He was
turned down for commercial zoning the first
time in 1955 because he did not provide enough
parking. The parking problem was becoming
increasingly significant and would almost kill
the downtown area in later years. But Charlie
was undaunted and purchased some houses and
land north of the Dickinson Theater, and with
this area for parking the zoning permit was
granted and Charlie started building his “L”
shaped building on the northeast corner of
Eightieth and Floyd Streets, which was
completed in early 1958.
One of the first occupants of Fatino’s
Building was John Francis Overland Restaurant,
a truly nice restaurant with tables and waitresses
and a comprehensive menu. One of their
specialties was “Chicken in the Rough”, an early
fried chicken franchise meal. John Francis had
been the band director at Shawnee Mission
Rural High School. He went into the restaurant
business in downtown Kansas City, Missouri,
but when the opportunity arose, quickly came
back to Overland Park to open a restaurant.
Many of the young attorneys and professionals
occupied the second floor of the building.
Suzee’s Attic (a ladies specialty shop), jewelry
store, and other retailers occupied the
downstairs shops. White Haven Motor Lodge
opened about the same time and having
no eating facilities sent many visitors to
John Francis, just around the corner from their
motor lodge.
The dairy business in the area had changed
substantially. Many of the dairies were gone,
with houses and developments growing on the
dairy pastures. Dairy products were readily
available in grocery stores. Arthur England and
❖
Above: Glenwood Theater sign,
installed by Glen Dickinson in front of
his theater at Ninety-first and Metcalf
in the early 1960s, then purchased by
the Mossman brothers, owners of
several historic theaters. They have
restored and installed this sign on
south side of Ninety-fifth Street, just
east of Metcalf, to promote their
theater inside the shopping center.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Below: Charles Fatino’s two-story
retail and office building when it first
opened. The sign for John Francis’ can
be seen on the far left.
Chapter VII ✦ 61

❖
Above: A group of Overland Park
businessmen in the 1960s. Front row
(from left to right): Walt Fleming, Joe
Davis, Zeb Holland, Hal Stonebrecker,
and Howard McEachen. Back row;
Charles Fatino, Matt Ross, Lee
Holland, Phil Kline,Hank Gregory,
and Dale Lylerla.
Below: Paups Place in the 7500
block of west Sixty-third, just south
of Shawnee Mission High School in
the 1940s.
COURTESY OF THE SUN PUBLICATIONS, INC.,
JOHNSON COUNTY…PICTURES FROM THE PAST.
his brothers were still in the dairy business on
their farms, but sold their milk to processors.
However, Arthur started his own dairy store in
downtown Overland Park in 1951 at Seventyninth
and Floyd. He sold dairy and convenience
items, but more importantly, his sister Florence
operated a soda fountain in the store having a
particularly fine reputation for thick, rich malts
and shakes and scrumptious sundaes and
banana splits.
Boot’s Drive-In started in 1953 and was a
favorite hangout of the teenagers and anyone
wanting a tasty hamburger, ice cream, and soft
drinks. It was located just east of Dalton’s flower
business on Santa Fe. Danny Wren took over
what had been the Wagon Wheel Restaurant
and ran it for some years. The other hangout for
the students from Shawnee Mission Rural High
School was “Paups” Place on Sixty-third Street a
couple blocks west of Metcalf. He served
refreshments and had a dance floor both inside
and on the roof. These places really rocked in
the 1950s with larger and larger jukeboxes and
even live music.
The name of the high school changed from
Shawnee Mission Rural High School to just
Shawnee Mission High School. Kansas
legislation created new school districts, one of
which was Overland Park District 110. The
School Board for this district under the
presidencies of Robert Anderson and Phil Kline,
oversaw the building of twelve new elementary
schools in the 1950s.
Lee and Maxine Bauman bought the Brohl’s
Shoe Store on Eightieth Street. Maxine Russell
had come to Overland Park as a teenager with
her parents during the depression. She worked
at several jobs after graduating from Shawnee
Mission High School, married Lee Bauman in
1951 and returned to Overland Park in the
middle 1950s. They worked for Brohl several
years, then bought the shoe business in 1957.
Their business prospered and the Baumans
became part of the growing group of civic and
service-minded citizens of the community,
such as: the Carters of grocery and sporting
goods businesses; Virginia Price Owen, an
interior designer and decorator; Mary Knox, of
the hotel; Matt Ross of the Ben Franklin Store; the
Jennings family from the feed, seed, and
coal store; Reverend Waters, the Presbyterian
Church minister; Walt Fleming, manager of
the Kansas City Power and Light Company,
Kansas Division; Phil Kline, an engineer; Lyndus
Henry, an attorney; and Mabel Harrison,
principal of the Overland Park School. These
were the community leaders who got things done
and added to the quality of life.
Attorneys Kenneth Wallace and Frank
Saunders formed a firm for the practice of law
and were soon joined by Larry Austin, Bart
Brown and many more attorneys becoming the
largest law firm in Overland Park at the close of
the 1950s. The firm practice grew dramatically.
In 1982 the firm used an industrial revenue
bond to finance their new law office building
and the firm continues to serve the entire area
into the twenty-first century.
62 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

1960-1980:
INCORPORATION & ORGANIZATION
BY FLORENT WAGNER
The year 1960 was a seminal year for the Overland Park area. The Mission Urban Township was
dissolved and the area was incorporated as the City of Overland Park. Special legislation was
introduced in the state of Kansas to allow Overland Park to incorporate as a first-class city without
going through the third-class and second-class steps. First-class cities require a population of twentyfive
thousand people. The boundary lines of the area were redrawn so that when Overland Park
incorporated on May 20, 1960, the new city had 28,085 people. This incorporation was exactly fiftyfour
years after the first run of the Strang Line in 1906. The legislation provided for the election of a
mayor and 10 city councilmen. The election was held in August and the new mayor and city
councilmen were sworn in September of 1960. The first mayor elected was Roy L. Owen. The new
councilmen were: John W. Meyers and Harold L. Reade, Ward 1; Donald C. Epp and Donald R. Sloan,
Ward 2; Clarence O. Gast and Robert B. Worley, Ward 3; Russell A. Rees and Matt Ross, Ward 4; and
Harry K. Burkhart Jr. and Herbert H. Ford, Jr., Ward 5. The new mayor and council met in a large
second floor room of the Fleming Building. City offices were staffed in the south end of the Building,
meeting room in between, and the police department operated in two rooms at the north end.
The City staff consisted of Bernice Heck Crummett and Olive Benton initially, but immediately
started expanding. Roy Owen, the newly elected mayor, had been involved with township activities for
several years and understood the importance of annexations to the new city. He immediately started the
❖
The first elected mayor and ten city
councilmen after the City of Overland
Park was incorporated. Mayor Roy
Owen and new councilmen were
sworn in September 1960.
Chapter VIII ✦ 63

❖
Above: An aerial view of of Ninetyfirst
and Antioch in the early 1960s.
The Porter dairy farm was in the
center. Antioch crosses from left to
right. Ninety-fifth Street can be seen
at the center, far left.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Below: Shawnee Mission
Medical Center.
procedure to annex areas adjoining the city on
the west across Antioch in Shawnee Township, an
area from Seventy-fifth Street south to Ninetyfifth
Street. Mayor Owen also understood that the
City would need larger quarters and acquired
some land for a new city hall-a triangular piece of
land between Eighty-fifth Street on the north,
Santa Fe Street on the south, and Antioch Street
on the west. This tract was just immediately
south of the Old Country Club Dairy and Joe
Mackey stables, all now gone.
Many civic, service, social, and religious
clubs had been in the area for years. Two or
three of the most active or visible clubs of the
township era and the beginnings of the
incorporated city period were the Cooperative
Club, the Mission Lions Club, which had started
the Overland Park Club in the late 1950s, and
the Soroptimist Club. The Cooperative Club’s
name was changed to the Shawnee Mission
Sertoma Club when the national club changed.
This club had always been active in Johnson
County Parks programs, particularly the
Theater-in-the-Park program. The Soroptimist
Club built a clubhouse in Mission, with
extensive help from Overland Park citizens. The
Overland Park Lions Club in the early 1960s
started the program of decorating Metcalf with
American flags for the important holidays
calling the effort the “Avenue of Flags”. This
activity continues into the twenty-first century.
The Lions Club flag program was reflective of
the heritage started by William B. Strang-a first
class patriot whose vision was for a park-like
community. The massive flag display on the
city’s principal street created a very festive
atmosphere. The Overland Park Rotary Club
was started in the fall of 1960 by Matt
Ross, Donald Smith, M.D., and other civic
leaders, the first club in the city started after
incorporation. Almost every other civic, service,
social, business, professional and religious
club conceivable has become a part of the city
since incorporation.
Northeast Johnson County needed a hospital.
The residents of the area had gone for years to
the Kansas City area hospitals or a small hospital
in Olathe. The Seventh Day Adventists decided
to sponsor a new hospital in northeast Johnson
County, just west of Seventy-fifth and Antioch.
This hospital would be called the Shawnee
Mission Hospital. Many community and civic-
64 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

minded people wanted the hospital and raised
sufficient funds to start building. It opened its
doors for patients in 1962. Several buildings in
the neighborhood were purchased to expand
services. The hospital facilities have been
enlarged and renovated extensively to keep pace
with growth. With a large professional
staff, skilled specialists and nurses, and a
large support staff, this institution has become
one of the leading medical centers in the
metropolitan area.
In the early 1960s, Frank Morgan and
Edward Young, who was a successful retailer in
Riverside, Missouri, doing business as the RED
“X” Store, petitioned for the zoning of a large
retail building on what had been part of the
Barthol farm, the northeast corner of 95th and
Metcalf. Downtown Overland Park business
interests opposed this zoning strenuously.
However, after several attempts the zoning for a
large retail building was granted. This building,
called the “French Market”, was opened in
1962. It included grocery, drug, hardware, fabric,
dry goods and liquor sales. The store may
have been premature both in its size and location.
It closed after about four years. K-Mart
stores took the major portion of this building,
which they still occupy. Milgram Grocery stores
ran a successful store here for some years.
At this time Overland Park, Kansas, was
known as the place to locate a new business.
Joseph Cohen, a Kansas City, Kansas, attorney
and banker, realized that this new city was
growing dramatically and could use another
bank. Cohen petitioned the State Banking
Commission for a new bank charter and after
demonstrating the community’s need, was
granted a charter in the name of Metcalf State
Bank. This Bank opened at Seventy-ninth and
Metcalf in a totally modern, prefab, concrete
building in 1962 with Charles Trego as
president. In 1964, Benjamin Craig became
president. Ben Craig was a tireless worker and
became one of the driving forces of Overland
Park and Johnson County. He has been involved
with every worthwhile activity in the city and
county, lending not only his name, but his
dedication, efforts, expertise, and funds to these
projects—hospitals, community college, airport
transportation, public improvements and
facilities, and numerous others.
D. W. Newcomer Funeral Home, one of the
largest and most established funeral homes in
Kansas City, Missouri, selected a location at
Eighty-second and Metcalf, part of what was left
of the old John Conser farm, as their new funeral
home. They opened this new location in 1963.
Many years before they obtained zoning and
developed Johnson County Memorial Gardens,
just south of College Boulevard, on Metcalf at
about 112th Street, one of the newer cemeteries
in Johnson County. Now Overland Park had two
funeral homes, the sign of a growing community.
While Overland Park was organizing to build a
new city hall, City Hall moved to a professional
building at Eighty-first and Marty in 1961, where
they rented many offices to accommodate the
expanding City staff. Marvin Rainey, an Overland
Park attorney, was elected mayor in 1963, and at
the same time, city government was changed to a
mayor-council-city manager type of government,
❖
Above: Metcalf Bank at Seventy-ninth
and Metcalf in 1962. When it opened
in this new, modern building, it was
the second bank in Overland Park.
Below: The “Avenue of Flags” set up
on Metcalf Avenue on major holidays
by the Overland Park Host Lions
Club. The club started this patriotic
and festive display in 1963.
Chapter VIII ✦ 65

which was less partisan. Mayor Rainey encouraged
improvement of the east-west thoroughfares such
as Highway 50, Seventy-fifth, Ninety-fifth, and
103rd Streets, and Santa Fe Drive. One of the
strong indications of growth of the area was the
zoning and building of a new covered shopping
center at the southeast corner of Ninety-fifth and
Metcalf known as “Metcalf South,” which opened
in 1967. In 1965 the City annexed the area of
Mission Township south of Ninety-fifth Street to
107th Street, everything left in the Township not
incorporated in the City of Leawood.
In August 1963, the first city manager,
Donald E. Pipes, was hired. Pipes served as City
Manager for all but three and one-half years of
the next thirty-seven years. Continuing the
work of the Mission Urban Township Board, the
City Council authorized a comprehensive planning
approach to ensure orderly land-use and
good growth of the city. The consulting firm of
Hare & Hare, of Kansas City, Missouri, continued
to be retained to advise the new City
Planning Department and Commission on planning,
land subdivisions and city growth.
Richard Kellenberg of the Hare firm worked
extensively with the city staff to develop the
planning functions and to create master plans
for all areas of the city. The first Master Plan for
Development in the City of Overland Park was
adopted by the City Council in 1963.
Duard Enoch was elected mayor in 1967. The
major thrust of his administration was the large
increase of the parks and recreation facilities with
the passage of bonds to support this activity. It was
also during this period that the planning and
zoning activities matured dramatically, particularly
the introduction of a plan and zoning concept. The
City pursued an extensive annexation policy to
the south beyond 135th Street. This was extremely
important in controlling the quality of private
developments to make sure they measured up
to the quality of existing developments. During
Enoch’s term the City took a major step by
using municipal revenue bonds allowing the
development of the large TWA Breech Training
Academy to accommodate the training of
flight attendants.
Right after the city’s incorporation most of
the business activity was in the downtown area,
north of Eighty-third Street. The Business
Association represented these people, their
businesses and commercial activity. But with
business and commercial activity becoming city
wide, including the newly annexed areas, the
Overland Park Chamber of Commerce became
the representative of these interests and
activities. Richard Molamphy was elected as
president of the Chamber and served in this
position for years. On his retirement Mary Birch
became the Chamber president. With her
❖
The Professional Building, the site of
the second Overland Park City
Offices. Most of the city staff, the
mayor’s office, and the council
meeting room were on the main floor,
with the police department occupying
the lower level.
66 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

❖
Top, left: Mayor Marvin Rainey.
COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND PARK
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
Top, right: Mayor Duard Enoch.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Bottom, left: Mary Birch, president of
the Overland Park Chamber of
Commerce, leading it to become the
largest chamber of commerce in
Johnson County.
Bottom, right: Mayor Jack Walker.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
innovative leadership style and management
ability, she led the Chamber strongly forward,
becoming the dominant Chamber of Commerce
in the area leading the business and commercial
community into the twenty-first century.
Jack Walker was elected mayor in 1971 and at
the same time the mayor’s term was changed
from a two year term to a four year term so that
when Jack Walker ran for the second term at the
end of his first two year term, he served for four
years, becoming the only mayor of the city to
serve six years. The city was definitely moving
away from being known as a bedroom
community only, to becoming a complete, wellrounded
financial, commercial and residential
community. One of the major developments
during Walker’s administration was Overland
Park’s leading the fight for the first countywide
sales tax. When the Kansas law authorized it,
Overland Park adopted a one-half cent sales tax
providing a large amount of money to the
community, moving city government financing
Chapter VIII ✦ 67

❖
Above: Corporate Woods skyline
showing buildings and parking
scattered through the trees.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Below: Oak Park Mall was the largest
of the shopping malls in the Overland
Park and Metropolitan Area when it
was built.
away from sole dependence on property taxes.
This proved to be extremely beneficial as the
J. C. Nichols Co. in cooperation with Frank
Morgan developed another enclosed shopping
center, the Oak Park Mall, at Ninety-fifth and
Quivira. This was the largest covered shopping
center in the metropolitan area. Overland Park
was a shopping destination for all of Johnson
County, Wyandotte County, and much of the
south side of Kansas City, Missouri.
One of the major events in Overland Park was
the breaking ground in 1973 for the first building
of a new office park to be known as Corporate
Woods, located on 294 acres between Antioch
and Switzer By-Pass from I-435 south to 111th
Street. Tom Congleton, who developed his own
industrial park in the City, went to work for Jones
& Company in Kansas City, Missouri. He learned
of the interests in office buildings while working
in his industrial park. He put together a new plan
to develop an office park. Local financial interests
were too conservative to finance speculative
office buildings but Tom Congleton sold his idea
to Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Metropolitan
Life formed a partnership with four officers of
Jones and Co. to create this office park, which
could provide 2.2 million square feet of office
space. Twelve buildings were completed by 1980
with five additional buildings under
construction. General Motors Corp. moved its
metropolitan headquarters to the complex.
Burlington Northern Railroad moved its national
headquarters to a suite of floors on the top of one
of the new buildings. Many national firms and
professionals, including many large metropolitan
law firms, opened offices in this new office park.
This office park was unique in office
developments and brought national attention to
Overland Park for this innovative and attractive
development with its buildings and parking
scattered among the trees of the 294 acres.
City government in Overland Park had
become very professional. Planning and
development had become a major tool in the
quality growth of the city. Roger Peterson
came aboard as the head of this department.
The Zoning Board was started and the
commissioners spent many hours reviewing the
proposed developments. With this also came a
Board of Zoning Appeals. Matt Ross, business
owner in Downtown Overland Park, had been
on the Mission Urban Township Zoning Board
and a community doer for years. He was
appointed as one of the first members to the
Board of Zoning Appeals. Matt Ross had also
been involved very closely with the Police
Department since its founding in 1953, as a
responsibility of the township. When a Police
Board was established for the City, Matt was a
68 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

logical choice for the board on which he
continued to serve until the late 1990s. John
Kenyon resigned as Police Chief in 1971, and
Myron Scafe, who had been with the department
since 1955, was appointed Chief immediately.
Myron Scafe continued to serve as Police Chief
for the next twenty-two years. He guided the
department through enormous growth and the
building of two new Justice Center buildings,
one at Eighty-fifth and Antioch, and one at
123rd and Metcalf, which will serve the city well
into the twenty-first century.
In 1965 the Kansas Legislature passed the
Community College Act authorizing and
promoting the creation of area community
colleges. Local college activists headed by Dr.
Wilbur Billington urged the county
commissioners to establish a citizens committee
to investigate establishing a community college.
Several studies were involved and the committee
strongly recommended the establishment of a
community college. The Johnson County
Commissioners decided to have an election in
1967 to approve the creation of a community
college. The election results were overwhelming
in favor of the establishment of a community
college and members of a Board of Trustees were
elected. The Board of Trustees followed closely a
“blue book” written by one of the board members,
Hugh Speer, and set about finding a president for
this new college. Over one hundred applicants
were interviewed for this position. Dr. Robert
Harris was selected as president in 1968 primarily
because he said that he would have a college
going by the fall term in 1969. He immediately set
about hiring staff and educators. Classes were
started in September 1969, spread between the
old Merriam Elementary School, Merriam
Christian Church, business store fronts in
Merriam, and some classrooms and laboratories
borrowed from Johnson County School District
512. The various studies and surveys indicated
that this new college might start with 600
students. The first class was comprised of almost
1,400 students of which 925 were full-time.
A permanent location was needed and the
Board of Trustees started looking for a central
location. Finally two hundred twenty acres were
selected at the southwest corner of 111th and
❖
Above: Matt Ross, a local
businessman, was a Mission Urban
Township and Overland Park official,
a civic leader, and a visionary leader
of modern Overland Park.
Below: Overland Park Justice Center
at Eighty-fifth and Antioch served as
police headquarters for years. Now it
serves as the headquarters of the
North Patrol Division.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Chapter VIII ✦ 69

❖
Above: An aerial view of Johnson
County Community College.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Below: Johnson County Community
College after the Carlsen Center
was built.
COURTESY OF CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Quivira. The land was purchased for
approximately $3,000 per acre. With major
community leadership support, a $12.9 million
bond issue was passed. Architectural plans were
drawn up for the first six buildings and work
commenced in 1970. By the fall term in 1972
classes opened in the new buildings. A formal
dedication was held September 24, 1972. The
teaching staff had grown from the original faculty
of 28 to a faculty of 96. By the time the classes
opened in the new buildings, there were 2000
students. Dr. Harris continued as president until
February of 1975. Dr. John Cleek was selected as
the new president. Dr. Cleek’s administration was
often involved with staff matters. The Arts and
Technology Building was constructed during his
term, and he integrated new vocational
programs, got vocational certification of the new
vocational teachers dropped, and gave the college
an international identity.
Dr. Charles (Chuck) J. Carlsen was elected
president in January, 1981. He is credited with
moving the college to the center of the
community. Labor issues were the first challenges
with unionization of the teachers just beginning.
Within about three years the college had 160
hourly staff and 278 salaried employees, up from
133 and 228 respectively. The introduction, or
growth, of two important programs has been of
major significance during his administration and
with his direction. The introduction of a
partnership with Burlington Northern Railroad
led to a $2.9 million building addition to the
college financed with the City of Overland Park
revenue bonds pushed by Mayor Eilert, the City
Council, and many civic leaders. The college paid
one-third of the costs but owned the new
building after ten years with lease rights in
Burlington Northern for five-year renewals. The
program brought two thousand employees to the
College from the railroad. These employees also
rented 14,000 hotel room nights and did other
spending each year. The other major program,
which Dr. Carlsen improved, was the College
Foundation. The foundation had been in
existence since 1973 raising a total of $166,000
by 1985. Working with Stanley Rose of Sun
Publications fame, a gala was started called
“Some Enchanted Evening” which resulted in the
foundation having a $10-million total asset base
by the end of the twentieth century. By the end of
the century enrollment at the college had grown
to 15,598 credit students and another 25,000
“customers” a term for the non-credit hours of
the rest of the community. The full time staff and
faculty had grown to eight hundred. A cultural
education center (now named The Carlsen
Center) was opened in 1990. It contains a
fourteen-hundred-seat hall called “Yardley Hall”,
smaller performance theaters, an art gallery,
offices and classrooms. Carlsen Center became,
and still is, the cultural center of Johnson County.
70 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

