I’ve used a few photos from this batch in my previous posts about the tough looks of old-time bosses,  about a day in life of a Kansas City Ford dealer (this one received a comment from someone in the photo), and about the schoolchildren visiting the Nelson-Atkins. These pictures were taken for the feature story “Kansas City and St.Louis: Picture portfolio shows some contrasts between striving city and a settled one“, published in March of 1954.

Back to back in the middle of the U.S., 235 miles apart across the state of Missouri, ate the two cities – Kansas City (pop. 456.662) and St.Louis (pop.856,796) – which together sum up a good part of America. In many ways the two are alike. Both were founded by French traders (St.Louis in 1764 by Pierre Laclede Liguest and Auguste Chouteau, Kansas City in 1821 by Chouteau’s nephew). Both are on great rivers, both lie in the same farm belt, both are famous for their newspapers and both are prospering. But in outlook and temperament the cities are radically different. Old and mellow, St.Louis reflects the East and South of the U.S.; its most prominent statue is that of Louis IX, the saintly French monarch for whom the town is named. Young and brash, Kansas City faces the wide-open energetic West; its favorite statue is of an American Indian who gazes out over the stockyards.

Nowhere is the contrast between St.Lois and Kansas City more noticeable than in civic improvement. Kansas City is eager to better itself; efforts to make St.Louis pay for its own civic health run into endless delays.

Kansas City’s first citizen, Star Editor Roy Roberts, whose solid, influential paper has argued for civic betterment since its founding, says, “In St.Louis the wealth is reaching the third generation, and when this happens in any town it goes dead for a while. In Kansas City we are just now making our