The area of northeast Johnson County had
been engaged predominantly in agricultural
pursuits since the beginning of settlement after
the Kansas Territory was established in 1854.
This continued for forty years when William
Strang founded the Overland Park community.
Strang continued to encourage some types of
agricultural activities with large gardens for the
production of fresh produce for the suburban
residents. Residents could own milk cows,
chickens, ducks, rabbits and other agricultural
animals. Many farms surrounded the community.
These agricultural activities both inside the
community and in the surrounding area
continued for the next forty years. After World
War II the emphasis changed. Where formerly
three acres of pasture maintained a cow, now
houses were being built approximately three per
acre. Where trees and pasture had grown, now
office buildings were sprouting. Where corn and
wheat were grown residential and commercial
development became the main emphasis for the
next thirty years. In the middle 1970s the City
fathers spurred on by Beta Sigma Phi Sorority
determined to preserve the agricultural heritage.
The Council approved the building of Overland
Park Children’s Farmstead, a petting zoo, which
was opened in 1976. A new group of baby
animals were presented at the farmstead each
season and the animals on display were expanded
to include many of the agricultural animals that
were seen on the farms of the area before the
intensive residential and commercial
development. Overland Park’s policewoman,
Deanna Rose, was very interested in animals.
When she was the first police officer of the
Overland Park Police Department killed in the
line of duty, the farmstead was renamed in her
honor, the Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead, in
1985. This has become a major attraction in
Johnson County, with hundreds of thousands of
visitors each year.
In 1977, Ben Sykes was elected mayor. Sykes
had been active in public service as an elected
city councilman for eleven years and in many
volunteer and civic activities. At the time of his
election the city was only approximately forty
percent developed. Sykes adopted a strong
position on the availability of sanitary sewer
systems and the expansion of water service in the
undeveloped areas. He was particularly involved
in promoting light-industrial development,
continuing road improvements and reviewing
redevelopment needs of the older residential
areas. Ben Sykes had been very involved in
the Parks and Recreation Committee and
❖
Above: Deanna Rose, the first police
officer of the Overland Park Police
Department killed in the line of duty.
COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND PARK
POLICE DEPARTMENT.
Below: Deanna Rose Childrens
Farmstead main entrance
building opening to the barn in
the background.
COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND PARK
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
Chapter VIII ✦ 71

❖
Above: Mayor Ben Sykes.
Below: Blue Valley Northwest
High School.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
particularly promoted a favorable vote on
acquiring additional parklands, a golf course,
and a swimming pool. Councilmen Wendell E.
Lady in the late 1960s, and Wayne C. Byrd from
the late 1970s into the early 1990s, were key
supporters of parks expansion and development.
By 1980, Overland Park had one thousand acres
of parkland.
Sykes also was very proud of the juvenile
diversions program, a plan to deal with juvenile
delinquency in the city. The program allowed a
juvenile offender to put in a certain amount of
hourly service to the community instead of
facing criminal action. This program reduced
juvenile offenders by eighty percent.
Unfortunately the program was phased out when
the Johnson County Juvenile Court took over
juvenile activities.
Some Overland Park schools became part of
School District 110 in the 1930s. This District
served the east side of the city north to Hickory
Grove School. The Kansas Legislature passed an
act providing for the consolidation of several
districts into one regional Unified School District
in the early 1960s. Mission Urban Township
resisted this unification for several years, but
finally in 1969 accepted it and became the
Shawnee Mission Unified School District No.
512. Dr. Howard McEachen had been
superintendent of Shawnee Mission High School
District since 1944. He became the first
Superintendent of the new unified district
serving in this capacity for many years. The
District covered all of the cities in northeast
Johnson County including Shawnee and Lenexa.
At unification the District had 48 elementary
schools, 10 junior highs, and four high schools
with approximately 45,400 students in all. In
1986, three of the junior high schools were
closed and the remaining seven were revised as
middle schools. One more elementary school
and one high school were added after
unification. With the aging of the population,
the number of school children fell and for the
2002-2003 school year the District was
composed of five high schools, an alternative
high school, an instructional center, seven
middle schools, and 38 elementary schools, with
total enrollment of 29,832 students.
The annexed areas on the south side of
Overland Park were served by Southeast
Johnson County Unified School District No
229. This school district adopted unification in
1965. The name was changed in 1977 to Blue
Valley Unified School District No. 229. As
annexation occurred, schools in this district
were located in Overland Park, Leawood,
Stanley and Stilwell. The local school
boundaries switched from city to city as the
district opened and closed schools. At
annexation Blue Valley Unified School District
No. 229 had approximately 852 students in all
of its schools. For the 2002-2003 school year
the District had 18,243 students in 17
elementary, eight middle and four high schools.
Overland Park annexed land in the Olathe
School District in 1985. The Olathe Unified
School District No. 233 has 1,077 students in
Overland Park’s two schools that are part of
the city.
72 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

1980-2000: MATURITY
BY FLORENT WAGNER
The first major event in the 1980s was the 1981 mayor and council election. Mayor Ed Eilert and
several council members were sworn in during April of that year. Eilert had been on the City Council
and active in city government and realized that something had to be done with the downtown area
of Overland Park. He also realized the importance of preserving the history and the heritage of the
Community. The new mayor and other civic leaders created the Overland Park 2000 Foundation in
October of that year. The purpose of the foundation was to identify and help preserve the history of
the community and to provide for the social and economic welfare of the citizens. One of the
principal historic assets was the Strang Line Car Barn located at Seventy-ninth and Santa Fe in
downtown Overland Park. The Hodges Lumber Co. land and the car barn itself were being
considered for a new apartment project. The foundation set to work on saving the Strang Car Barn
as its first project. It took many starts and stops but finally the Car Barn was obtained by the
Foundation by a combination of Community Development Block Grant funds and private donations
in 1985. Many proposals and financing arrangements were reviewed during the next four years but
finally it was decided that the City again would inject about $270,000 of Community Development
Block Grant funds to restore the exterior of the Car Barn. This was done in 1989 and in 1990 a
private furniture store business leased the property with the agreement to restore the interior of this
historic building. It opened as Traditions Furniture in June 1990.
One of the important factors in promoting the commercial growth and development of
Overland Park was the conversion of the state of Kansas and Johnson County from a “dry state” to
allow liquor-by-the-drink. Until liquor-by-the-drink was allowed in Johnson County the quality
eating establishments often were in private clubs that required membership fees and other
❖
The Strang Line Car Barn restored
and now serves as the Traditions
Furniture Store, with a historical
display inside—a 50-foot-by-7-foot
mural and 11 groups of pictures
telling the history of the area during
the Strang era.
Chapter IX ✦ 73

❖
Top, left: The Overland Park Trade
Center has large exhibit space and
many individual showrooms.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Top, right: An aerial view of the
Marriott Hotel under construction,
looking west between I-435 and
College Boulevard.
Below: Stanley High School was built
in 1922 to serve as the center of
higher education in Oxford Township.
obligations. With liquor-by-the-drink, the finer
dining establishments, motels and hotels now
opened in Johnson County. Now Kansas citizens
and Johnson County residents could dine and
spend their money in Johnson County
providing additional jobs and sales tax money to
assist government in providing a better quality
of life. The first major hotel to open in the area
was the Doubletree Hotel at Switzer Bypass-
Highway 69-at College Boulevard. Other hotels
like the Marriott and other national chains
quickly opened.
Developers and the city fathers determined
that the Community needed a large meeting and
display facility. In 1985, a large building was
erected with display areas and many office
rooms, just east of Metcalf on 115th Street. This
became the Kansas City Trade Center, a nice
development providing employment, hotel and
motel occupancies, hundreds of patrons for the
restaurants and opportunities for retail sales at
surrounding shopping centers.
Overland Park tried to annex the Stanley
Community in the late 1970s but did not
succeed. The City did annex Stanley, Morse, and
the area south to 159th Street in 1985. Some
Stanley citizens objected to the annexation
and Overland Park made a concession by
allowing a few of the streets in the area to retain
the old names on the street signs. Also included
are the new Overland Park street names
lining up with the Overland Park street name
and numbering system.
Stanley started about 1870 at the intersection
of the Military Highway and what later became
151st Street. In 1872 the Kansas City, Olathe,
Clinton, and Springfield Railroad came through
at the south edge of the platted community. The
community grew steadily as the business, social
and community center of Oxford Township and
continued to grow even after the railroad
abandoned the line about 1933. Fortunately the
town was on U.S. Highway 69, the major U.S.
highway running north and south through this
part of eastern Kansas to Dallas and the Gulf
coast. The town of Morse was platted in 1884
on the same railroad previously mentioned. It
had its own depot, elevator, bank, church, and
business buildings, but had not grown like
Stanley, its neighbor. When the railroad
abandoned the line the town almost became a
ghost town. Stanley had built a school,
74 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

expanded it, and in 1921 built a new high
school, the secondary education center of
Oxford Township.
The Legacy of Greenery Committee
established by the City of Overland Park
conceived the idea of an arboretum or nature
park. Ailie Speer as chairperson of the
Community Development Committee was
instrumental in the City’s purchase of 300 acres
of land at 179th just west of Antioch in 1990.
Many other Council members were in favor of
such an arboretum, but specifically Wayne Byrd
and Georgia Erickson pushed this idea and
project. A board of trustees was established and
for two years worked at developing a master
plan for the arboretum. In 1993 trails were built
in the arboretum. It was continually improved
until a major jump in development occurred
when Georgia Erickson and her husband,
Richard, donated funds and a water park was
created. Another major step was taken when the
Marder family in 1998, donated funds for a
special garden. The Rotary Club of Overland
Park in 2000 donated additional funds for a
special garden and other funds have been
donated for specific projects. In 1995 the
Overland Park Parks and Recreation
Department Foundation was created, which was
renamed the Arts and Recreation Foundation of
Overland Park, to assist in obtaining donations
to the City specifically for these activities.
The Humana Health Care chain, using the
certificate of need obtained by Extendicare, Inc,
opened a new, large Suburban Health Care
Center in 1978, the first investor owned
hospital in the Kansas City area, the first
hospital truly within the City of Overland Park.
It was later sold to another health care system
and renamed Overland Park Regional Medical
Center. In the 1980s and 1990s several other
medical centers were started, the largest of these
being the Menorah Medical Center, then St.
Luke’s South and others. All kinds of
technicians, specialists, imaging, rehabilitation,
and medical services now located in the city.
Kansas University opened a Regents Center
and many other colleges and universities
opened campuses in the city to provide the
opportunity for those wanting to improve their
education to do so locally. The Johnson County
Library wanted a new, larger central library and
resource center. They located in the city at
Eighty-seventh and Farley.
The streets 119th and 135th were improved
as major east-west thoroughfares. Strip
shopping centers could be developed along
these streets according to the City Master Plan
and one of the major developments was Rosana
Square Shopping Center at 119th and Metcalf.
Just south on 123rd Street, the City built a new
Justice Center named for Jack Sanders, an early
❖
Left: An example of dual street signs
installed in the old Stanley
Community area. The signs at the top
for Metcalf and 151st line up with
Overland Park street signage;
while the smaller signs underneath for
Main Street and First Street are the
old Stanley street names.
Below: The Arboretum water garden
at its dedication in July 1996.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Chapter IX ✦ 75

❖
Right: Overland Park Medical
Center was first a Humana Regional
Hospital. It passed through
several ownership changes and
serves the community in the
twenty-first century.
COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND PARK
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
Below: Kansas University Regents
Center at 12600 Quivira.
Opposite, top: Jack Sanders Justice
Center at 123rd and Metcalf at the
time of dedication in 1996.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Opposite, middle: Historic Stanley
Bank Building, built in 1910 after a
fire destroyed many buildings of the
business area. It served as the
economic center and public meeting
place for many years while the
Stanley State Bank was located here.
The brick building was moved five
blocks west on 151st Street in 1996
and restored as an office building.
Opposite, bottom: Sprint Corporation
World Headquarters Campus at
119th and Nall. Started in 1997,
completed in 2002. 21 buildings
can accommodate 14,000 to
15,000 employees.
COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND PARK CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE.
city councilman who, during his six elected
terms until his death, spent many hours
and years of his life helping the Police
Department attain the highest caliber and
integrity. The center was dedicated in 1996,
with the prior Justice Center becoming the
Antioch Patrol Division.
In 1996, the City started the improvement of
151st Street. One of the principal historic
buildings in the old Stanley community was the
brick Stanley Bank building on the southeast
corner of Metcalf in the way of this
improvement. Many discussions and efforts
were devoted to saving this historic structure
when the Overland Park 2000 Foundation
stepped in and offered to assist. The City
donated part of a lot and the Building to the
Foundation and agreed to lend the Foundation
funds, which, with private donations, would be
used to move and restore the structure. On the
evening of May 18, 1996, and overnight,
approximately 750 tons of building and
equipment rolled five blocks west on 151st
Street to the new location at 7590 West 151st
Street with the brick vault and all exterior walls
intact. It has been restored as an office building
and contains a display of businesses, farms,
activities and events important to the Stanley
community heritage.
The United Utilities Corporation, headquartered
in Fairway, Kansas, grew and grew
acquiring telephone and communications
businesses as well as extensive technology. It
became the Sprint Corporation, a giant in the
telecommunications industry. The Sprint
Corporation rented office buildings and spaces
all over the metropolitan area. The company
decided it wanted to locate as much of its
activity as possible on one large campus and
acquired two hundred acres of vacant land in
the City of Overland Park—an area from 115th
Street on the north to 119th Street on the south,
from Nall to Glenwood east and west. They
started working with the City departments to
build this new major campus. A unique concept
was used to facilitate the project-a large one
time fee was paid to the City in lieu of building
permit fees for each building. This allowed the
City to hire additional staff and professionals to
review plans, issue permits, and do building
inspections in a very expeditious manner. A
total campus would consist of 21 office and
support buildings, 14 covered and one open
parking facilities with extensive green spaces,
76 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

7.2 acres of lakes, 6,000 trees, and landscaping.
The buildings, which totaled 4 million square
feet, would accommodate between 14,000 and
15,000 employees, many new to the city. Sprint
broke ground for this campus in 1997, and the
last building was completed in 2002.
In the 1980s the City of Overland Park
created the Convention and Visitors Bureau,
funding this bureau with a hotel bed tax. The
City wanted to have a major convention facility.
Mayor Eilert, City Council members and the
City staff explored many approaches and
worked with many developers toward this
purpose. Efforts looked promising in 1985 as
the City worked with major building
developers, but nothing materialized. The city
fathers did not give up. Some additional land
was acquired between Interstate-435 and
College Boulevard east of Lamar. The City
wanted not only the convention building, but
also a major hotel close by. Late in the 1990s a
program was developed to build the convention
center with a large Sheraton-run hotel closely
adjoining the center. Building started in the year
2000 and the Convention Center and Sheraton
Hotel opened in the late fall of 2002.
The city had come a long way in its first forty
years. The population grew from 28,085
residents at incorporation to an estimated
162,000 residents. Instead of being a bedroom
community, the city is a complete, well-rounded
place, to live, work, and enjoy an exceptional
quality of life. It has extensive parks,
recreational facilities with first-class
entertainment and activities. Peace of mind and
security far exceed many cities of similar size.
When Police Chief Myron Scafe retired in
December 1995, John Douglas was promoted
within the department to police chief and he
ably manages it at this time. Chief Jim
Broockerd took over the Fire Department when
it was still largely volunteers, and guided it
through an extensive modernization and
conversion to a nonprofit corporation. When
Chief Broockerd retired, Chief William Jahnke
became the head of the Fire Department
managing it through new stations and the
building of a state-of-the-art training center at
123rd and Antioch. Chief Dennis Meyers
succeeded Jahnke in 1997, and he continues to
manage the Fire Department today.
The city fathers recognized the need to
revitalize the older areas of the city as well as the
need to provide appropriate infrastructure for
Chapter IX ✦ 77

❖
Above: Myron Scafe, Police Chief of
Overland Park Police Department for
almost twenty-five years.
Below: Overland Park Convention
Center and Sheraton Hotel, dedicated
in 2002.
COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND PARK CONVENTION
AND VISITORS BUREAU.
the developing areas. The council approved
submitting a small sales tax to the citizens for a
vote. It was approved, and the City set about
improving the streets and the older north area
including curbs and gutters. This improvement
encouraged residents and citizens to revitalize
their properties. The City also realized that it
needed to revitalize the downtown business
area. The City created a business improvement
district with some taxing authority to tax
downtown business owners to provide funds for
street and other improvements. A downtown
partnership was created to guide the
improvements. The City made a major
investment in a clocktower and small
surrounding park area, which has become the
focal center for many activities in the downtown
area. The City also designed and built a firstclass
farmer’s market, east of the clock tower,
which has been extremely successful and has
drawn hundreds of thousands of people.
Ever mindful of the health and welfare of its
citizens, the City started developing, for those
interested in walking, jogging, and biking, a
hiking and biking trail in about 1976, starting
with the first one-half mile by Indian Creek near
Shawnee Mission South High School. The trails
system has been enlarged to forty-five miles in
the city, joining other trails in Leawood and
Olathe. The last mile was completed in 2003.
Enhancing the heritage of this area, the City
made a major improvement in the area known
as the Santa Fe Commons, approximately
Eighty-first and Santa Fe Drive. William Strang
built a bandstand for the community about
1910. This bandstand would serve the
community into the 1920s when it was lost to
street improvements on Santa Fe. The City of
Overland Park built a much larger bandstand in
the Santa Fe Commons where the old Tom Riley
“Sunset Cottage” had been located. The City
added many additional amenities to the park.
The Strang Carriage House here had been
vandalized many times and finally the City agreed
to restore the structure if the Overland Park
Historical Society would occupy and decorate the
interior. The carriage house has become the
headquarters for the Overland Park Historical
Society and serves basically as a resource center
where interested parties can learn about the city’s
history. This history is preserved, and education
programs are prepared and presented here.
The three school districts serving the City of
Overland Park today have excellent reputations
as premier school districts, both statewide and
nationally. A number of the schools have been
78 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

designated as “Blue Ribbon Schools of
Excellence” by the federal Department of
Education. Each superintendent has been the
leader of his or her respective district for many
years: Dr. David Benson for ten years in District
229, and Dr. Marjorie Kaplan in District 512
and Dr. Ron Weaver in District 233, have been
superintendents for even longer.
Jobs at all levels of employment are available
from the beginning minimun wage job to the
highest paid technical, management and
executive positions. Construction at all levels
from new single-family and apartment
residences, retail shops, office buildings and
new entertainment and recreational venues have
kept this area from being disrupted by many
economic swings affecting other parts of the
United States. The cost-of-living index for the
area is favorable and a good business
environment enhances the quality of life.
Integrity of government has been a hallmark
of the City of Overland Park since its founding
and incorporation. The city fathers have
generally been dedicated, conscientious and
knowledgeable. Byron Loudon, an Overland
Park attorney, served Ward 4 for twenty-six years
and eight months, the longest elected period of
service since the City’s incorporation. He served
as council president for three terms. Donald
Pipes served as city manager for 34 of the 40
years since the mayor-city council-city manager
type of government was adopted. He retired in
1999. In his low-key, knowledgeable and
professional way, he helped assure a City staff of
very professional, hardworking people of the
highest integrity. Upon Pipes’ retirement, the
City’s search for a new city manager led to John
❖
Above: Residential street
improvements when curbs and
gutters were installed in the north end
of the City of Overland Park, an
important step in revitalizing the old,
north Overland Park area.
COURTESY OF CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Left: The Clocktower in Downtown
Overland Park.
COURTESY OF CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Below: Donald E. Pipes, city manager
of the City of Overland Park for more
than thirty-four years.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Chapter IX ✦ 79

Nachbar, a very capable former employee of the
City who had gone to sunnier climes but wanted
to return to the area. He was hired as city
manager and immediately took over the reins of
the City administration and ably manages this at
the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Within the framework of the master plans, upto-date
codes, AAA financial ratings with both
Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, excellent
clerical and financial administration, innovative
public works and services, exceptional public
parks and recreational facilities and a service
minded staff, the City has functioned extremely
well. Equally important has been the accessible
and tireless leadership of Mayor Ed Eilert. He is
unique in his wisdom to listen and look at all
sides of an issue or project, then determine the
best public policy. He has the ability to exercise
unusual leadership to achieve the best benefits
for the citizens of Overland Park. Mayor Eilert
❖
Above: Mayor Ed Eilert.
COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND PARK
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
Right: The Farmers Market built by
the City of Overland Park just east of
the Clocktower in Downtown
Overland Park. The Farmers Market
is open Wednesdays and Saturdays,
April through October.
Below: College Boulevard looking
west, from about Lamar, across
Metcalf to Antioch on the top of
the hill.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
80 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

was elected to the City Council in 1977, elected
as mayor in 1981, and reelected five more times.
A unique public and private partnership
between the City and the developers of the area
has resulted in Overland Park becoming the firstclass,
park-like community that William B. Strang
envisioned when he bought the first six hundred
acres of pasture and farmland at Seventy-ninth and
the Military Highway in 1905. Strang was a
visionary, but it is doubtful even he would have
dreamed of Overland Park growing the way it has
to become the third largest city in the state of
Kansas in ninety-eight years with an exceptional
quality of life.
❖
Above: An aerial view of Ninety-fifth
and Metcalf looking east across
Metcalf South Mall buildings.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Below: An aerial view of Sprint
Campus under construction in the
center, with retail business in the
foreground and upper center,
surrounded by residential subdivisions.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OVERLAND PARK.
Chapter IX ✦ 81

SHARING THE HERITAGE
historic profiles of businesses,
organizations, and families that have
contributed to the development and
economic base of Overland Park
82 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Rau Construction Company ..............................................................84
City of Overland Park .....................................................................88
Overland Park Church of God (Holiness) ............................................92
Kansas City Bible College and School.................................................93
Church of God (Holiness) ................................................................94
Herald and Banner Press..................................................................95
Bott Radio Network .........................................................................96
Johnson County Community College ...................................................98
Sheraton Overland Park Hotel ........................................................100
Andy Klein Pontiac-GMC ...............................................................102
Sprint Corporation ........................................................................104
Cloverleaf Office Park ...................................................................106
Roger the Plumber.........................................................................108
White Haven Motor Lodge ..............................................................110
Overland Park Masonic Lodge #436 .................................................112
Corporate Woods ® Office Park
C.W. Associates .........................................................................114
Heartland Animal Clinic, P.A. .........................................................116
Lund & Balderson, AIA, Architects and Planners................................117
Bodker Realty, Inc.........................................................................118
Traditions Furniture ......................................................................119
Stinson Morrison Heckler LLP .........................................................120
C. B. Self & Company/City Properties ..............................................121
Metcalf Bank................................................................................122
Blue Valley School District 229 .......................................................123
Dalton’s Flowers, Inc.....................................................................124
Wallace, Saunders, Austin, Brown & Enochs, Chartered ......................125
Saint Luke’s South.........................................................................126
James R. Shetlar Law Offices, P.A. ...................................................127
Overland Park Historical Society.....................................................128
Branded Emblem Company, Inc./Camp David, Inc...............................129
O’Neill Automotive, Inc. ................................................................130
Ranch Mart, Inc. ..........................................................................131
Overland Auto Paints ....................................................................132
Overland Park Heritage Foundation .................................................133
Overland Park Jeep .......................................................................134
Bank of Blue Valley .......................................................................135
Hickock-Dible Companies ...............................................................136
Bob Hamilton Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning Company .........137
Locks & Pulls, Inc.........................................................................137
Johnson County Museums ...............................................................138
Overland Park Art & Frame ...........................................................138
Hayward’s Pit Bar-B-Que................................................................139
Drs. Hawk, Besler & Rogers, Optometrists ........................................139
Dragon Inn ..................................................................................140
SPECIAL
THANKS TO
Holiday Inn & Suites
Overland Park West
Lucas Development LLC
Shawnee Steel &
Welding, Inc.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 83

RAU
CONSTRUCTION
COMPANY
❖
This photo from the mid-1960s is of
the Nall Hills Shopping Center at
Ninety-fifth and Nall. The center was
built by Rau Construction and
developed by Winn-Rau Corporation.
Master Builder Gustav Fredric Rau
founded Rau Construction Company in
Germany in 1870. In 1903 his son, the
second Gustav Fredric Rau, also a master
builder, came to the United States of
America. He first settled in Cincinnati,
Ohio, and one year later he relocated to
the greater Kansas City area, where the
business continues today.
During the years preceding World
War II, industrial construction
projects including breweries, packing
plants, and boilerworks were Rau’s
main source of construction activity.
The company was active in the design and construction
of facilities in North and South
America. During the 1920s and ‘30s, Rau maintained
offices in Kansas City, New York, and
Denver to handle their national and international
business.
Rau had numerous material patents that were
used to construct refineries and breweries—a
major key to their success. From the Cerveceria
Andes facilities in Venezuela to the major
Muehlebach and Schlitz complexes in Kansas
City, brewery projects have long been a favorite
for Rau Construction Company. The tradition
continues today with projects for Kansas City’s
hometown Boulevard Brewing Company.
The second Gustav Fredric Rau had three
sons, each followed their father as principal of
Rau Construction Company, representing the
third generation of the family to own the
company. The eldest son, Kurt E. Rau, was an
architect registered in the State of Missouri and
served as president of the company from 1932
to his death on October 12, 1972. Upon the
death of Kurt, his brother, Gus Rau, Jr., a graduate
of the University of Kansas and an engineer
registered by the State of Missouri, took over the
presidency until his death on January 27, 1973.
In 1973 the youngest brother, Herb J. Rau,
became the president and continued until he
retired on December 31, 1976.
Gus Rau, Jr., and E. L. Winn formed Winn-
Rau Corporation in 1950. Winn-Rau was a
pioneer in the greater Kansas City housing
industry with their method of mass home
building, house designs, and market techniques.
Winn-Rau quickly became one of the largest
home builders in Kansas City by constructing
over 3,000 houses in its twenty-three years. In
the Highland Crest subdivision in Kansas City,
Kansas, Winn-Rau built over 700 houses in six
months to provide replacement housing from
the 1951 floods. At the height of construction,
Winn-Rau started seventeen houses a day.
Winn-Rau’s last major subdivision was Nall
Hills in Overland Park bounded by 95th Street
to Indian Creek, Nall to Glenwood.
Construction started in 1956 with houses
selling from $14,750 to $22,000. In 1959
Winn-Rau received the “Best Home for the
Money” award from American Home Magazine in
their national contest.
During and shortly after WWII Rau
Construction Company was very active in the
development and construction of residential
subdivisions and homes. Rau Construction
Company designed the first split-level house as
“defense” housing during World War II.
In 1959, Rau Construction Company moved
from Twenty-fourth and Harrison in Kansas
City, Missouri, to Overland Park. The first
Overland Park location was at 103rd and Nall,
and in 1963 the company moved to its current
location at 97th and Nall.
Rau Construction Company hired Ralph D.
(Andy) Anderson as a carpenter on September
1, 1946. He was a decorated WWII veteran who
served the European theatre from the
landing on D-Day to carrying home the colors
for Division 1 after the armistice. Andy worked
as a superintendent for both Rau Construction
and Winn-Rau Corporation. In 1973, Andy
became vice president in charge of all field
operations and in 1993; Andy was elected vice
chairman of the board of directors. Andy retired
84 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

on August 31, 1993, after serving forty-seven
years with Rau Construction. His son, Ron
Anderson, started working for the company in
June 1972, while attending the University of
Missouri. After graduating with a bachelor’s
degree in business administration, Ron worked
in the office and then in the field as a carpenter
for the company. He was promoted to job
superintendent in 1977 and eventually moved
into the office as project manager and currently
serves the company as vice president.
Another father and son who moved through
the ranks of the company are Herman and Loren
Kirn. Herman was hired as a laborer on
September 1, 1956, and he currently serves the
company as senior general field superintendent
in charge of field operations. Herman’s son, Loren
Kirn, started working for the company in 1974 as
a laborer. Loren attended Central Missouri State
University and Southwest Missouri State
University and returned to the company as an
apprentice carpenter, then journeyman carpenter,
and job superintendent, and now serves the company
as general superintendent.
The three sons of Gustav Frederic Rau, Jr.,
each had one daughter. Jappy L. Rau, daughter
of Gus Rau, Jr., married H. Stanley Meyer. Jappy,
a graduate of the University of Kansas serves as
an owner, director and officer of the company
and represents the fourth generation of the
family. Her husband, H. Stanley Meyer (Stan),
has a degree in business administration from the
University of Nebraska and is a certified public
accountant. He was employed by the company
in September 1958 and served as president from
December 30, 1976, through March 1, 1993. He
is currently chairman of the board of directors.
In addition to his work with Rau, Stan was active
in the community, serving on the Overland Park
Planning Commission for twelve years during
the city’s expansion years in the late 1970s and
early 1980s and nine years on the Johnson
County Airport Commission. The Overland Park
Chamber of Commerce voted Stan as the
organization’s first president, and he remains an
active member of the chamber today. A Paul
❖
Above: Another example of Rau
Construction’s wide range of projects
and distinct quality in construction,
Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church is
located at 9300 Nall.
Below: Buildings I and II at Glenwood
Place located on Ninety-fifth
and Metcalf.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 85

❖
Above: Fountain at the Wolfe Auto
Plaza, Tiffany Springs and I-29.
Below: The Rau Construction offices
located at 9650 Nall Road.
Harris Fellow, Stan has been active in the
Overland Park Rotary Club for over twenty-eight
years and has served the Boy Scouts of America
as scoutmaster, chairman of the Santa Fe Trails
District, and currently is a member of the
Advisory Committee of the Heart of America
Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
When Stan retired on March 1, 1993, his
sons, Gus Rau Meyer and Dan Rau Meyer,
representing the fifth generation of the family,
took their place as president and senior vice
president of the company.
After working his way through school as a
laborer for the company and completing his B.S.
degree in civil engineering from the University
of Kansas, Gus began working full time in June
of 1980 as an estimator and project manager.
Today, Gus serves in many community and
business organizations including as a trustee for
the Carpenter’s Pension Fund, on the board of
directors of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce
and Industry and as a trustee of the Kansas
Apprenticeship Council. Gus is a past chairman
of the Builders Association, a past president of
the Overland Park Economic Development
Council, and a past director of the Johnson
County Economic Research Institute and the
Overland Park Chamber of Commerce. He also
serves as the chairman for the Trailhead District
in the Boy Scouts of America.
Dan also worked his way through school as a
laborer for the company, until graduating from the
University of Kansas with a B.S. degree in
Architectural Engineering and Environmental
Design in June of 1983, at which time he joined
the company full time as an estimator and
project manager. Dan is active as a member of
several community and business organizations
including serving on the board of directors and as
chairman-elect for the Kansas City Chapter of the
Associated General Contractors, Board of
Directors of the Johnson County Community
College Foundation, as a trustee on the Laborer’s
Health & Welfare and Vacation Funds, and has
served on the Lenexa Board of Code Appeals. Dan
is also very active in the Boy Scouts of America,
having served as scoutmaster and currently serves
on district and council committees.
Rau Construction has a story that goes even
beyond the amazing people it employs. In
the early 1980s, the company started
working for the Overland Park-based
Executive Hills along the blossoming College
Boulevard and, over the course of the next
15 years, Rau would build 2.5 million square
feet of new buildings for the company.
Rau Construction is one of the leading
builders of retail projects in Overland Park, as
well as the metropolitan area. Beginning with
the Nall Hills Shopping Center developed in
conjunction with Winn-Rau Corporation in the
early 1960s, Rau Construction developed a
relationship with Overland Park’s Varnum,
Armstrong & Deeter that has spanned over
thirty years.
86 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Continuing the tradition of long-term
relationships, Rau has been the contractor for
many “mainstays” in the Overland Park
community including: working on seven of
Metcalf Bank’s facilities; working over twenty
years on seven phases of Rolling Hills
Presbyterian Church; and since completing the
initial structure of Stanley Presbyterian Church
in 1981, Rau has worked on all five phases of
their building projects.
Other Overland Park landmarks built by Rau
include the Glenwood Theatres; the ten and
eleven story Glenwood Lake office buildings at
95th and Metcalf Avenue; projects for Bud
Brown Chrysler Plymouth, Merchandise Mart
and International Trade Center, South Glen
Shopping Center, Overland Park Chamber of
Commerce Building, Compass Corporate
Center, Lionsgate Market Place, Wycliff Office
Park and numerous office buildings along
College Boulevard.
Adding to Rau’s rich history is the work
they’ve done on historic renovations. Rau has
become the leading contractor in bringing life
back into many of the metropolitan area’s
landmark structures. Rau restored the building
for the River Boat Arabia Museum and
historically recreated the Arabia’s paddle wheel.
The company also has converted over one million
square feet of historic office, warehouse, and
industrial buildings into “new” commercial/retail
space and over fourteen hundred residential
units, while preserving the character and
designation of the property.
As a general contractor specializing in
commercial, retail, religious, hospitality, and
historic rehabilitation projects, Rau Construction
Company has been a solid fixture in the Overland
Park area. This 135-year-old company has seen
much growth and many changes, which have been
spurred by the dedication and consistent quality
provided by five generations of the Rau family.
Today Rau Construction employs over 50 people
and has an annual volume of $40 million.
For more information about the company
and its services, take a moment to visit their
website at www.rauconstruction.com.
❖
Above: The Rau management staff.
Seated (from left to right): Ron
Anderson, vice president; Dan Rau
Meyer, senior vice president; H.
Stanley Meyer, chairman of the board;
Gus Rau Meyer, president; and Pete
Jenks. Standing (from left to right):
Mark Rocklage, Lisa Matuska, Kim
Thomas, Kathy Falk, Pat Campbell,
Herman Kirn, Sharon Stoverink,
and Loren Kirn.
Below: The Overland Park Chamber
of Commerce headquarters at College
Boulevard and Grandview.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 87

CITY OF
OVERLAND PARK
❖
The main entrance to the Overland
Park City Hall at 8500 Santa
Fe Drive.
Numerous farms dotted the countryside that
surrounded northeast Johnson County when
William Strang founded the Overland Park
Community and bought the first six hundred
acres of pasture and farmland along Military
Highway in 1905. Strang was a visionary, but it
is doubtful even he would have dreamed that
Overland Park would one day become the third
largest city in the state of Kansas. In the early
part of the century, Strang encouraged residents
to create large gardens, and own animals such as
milk cows, chickens, ducks, and rabbits. But
after World War II, construction of new homes
were being built approximately three per acre.
Where trees and pastures had grown, now office
buildings were sprouting. Where corn and
wheat were grown, residential and commercial
development flourished.
Therefore, May 20, 1960, was a decisive day
for Overland Park. Special legislation redrawing
the area’s boundary lines quickly increased the
population to over twenty-eight thousand. The
incorporation of the City of Overland Park
quickly made it a first-class Kansas community—
fifty-four years after the first run of the Strang
Line in 1906.
In September 1960, Overland Park’s first
mayor, Roy L. Owen, was sworn into office and
met with newly elected city councilmen on the
second floor of the Fleming Building. Mayor
Owen began the annexation of areas adjoining
the city on the west across Antioch in Shawnee
Township and acquired land for a new city hall.
Civic and service clubs of all kinds have offered
outstanding service to the Overland Park
community and include the Cooperative Club,
the Mission Lions Club, which had started the
Overland Park Club in the late 1950s, and the
Soroptimist Club. The Cooperative Club’s name
was changed to the Shawnee Mission Sertoma
Club and supported Johnson County Parks
programs, particularly Theater-in-the-Park, while
the Soroptimist Club built a clubhouse in Mission.
The Overland Park Rotary Club was formed in
late 1960 by Matt Ross and Donald Smith, M.D.,
and the Overland Park Lions Club began their
now-famous holiday “Avenue of Flags” along
Metcalf in the early 1960s. As businesses
flourished outside of the downtown area, the
Overland Park Chamber of Commerce, led by
President Richard Molamphy, became an
invaluable resource in and around the community.
Successful company ventures were quickly
making Overland Park the place for new
business throughout the 1960s. Joseph Cohen
opened Metcalf State Bank in 1962 with Charles
Trego serving as president. Benjamin Craig
became the bank’s president in 1964 and
remains a tireless worker in promoting
Overland Park and Johnson County. The D. W.
Newcomer Funeral Home opened in 1963 and
developed Johnson County Memorial Gardens,
and Frank Morgan and Edward Young opened
their “French Market” in 1962, offering
groceries, drugs, hardware, fabric, dry goods
and liquor. Though it closed only four
years later, the site was home to the Milgram
Grocery Store before welcoming its current
occupant, K-Mart.
Sponsored by the Seventh Day Adventists,
northeast Johnson County’s first hospital
opened in 1962. Later named Shawnee Mission
Hospital, today’s facilities include a large
professional staff, skilled specialists, nurses, and
a large support staff, and is one of the leading
medical centers in the metropolitan area.
In 1963, Mayor Marvin Rainey encouraged
improvement of the city’s east-west
thoroughfares, and Donald Pipes was hired as the
first city manager. The City Council authorized a
comprehensive City Planning Department and
Commission on planning, land subdivisions and
city growth, and the first Master Plan for
Development was adopted in 1963.
88 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Duard Enoch was elected mayor in 1967 and
initiated bonds to support the creation of parks
and recreation facilities in the city. An extensive
annexation policy helped control the quality of
new developments, while municipal revenue
bonds allowed the development of the TWA
Breech Training Academy.
Jack Walker served as mayor in 1971 and led
the fight for the first countywide sales tax as
Overland Park grew into a major city. A one-half
cent sales tax was adopted and the J. C. Nichols
Company and Frank Morgan developed the Oak
Park Mall, the largest covered shopping center
in the metropolitan area, serving Johnson
County, Wyandotte County, and much of the
south side of Kansas City, Missouri. In 1973 a
major office complex broke ground and would
become famous as Corporate Woods, a 2.2.
million square foot office park nestled among
294 acres in the area.
In 1965, Dr. Wilbur Billington urged city
leaders to consider forming a community college.
Overwhelmingly approved in 1967, the
community college and Board of Trustees was
formed. Dr. Robert Harris was chosen as the first
college president in 1968 and, even before a
permanent location was found, nearly 1,400
students began coursework in September 1969 at
temporary locations in and around Merriam. As
enrollment blossomed, 220 acres were purchased
and developed in 1970 and a formal dedication
was held on September 24, 1972, as classes
opened to 2,000 students and 96 faculty
members. The cultural education center of the
campus, The Carlsen Center, opened in 1990.
In 1977, Mayor Ben Sykes encouraged the
availability of sanitary sewer systems and
expansion of water service to undeveloped
areas. He promoted light-industrial
development, continued road improvements,
reviewed redevelopment needs in older
residential areas, and helped acquire additional
parklands, a golf course, and swimming pool.
Mayor Sykes’ administration also included the
juvenile diversions program, which allowed a
juvenile offender hourly service to the
community instead of facing criminal action and
reduced juvenile offenders by eighty percent
during its tenure.
After state legislation was passed in the
1960s to consolidate schools districts, the
Shawnee Mission School District was formed in
1969. Serving as superintendent of the Shawnee
Mission High School District since 1944, Dr.
Howard McEachen became the new district’s
first superintendent. The annexed areas on the
south side of Overland Park were served by
Southeast Johnson County School District and
were unified in 1965, becoming the Blue Valley
School District in 1977, and Overland Park
annexed land in the Olathe School District in
1985. The three school districts serving the City
of Overland Park today have excellent
reputations as premier school districts, both
statewide and nationally. A number of the
schools have been designated as “Blue Ribbon
Schools of Excellence” by the federal
Department of Education.
❖
Above: Overland Park’s first newly
constructed Police Department
Headquarters was built in 1976 at
8500 Antioch. The building was later
used by the Antioch Patrol Division
when the headquarters was moved to
123rd and Metcalf in 1996.
Below: The Overland Park Fire
Department’s state-of-the-art
training center.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 89

❖
Above: City of Overland Park
employees participating in “Bring
Your Daughter to Work” Day.
Below: A waterfall at the Arboretum.
In 1981, Mayor Ed Eilert and several council
members were sworn into office. Eilert had been
on the City Council and active in city
government and realized the importance of
preserving the history and heritage of the
community and downtown Overland Park itself.
The Overland Park 2000 Foundation was
formed in October to identify and help preserve
the history of the community and to provide for
the social and economic welfare of the citizens.
One of the principal historic assets was the
Strang Line Car Barn. The site was being
considered for a new apartment project and the
Foundation stepped in to save the Strang Car
Barn. It was finally obtained by the Foundation
in 1985, and nearly $270,000 was used to
restore its exterior in 1989.
One of the important factors in promoting the
commercial growth and development of
Overland Park was the conversion of the State of
Kansas and Johnson County from a “dry state”
allowing liquor-by-the-drink, which ushered in
fine dining establishments, motels and hotels
across Johnson County. Now Kansas citizens and
Johnson County residents could dine and spend
their money in Johnson County and provide
additional jobs and sales tax money. The first
major hotel to open in the area was the
Doubletree Hotel. In 1985 the Kansas City Trade
Center opened to the community and offered a
nice development providing employment, hotel
and motel occupancies, hundreds of patrons for
surrounding restaurants and opportunities for
retail sales at nearby shopping centers.
The Legacy of Greenery Committee
established by the City of Overland Park
conceived the idea for a nature park. Ailie Speer
was instrumental in purchasing three hundred
acres at 179th Street in 1990, and Wayne Byrd
and Georgia Erickson worked with others to
establish a master plan for the arboretum. In
1993, trails were built and the park was
continually improved and development increased
when Erickson and her husband, Richard,
donated funds and a water park was created.
The Humana Health Care chain opened a
new, large Suburban Health Care Center in
1978, the first hospital truly within the City of
Overland Park. It was later sold to another
healthcare system and renamed Overland Park
Regional Medical Center. Several other medical
centers were also started, the largest of these
being the Menorah Medical Center, then St.
Luke’s South, and others.
In 1996 the City began improvements along
151st Street and came upon one of the principal
historic buildings in the old Stanley community,
the Stanley Bank building, and the Overland
Park 2000 Foundation stepped in to help save
the historic structure. On the evening of May
18, 1996, and overnight, approximately 750
tons of building and equipment rolled five
blocks west on 151st Street to the new location
at 7590 West 151st Street with the brick vault
and all exterior walls intact. It has been restored
as an office building and contains a display of
businesses, farms, activities and events
important to the Stanley Community heritage.
90 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

The City also began improvements to the
Santa Fe Commons area and built a large
bandstand reminiscent of William Strang’s
original bandstand of 1910, and restoration of
the Strang Carriage House began as the
Overland Park Historical Society agreed to move
its headquarters there.
When the Sprint Corporation decided to
consolidate its offices to one large campus,
company officials looked to the City of
Overland Park and two hundred acres of vacant
land between 115th and 119th Streets. A unique
concept was used to facilitate the project as a
large one time fee was paid to the City in lieu of
building permit fees for each building. Sprint
broke ground in 1997 and the last building was
completed in 2002.
In the 1980s the City of Overland Park
created the Convention and Visitors Bureau and
consideration of a major convention facility was
undertaken by Mayor Eilert and city staff and
council members. In the late 1990s a program
was developed to build the convention center
with a large Sheraton hotel closely adjoining the
center. Construction began in 2000 and the
Convention Center and Sheraton Hotel opened
in 2002.
City fathers recognized the need to revitalize
the older areas of the City as well as the need to
provide appropriate infrastructure for the
developing areas. When a small sales tax was
approved, the City began improving the streets
and the older north area and helping residents
to revitalize their properties and encouraged
downtown business growth with the creation of
a Business Improvement District. The City also
purchased a clock tower and small surrounding
park area and constructed a farmer’s market,
drawing hundreds of thousands of people.
Ever mindful of the health and welfare of its
citizens, the City developed a hiking and biking
trail in about 1976, starting with the first onehalf
mile by Indian Creek. The trails system now
includes forty-five miles in the City, joining
other trails in Leawood and Olathe.
Within the framework of the master plans,
up-to-date codes, AAA financial ratings with
both Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, excellent
clerical and financial administration, innovative
public works and services, exceptional public
parks and recreational facilities and a service
minded staff, the City functions extremely well.
Certainly a unique partnership between the
City and its developers has resulted in Overland
Park becoming the first-class, park-like
community that William B. Strang envisioned
for it only a century ago.
❖
Above: Mayor Ed Eilert (second from
right) is sworn in upon being elected
to his fourth term in 1993. Eilert is
shown here with Overland Park City
Council members (from left to right)
Mike Lally, Neil Sader, Tim Owens,
Greg Musil, and Max Gordon.
Below: The Public Works Department
cooperated with private development
to expand and improve streets and
lighting infrastructure for the Sprint
world headquarters campus.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 91

OVERLAND PARK
CHURCH OF GOD
(HOLINESS)
❖
Above: The chapel of Kansas City
College and Bible School, where the
church worshipped from 1948
until 1960.
Below: The Overland Park Church
of God (Holiness), which was built
in 1960.
In 1941, Kansas City Bible School moved
from Twenty-ninth and Askew in Kansas City,
Missouri to a beautiful campus at Seventyfourth
Street and Highway 69 (now Metcalf).
With no church on campus everyone traveled
back to the church at Twenty-ninth and Askew
for services. One Wednesday during 1942 there
was not enough transportation for everyone to
go to prayer meeting, so a service was held in
the college dormitory. Afterward, School Dean
Mrs. Morey Shaver said, “We must never let
this die.”
Prayer meetings continued along with some
Sunday services, especially if there were visiting
ministers. In 1943, Shaver, now president of the
school, attended camp meeting at Fort Scott,
Kansas. Shaver feeling God’s leading, asked
Charles Welch to come pastor the fledgling
church. His first service was on September 12 in
the school’s dining hall. Early members recall
trying to concentrate on sermons while smelling
dinner cooking.
In 1947 the school began construction of a
new building. The church began worshipping in
the first-floor chapel in January 1948. Shortly
after C. E. Cowen came as pastor in 1950, the
congregation moved into the newly completed
auditorium on the second floor. Looking
forward to the day they would have a church of
their own, a building fund was started. In 1960
an arrangement was made with the school for
the present site at 6801 West Seventy-fourth
Street and construction began. The first service
in the new church was December 14, 1960. The
next month, a dedication service was held with
a standing-room-only crowd. In 1991 a
new foyer was added to the west end of the
sanctuary.
In 1975, Pastor Raymond Pollard drew plans
for a parsonage which was completed the
following January. It is located at 6601 West
Seventy-fourth Street. Others who have served as
pastor are: Leonard James, E. W. Roy, Dale
Yocum, Omar Lee, Isaac Smith, Danny McCain,
Marvin Powers, and E. G. Garrett. The current
pastor is Merle Troyer.
The church’s most exciting new outreach is
an Internet ministry. People from around
the world can watch services broadcast live
three times a week. Visitors from over forty
countries have logged on to the website at
www.opcogh.org.
92 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Building the local church at home and
abroad has long been the guiding principle of
Kansas City College and Bible School.
Established as the Kansas City Bible School in
the basement of the Church of God (Holiness) at
Twenty-ninth and Askew in Kansas City,
Missouri in 1938, the school included a
high school and a Bible college. In 1941 the
school was renamed Kansas City College and
Bible School and was moved to a twelve-acre
campus in Overland Park. During the ensuing
decades the school helped meet the growing
demand for Christian education with the
addition of a junior high in 1961, elementary
school in 1964, kindergarten in 1975 and
preschool and daycare in 1992. New
buildings and parking lots were a
welcome addition as the campus and
enrollment flourished along with an
unfailing desire to fulfill the Great
Commission of the Gospel.
The school’s outstanding leadership
has included Presidents A. C. Watkins,
Mrs. Morey Shaver, Dr. Dale Yocum,
Dr. Burl McClanahan, Dr. Isham
Holland, Dr. John Page, Raymond
Crooks, and Dr. Noel Scott. Dr. C. E.
Cowen, who served as its president
from 1944 to 1969, published the
definitive History of the Church of God
(Holiness) in 1949. The school’s tenth
president, Dr. Gayle Woods, has
overseen such projects as the addition of
the Home School Satellite Program; the
expansion of the kindergarten,
preschool and daycare programs; and a
new toddler care program which began
in 1996.
Preparing students to answer a special
call from God, Kansas City College and
Bible School offers an educational
foundation with a decidedly biblical
perspective. College faculty and staff
members encourage students to
strengthen the Church by training and
equipping them as ministers and laymen
through degree programs in urban
ministry, missions, pastoral ministry,
youth ministry, elementary education,
secondary English education, worship
leadership, and church music.
Today Kansas City College and Bible School
stands as one of the premiere schools in the
Midwest as it offers extensive programs catering
to the educational needs of every family member.
Students from the Noah’s Ark Daycare and
Preschool, kindergarten, Overland Christian
Grade School and Overland Christian High
School (an affiliate member of the Association of
Christian Schools International) to the Bible
College will find themselves genuinely motivated
and well-prepared to live out their calling as
ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
For more information about enrollment and
upcoming events at the school, please visit
www.kccbs.edu and www.cogh.net.
KANSAS CITY
COLLEGE AND
BIBLE SCHOOL
❖
Top: Historic photo of Kansas City
College and Bible School 7401
Metcalf in Overland Park.
Bottom: Cowen Memorial
Auditorium.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 93

CHURCH OF GOD
(HOLINESS)
❖
The Church of God (Holiness)
Foundation assists churches, Christian
schools, and mission programs with
their capital needs.
The World Missions program of the
Church of God (Holiness) has
established programs from South
America to Eastern Europe.
Church of God (Holiness) Home
Missions aggressively pursues church
expansion in the United States,
Canada, and Mexico.
The ministries of the Church of God (Holiness)
Foundation include exalting Christ, evangelizing
the world, and equipping the Church. Organized
in January 1935, the Foundation has assisted
churches, Christian schools, and mission
programs with building and improving church
property, church buildings, parsonages, fellowship
halls, and other capital needs.
Located at 7407 Metcalf, the ministry of
the Foundation is overseen by a board of directors
elected by the constituency’s General Convention
and serves facilities and programs across the
United States and in several foreign lands in a
number of ministries, including securing titles to
the properties of the local churches and
promoting the general interest of the Church. The
Foundation also serves as an entity to which
bequests may be made by donors who wish to
give to the general interest of the work of the
church. It provides an annuity program whereby
an individual may bequest funds to the church
and be provided an income for life. It also serves
as a lending agency in providing loans on church
properties within the Church.
The World Missions program of the Church of
God (Holiness) has established programs from
South America to Eastern Europe. Church of God
(Holiness) World Missions, Inc. elected its first
Board of Directors in 1917, the World Missions
program has endeavored to “go into all the world”
and spread the good news of the gospel. As
missionaries from around the world equip nations
to take leadership positions in the church and
expand the kingdom of God, the Church is involved
in the areas of pastoral, evangelism, theological
training, English as a second language, church
building, youth and children, radio, prison, hospital
chaplain, and community work. Countries served
by these ministerial programs include the West
Indies, South America, Cayman Islands, Africa, the
Middle East, British Virgin Islands, St. Croix, St.
Thomas, St. Vincent, and Eastern Europe.
Church of God (Holiness) Home Mission
Department, Inc. promotes the missionary
interests of the Church within the boundaries
of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
An executive secretary and board of
directors operate the Home Mission Department.
The department is a not-for-profit corporation and
assists in planning and establishing new churches,
assists local established churches in evaluation,
development, and maintenance of their total
program, promotes and assists in the development
of cross-cultural and cross-ethnic ministry with the
view of establishing churches within the bounds of
the organization’s base of operations, and
promotes the well-being of pastors and Christian
workers of the Church.
Within these branches, churches, pastors, and
congregations are provided spiritual direction
and opportunities for service, reaching beyond
the walls of the local church and into the
community of believers around the world in the
twenty-first century.
94 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Nearly 125 years ago, in the spring of 1879, a
small publication was created to “lift high the
banner of holiness” and renew a fervor and
conviction for purity within churches across
America. Several ministers worked tirelessly
in the early years of the ministry, believing
the printed word would be one of the most
effective means of promoting holiness and
unity among its members. The new church
periodical quickly found favor among leaders and
their congregations and moved through a number
of names and locations before settling in Overland
Park on January 1, 1945. The printed word of the
Holiness movement had found its home.
Today Herald and Banner Press continues to
flourish in the development, design, and
publication of a full line of excellent Sunday
school literature—The Way, Truth, and Life series.
This curriculum contains material for all age
groups and includes teacher aids and resource
packets, student workbooks and activity pages,
study guides for youth, and quarterly lesson
plans for adults.
Fifteen full time employees serving the
Christian community in the Kansas City area
operate the Herald and Banner Press and
Bookstore. The Herald and Banner also serves
nearly seventeen hundred churches in the United
States as well as churches in thirty-two islands and
nations worldwide. Books and church supplies are
furnished around the world and materials are often
translated into Spanish, Russian, Afrikaans, and
Creole. Inner city missions and prison and jail
ministries also use the publications and study
guides. Job printing for individuals, businesses,
and churches in the Kansas City area and beyond
continue to play a key role in the production and
printing work, as well.
For more information about Herald and
Banner Press, you can visit their offices and enjoy
browsing through the bookstore at Metcalf and
Seventy-fourth Street.
HERALD AND BANNER PRESS
❖
Top: The original home of Herald and
Banner Press and Bookstore in
Overland Park.
Above: Herald and Banner Press
Bookstore in Overland Park.
Left: The print shop of Herald and
Banner Press.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 95

❖
BOTT RADIO
NETWORK
Above: Sherley and Dick Bott founded
KCCV-AM in 1962 and the Bott
Radio Network was born.
COURTESY OF CHRISTOPHER T. MURPHY/
BOTT RADIO NETWORK.
Below: Network Control Room
Operator Nick Nicholas assures that
the BRN network programming is
broadcast to network affiliates.
COURTESY OF CHRISTOPHER T. MURPHY/
BOTT RADIO NETWORK.
With headquarters in Overland Park, Bott
Radio Network (BRN) is the only radio
network headquartered in the Kansas City area.
A pioneer in the development of Christian
talk radio, BRN is a national leader in quality
Bible teaching and Christian news and
information programming.
The flagship station, KCCV 1510 AM (now
broadcasting at 760 AM), was founded in
Independence, Missouri in 1962. Known as
“Kansas City’s Christian Voice,” it has had the
same call letters, format and ownership for more
than forty years.
In 1989, BRN’s broadcast studios and
corporate office relocated to Overland Park and
in December 1993, KCCV 92.3 FM was added
to serve the greater Kansas City area. KCCV 760
AM is the only radio station licensed by the FCC
to serve Overland Park and it broadcasts with
one of the strongest radio signals in the Kansas
City area, reaching into five states. The network
consists of 25 stations in eight states
representing 22 markets, and covering more
than 18 million people.
In 2003, BRN began broadcasting on a new
translator frequency at 88.9 FM to enhance its
service in Independence, Raytown, and Eastern
Kansas City, Missouri. The network has plans to
add more stations to further expand the
coverage area and enable the network to
continue its steady growth.
Now, BRN broadcasts from Overland Park
twenty-four hours a day to the U.S. on
Sky Angel’s multi-channel direct broadcast
satellite (DBS) service and worldwide over the
Internet at www.bottradionetwork.com. The
Internet broadcast has listeners on six continents.
“We are growing but we’re not changing our
commitment,” says founder, President, and CEO
Dick Bott. “Our listeners have come to depend
on us for a Biblical worldview. We present the
nation’s finest Bible teaching ministries to
communicate God’s Word, with news and
information from a Christian perspective.”
According to studies by Barna Research
Group, Christian radio is the fastest growing
medium for spreading the Faith, with slightly
more than half the nation’s adults saying they
had tuned in to a Christian radio program of
some type during the previous month.
“The Christian radio audience has grown
dramatically over the years,” says Executive Vice
President Richard Bott II, who has an MBA from
Harvard Business School, “and we are as
committed to our format as we were more than
forty years ago when KCCV began broadcasting.”
Bott Radio Network is dedicated to the
Christian talk/information format. National
program topics range from family and faith
issues to live call-in shows about current events.
Leading programs include James Dobson’s
Focus on the Family—heard on more than
2,000 radio outlets across the country and one
of the top three talk radio programs in the
nation—and Billy Graham’s Hour of Decision.
96 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

❖
Left: Bott Radio Network Executive
Vice President Richard Bott II.
COURTESY OF CHRISTOPHER T. MURPHY.
“Our audience has confidence in our programs,”
says the younger Bott. “We broadcast
only quality programs that are of excellent
reputation and character.”
Bott Radio Network is a long-time member of
the National Religious Broadcasters association,
where both Dick and Rich Bott serve as
members of the board of directors. The nondenominational
network is not affiliated with
any church, nor does it accept donations from
listeners. It is supported wholly by its program
producers and by local businesses that advertise
on the network and sponsor the programming.
The BRN audience is loyal and responsive in
patronizing advertisers. More than half are
college educated, affluent, and between the ages
of 25 and 54 years old.
“Music programming typically sits in the
background of a listener’s realm of attention,”
says Director of Advertising Sales and Marketing
Jack Houghton. “Our talk-intensive format is a
foreground medium, attracting more listener
attention as they learn from the talk shows and
teaching programs. This is a benefit to our
advertisers because it provides greater
recognition and retention of advertising
messages from a quality audience.”
As the network’s coverage and listening
audience continue to grow, Bott Radio
Network’s commitment stands firm: to help the
people of Overland Park and the broader
listening area grow in their faith and apply it in
their daily lives. In addition to the effect the
programming has on this mission, community
outreach continues to play a vital role. Bott
Radio Network regularly sponsors citywide
events such as Promise Keepers, Women of
Faith and Christian Family Day at the Kansas
City Royals ballpark in addition to supporting
nonprofit organizations like the Lighthouse and
City Union Mission.
Bottom: Bott Radio Network Director
of Advertising Sales and Marketing
Jack Houghton and Director of
Broadcast Operations and KCCV
Station Manager Eben Fowler discuss
the network’s involvement with the
Billy Graham Crusade in Kansas City.
COURTESY OF CHRISTOPHER T. MURPHY.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 97

JOHNSON
COUNTY
COMMUNITY
COLLEGE
❖
Above: The Carlsen Center on the
campus of Johnson County
Community College.
Below: Learning comes first at JCCC.
Johnson County Community College (JCCC)
has quickly become the largest and most well
known community college in Kansas. JCCC
excels in both its role as an academic institution
of higher education and its mission to serve the
Johnson County area through community
outreach, continuing education, and performing
arts programs.
JCCC opened its doors in September 1969.
During its first semester, JCCC had almost
fourteen hundred students. Classes took place in
a former elementary school and in storefronts
scattered throughout Merriam. From these
humble origins, JCCC, under the leadership of the
Board of Trustees and three presidents—Robert
Harris, 1968-1975; John Cleek, 1975-1981; and
Charles J. Carlsen, 1981-present—has become
the premier community college in Kansas.
JCCC now boasts an enrollment of more than
thirty-four thousand students in credit and
continuing education classes. Its 234-acre main
campus boasts 17 major buildings, including the
recently constructed Police Academy and
Horticultural Science Center. In addition to more
than 100 transfer agreements with local and
regional four-year colleges and universities, JCCC
has completion programs that allow students to
seamlessly continue their degrees at the
university level. After graduation, approximately
seventy percent are employed at jobs directly
relating to their program of study.
In addition to its credit academic programs,
JCCC offers noncredit programs in these areas.
The Center for Business and Technology
provides up-to-date training in computer
applications, information technology and
professional development for managers and
supervisors. The Small Business Development
Center works with local entrepreneurs to help
their businesses succeed.
The Center for Professional Education
provides seminars, workshops, and classes for
professional licensing certifications. Licensure
programs include healthcare, insurance, real
estate, law, education, therapeutic massage, and
technical trades, among others.
Community Services offers personal
enrichment in subjects ranging from art to
fitness, cooking to money management.
Programs are targeted to people of all ages, from
children to senior citizens.
98 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

In addition, the Carlsen Center on the JCCC
campus has become the center for arts in the
Johnson County area. The Carlsen Center brings
performing art programs in dance, theater, music
and comedy to the community. Its Gallery of Art
offers exhibitions by nationally and internationally
known contemporary artists.
JCCC has had tremendous success as an
educational institution the past thirty years
because of its commitment to the community. In
2003 the college received the Kansas Excellence
Award, the highest level of recognition for
quality given by the Kansas Award for
Excellence Foundation. The KAE award is
presented to organizations that have
demonstrated through their practices and
achievements the highest and most consistent
level of excellence. Organizations recognized at
this level are considered role models for other
Kansas institutions. That’s JCCC.
❖
The lobby of the Carlsen Center.
The center houses three theaters;
a recital hall and box office; an
art gallery; conference rooms;
and classrooms.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 99

❖
SHERATON
OVERLAND
PARK HOTEL
The Dining Room at Sheraton
Overland Park Hotel.
COURTESY OF: WARREN JAGGER
PHOTOGRAPHY, INC.
Looking for a Johnson County
venue for your arriving guests? Look
no further than the tallest building in
town, the Sheraton Overland Park!
Located in the heart of the College
Boulevard business corridor, a fiveminute
drive will take the business
person to Sprint’s world headquarters
campus, Yellow Freight, Universal
Underwriters and Corporate Woods ® .
The Country Club Plaza, downtown
Kansas City, and the Truman Sports
Complex are only twenty minutes away
from the Sheraton and all are accessed
via Interstate Highway 435, while
Kansas City International Airport is
little more than a half-hour drive from
the hotel. On the outside, the twentystory
hotel is ultra sleek and
contemporary, seamlessly blending
with the look of the adjacent, ultramodern,
state-of-the-art Overland Park
Convention Center.
Inside, it’s another story! The hotel’s interior
design incorporates opulent and traditional
design elements with the look of Pottery
Barn and Restoration Hardware. Dramatically
oversized furnishings, decorative accessories,
artwork, carpet pattern, and marble flooring
patterns make the space intimate, elegant,
and opulent.
“The hotel’s interior design had to exude
quality, elegance and tradition,” states hotel
General Manager Tom Healy. “The look needed to
be a mix of the tradition of Kansas City yet with an
element of surprise. The design had to be
comfortable yet elegant enough to attract the area’s
numerous philanthropic and social events.”
The hotel boasts over 20,000 square feet
of meeting space, and can accommodate
groups up to 1,400 people in one room. All
meeting space is adjacent to a light filled, prefunction
corridor, ideal for silent auctions or
pre-dinner receptions.
The hotel’s grand and airy Cottonwood
Ballroom, the largest hotel ballroom in Johnson
County, is large enough to hold a reception of
fourteen hundred people. Sleek, nickel-plated
sconces illuminate huge dramatic beveled
mirrors. Overhead, enormous globe shaped
lighting pendants continue the dramatic feel of
the room. Soft shades of olive and khaki make a
perfect backdrop for most banquet and special
event décor.
In contrast, the elegant Rosebud Boardroom,
featuring a highly glazed custom-made board
table, surrounded by thirty purple suede chairs, is
complete with a raised center panel to disguise
high-speed Internet access. A custom-made
credenza anchors the room and is flanked by a
100 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

contemporary black-watch
wing back chairs.
OP 1906 Bar & Grille is
the ideal spot for pre-event
cocktail or an after-event
nightcap. Located next to the
ballroom corridor, it is a
cross between a sophisticated
Kansas City steakhouse and a
classic, upscale Italian bistro.
Named in honor of the
founding of Overland Park in
1906, a massive wooden
Indianhead nickel, photos of
city founder William B.
Strang, Jr., and giant game
pieces accent the room.
The comforts of home
coupled with state-of-the-art
technology are available to
satisfy the needs of the
corporate traveler as well as
the casual visitor to the Greater
Kansas City area. Room
amenities include AM/FM
alarm clocks, coffeemakers,
modem lines, room service
and cable television. Personalized
services include an
express checkout, concierge
service, free parking, a twentyfour-hour
front desk, and
allowance for pets. A beautiful
indoor pool and exercise
facility are centrally located on
the lobby level.
The hotel’s catering
department boasts that
choice dates for holiday
parties and spring weddings
are going quickly. For
additional information on
the Sheraton Overland Park’s
banquet capabilities and
meeting room availability,
please contact Rita Hofer at
(913) 234-2100. The
Sheraton Overland Park at
the Convention Center is
located at 6100 College
Boulevard, at 435 and Nall.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 101

ANDY KLEIN
PONTIAC-GMC
❖
Right: The future home of Andy Klein
Pontiac at Seventy-eighth and
Highway 69/Metcalf in 1950.
Below: Edward Klein at the original
gas station site of Andy Klein Pontiac
on Thirty-eighth and Metcalf in 1945.
Every good story has a starting point. And
the story of the Andy Klein automobile
dealership’s humble beginnings starts more than
fifteen years before the City of Overland Park
was founded in 1960.
Andy’s dad, Edward Klein, ran a gas station
at Eighty-third and Metcalf, known in 1945 as
“Highway 69” in Mission Township. Andy, at
thirty-four, serviced old cars and began selling
cars after the war when times were really tough.
He had started his family and was the proud
father of four strapping boys.
Andy acquired a Pontiac franchise with
$200 in his pocket. It didn’t take him long to
sell a new Pontiac to R. D. Grayson, M.D. This
sale marks the birth of “Andy Klein Pontiac.”
In those days, folks lived on small farms,
acreages and in small residential areas. Andy
was ambitious and because the post-war
economy was good he outgrew three other
locations along old Main Street.
In 1949, Andy formed a partnership with
Frank Ball and together operated Frank Ball
Pontiac at Forty-seventh and Main in Kansas
City. In 1950 he purchased fifteen acres at
Seventy-eighth and old Highway 69 in Johnson
County, Kansas. Construction began on a
building costing more than $135,000.
It was only five years earlier that Andy began
his business a few blocks away at his dad’s
rented gas station. His family had now grown to
six children.
102 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

In October 1951, Andy Klein Pontiac
celebrated its grand opening in the new
building. It had a one-car showroom. A
beautiful new 1952 Pontiac was sitting in the
window. New Pontiacs then sold for $1,200.
Business grew and in 1953, GMC was
acquired as a second GM line. Andy had thirtyfive
employees working the full service
dealership. It also gave customers better service
and more parts. His family also grew. He was
now the father of eight.
By 1960 the area population had swollen to
more than twenty-eight thousand. The City of
Overland Park was founded. Old Highway 69
was renamed Metcalf and businesses along
Metcalf flourished. Andy Klein Pontiac-GMC
was positioned perfectly for decades of future
growth. Along with his growing dealership,
Andy and his lovely wife, Lavonne, were the
parents of nine children.
In the late ’60s several of their boys showed
interest in the business. Larry, Gary, and Pat
were advertised as “The Klein Boys” to the
public. Cars sold for about $3,000 and the city’s
population had reached 65,000 plus.
The year 1974 marked the beginning of
change in the ownership. Pat bought out his
father’s interest so Andy could retire from
the business. Pat continued expanding the
dealership adding a larger service department in
1976 and an eleven-car showroom in 1987.
Now Andy Klein Pontiac-GMC is the
oldest dealership in Johnson County still
operating under its original name. The 2004
population of Overland Park is in excess of
166,000 and is the thirty-eighth fastest growing
city in America.
Pat and his lovely wife, Judy, have raised four
daughters and enjoy ten grandchildren.
Business is just fine at Andy Klein’s.
❖
This photograph of Andy Klein
Pontiac’s one-car showroom, taken in
1951, shows the dealership displaying
a new 1952 Pontiac.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 103

SPRINT
CORPORATION
❖
Sprint founder C. L. Brown was wellknown
for being personally involved
in the daily operations of his
company, often working the
switchboard during the lunch hour
to relieve operators.
Forever a man of vision and courage, and a
tireless worker, Sprint founder Cleyson Leroy
(C. L.) Brown lost his arm in a farming accident
during his youth and decided to pursue a career
in business rather than agriculture. Through
hard work and determination and using his
family’s gristmill, Brown supplied watergenerated
power to Abilene, Kansas, through
hard work and determination.
This first endeavor into public utilities
laid the groundwork for Brown’s venture
into the interstate telephone market, and
Brown Telephone Company was formed in
Abilene on October 26, 1899. Confident that he
could provide better service at lower prices than
his competitor, Brown focused on providing
quality services and convenience to his
customers, connecting them with businesses
like Western Union and the town music hall
from their homes. He was even known to work
the switchboard during the first year of
operation so that his employees could take a
lunch hour.
When Brown Telephone Company began,
operator assistance was required to place a call;
the absence of numbered push buttons or even
rotary dials prohibited customers from calling
each other directly. Thanks to the invention of
an automatic stepping switch developed by
Kansas City mortician Almon Strowger, and
public education and advertising campaigns, the
automatic rotary direct dial telephone slowly
replaced switchboard operators. By 1962,
United Telephone Company’s telephones were
one hundred percent dial.
After Brown’s death in 1935, the holding
company was left with many subsidiaries, then
called United Telephone and Utility. After
suffering heavy losses and struggling to survive
the Great Depression, the company
was reorganized under federal
bankruptcy laws, and Alden Hart’s
administration in the 1940s and 1950s
gradually revived the corporation.
During the 1960s and 1970s,
company Presidents Skip Scupin and
Paul Henson redirected the corporate
philosophy toward expansion. On
April 10, 1963, the company was
officially listed on the New York Stock
Exchange, and Scupin ceremonially
purchased the first hundred shares of
common stock at $37 per share.
Henson’s “Growth-Through-Additions”
program emphasized the consolidation
of small local telephone companies
around the country, while also stressing
the need to diversify into other
communication-related fields. The
result was a corporation with a national
presence that more than doubled in size several
times while under his control. Henson was
credited with the concept of building a reliable
all-fiber-optic network that could carry
nationwide calls with such clarity that one
“could hear a pin drop.”
The name has changed down through the
years, from Brown Telephone Company in 1899
to United Telephone and Utility in 1935, United
Utilities in 1963, United Telecommunication
in 1970, US Sprint Communications Company
in 1986 upon a new partnership with US
Telecom and GTE Corporation, and finally to
its current name, Sprint, in 1992. Through it
all, the company has remained on the cuttingedge
with its leaps in technology as
demonstrated by the integrated portfolio of
local, long distance, wireless, and data services
it offers its customers today.
The Sprint World Headquarters Campus is
located in Overland Park. When construction
104 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

egan in 1997, the Sprint Campus was the
largest corporate construction project under
way in North America, encompassing more
than four million square feet. With its own zip
code, eight million bricks, a clock tower, a
3,000-seat outdoor amphitheater, four major
fountains, and more than 6,000 trees, Sprint
has created a city within a city that
accommodates thousands of hard-working
associates in a stimulating atmosphere
complete with retail, recreation, and dining
services. The company also maintains
facilities in all fifty states, including large
employee populations in California, Florida,
North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. With
approximately 60,000 employees worldwide,
Sprint serves more than 26 million customers
in more than 100 countries and sees nearly $26
billion in annual revenues.
Sprint is committed to creating deeper
social connections that involve consumers,
employees, and communities nationwide.
For more than one hundred years, Sprint
has been an ally to the community,
demonstrating commitment through its longterm
charitable and civic involvement. Sprint’s
vision is “to be a world-class telecommunications
company—the standard by which
others are measured.”
❖
Above: The Sprint World
Headquarters in Overland Park was
completed in 2002. Campus amenities
include a variety of full-service dining
options, an indoor fitness center and
outdoor recreational/athletic facilities,
and retail shops including a bank,
convenience store, hair salon, florist,
and dry cleaners.
Left: US Sprint celebrated the nation’s
first coast-to-coast fiber-optic
transmission, a video-conference
linking New York to Los Angeles on
New Year’s Eve in 1986. The
company would complete the world’s
first all-digital, fiber-optic network
less than a year later.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 105

CLOVERLEAF
OFFICE PARK
❖
Visionary John L. “Jack” Bear.
John “Jack” Bear was
a visionary. Even as a
young man working as a
plasterer for his father,
who was a plastering
contractor, Jack wasn’t
average. While still in
high school, when his
father became ill, Jack
worked after school as
the foreman overseeing
his father’s jobs.
During the 1940s
Jack worked at Pratt
Whitney during the
day and did plastering
work for several different
developers at night.
Instead of accepting
wages, he invested the
money in lots owned by
the developers. As Jack
purchased the lots and
accrued enough money
he built homes on them
and sold them.
Jack used this basis to
build his first company,
Bear Realty. At the time,
the company was one of
a kind. It assisted with
purchasing a home as
well as working on the
financing and insurance needs. During his
career, Jack built more than 1,500 homes. He
developed more than 1000 acres of local
residential subdivisions including Sherwood
Forest, Mission Park, Bryantwood South, and
Brookridge Estates. Along with Ralph Taylor,
Jack also developed Milhaven. A “Bear Built
Home” was recognized as being synonymous
with quality construction. Under Bear Realty,
homes were also developed in Shawnee,
Mission, and Jack built the post office, which at
that time was located on Outlook and Johnson
Drive. A movie theater was also built in
downtown Overland Park. Still standing, it is
know today as the Rio Theater located at 7204
West Eightieth Street.
In 1954, having started a new company, Jack
purchased property from Ernie Cross at Metcalf
and Shawnee Mission Parkway. The site was
surrounded by farmland and his original intent
was to build a retail mall. He soon changed his
mind and in the early 1960s the first two
buildings at Cloverleaf, the Johnson County
Medical Building at 6300 Glenwood and a
seven-thousand-square-foot building at 6445
Metcalf for the Buick Division of General
Motors, were finished and fully leased.
In 1967 he opened the first of eight general
office buildings, a three-story, 50,000-square
foot Cloverleaf Building 1 at 6811 West Sixtythird
Street. In 1968, the four-story, 68,000
square foot Cloverleaf Building II was
completed at 6901 West Sixty-third Street and
in 1970, Jack finished building Cloverleaf III,
the largest building in the park with five-stories
and 90,000 square feet. Since the completion of
106 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Cloverleaf III, Jack added five more buildings to
the park. Cloverleaf Office Park now
consists of ten office buildings, with the final
building, Cloverleaf eight completed in the
early 1990s.
Another company Jack founded and
presided over with his wife and partner,
Edna, was Bear & Bear Associates, LP. This
company partnered with his son-in-law and
daughter to develop a sixty-acre Industrial Park
in Lenexa know as Crossroads Industrial Park.
Jack continued to be involved with the dayto-day
operations of Cloverleaf until his death
in 2002 at nearly ninety-two years of age. He
and his wife, Edna, had one daughter,
Carroll, who along with her husband Paul
Burger, is still actively involved with Cloverleaf
Office Park today.
To protect and further the vision of Jack
Bear, Cloverleaf is currently undergoing a large
renovation project. This property upgrade is centered
on a park near Building eight. Founder’s Park
was developed by his family to honor Jack Bear.
Exterior upgrades include the buildings themselves,
parking lots, lighting and landscaping. The
interior of each building will have all common
areas remodeled.
The Cloverleaf Office Park is a major supporter
of local community efforts, including
membership in BOMA, Overland Park Chamber
of Commerce and Northeast Johnson County
Chamber of Commerce. The Park has given
charitable donations to Village Presbyterian
Church, Mid-American Heart Institute, Avila
College, Mid American Nazarene College and
City Union Mission.
❖
Above: An aerial view of the
expansive Cloverleaf Office Park.
Below:An artist’s rendering of one of
the office buildings at Cloverleaf.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 107

ROGER THE
PLUMBER
❖
Educated on the GI bill, Arley Peugeot
dreamed of a better life for his family.
One day in 1950, he decided to start
his own plumbing business, from one
old truck.
One Johnson County plumber has served five
generations of customers—Roger the Plumber
in downtown Overland Park. Roger Peugeot
took over the business from his father, Arley.
“The best lesson my Dad taught me,” says Roger,
“is to offer Same Day Service, seven days a week.
He said, ‘Son, backed up pipes never take a
vacation.’ Well, after that, neither did we—for
about twenty-five years!”
“Dad had served in the Army in the late
1940’s. He considered it his greatest good
fortune to then be educated on the GI bill.
In 1950, I remember the very day when Dad
decided to start his own business, from one
old truck.”
“Even though we lived in KCK until 1958,
Dad saw his giant opportunity as serving
Johnson County,” Roger explains. “With the
post-war boom, everyone else was doing new
construction. Nobody was doing maintenance
and repair. So he made that our family niche: to
serve one booming county only—cutting down
on travel between calls. We refused new
construction. We only fixed or upgraded
existing systems. There is so much cheap
builder grade work and material out there. In
northeast Johnson County, it’s from the fifties.
And in south Leawood, it’s still true today. But
what people really want is quality.”
“Sometimes homeowners upgrade as a
reward or a present to themselves. Or else they
wait till it breaks. Either way, they call us and we
do it that day. Just like Dad taught me. I figure
we’ve upgraded about half the slow toilets or
leaky faucets in Johnson County so far. We
also specialize in sump pumps with battery
backups. Johnson County basements all seem to
need them. One day in 2003, we installed
twenty-six in one day. Talk about a crew of
warrior technicians!”
“To speed up service calls, Dad’s dream was
to have a warehouse on wheels. That’s how the
big red truck became our signature. I started
working alongside him when I was seven, going
on calls after school and weekends. By the time
I graduated from Shawnee Mission North in
1961, there was nothing I couldn’t do.”
“It was a big moment in 1971,” Roger says.
“Dad sat me down and said, ‘Out of you five
boys, I want you to promise to take care of your
mother.’ He started me out in my own business.
Just like him. With one old truck. He carved out
a territory for me to start with: south of Seventyfifth,
west of Metcalf…oh yeah, and any houses
in Mission Hills with too many steps for his
ailing heart.”
Arley Peugeot passed away the next year. “I
kept my promise to my Dad. I bought the rest of
his business and his clientele roster from my
mother. And that is how our family has served
five generations of customers. So far.”
The company’s customer service tradition led
to a one-hundred percent satisfaction promise.
Milestones for Roger the Plumber illustrate how
the company delivered and continues to deliver
what Johnson Countians really wanted:
• 1975: First to advertise same-day service.
• 1977: First to offer senior citizen discounts.
• 1993: First to offer diagnostic flat rate
pricing, so the customer approves the price,
in advance, with no extra charge even if the
tech is agonizingly slow and meticulous.
• 1994: The only Johnson County plumber
who works weekends.
• 1995: No extra charge during the day on
Saturdays or Sundays.
• 1995: Twenty-four hours a day, a live person
answers Roger’s phones, 913-642-2979.
As a result, many families now schedule ahead
to handle their annoying drips and faucet jiggles.
Another priority is larger water heaters, so family
and houseguests can all enjoy a nice shower.
Not only is Roger the Plumber the favorite
plumber of Johnson County, he was also
108 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

“Plumber of the Year” nationwide in
2002. “We keep one extraordinary
promise,” explains Roger, “of 100
percent customer satisfaction. Out of
50,000 customers, I do not knowingly
have even one who is dissatisfied or
will not use us again.”
This remains no easy feat. No one
else in town offers this level of service.
“Historically, most service companies
are content with around ninety-seven
percent satisfaction—it’s that last three
percent that really keeps me and my
techs on our toes!” Roger explains.
“From the little booties and rolling out
the red carpet, to the flat rate pricing,
(so everyone knows up front exactly
what it will cost, before we start)—to
cleaning up after ourselves—every
detail is important to us.”
“I’m sure we couldn’t keep this
promise without our fourteen big red
Roger the Plumber trucks,” Roger says.
Each truck is stocked with twelve
thousand parts, in bar-coded bins,
including water heaters, disposers,
toilets and those battery-operated
sump pumps. There’s never a charge to
go get extra parts.
“But the most important thing on
each truck is the tech,” Roger adds
with pride. “My guys are the best
trained, licensed plumbers in the
Midwest. I trust ‘em—and so can you.”
For comments, questions, or to
chat with Roger, call 913-642-2979 or
visit www.rogertheplumber.com.
❖
Above: “The most important thing
on each truck is the tech,” Roger
Peugeot explains with pride. “My guys
are the best trained, licensed plumbers
in the Midwest. I trust ‘em—and
so can you.”
Left: Each truck is stocked with twelve
thousand parts, in bar-coded bins,
including water heaters, disposers,
toilets, faucets and battery-operated
sump pumps—which are in very high
demand in Johnson County. There’s
never a charge to go get extra parts.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 109

WHITE HAVEN
MOTOR LODGE
❖
Above: The White Haven Motor
Lodge when it first opened in 1957.
Below: The White Haven Motor Lodge
as it appears today.
When Hugh and Mary White moved to
Overland Park at 8505 Metcalf in 1941, Metcalf
was a brick highway. They purchased the
Wolverine Dairy, milked between sixty and
eighty cows at noon, then again at midnight
and processed and delivered bottled milk and
dairy products to 150 homes over a fifty-mile
route. The Whites had been cattle farmers in
Linn County, Kansas for years. They ran the
Wolverine Dairy very successfully for eight
years but health problems forced a disposal sale
of the diary.
The Whites’ and their four children, Robert,
Joseph, Louise and Eugene continued in the
cattle business but in 1951 the White farm was
subdivided as the White Haven subdivision.
Hugh and Bob White went into the
construction business, building many houses in
this subdivision. The Whites decided to build a
retirement business for the parents and bought
some land on Metcalf between Eightieth and
Eightieth-first Streets. Zoning was a problem,
but after a lengthy legal battle, the ground was
zoned for a motor lodge and Bob White built
the first thirty-four rooms which opened in
1957. Each was separated by twelve inches of
insulation. The motel rooms were a home away
from home for many businessmen, salesmen,
bank examiners and government regulators
as well as people from all over Kansas
and Missouri coming to the Kansas City
area for doctors and medical care, trade
shows, shipping and entertainment. In the
1960s, forty-three more rooms were added to
the Lodge.
As times progressed homes in the adjoining
area were added to the business so that seventynine
units were available. The homes are rented
for various reasons. Insurance companies will
put up families when their homes are destroyed
by fire or catastrophes. They are also used by
families relocating to the area, or companies
that are working a job for a short period of
time. The whole White family, the three
110 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

surviving children, their spouses, children and
great-grandchildren all work in the business.
The Whites have always been proud of their
clean, tastefully decorated rooms. The “no
vacancy” sign is frequently lit in spite of the
many new first class competitive hotels in
Overland Park. The close attention paid by the
Whites to their guests’ needs and the
impeccable maintenance of the property has
gained for the White Haven Motor Lodge an
exceptional reputation both nationally and
internationally. It has been listed in Let’s Go
America, a publication in several languages
and distributed around the world and has
been featured in the New York Times with a very
fine review.
Eugene emphasizes that special attention
to decoration and the unusual personal service
of all family members is the key to the motor
lodge’s success. Some of the family members are
always around or close at hand with hands-on
experience in maintaining and servicing the
entire complex for immediate response to
guests’ needs and concerns. Personal service
above and beyond the usual is the most
important ingredient to the family’s success. It
helps that their costs are lower than many
hotels and their rates are very competitive but
the on-site owners’ extensive experience and
commitment to service trumps all for making
this business successful and surviving in the
changed world of many high-rise chain hotels
in the area. The White family’s White Haven
Motor Lodge is a true example and great
exponent of the quality of life that is Overland
Park, Kansas.
❖
Above: The entrance to the White
Haven Motor Lodge offices.
Below: The White Haven crest on the
lodge office. A sight to behold by some
of the customers whose families have
been coming for three and four
generations.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 111

OVERLAND
PARK MASONIC
LODGE #436
❖
For nearly a century, Overland
Park Masonic Lodge #436 has
welcomed people from around the
country. The flagpole and material
for setting cost eleven dollars and
was purchased in December of
1941. In 1952 visitors to Overland
Park came from seventeen different
states representing eighty-eight
different lodges.
On April 5, 1922, a committee of Master
Masons in the Overland Park area submitted a
Petition for Dispensation to establish a
subordinate lodge in the area. The first Masonic
Lodge of Overland Park met on the second floor
of a brick building at Eightieth and Foster on July
20, 1922 for $15 per month. The first official
meeting of the Lodge was held October 18, 1922,
and six new members were initiated while five
were passed. Under dispensation until December
31, 1922, the Lodge was chartered March 1,
1923, and assigned #436.
In 1923 the Lodge accepted thirteen members
and four years later celebrated the attainment of
its goal of one hundred members. On July 15,
1929, the Lodge asked permission of the Grand
Lodge of Kansas to purchase a building owned
by the Presbyterian Church in the amount of
$5,000. Monthly payments were $40 and on
February 20, 1935, the Lodge asked the church
to reduce those payments to $25. The
cornerstone was lettered in 1938 and since the
building was not suited for Lodge meetings; an
extensive renovation was undertaken. Although
it is not noticeable, the floor slopes downward
from the west to the east, making it one of
the only Masonic Lodges in the state of
Kansas that can boast of a uniquely sloping floor.
On November 7, 1942, a special meeting was
held to celebrate the burning of the mortgage
and today the building is in the National Register
of Historic Places.
Over the years, many interesting notes from
the Lodge secretaries have found their way into
the historic legacy of the Overland Park
Masonic Lodge #436. Before moving to the
former First Presbyterian Church in 1930,
Lodge members met in rooms on the second
floor of a building at Eightieth and Foster. In
the 1920s, gas and light bills for the lodge
totaled $32 annually and annual member dues
were $6. September 8, 1927 was a landmark for
the lodge as it reached its goal of 100 members
and celebrated with dinner for 217 people in
vacant rooms below the lodge. In 1940 the first
study club was created, and in 1954 the first
issue of the Lodge paper was printed in April. A
second issue in May of that year was published
under the new name, The Observer.
Throughout the historic life of the Lodge,
membership has grown and declined over the
years, with over 600 members in 1960 and
holding steady at nearly 400 members today, the
Lodge’s success has been compared to a man’s
life. One member describes it likes this, “Some
good, some bad. But if you’re lucky and live
long enough to look back, you usually look past
the bad and focus on the good.”
112 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Focusing on the good is exactly what the
Masonic Lodge of Overland Park does best. Its
extensive activities and faithful service to the
community are legendary. The Overland Park
Lodge distributes baskets of fruit to its “shut-ins”
each year at Christmastime, a tradition that
began among Lodge members during the
Christmas of 1933. Members contribute to
Demolay, Job’s Daughters, Kansas Mile of Food,
and Keys Home for Boys and sponsor a band
member to the Masonic All-State High School
marching band at the Kansas East-West Shrine
Bowl football game. Upon application, high
school students may apply for scholarships or
financial aid to fulfill educational requirements.
Annual events include activities such as a food
and drink stand during the Overland Park Days
craft show, the now famous Oyster and Beef Stew
Dinner that precedes the election of officers and
dinner and entertainment in the Lodge Hall
for Masonic widows in and around the
community. It is always the duty of the Lodge to
help aid and assist brother Masons, their
widows, and orphans.
❖
Above: Members of the Overland
Park Masonic Lodge purchased this
building in 1929 and an extensive
renovation was begun in 1938 to
accommodate the growing
membership of the Lodge.
Below: The building’s cornerstone
was set in 1938 and today the Lodge
is listed among Overland Park’s
historic landmarks.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 113

CORPORATE
WOODS ®
OFFICE PARK
C.W.
ASSOCIATES
❖
This aerial shot of Corporate Woods
was taken in 2003 and shows the
park as it appears today.
One of the largest and most
attractive office parks in the Kansas City
area, Corporate Woods ® , centrally
located along the I-435 corridor, is
more than a community of businesses
and retail spaces. With well over 12
million square feet of land and 30
different types of trees, nearly 4,000
tulips bulbs, and numerous wildlife
including foxes, owls, muskrats, and
deer, this is obviously not your run-ofthe-mill
workplace.
The opening of its first building in
September of 1975 marked a major
victory for the men behind the joint
venture with Herbert V. Jones &
Company and Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company. The founders,
Whitney Kerr, Sr., Tom Congleton, and Russell
S. Jones, along with Dick Wagstaff, Jr., Phillip
Lyman, and Charles Sayres envisioned a unique
suburban complex that would appeal to both
small local companies as well as nationally
known businesses.
Kerr remembers the struggles and triumphs
that were met in those early years, “It all came
together because we were willing to accept the
risks along with the opportunity. MetLife agreed
to put up the money, we agreed to do the work,
and nearly thirty years of learning and continuous
growth have made it the success it is today.”
Though the founders originally set their sites
on a large tract of land at Metcalf and I-435,
owner Frank Morgan didn’t want to sell the
property. As the men considered other locations,
the lush green landscape and heavily wooded
location at I-435 and College Boulevard proved
to be the perfect place to capture the campustype
atmosphere and competitive real estate
location that would attract companies both large
and small. A land development loan of $7.5
million was obtained, property was zoned and
building sites were approved. At the opening of
Buildings 20 through 24, the first tenants rented
office space for just $7.50 per square foot. These
buildings comprised approximately 120,000
square feet. With the opening of Building 82 in
July 2001, Corporate Woods ® Office Park has
grown to nearly 2.2 million square feet.
Thirty years after its founding, a beautiful
setting and unparalleled growth have
characterized Corporate Woods ® Office Park as
the ultimate in high quality office space. Owned
today by Knickerbocker Properties, Inc. XXI, a
subsidiary of the New York State Teachers
Retirement System, Corporate Woods ® Office
Park offers a park-like setting and superior level
of service to 250 tenants and 6,000 employees
parkwide. Tenants range from small local
entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies in
suites as small as 400 square feet to over
130,000 square feet. There are seven buildings
under separate ownership including the
Overland Park Chamber of Commerce building
and the 357-room Doubletree Hotel. The office
buildings have one to sixteen stories.
Corporate Woods ® Office Park is managed,
leased and developed by C.W. Associates, LLC a
joint venture of Copaken, White, and Blitt and
Acacia Commercial Real Estate. A staff of forty
provides property management, leasing,
engineering, maintenance, and other services to
tenants. Employees are rewarded for providing
outstanding service to tenants. As part of the
leasing process, a turnkey interior design service
for prospective tenants is provided at no
additional cost. The property also hosts numerous
events exclusively for tenants including the Jazz
Festival Kick-Off Luncheon, the annual Corporate
Woods Golf Tournament, and the Taste of
Corporate Woods. In addition to the office space,
the property contains nearly thirty thousand
square feet of retail space with restaurants, a
barbershop, spa/salon, and jewelry store.
114 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

The Corporate Woods ® Master Plan envisions
construction of an additional 1.1 million square
feet of office space in the northwest corner of
the property adjacent to Buildings 82 and 84.
The Master Plan for Buildings 80, 81, 82, 83,
84, and 85 is an urban setting with state-of-theart
buildings featuring granite aggregate
architectural pre-cast concrete combined with
high performance vision glass. Lobbies have
ample natural light with patterned stone floors
and panelized wood walls and beautiful glass
artwork. Tenant spaces are provided with
dedicated seven-watt electrical systems. The site
also envisions a major landscaped auto court,
boulevards, and pedestrian outdoor and plaza
seating areas.
For a virtual tour of the Corporate Woods ®
Master Plan, go to www.corporatewoods.com where
you can click on icons for information about the
Master Plan, upcoming events, amenities, tenant
information, and the very latest news and
information about this premier 294-acre office park.
❖
Above: As Corporate Woods ® began to
grow, this aerial photo includes
Buildings 3, 6, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27,
34, 51, and 55, c. 1977.
Below: Buildings 82 and 84 at
Corporate Woods ® are mirror images
of each other, and the latest building
additions to the park.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 115

❖
HEARTLAND
ANIMAL
CLINIC, P.A.
Above: The First Church of Christ
building as it looked in September
1941. Today the building houses
Heartland Animal Clinic.
Happy pets have been taking their owners
to Heartland Animal Clinic for more than
four decades…but the grand white building
has a tradition of healing dating back more than
three quarters of a century. Founded in 1963
by Dr. Max Sutter, the former Santa Fe Animal
Clinic’s home was first built in 1927 as a
church. In 1991 Dr. Jill Sandler, associated
with Dr. Sutter since 1986, became the clinic’s
new owner. To reflect the clinic’s regional scope,
Dr. Sandler renamed it Heartland Animal Clinic
in 1996.
Boasting state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment,
the clinic continues to provide affordable, highquality
veterinary care. Dr. Sandler has more than
doubled the clinic staff since her stewardship
began, including bringing in Dr. Jamie Wilson as
her associate in 1997.
While cats and dogs are the clinic’s mainstays,
Dr. Sandler enjoys working with other furry
family members too. She works closely with the
Missouri House Rabbit Society, and has many
small mammals and pocket pets in her care. Drs.
Sandler and Wilson provide vaccinations,
medical, and surgical services, diet and behavior
counseling, dental cleaning and help in general
for whatever is ailing your pet.
Boarding facilities are available at the
clinic for both healthy or infirmed pets. Heartland
Animal Clinic also provides a grooming service for
dogs and cats to help keep them beautiful and
comfortable throughout the seasons.
There are plans for expansion and
modernization to provide even more care options
for pets and their owners, keeping pace with the
rapid advances in veterinary science.
Heartland Animal Clinic—forty-one years of
providing the gentlest of care, in a fun atmosphere,
where heritage joins with technology. For more
information, please call 913-648-1662.
Right: Located at 7821 Marty in
Overland Park, Heartland Animal
Clinic continues forty-one years of
service to the community. This photo
was taken in the summer of 2002.
116 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

LUND AND
BALDERSON,
AIA,
ARCHITECTS AND
PLANNERS
History is alive and in Overland Park you
have to look no further than the historic
downtown restoration projects designed by
people like George W. Lund and C. James
Balderson to confirm it. Founded in 1965, this
architectural partnership continued their
practice at 7924 Floyd. The firm would play a
key role in restorative and design elements in
and around the city for nearly half a century.
George W. Lund, AIA, received his bachelor of
science in architecture at the University of Kansas
in 1955 after which he served three years in the
United States Air Force. After returning stateside,
he became a key voice in the architectural
community and was elected president of the
Kansas City Chapter of the American Institute of
Architects in 1972. Lund served as chairman of
the Overland Park Downtown Partnership Board,
was elected chairman of the Board of the
Overland Park Chamber of Commerce in 1991,
served as chairman of the Overland Park
Downtown Development Review Board, and
currently is a member of the Overland Park
Planning Commission.
C. James Balderson, AIA received his Bachelor
of Architecture from Kansas State University in
1952 and received a degree in Community
Development and Planning at the University in
1962. He was in the United States Navy before
becoming director of the Kansas City AIA from
1968 to 1971 and served as president of the
Board of Managers and the Downtown Kansas
City YMCA. He was a member of the Prairie
Village Planning Commission, city architect for
Prairie Village, Kansas and has served as a
member of the Leawood Planning Commission
and the State Registration and Examining Board
of Architects/Engineers. He has also served as
president of the Kansas State University Alumni
of Kansas City.
A number of important projects throughout
Overland Park would become a lasting legacy of
the firm’s architectural design and master
planning. Some include the remodeling design
for the Carriage House, the historic Rio Theater,
the Cosmopolitan Headquarters, The Other
Place Restaurant, Homers Coffee House,
McDaniel Pharmacy as well as additions to
Metcalf State Bank and UMB Bank.
Jim Balderson retired in 1990 and George W.
Lund continued the practice until his retirement
in 2003.
❖
Above: Restored in 1997, the
Overland Park Historical Society’s
Strang Barn Building is just one of the
many projects completed by Lund &
Balderson, AIA.
Below: George W. Lund, AIA.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 117

BODKER
REALTY, INC.
❖
Above: Overland Plaza Center
was built in downtown Overland
Park in 1986.
Below: Harvey Bodker, president of
Bodker Realty, Inc.
The single most important link among
communities across America; be it in the
bustling suburbs that surround large cities or
among the quieter small towns, are the
people—the men and women who have
dedicated themselves to enriching their
hometowns through hard work and consistent
service to others. When he moved to Johnson
County in 1953, Harvey Bodker was determined
to do just that. Along with his wife, Beverly,
whom he married in 1963, Harvey has been
involved in brokerage and development in
Johnson County and the Bodkers have devoted
themselves to community service.
Founded July 1, 1960, Bodker Realty, Inc. is a
small brokerage firm specializing in commercial
properties such as office buildings, strip centers
and restaurants. Historically, the company has
remained involved in the steady growth and
development of the area with the construction of
an exceptional strip center in downtown
Overland Park in 1986 and has managed a
number of properties in the area. A member of
the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce for
over thirty years with Harvey serving on the
Chamber’s board from 1992 to 1996, the
Bodkers were actively involved in the Downtown
Overland Park Business Association and served
on the Johnson County Board of Realtors.
With a well-established business and a
willingness to serve the City of Overland Park,
Harvey was appointed to the Overland Park
Planning Commission from 1980 to 1983, served
as the first president of the Overland Park 2000
Foundation and began serving on the Board of
Directors for the Downtown Overland Park
Partnership in 1981, was the first chairman of the
Friends of the Farmstead in 1996, and has been a
member of the Cosmopolitan Club of Johnson
County since 1967. He is currently serving on the
Overland Park Civil Service Commission, having
been chairman from 2000-2002. Harvey also
served on the Overland Park Citizens Crime
Prevention Coalition and received the Public
Safety Award from the Overland Park Police
Department in 1998. Mayor Ed Eilert recognized
Beverly by proclaiming May 2, 2001, as Beverly
Bodker Day for her extensive community service.
From their offices at 9401 Nall Avenue in
Shawnee Mission, Harvey and Beverly continue
to do brokerage work, work on community
projects, behind the scenes on some political
campaigns and are active in their synagogue,
which is moving to Overland Park. As they look
ahead and appreciate the wonderful life they
have found in Overland Park, the couple are
pleased to have both children living in the area.
Betsy is the human resources manager at a large
accounting firm. Fred is an ophthalmologist
and, with his wife Cindy, has three daughters.
118 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Traditions Furniture, a furniture and
accessory retailer promises to delight the
eye and inner sense of style by catering
to any decorating fashion. Founded in
Wichita in 1984 by husband and wife
team, Art Davis and Robin Van Huss, the
gradual growth of the company has led
to a second retail location in Overland Park,
in the historic William B. Strang Car
Barn, one of downtown Overland Park’s
famous landmarks.
Originally, Amish handcrafted furniture
was the single product sold at Traditions
Furniture. Today, the store has expanded
their inventory to fit any approach to interior
design. Whether customers prefer a Shaker,
Mission, or French Country style, Traditions
offers a wide and unique range of items on
multiple showroom floors that cannot be found
anywhere else.
Whatever a customer needs in the way
of accessories can also be found at Traditions
Furniture. Accessories as varied as lamps,
prints, and unique trimmings for the bedroom,
living room, and dining room will complete
the transformation of any house into an
elegant home.
Traditions Furniture, at 7400 West Seventyninth
Street in Overland Park, offers
unique, attractive merchandise of the highest
quality at affordable prices. Please visit
the company’s exceptional showrooms on the
Internet at www.traditionsfurniture.com for more
information and store hours.
TRADITIONS
FURNITURE
❖
Traditions Furniture is located in the
historic William B. Strang Car Barn
in Overland Park.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 119

❖
The Overland Park office of Stinson
Morrison Hecker LLP is located in
Building 9 on the beautiful grounds of
Corporate Woods.
STINSON MORRISON HECKER LLP
Tracing its Kansas City area roots to 1878
and regarded today as one of the country’s
largest law firms, Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP
has maintained a long tradition of outstanding
legal representation around the country and in
the community it has called home for more than
a century. The present firm is the result of the
2002 merger of Stinson, Mag & Fizzell, P.C.,
and Morrison & Hecker L.L.P. Virtually every
legal challenge and opportunity is addressed by
335 attorneys working in over 45 principal
areas of practice. The first Kansas City firm to
establish a Johnson County office, located in
Corporate Woods, today its offices extend across
the Midwest, from Phoenix to Washington, D.C.
Values, integrity, ethics, and respect are
reflected at every level of service provided by
Stinson Morrison Hecker. A simple philosophy
has driven this historic firm for many years—
strive to be of extraordinary service while
maintaining the highest standard of
performance with the highest level of integrity.
The mission is singular and straightforward—to
never stop working towards the vision of
providing the best legal advice there is. Every
attorney and staff member is guided by five
principles—don’t settle for second best, attend
to every client’s business as it if were our own,
exceed expectations, work as a team, and care
about our clients.
Attorneys at Stinson Morrison Hecker
practice in a broad variety of areas including
bankruptcy and creditor’s rights, corporate
finance, employment, labor and benefits, energy
and telecommunications, environment and
natural resources, financial services, general
business, intellectual property and technology,
litigation, products liability, public law and
finance, real estate, and tax, trusts and estates.
Public law, finance and real estate transactions
and commercial litigation are the particular
specialties provided in the Overland Park office.
The Public Finance Group offers clients extensive
experience and expertise in all areas of municipal
finance and includes roles as bond counsel and
special tax counsel. The Public Law Group
provides continuous legal services to a large
number of cities, including the City of Overland
Park and other public sector entities on a full
range of critical issues. The Real Estate Group
offers expertise and credibility within the
community and includes all types of real estate
transactions for buyers, sellers, developers,
governmental entities, landlords, tenants and
users of real estate. In the courtroom as in the
boardroom, whether in conflict or compromise,
businesses of every type across the state and the
nation have come to rely on Stinson Morrison
Hecker’s commercial litigation attorneys to
aggressively advocate for their best interests.
In a grand celebration of its first year as
Stinson Morrison Hecker, the practice
reaffirmed its historic partnership with the
community in this statement, “Though the name
on our door has changed over the years, our firm
has always been synonymous with the growth
and prosperity of Kansas City businesses and the
development of the metropolitan area itself.”
Stinson Morrison Hecker is proud to serve a
number of communities around the country. In
addition to the Overland Park and Kansas City
offices, the firm has offices in Wichita, Kansas;
St. Louis, Missouri; Jefferson City, Missouri,
Omaha, Nebraska; Phoenix, Arizona; and
Washington D.C. For more information about
the firm and its areas of practice, visit
www.stinsonmoheck.com.
Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP—local
connections, national resources.
120 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

C. B. SELF &
COMPANY/
CITY
PROPERTIES
Following a family tradition of business
ownership and real estate investments, dating to
the American Colonial period, Clyde B. Self
began business on March 1, 1966. C. B. Self &
Company’s first Overland Park development
was on sixteen acres located at College
Boulevard and Antioch. The development of
Financial Plaza and Plaza West on the corner of
College Boulevard and Metcalf soon followed.
By the mid 1980s, C. B. Self & Company had
become a leading developer on College
Boulevard and south Metcalf, developing over
20 million square feet of office, retail and
industrial sites that now contain over 70
buildings. The company also co-chartered the
First National Bank of Overland Park, now part
of UMB and the First National Bank of Shawnee,
now part of US Bank.
In 1982 the company started City Properties,
Inc., a commercial real estate services firm, and
the Bi-State Construction Company. City
Properties has grown into a full service real
estate firm currently licensed in Kansas,
Missouri and Oklahoma. City Properties clients
have included many of the nation’s top
companies. Bi-State Construction is licensed as
a Class “A” Contractor and offers a wide range of
construction services on both in-house projects
and as General Contractor to third parties.
Clyde B. Self has served on several bank
boards, the Harding University Development
Council and is managing partner of Western
Equity Investors. Joseph B. Self, a 1984 Blue
Valley graduate, received notoriety in 1983 as
the youngest individual with a building under
development along College Boulevard. Joe
joined City Properties in 1989 and became a
partner in 1996. J. Daniel Self, a 1991 Blue
Valley graduate, joined Bi-State Construction in
1993 and became a partner in 2001. Susan Self
Mills, a 1988 Blue Valley graduate, has served as
treasurer of the company since 1993.
The Self companies and the Self family
remain actively involved in Overland Park with
multiple land developments, extended real
estate and construction operations and support
of various charitable and educational groups.
❖
Above: Plaza West.
Below: Financial Plaza.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 121

METCALF BANK
❖
Below: Lauded for its architectural
design and convenient location,
Metcalf Bank opened in June 1962.
Bottom: Directors gather for the
ribbon cutting ceremony and grand
opening of Metcalf Bank in 1962.
On the evening of January 10, 1962, the first
meeting of the shareholders of Metcalf State
Bank was held in the Hudson Oil Company
building located at 4720 Rainbow Boulevard.
The institution was organized by Joseph Cohen,
and a mere six months later, on June 16, the
newly established bank opened its doors to
hundreds of visitors and new depositors.
The Johnson County Herald proclaimed the
building, located at Seventy-ninth and Metcalf,
as “representative of the latest concepts in
architectural design.” Independent and
community-oriented, this historic opening
marked only the second bank to establish itself
in Overland Park. The board of directors,
Chairman Joseph Cohen, President C.E. Trego,
Robert Trego, Carl Rice, M.R. Shlensky, Bud
Brown, Jay R. Jennings, Vincent DeCoursey,
Arthur England and M.R. Hudson were
determined to provide every modern facility to
depositors and to accommodate local merchants
and business organizations with commercial
banking services.
Forty-two years later, Metcalf Bank remains
true to the vision of those who established it and
is honored in its service to the community. The
exterior of the main building is much
the same as it was in 1962 and friendly
employees continue to provide expertise in
personal and business services, loans and
investment opportunities.
The bank has expanded to include a number
of locations over the past forty-two years. The
first new facility was opened at Seventy-fifth and
Metcalf in 1970, with others following at 103rd
and Metcalf; College Boulevard and Quivira;
151st and Metcalf; 1400 West Amity in
Louisburg; and 134th and Blackbob in Olathe.
Metcalf Bank entered the new millennium with
Internet banking and online bill paying services.
Community and charitable organizations have
always benefited from the presence of Metcalf
Bank and the significant contributions of its
associates. It is one of only a few companies in
the greater Kansas City area to donate over two
percent of pretax income to local charities.
Employees and bank officials are active in the
Overland Park Rotary Clubs and area chambers
of commerce.
Led by Chairman of the Board Ben Craig and
President and Chief Executive Officer Jon
Stewart, Metcalf Bank continues to thrive as they
meet the increasing needs of customers
throughout Johnson County and Miami County.
Craig served as president from 1964 to 1999 and
committed himself to community service in and
around Johnson County for many years. In 1995
he was recognized by Sun Publications as one of
“The Best 45 Things That Have Happened to
Johnson County.” Stewart was elected president
in January 1999 and continues the tradition of
community service for which Metcalf Bank has
been known.
For more information and locations, online
banking and friendly service is just a click away
at www.metcalfbank.com.
122 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Named after the Little Blue River that flows
through the area, the Blue Valley School District
traces its historic roots to the site where a tiny
frame building once stood along Floyd Street.
Constructed in 1858 by early pioneer families,
this first school was 20 feet by 24 feet in size
and all grades were taught by one teacher.
Over a century and a half later, Blue Valley
School District continues in that pioneering spirit
as it offers students numerous educational opportunities.
Noted among the top public schools in
the state for student achievement, the district is
characterized by its continued growth and
consolidation and includes 18 elementary schools,
8 middle schools, and 4 high schools operating
within a $113-million budget. Twelve of the
district’s educational facilities have been chosen by
the United States Department of Education as Blue
Ribbon Schools, and the Blue Valley Educational
Foundation has awarded nearly $860,000 in
grants, scholarships, and special program funding
to the students and staff in the district.
The Blue Valley School District has experienced
tremendous growth over the past three decades.
This expansion has changed how the district plans
for enrollment increases, staffing, improvements to
existing sites, and the site selection and
construction of new facilities with student
enrollment rising steadily from 852 students in the
1970-71 school term to more than 19,000
students in the 2004-05-school term. Currently,
there are approximately 25,000 single-family units
and over 11,000 multifamily units scattered
throughout the district and the average household
income within the district is $103,000 with sixtyeight
percent of residents under the age of fortyfour.
City annexations and more land with access
to public water and sewage systems ensure that
major residential development will continue,
particularly in the southern portions of the district.
The Blue Valley School District strives to
provide an individualized learning environment
where students demonstrate educational
improvement, intellectual curiosity, success in
post-secondary experiences, and leadership
abilities now and in the future.
Life skills, such as socialization and teamwork,
are also enhanced for youth through recreational
opportunities offered by the Blue Valley
Recreation Commission (BVRC). Blue Valley
voters formed the Commission in 1986 to provide
BLUE VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT 229
local recreation programming under the auspices
of the Blue Valley School Board. Most programs
are held at one of the two BVRC facilities or at
District facilities.
The Commission’s vision is to enrich the
mental, physical and emotional well being of area
residents, and in 2003, Blue Valley was designated
by Sports Illustrated as Kansas’ top Sportstown in
2003. Opportunities abound—to make friends,
learn new skills, and practice teamwork,
sportsmanship, volunteerism, and other life skills.
The District’s website is located at
www.bluevalleyk12.org and offers patrons an
outstanding overview and access to schools across
the area. For more information about BVRC and
its programs, visit www.bluevalleyrec.org.
❖
Above: Students at Blue Valley Middle
School celebrate America with a paper
chain project of red, white, and blue.
Below: Blue Valley Recreation
Commission (BVRC) gymnastics
participants show their enthusiasm for
BVRC and the community’s
designation as Kansas’ “Sportstown” in
2003. Shown are (clockwise from top):
Audrey Frey, Brady Childs, Olivia
Frey, Justin Walker, Emily Evans,
Connor Childs, and Liran Ziegelman.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 123

❖
DALTON’S
FLOWERS INC.
Located in the center of the new retail
space, blooming and tropical plants
brighten the fountain/solarium area of
Dalton’s Flowers.
On a crisp November day in 1941, William
“Dee” and Anne Dalton purchased a two acre
tract of land at Eighty-second and Santa Fe.
Besides the family home, the land included three
greenhouses, a “countrified” car garage, a
chicken coop and enough land to grow
blooming plants and cut flowers. This was the
beginning of the Dalton’s Flowers tradition.
The first year, an underheating furnace and
leaky greenhouses produced an overdue
poinsettia crop. This was just one example of
the trials and tribulations that the family
endured during the first few years of business.
To bolster the family income during these rough
times, Dee turned his efforts elsewhere. He built
Christmas tree stands for local nurserymen and
lined the greenhouses with prize-winning
tomatoes during the rationed war years.
Throughout the 1940s, the business grew, as
did the Dalton family. When the family
relocated to Overland Park from Edgerton,
Missouri, they brought five children. By 1948
there were eight.
By the late 1950s, Dalton’s Flowers was
producing seventy-five thousand hydrangeas and
thousands of poinsettias, Easter lilies, and
geraniums annually.
As the new decade began, the sudden
population growth in Overland Park shifted the
focus of Dalton’s from wholesale to retail services.
Slowly, the wholesale portion of the business was
phased out as all but one greenhouse was razed.
A cluster of old buildings adjacent to the main
shop was renovated for retail use.
With the 1970s came a new brick floor, a
fiberglass roof, cedar walls, and a new façade.
The remaining greenhouse was converted to a
solarium. By the end of this decade, all the
remaining buildings were finally merged into
one facility.
The 1980s brought change to Dalton’s. By
1984, the trailblazers at Dalton’s, Anne and
Dee, had passed away. In their time, they
had risked the enterprise, kept the spirit and
built the traditions. Their deaths were a
tremendous loss not only to the family but also
to the people they served throughout the Kansas
City area. The family agreed they would remain
“very particular about plants and flowers—just
like mom and dad were.” As the decade
progressed, technology was at the forefront at
Dalton’s. Just as new offices and a new computer
system were put into place, Dalton’s faced
another loss.
On a hot Sunday in June 1987, an electrical
short in the attic sparked a fire. The blaze
destroyed the entire complex. The night of the
fire, relatives and friends emptied a nearby
storage shed while two phone lines were hooked
up in the building across the parking lot. Fresh
flowers were purchased the next morning and
deliveries were made that afternoon. A few days
later, a trailer was parked near the shed and a
temporary greenhouse was erected. This became
the retail and design area. Business continued
as normal up until the following April. This
is when we moved into the present day
facility that was built on the footprint of the
old building.
This is not only a history of a business; it is a
history of family, an account of its people. All
eight of the “original” Dalton children and
nearly all of the thirty-five grandchildren have
helped in the business in some fashion. Dozens
of friends and dedicated employees remain our
extended family and to them we are grateful.
Today, the second and third Dalton generations
continue the tradition of quality and service that
started with Dee and Anne nearly sixty-five
years ago.
124 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

WALLACE,
SAUNDERS,
AUSTIN,
BROWN &
ENOCHS,
CHARTERED
From humble and tragic beginnings, Wallace,
Saunders has emerged as a litigation and
commercial powerhouse in Kansas City, but has
kept its Overland Park origins throughout its
forty year history.
In January 1963, K. B. Wallace was still
recovering from the tragic death of his former
partner, John Keach, a year earlier. Frank
Saunders, Jr. had just graduated from law school
when Wallace invited him to join in a
partnership. The two shared one secretary in
a small office space above the John Frances
Restaurant in downtown Overland Park.
The pair represented six insurance
companies in Johnson County alone, and waded
joyfully into competition among 141 active
Johnson County attorneys. They earned the trust
and loyalty of many clients with an
aggressive and methodical ability in the
courtroom—a successful ability that became
pervasive with the addition of new attorneys over
the years. The Overland Park addresses may have
changed slightly over the years—the firm settled
at 10111 West Eighty-seventh in 1982—but the
litigation expertise has only grown. Coupled with
that trial practice is an established but growing
business practice that allows WSABE attorneys to
boast it is, indeed, a full-service firm of the top
rank. Kansas City area lawyers obviously agree,
ranking Wallace Saunders in the summer of 2003
as one of the top twelve area law firms.
Today Johnson County boasts over 1,600 active
attorneys and, as quoted in the Kansas City Business
Journal, Wallace, Saunders, Austin, Brown &
Enochs is “right in the thick of the legal action,
trying dozens of cases each year—more than just
about any law firm in the Kansas City area.” A
general defense practice that includes banking,
construction, real estate, professional malpractice,
probate, workers’ compensation and tax and
urban law, the firm continues its legendary work in
commercial and insurance litigation.
Wallace, Saunders has been fortunate in
finding and keeping lawyers who understand,
satisfy, and exceed client expectations. Larry J.
Austin joined the firm in October 1964,
Richmond M. Enochs joined in July 1965 and
Barton Brown in February 1967. In 1969 the
law firm began hiring their first attorneys
directly from law school and included James G.
Butler, Jr. and James O. Schwinn in 1969 and
Richard T. Merker in 1971. Managing Partner
Mark W. McKinzie has joined others in the law
firm as they provide faithful service to the
community in numerous areas including the
Overland Park Chamber of Commerce Board,
Johnson County Bar Association, Overland Park
Economic Development Council and Shawnee
Mission Medical Center Boards. McKinzie and
Rod L. Richardson are also Leadership Overland
Park graduates.
At their fortieth anniversary in 2003,
Wallace, Saunders, Austin, Brown & Enochs has
over 160 employees with sixty-five lawyers and
a support staff of more than 100 and represent
over 300 insurance companies in the State of
Kansas. Other WSABE offices are now located in
Wichita, Kansas along with Kansas City and
Springfield, Missouri. Representing small,
medium and large companies, the firm
continues to provide timely, cost effective legal
services. Wallace, Saunders is currently the
second largest firm in Kansas and the eleventh
largest law office in the greater Kansas City area.
❖
The law firm of Wallace, Saunders,
Austin, Brown & Enochs, Chtd.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 125

SAINT LUKE’S SOUTH
Celebrating its sixth anniversary in
November 2004, Saint Luke’s South has many
reasons to be proud of its accomplishments and
excited about its future. As the newest hospital
in Saint Luke’s Health System, Saint Luke’s
South continues in its tradition of providing
quality, compassionate care that began more
than a century ago.
This state-of-the-art facility features an acute
care hospital with twenty-four hour emergency
services, complete inpatient and outpatient
diagnostic testing, a spacious maternity center
with Level II nursery, rehabilitation services and
physician offices integrated within the facility
for optimal convenience. Saint Luke’s South’s
experienced and dedicated doctors,
nurses, administrative staff, and
volunteers set the standard for topquality
healthcare.
One of the major areas of growth has
been the cardiovascular services. Saint
Luke’s Health System, Mid America
Heart Institute and Cardiovascular
Consultants, P.C., developed a
partnership in 1999 to provide a
regional system of care to extend
superior heart care in to the community.
Expanding heart services at Saint Luke’s
South provides a common sense
structure to cardiovascular care. The
system is designed to put more
frequently used services closer to home
and centralize services where volumes are
critical to maintain desired skill level and
success rate.
Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute’s
experience with and leadership of interventional
cardiology dates back to 1960 when Heart
Institute physicians performed their first
diagnostic catheterization procedures. In 1980,
Jeffrey Hartzler, M.D., an interventional
cardiologist at the Heart Institute, performed
the first coronary angioplasty for an acute
myocardial infarction ever. From then to
now, renowned interventional cardiologists
at Mid America Heart Institute continue
to develop and perfect treatments.
Saint Luke’s South received the 2004 Kansas
Excellence Award. This is the highest level of
achievement recognized by the Kansas Award
for Excellence Foundation, the state affiliate
of the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award.
It is awarded to organizations that have
demonstrated through their practices and
achievements the highest level of excellence
and can serve as a role model for other
Kansas organizations.
As the community it serves continues to grow
and thrive, so does Saint Luke’s South. Planning
is underway to expand the hospital in other
areas to meet the ever-growing demand for the
hospital’s quality healthcare services.
Saint Luke’s South is honored to be an
active member of the community it serves
by bringing Saint Luke’s quality care to the people
of Johnson County and surrounding areas.
126 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

The James R. Shetlar Law Office handles legal
matters in personal injury, automobile accidents,
wrongful death, products liability, workers’
compensation, medical malpractice, and
securities litigation.
Founder, James R. Shetlar, was born in Girard,
Kansas, on October 27, 1946. He graduated from
Pittsburg State University with a bachelor’s degree
in 1969 and Washburn University of Topeka with
a juris doctorate in 1974. He was admitted in
Kansas and U.S. District Court, District of Kansas,
in 1974 and remains a member of the Kansas City
Metropolitan Bar Association (sections: medical
products; torts law; and workers’ compensation
law); the Johnson County Bar Association (secretary,
1980-81; ethics and grievance committee,
1991-96); the Wyandotte County and Kansas Bar
Associations; Kansas Trial Lawyers Association
(board of governors, 1982 to present; sections:
workers’ compensation law, state chairman, 1986-
96; medical malpractice/product liability; and auto
accident law); Missouri Association of Trial
Attorneys; and the Association of Trial Lawyers of
America (sections: professional negligence,
products liability; workers’ compensation laws and
workplace injury law, motor vehicle collision
highway and premises liability law); and the
Workplace Injury Litigation Group. Shetlar is listed
in the Best Lawyers Consumer Guide, Outstanding
Lawyers of America, and Who’s Who in American
Law. He also enjoys community activities that
include working on Habitat for Humanity projects
as well as coaching high school Rugby teams.
Associate Sarah M. Donley was born in
Independence, Missouri and graduated from the
University of Kansas with her bachelor’s degree in
1993, received her master’s from Kansas State
University in 1995, and graduated from the
University of Kansas Law School in 1998. She was
admitted to the Kansas Bar in 1998 and the
Missouri Bar in 1999. Rounding out the Firm’s
high quality legal expertise is Bill Mize and Legal
Assistant Linda Kramer. The James R. Shetlar law
practice is located in the Santa Fe Building at 8000
Foster in Overland Park. with consultations made
by calling the firm at (913) 648-3220.
❖
JAMES R.
SHETLAR LAW
OFFICES, P.A.
Above: James R. Shetlar, 2004.
Below: The associates and staff of the
James R. Shetlar Law Office, 2004.
Back row (from left to right): Marilyn
Shetlar, Sarah Donley, James Shetlar,
Jim Larson, and Linda Kramer.
Front row (from left to right):
Emmy Creek, Diane Petersen, and
William Mize. Also located in
Kansas City, Southwest Missouri, and
Southeast Kansas.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 127

❖
Above: The Strang Carriage House
Historic Center is located at 8045
Santa Fe in downtown Overland Park.
Below: A OPHS board meeting at the
Strang Carriage House.
OVERLAND PARK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Overland Park Historical Society was
incorporated as a Kansas, tax exempt, 501c, (3)
corporation, September 1994. The mission of
the Society is to collect, preserve, research,
exhibit and educate the public about the history
of the city and area of Overland Park, Kansas,
from prehistoric times to the present.
The first major project of the Historic Society
was the authoring and production of a video
tape about the Overland Park area from the time
when the United States government moved the
American Indians to the Kansas area in the late
1820s and early 1830s up to the incorporation
of the City of Overland Park in 1960.
The City of Overland Park had restored the
Strang Carriage House in 1985 but it was
unoccupied and vandalized extensively by
the middle 1990s. The Society agreed with
the city through the Parks Department to
finish and decorate the interior of the Carriage
House if the city would restore the outside
and structural components. This was completed
and the Historical Society occupied the
Strang Carriage House Historical center in
the fall of 1997 as the Society’s Office &
Resource Center.
The Society has published many pamphlets
and booklets about the history of the area,
historic people and places, the Overland Park
Elementary School and events of the
surrounding area. These booklets and
pamphlets, as well as other historical-nature
gifts, historical artifacts, displays and
information are available at the Strang Carriage
House Historical Center located at 8045 Santa
Fe in downtown Overland Park.
The Society has monthly board meetings, bimonthly
general membership meetings with
prominent local and statewide speakers—a
speakers bureau to tell the Overland Park
story—antique evaluation sessions, does oral
history reviews, which have been transcribed by
a grant from the Johnson County Heritage Trust
Fund, provides volunteers to serve as docents at
the Strang Carriage House Historic Center
on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and
Wednesday and Saturday mornings, preserves
and documents photos, artifacts, and historic
document and events. The Society has
purchased and mounted bronze plaques
on many historic buildings in downtown
Overland Park.
The Society has continued the preservation
of the Historic Morse Church built in 1885, a
project started by the Blue Valley Historical
Society, but this group has since disbanded.
The Overland Park Historical Society has held
some membership meetings and has put on
programs about the area for the Morse
Elementary School in this historic church. The
Society has twenty committees actively pursuing
and carrying out its mission and publishes a bimonthly
newsletter.
128 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

BRANDED
EMBLEM
COMPANY, INC./
CAMP
DAVID, INC.
In the fall of 1969, John Willson, a graduate of
the University of Missouri and a captain in the
United States Air Force, started Branded Emblem
Company. It was while John was selling
accessories to garment manufacturers that he
became frustrated with a line of embroidered
emblems that he was selling and believed he
could better serve his customers by creating and
selling his own emblems. After many months of
trying to locate the proper equipment and labor
he finally opened his doors to customers in 1969.
By the end of the 1970s, Branded Emblem
employed approximately fifty workers and had a
strong reputation throughout the country for
producing a quality product. Most of the emblems
were custom ordered and created through a
complex progression, which could be ruined by a
single mistake.
In the 1980s the advent of technology brought
about a number of changes to Branded Emblem.
A new type of embroidery machine and a highspeed
multi-head allowed the company to
directly embroider logos onto the garment. The
look was superior and subsequently decreased
the demand for embroidered emblems.
As Branded Emblem successfully met the
increase in productivity, John’s eldest son, David,
graduated from the University of Kansas and
returned to help in the family business. Both
John and David saw the changes taking place in
the industry and led the company to become one
of the first in the area to offer “direct embroidery.”
Branded Emblem’s customer base became the
largest contract embroider in Kansas. Customers
included local apparel manufacturers, uniform
companies and advertising specialty companies.
However, as the demand for direct embroidery
grew, many customers began buying their own
equipment to embroider their products.
In February 1993, John passed away and his
sons, David and Mark, took over the family
business. Mark, a graduate of the College of
William and Mary, and David were prepared to
change with the times by establishing a new
company, Camp David. Camp David designs,
decorates and sells garments to the resort, college
and corporate markets. Though Camp David now
serves as the dominant company with sales twelve
times greater than that of Branded Emblem,
Branded still produces emblems throughout the
country. The company’s diverse workforce includes
eighty-five employees and forty-five independent
sales representatives from around the world.
For a closer look at the expert work produced by
the Camp David and Branded Emblem family of
companies, please visit www.brandedemblem.com.,
www.campdavid.com, and www.attitude101.com.
❖
Above: John Willson, founder of
Branded Emblem Company.
Top, left: Camp David’s national
headquarters is located in downtown
Overland Park at 7920 Foster.
Below: The Schiffli Loom weighs up to
ten tons and has hundreds of needles.
Yard goods are spanned vertically as
they are embroidered, like a “wall” of
fabric, rather than placed on a flat
table as on multi-head machines.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 129

O’NEILL
AUTOMOTIVE,
INC.
❖
Above: O’Neill Honda one of the first
one hundred Honda dealers in the
United States.
Below: The Nissan dealership at
O’Neill Automotive opened in 1994
and is known for its distinct quality of
service and expertise.
Founded in 1933 as Greenlease-O’Neill, Inc.
and unveiled as an Oldsmobile showroom and
garage at 1414 Baltimore in Kansas City,
Missouri, O’Neill Automotive has celebrated
over seventy years of success. When Norbert S.
O’Neill and Robert C. Greenlease started this
company, the dream driving their vision was
that every Kansas City garage would have an
Oldsmobile parked inside. Although the make
and model of cars have since expanded and
changed, O’Neill’s son and grandson have
continued to foster that dream.
It was in 1963, following the construction of
Interstate 35, that Richard O’Neill, Sr., chose to
relocate the dealership. After thirty years in one
location, the decision would be a difficult one—
should they stay downtown or build in the
outlying suburbs? After researching the growth
of the city among those in real estate and
government, they concluded that Johnson
County was the fastest growing area. In
particular, they saw the property at Eightieth
and Metcalf as a prime business location for the
new dealership. The dealership flourished and
eight years later, Richard, Sr., and his father
speculated that there was a definite niche in the
American automobile market for the “small car”
and hence Honda came into their lives—in fact,
the O’Neills were one of the first one hundred
Honda dealers in the United States.
A devastating oil embargo hit the country in
1973 and skyrocketing gas prices soon gave “the
little car” the popularity and respect it deserved.
Sales of American-made gas-guzzlers quickly
dwindled and O’Neill’s entire inventory sold out
within thirty days. According to Richard
O’Neill, Jr., who joined the family business in
1978, the dealership subsequently added two
other import franchises, Mitsubishi and Subaru,
before adding Nissan in 1994.
Today, over 140 employees at O’Neill
Automotive continue to focus on the values that
have made their dealership the market leader for
seventy years. In addition to state-of-the-art
vehicles, sales and service, there is a strong
belief in honesty, trust and treating customers
with respect and dignity.
Quality service has been the cornerstone of
O’Neill’s business philosophy since 1933.
130 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

RANCH MART,
INC.
If marriage and home ownership are said to
be among the more beneficial, stabilizing
influences in society, Victor Regnier was one of
their strongest proponents. Following his World
War II service in Gulfport, Mississippi, with no
assets and a high school education, Victor
married naval base librarian Helen Benning and
together they began a homebuilding business in
Kansas City in 1945. Their first subdivision,
Missiondale, followed Mission Road south to
include homes in Reinhardt Estates, Leawood
Hills, and Cherry Hill Estates in Overland Park.
When it became difficult to sell their suburban
ranch-style homes because of a lack of shopping
areas, they began construction of a community
shopping center—Ranch Mart—in 1958. It
opened with twenty-three stores and was
followed ten years later by Ranch Mart South
with ten large retail stores eventually growing to
over 120 stores and offices covering 500,000
square feet. They gradually acquired farmland
and commercial property in the rapidly growing
areas of Overland Park.
Along with their business interests came
a strong desire to promote the creative
and intellectual interests of the youth in
the community. In 1963 they sponsored the
Shawnee Mission District Science Fair,
which eventually became the Research and
Development Forum. Later they purchased a
building for Wonderscope, a learning and
creativity center for children. Throughout his
lifetime, Victor espoused no-nonsense values of
commitment, persistent hard work and frugality,
promoting family, education and community.
He was creative, extremely driven, and
goal-oriented. Helen, his business manager and
most precious asset, was an even-tempered,
benevolent mainstay. They were a team who
were seldom found apart, each complementing
the other’s strengths.
Numerous institutions have benefited by way of
their success, from the Research and Development
Forum and Wonderscope to Deanna Rose
Farmstead, the University of Kansas-Edwards
Campus, Johnson County Community College,
Blue Valley Wilderness Science Center, Blue Valley
and Shawnee Mission Educational Foundations,
Kansas State University, Union Station Science City
and the Salvation Army.
Victor and Helen’s family are proud to be a
part of the incredible growth and history of
the community of Overland Park. If it is true
that the silent voice often speaks the loudest,
then what this quiet, unassuming couple has left
behind speaks volumes today. From their
example, we learn that solid values create strong
partnerships leading to well-established local
businesses and the promotion of excellent
schools and amenities, helping to build one
of the “most outstanding places in America”
to live—Overland Park!
❖
Above: Ranch Mart North in the early
1960s. The shopping center stands in
the foreground looking west to
Overland Park in the background.
Below: Victor and Helen Regnier, an
indomitable team at home and in the
business world.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 131

OVERLAND
AUTO PAINTS
❖
Above: Overland Auto Parts was
a downtown fixture throughout
the 1960s..
Below: Overland Auto Paints in the
early 1970s.
L. R. “Mac” McClenaghan loved his adopted
hometown of Overland Park. A Pennsylvania
native sent to pilot Navy airplanes out of Olathe
in 1944, Mac often remembered what drew him
and his wife Dotti to the peaceful town—“You
could see that Overland Park had lots of
potential…besides, we just felt it was a nice
place to raise a family.”
After World War II, Mac and Dotti settled
into town and opened Overland Auto Parts with
the help of Harvey Stockton, owner of the local
auto repair garage, in November of 1946. They
purchased their building from Al Conser. The
couple paid their friend back in less than two
years and took on a partner, Sid Ashton, in mid-
1947 as Dotti retired from the business to raise
their children, Kathi and L. R., Jr. The auto parts
business grew with Overland Park and, by
1962, was so successful that Mac bought out
Sid’s interest in the store. In 1975, Mac decided
he needed a change of pace, sold the parts store,
and moved two doors down to the corner and
opened Overland Auto Paints. A decade later,
Mac renovated the auto parts store at 7942
Santa Fe Drive and relocated Overland Auto
Paints to that original spot.
Today, Overland Auto Paints continues the
great success of its founder and has remained a
family business for three generations. Jack,
Mac’s son-in-law, joined the company as
manager in 1973. Mac’s daughter, Kathleen
Schlegel, became a partner in 1992 and took
over after her father’s death in December 1992.
The company was incorporated in July 1993
and is well known throughout the area for
providing quality service to customers around
the state. Jack and Kathi’s son-in-law, Chad, is
currently the operations manager and their
daughter, Missi, is now working in the business,
as well. Kathi and Jack’s son, Erik, also worked
in the business for several years but is now
serving in the Navy.
Two years before his death, Mac reminisced
over his life in Overland Park and the
professional accomplishments he had here, but
they were never as exciting to him as simply
watching his children grow up in Overland Park
and raise their own families. Mac’s daughter,
Kathi, continues as president of the company.
Mac’s son, L. R., Jr. is a professor at San Diego
State University, and his grandchildren always
“helped keep the twinkle in his eyes.”
132 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

The Overland Park Heritage Foundation
began as the city and downtown business
community joined the efforts to revitalize
Downtown Overland Park. Incorporated on
October 2, 1981, Board members included Jim
Balderson, Harvey Bodker, Sib Bosley, Wayne
Byrd, Will Cleaver, Reverend Don Evans, Jim
Helvey, Reg Lyerla, John McCune, Jim Papst,
Ben Sykes, John Wilson, Charles Winters,
Gene Mackey, and Florent Wagner. With
volunteer Board members who are dedicated
only to serving the community, the Foundation
has helped build a strong future rooted in
the traditional values and colorful history of
the area.
After the completion of its first project,
painting the city’s logo on the water tower in
Downtown Overland Park, the Foundation
began acquisition and restoration of the historic
Strang Car Barn. In 1985 with a community
block grant it purchased the site and by
December of 1989 had restored the Barn’s
exterior. Traditions Furniture finished the
interior and moved into the location in
June 1990. The Foundation used private
donations to develop the Museum wall inside
the building, which is open to the public during
business hours. In addition to the 50-foot-by-
7-foot mural created by Phillip Starke, the
wall includes pictures and other memorabilia
of the rich heritage of the Strang era in
Overland Park.
The Foundation purchased an interurban
railroad wait station that is now on display
at Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead and
includes photographs depicting scenes from
the community.
The Foundation has been involved in
numerous projects throughout the past two
decades. Its collection of photographs,
memorabilia, and taped interviews of long-time
residents led to the formation of the Overland
Park Historical Society in 1994. The Society’s
active membership meets regularly for programs
on historical topics and publishes booklets on
various aspects of the area’s history. In 1995 the
Foundation installed a memorial marker at
Santa Fe and Robinson to commemorate the site
of Overland Park’s Aviation Park, the first
airfield west of the Mississippi and the third of
its kind in the nation.
OVERLAND PARK HERITAGE FOUNDATION
When widening of the intersection at 151st
Street and Metcalf Avenue threatened
the historic Stanley Bank Building in 1996, the
Foundation stepped in and moved the building
to its present site at 7590 West 151st Street. The
building, now occupied by Tax Advantage,
offers historic displays in its conference
room that were created by members of
the Stanley Focus Group. Open to the public,
these historic displays focus upon area schools,
farming and businesses.
For over twenty years, The Overland Park
Heritage Foundation has successfully formed a
partnership with public and private sectors to
uphold Overland Park’s grand heritage and will
continue to dedicate itself to preserving the high
quality of life in Overland Park.
❖
Above: The historic Stanley Bank
Building at 7590 West 151st Street.
Below: The historic Strang Car Barn
is now home to Traditions Furniture.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 133

OVERLAND
PARK JEEP
❖
Overland Park Jeep is located
at 8775 Metcalf in Overland Park
and on the Internet at
www.overlandparkjeep.com.
Frank Thompson, owner of Overland Park
Jeep, has been in the automobile business for 51
years, starting at a very young age with an old,
established family auto business from Kansas
City, Missouri. He was given the opportunity to
open his own dealership for the up-and-coming
Jeep, the workhorse of World War II continued
in production after the war. His dealership was
started in March 1973 with a commitment to
personal and fair service and a good work environment
for his employees.
A small building was built on Metcalf, a short
frontage road not maintained by the city.
Thompson’s car dealer peers told him the location
would be detrimental to his business.
However they were wrong. Overland Park Jeep
has been eminently successful. Customers can
drive slowly on the frontage road to view cars,
attracting many to the business. It has grown
from $5 million in sales the first year to over
$60 million in sales in 2002 and from 30
employees in 1973 to the present 80.
Originally, Overland Park Jeep was the only
business on the East side of Metcalf from 87th to
89th Streets. Soon a pizza place opened. The
Calcara family built the Felix Camera business.
These businesses didn’t last and as they closed,
Thompson bought their locations and
expanded. The camera shop was converted to a
Mitsubishi dealership.
Thompson credits the success of his dealership
to repeats and referrals. One family has
bought in excess of 30 cars in his 30 years of
business. Another has bought 21. Thompson
started in the service department of the first
dealership and learned the importance of good,
prompt, and fair service, which keeps his customers
coming back. In the early days, Jeep had
the only SUV on the market. Now there are 60
models available. But because of the principles
of Overland Park Jeep Thompson continues to
keep his fair share of the market.
Thompson’s employees are long term due to a
good employment environment, great fringe benefits
and personal relationships with them. The new
car manager has been with the firm for 24 years,
the service manager for 18 years, body shop foreman
for 14 years, parts manager for 26 years, used
car manager for 10 years and five of the mechanics
have been with the dealership since it opened.
The automobile business changes every year,
but this dealership remains customer friendly
and as well as innovative. Internet connections
are provided in the waiting area so a customer
can conduct business while waiting for their car
and shuttle transportation is available for all customers.
Overland Park Jeep has stepped into the
future without forgetting the values of their past.
134 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

Bank of Blue Valley and its holding company,
Blue Valley Ban Corp, have been meeting the
community banking needs of Johnson County
and the Kansas City metropolitan area for over a
decade. Today, business owners, professionals,
individuals, and small- to mid-sized commercial
borrowers rely upon Bank of Blue Valley and its
knowledgeable staff.
Believing that a locally owned and managed
community financial institution would serve the
area well, President Bob Regnier opened the
bank December 18, 1989 in a double-wide
trailer at 119th and Metcalf. Today, operating
with over $600 million in assets, the bank
employs a staff of 300 and provides financial
services to over 27,000 customers.
Since construction of its headquarters facility
was completed in Overland Park in 1994, the
Bank’s parallel growth in assets and profits have
propelled it to the forefront of Kansas City banks,
receiving an Ingram’s Magazine ranking among
the one hundred fastest growing companies in
Kansas City for seven straight years. Presently, six
conveniently located branches are in Overland
Park, Olathe, Shawnee, Leawood, and the new
Mortgage Loan Center is at 7900 College
Boulevard in Overland Park. A seventh location
opened at 135th and Mission Road in May 2004.
Bank of Blue Valley offers a variety of services
including complimentary financial planning,
investment and trust services, the Little Ducks
accounts for junior customers, and the Blue
Valley Advantage Club for customers fifty years
and older. The Bank offers seminars,
newsletters, and other educational venues for
customers and its help line, at 913-338-HELP, is
staffed with associates well versed in the bank’s
services and products. Additionally, the
BlueWave internet banking website offers cash
management services and bill payment services,
24 hours per day, and the 119th and Metcalf
facility is open 7 days each week with 91 1 /2
weekly full-service hours.
Offering a full range of lending services to
both commercial and individual customers, the
bank provides financial services to both small
business owners and to some of Kansas City’s
largest companies. It has become a significant
factor in the mortgage industry, originating
more than $1.5 billion in loans for over 7,500
customers in 2003. That year, the bank
consolidated all of its mortgage resources at its
Mortgage Loan Center. Through its website,
www.internetmortgage.com, the bank also
initiates mortgage loans in all fifty states.
Bank of Blue Valley employees donate time and
resources to various Kansas City organizations
including Wayside Waifs, Blue Valley Schools,
Community Blood Center, the Kansas City
Wizards, ALS, the Jewish Community Center, and
Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead.
Today, Bank of Blue Valley is at the forefront of
regional banks offering a unique brand of
community banking and community partnership.
It stresses convenience with strategic locations,
extended banking hours, relationship banking,
and the very latest in internet banking options at
www.bankbv.com.
BANK OF BLUE VALLEY
❖
Above: Bank of Blue Valley is
headquartered at 119th and Metcalf
in Overland Park.
Below: The Bank of Blue Valley
Mortgage Center is located at 7900
College Boulevard.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 135

HICKOK-DIBLE
COMPANIES
Napoleon W. Dible began building homes in
the Westport area a century ago as the N. W.
Dible Company in 1904. Since its formation, the
company now called Hickok-Dible Companies
has built over five thousand living units
throughout the Midwest. The company is the
second longest standing member of the Greater
Kansas City Homebuilders Association. When
the Overland Park mayor invited Dible to move
his company to Overland Park and Johnson
County in 1957, N. W. was keenly aware of the
major growth beginning to take place in the area
and the company jumped over the state line to
set up an interim office in the Empire Estates
subdivision at Ninety-ninth and Mission Road.
When Dible died in 1960 at the age of eightynine,
grandsons Bill (later the president of
the Johnson County Park Board) and Jack
Hickok (who later would become president of
the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce)
accepted the reins of
leadership and brought the
company through an enormous
period of growth in
Overland Park and the surrounding
areas. The ensuing
decades were characterized
by a number of community
efforts to “grow the city” and
the company continued its
single-family efforts with
numerous subdivisions
along 103rd Street,
including Pinehurst and
Pinehurst Estates, and
entered the multifamily
arena with The Pines at
Ninety-fifth and Mission
and Pinebrooke Apartments
at 103rd and Lowell.
Still headquartered in
Overland Park, the company
oversees building and
maintenance of thousands
of apartment homes from
Olathe to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Tim Hickok, the greatgrandson
of N. W. Dible,
took over as president of
the company in 1988.
In an interview from his
home in early 2003, William
Hickok summed up his
career in the construction
business: “We build homes.
That’s what we know.”
A fitting description to a
century-old company that
continues to flourish in
Overland Park and around
the region.
136 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

In June of 1983, with no more than
excitement, energy, and vision Bob Hamilton
Plumbing was formed; heating and air
conditioning was added in 2000. From his
earliest childhood memories of watching and
learning the business first-hand from his father
Ray, Bob Hamilton instinctively knew that a
plumber’s life fit him perfectly. Sometimes long
hours of hard work, but also the flexibility to be
available to his family were at the root of Bob’s
decision to launch his own company.
Working to be the “world’s greatest”
plumbing, heating, and air conditioning
company, Bob Hamilton’s goal continues to
be driven by a desire to provide the best
quality workmanship and satisfaction possible
by employing licensed, bonded, and insured
professional service technicians, continually
increasing their knowledge of the plumbing
industry through education and experience.
Bob Hamilton Plumbing, Heating and Air
Conditioning knows that finding a professional,
dependable and skilled service company
can be a difficult task and that their willingness
to go the extra mile will insure that theirs
is the “RIGHT” company for any customer.
You can visit Bob Hamilton Plumbing
Heating, and Air Conditioning on the Internet
at www.bobhamiltonplumbing.com or go
ahead and sing the jingle “Bob Hamilton
Plumbing, Heating, & A/C 381-9555,
remember the 913”.
BOB HAMILTON
PLUMBING,
HEATING AND
AIR
CONDITIONING
COMPANY
Locks & Pulls, Inc. is a company that reflects
the true spirit of Overland Park’s business
community. Established in January 1986 with
only one employee and nine hundred square
feet of working space, Tom O’Malley
immediately set out to offer the best service, the
largest selection and the highest quality
products at the fairest price. Two decades, two
stores, and twenty employees later, he continues
to practice those same beliefs as he helps people
find the right hardware in every style, color and
shape for kitchens, bathrooms, interior and
exterior doors and windows.
O’Malley and the store’s general manager,
Ken Gosnell, have created an atmosphere of fun
and professionalism that are indeed a trademark
of the business. From the bumper-sticker
collection to the famous duct-tape pig, a
friendly staff that know the merchandise and are
able to guide people through the maze of
products and possibilities in decorative
hardware and home-safety products surrounds
customers. They are also active supporters of
the Home Builders Association, NARI and
Crime Prevention Programs.
Enjoy a visit to your nearest Locks & Pulls at
10333 Metcalf in the Metcalf Center in
Overland Park; at North Oak Trafficway and
152 Highway in Kansas City North; and on the
Internet at www.locks-pulls.net.
LOCKS &
PULLS, INC.
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 137

JOHNSON COUNTY
MUSEUMS
❖
Explore the Johnson County Museums’
three sites: Lanesfield School Historic
Site, The 1950s All-Electric House and
Museum of History.
The Johnson County Museums, established in
1967, collect and preserve artifacts and
information documenting the county’s heritage
through interpretive exhibits, educational
programs, and publications. Its efforts have
garnered regional and national recognition for its
three sites.
Guests touring The 1950s All-Electric House
experience a “blast from the past.” This historic
house at 6305 Lackman Road, Shawnee, opened
to the public in 1998 and displays period
decorating and futuristic features. Originally a
1954 show home for Kansas City Power &
Light, the house was the first 1950s residence in
the nation preserved as a museum.
At the Museum of History, located at the
same address, is Seeking the Good Life, an exhibit
depicting the county from the 1820s to today. It
includes fourteen hands-on stations. Also, a
changing exhibit gallery always offers something
new to see.
Visitors to the Lanesfield School Historic Site
can practice their penmanship, cipher math on a
slate or have a spelling bee with a costumed
schoolteacher in the 1869 stone schoolhouse.
The school, located at 18745 South Dillie Road
in Edgerton, is listed on the National Register of
Historic Places.
The Johnson County Museums are dedicated
to strengthening the community’s connection with
its past. For more information about the exciting
events taking place at the Museums please visit
www.jocomuseum.org or call 913-631-6709.
❖
OVERLAND
PARK ART &
FRAME
Overland Park Art & Frame is
located at 8008 Foster in
Overland Park.
Boasting the oldest retail pictureframing
gallery in the area, Overland
Park Art & Frame has been in
business for four decades. Founded
by Anthony Ferrara, Sr., the
gallery originally sold art supplies
to painters, teachers and students,
as well as offering art and pottery
classes by notable local artists,
including Jim Hamil.
Today Overland Park Art & Frame
is a full-service framing gallery. While
providing the standard custom
framing, they also offer unique
services such as art restoration,
corporate art rental, installation and
delivery. They are experts in custom
framing pieces of any size, ranging
from something as small as a dime, to
pieces as large as eight feet or more.
Dennis Saum, the gallery’s proprietor since
March 2001, has a twelve-year background in
framing and employs a knowledgeable staff with
over twenty years of combined framing and
retail experience.
Offering expert custom framing at affordable
prices, Overland Park Art & Frame continues
a legacy of exemplary customer service that has
kept many of its original customers coming
back for decades.
138 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

A family-owned restaurant, bar, catering
and carry-out business, Hayward and Hattie
Spears have been serving up delicious
barbeque since the opening of the original
Hayward’s Pit Bar-B-Que on August 19, 1972.
As its popularity spread, crowds would
often line up outside the front door of the
small, single-room restaurant at the corner
of Ninety-fifth and Antioch. It wasn’t long
before Hayward set his sights on an area
of undeveloped land at 110th and Antioch.
There, on the outskirts of the city, he built
a sprawling, modern facility that could
accommodate any size gathering and, as the
area developed, would become an integral
part of the business community and
Corporate Woods.
Today, Hayward’s famous restaurant seats
221 customers and offers catering for business and
social parties, large banquets and is fully equipped
to serve meals to more than 5,000 customers every
week. Full lines of barbeque sauces and seasoning
rubs have become staples at grocery and specialty
stores throughout the Midwest.
With over thirty years in the business of
creating outstanding barbeque, Hayward
continues to add new menu items to
accommodate more diversified tastes and is
devoted to offering the highest quality food and
services available.
HAYWARD’S
PIT BAR-B-QUE
The long drive from the University of
Houston to Overland Park gave Dr. Terry Hawks
plenty of time to think. Fresh out of school and
ready to work, he needed financing and
patients. When a gracious aunt loaned him
the money, Dr. Hawks established his practice in
Overland Park and Gardner in 1974. He grossed
$187 that first month and committed himself to
serving his patients with the highest
quality eyecare anywhere in the area.
Thirty years later, twenty
employees and three optometrists
have joined Dr. Hawks including
Dr. Greg Besler in 1986, Dr. Jason
Rogers in 1995, and Dr. Jeffry
Gerson in 2000. They offer a
number of eyecare services such as
eye examinations, treatment of eye
infections and glaucoma, refractive
surgery, corneal refractive therapy,
low vision evaluations and products
including contact lenses, spectacles
and sunglasses. Eyecare and eyewear
for the needy are made available
through “The 20/20 Foundation”
founded by Drs. Hawks, Besler & Rogers and
the Vision USA program affiliated with the
Kansas Optometric Association.
Experience top quality, state-of-the-art
eyecare with a premium on patient service at the
offices of Drs. Hawks, Besler, & Rogers located
at 5703 West Ninety-fifth in Overland Park and
315 East Main in Gardner.
DRS. HAWKS,
BESLER &
ROGERS,
OPTOMETRISTS
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 139

DRAGON INN
❖
Dragon Inn is located at 7500 West
Eightieth Street.
A landmark among the restaurants located in
Overland Park, the Dragon Inn is renowned for
its Peking and Szechuan cuisine. Established in
1975 by Mr. and Mrs. To-Ping Tsui, the Dragon
Inn is located at 7500 West Eightieth Street and
has become one of the finest, most popular
authentic restaurants in the greater Kansas
City area.
The Dragon Inn is family owned and operated
and assures patrons the finest service in a
beautiful atmosphere as they enjoy the best in
Chinese food. Authentic Peking and Szechuan
dishes are sure to satisfy the taste buds. Peking
cuisine has been served to royalty in China for
many years and includes duck and chicken
specialties. Szechuan cuisine, also extremely
popular in China, is spicy and hot and can be
suited to the specific tastes of customers. These
foods are prepared with a specially formulated
red pepper sauce and other Chinese herbs.
The Dragon Inn is open seven days a
week-Monday through Thursday from 11a.m.
to 9:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday from
11 a.m. to 10:45 p.m., and Sunday from 11
a.m. to 9:45 p.m. Well-known for its catering
and private parties, as well as extensive carryout
menus, the restaurant is a “must” for
anyone interested in experiencing a true taste of
the Orient.
❖
140 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

SPONSORS
Andy Klein Pontiac-GMC.............................................................................................................................................................102
Bank of Blue Valley ......................................................................................................................................................................135
Blue Valley School District 229 ....................................................................................................................................................123
Bob Hamilton Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning Company..............................................................................................137
Bodker Realty, Inc. .......................................................................................................................................................................118
Bott Radio Network .......................................................................................................................................................................96
Branded Emblem Company, Inc./Camp David, Inc.......................................................................................................................129
C. B. Self & Company/City Properties ..........................................................................................................................................121
Church of God (Holiness) .............................................................................................................................................................94
City of Overland Park ....................................................................................................................................................................88
Cloverleaf Office Park ..................................................................................................................................................................106
Corporate Woods ® Office Park/C.W. Associates ............................................................................................................................114
Dalton’s Flowers, Inc....................................................................................................................................................................124
Dragon Inn ..................................................................................................................................................................................140
Drs. Hawk, Besler & Rogers, Optometrists...................................................................................................................................139
Hayward’s Pit Bar-B-Que ..............................................................................................................................................................139
Heartland Animal Clinic, P.A........................................................................................................................................................116
Herald and Banner Press ................................................................................................................................................................95
Hickock-Dible Companies............................................................................................................................................................136
Holiday Inn & Suites Overland Park West .....................................................................................................................................83
James R. Shetlar Law Offices, P.A..................................................................................................................................................127
Johnson County Community College .............................................................................................................................................98
Johnson County Museums ...........................................................................................................................................................138
Kansas City Bible College and School.............................................................................................................................................93
Locks & Pulls, Inc. ......................................................................................................................................................................137
Lucas Development LLC ................................................................................................................................................................83
Lund & Balderson, AIA, Architects and Planners..........................................................................................................................117
Metcalf Bank ................................................................................................................................................................................122
O’Neill Automotive, Inc. ..............................................................................................................................................................130
Overland Auto Paints ...................................................................................................................................................................132
Overland Park Art & Frame .........................................................................................................................................................138
Overland Park Church of God (Holiness).......................................................................................................................................92
Overland Park Heritage Foundation .............................................................................................................................................133
Overland Park Historical Society..................................................................................................................................................128
Overland Park Jeep ......................................................................................................................................................................134
Overland Park Masonic Lodge #436.............................................................................................................................................112
Ranch Mart, Inc. ..........................................................................................................................................................................131
Rau Construction Company ...........................................................................................................................................................84
Roger the Plumber .......................................................................................................................................................................108
Saint Luke’s South........................................................................................................................................................................126
Shawnee Steel & Welding, Inc. ......................................................................................................................................................83
Sheraton Overland Park Hotel......................................................................................................................................................100
Sprint Corporation.......................................................................................................................................................................104
Stinson Morrison Heckler LLP......................................................................................................................................................120
Traditions Furniture .....................................................................................................................................................................119
Wallace, Saunders, Austin, Brown & Enochs, Chartered...............................................................................................................125
White Haven Motor Lodge...........................................................................................................................................................110
Sponsors ✦ 141

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
NORM
KEECH
Having been born in the Overland Park area, Norm Keech has had a lifelong interest in the history of Kansas and Johnson
County. He also is an active member in two historical organizations. In addition to an interest in his church, his hobbies
include woodcarving and personal computers.
Keech retired after working forty-five years as a data processing computer operator, programmer, and data security administrator.
He and his lovely wife, Carolyn, reside in Overland Park, Kansas.
ROSS
MARSHALL
Marshall is a native Iowan and a graduate of Iowa State University with a degree in civil engineering. For thirty-one years,
he was a corporate manager for the Ceco Corporation, a national concrete construction company specializing in high-rise
building construction. Now retired, he was the executive director for the Alexander Majors Historical House in Kansas City
for three years.
Marshall’s avocation for many years has been our country’s history during the nineteenth century westward movement,
specializing in historic overland wagon trails. He is a past national president of the Oregon-California Trails Association, past
national president of the Santa Fe Trail Association, and currently serves as the vice-chair of the Partnership for the National
Trails System. In addition, he is active with several local history groups, including the Kansas City Area Historic Trails
Association, the Heritage League of Kansas City, and the Friends of the National Frontier Trails Center.
A frequent speaker and trail tour guide, Marshall and his wife, Jana, are long-time residents of Merriam, Kansas.
142 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ANN
OGDEN
Growing up in the Overland Park community, Ann Ogden heard many stories of the history of northeastern Johnson
County from her father, Audley Porter, whose grandparents settled in the area in 1857. It was only natural, then, that as a
retired journalist she would continue her interest in learning about and helping to preserve local history.
As an expression of that interest, Ogden has worked with the Overland Park Heritage Foundation on several projects,
including a Strang-era exhibit, and has been working with the Shawnee Mission Indian Historical Society to preserve and
restore an area Shawnee Indian cemetery. She is a past president of those societies and a member of the Overland Park
Historical Society.
FLORENT
WM. WAGNER
Florent Wm. Wagner grew up in the metropolitan Kansas City area. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from
Rockhurst College, and a law doctorate from the University of Kansas City. For twenty years, he headed the trust department
of the Overland Park State Bank and Trust Company.
In 1985, Wagner retired from banking. Upon his retirement, Wagner, a member of the Overland Park 2000 Foundation,
the only organization in Overland Park at that time charged with the function of identifyintg, studying, and preserving the
history of Overland Park, started interviewing the people who lived and worked in Overland Park so that he could record
their stories. He encouraged the formation of the Overland Park Historical Society and has been a board member or officer
of that organization since its inception.
About the Authors ✦ 143

For more information about the following publications or about publishing your own book, please call
Historical Publishing Network at 800-749-9790 or visit www.lammertinc.com.
Black Gold: The Story of Texas Oil & Gas
Historic Abilene: An Illustrated History
Historic Amarillo: An Illustrated History
Historic Anchorage: An Illustrated History
Historic Austin: An Illustrated History
Historic Beaumont: An Illustrated History
Historic Bexar County: An Illustrated History
Historic Brazoria County: An Illustrated History
Historic Charlotte: An Illustrated History of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County
Historic Corpus Christi: An Illustrated History
Historic Denton County: An Illustrated History
Historic Edmond: An Illustrated History
Historic El Paso: An Illustrated History
Historic Erie County: An Illustrated History
Historic Fairbanks: An Illustrated History
Historic Gainesville & Hall County: An Illustrated History
Historic Henry County: An Illustrated History
Historic Houston: An Illustrated History
Historic Kern County: An Illustrated History of Bakersfield and Kern County
Historic Laredo: An Illustrated History of Laredo & Webb County
Historic Louisiana: An Illustrated History
Historic Midland: An Illustrated History
Historic Montgomery County: An Illustrated History of Montgomery County, Texas
Historic Oklahoma: An Illustrated History
Historic Oklahoma County: An Illustrated History
Historic Omaha: An Illustrated History of Omaha and Douglas County
Historic Pasadena: An Illustrated History
Historic Passaic County: An Illustrated History
Historic Philadelphia: An Illustrated History
Historic Prescott: An Illustrated History of Prescott & Yavapai County
Historic Richardson: An Illustrated History
Historic Rio Grande Valley: An Illustrated History
Historic Scottsdale: A Life from the Land
Historic Shreveport-Bossier: An Illustrated History of Shreveport & Bossier City
Historic Texas: An Illustrated History
Historic Victoria: An Illustrated History
Historic Williamson County: An Illustrated History
Iron, Wood & Water: An Illustrated History of Lake Oswego
Miami’s Historic Neighborhoods: A History of Community
Old Orange County Courthouse: A Centennial History
Plano: An Illustrated Chronicle
144 ✦ HISTORIC OVERLAND PARK

LEADERSHIP
SPONSORS
Church of God
(Holiness)
City of
Overland Park
ISBN: 1-893619-37-0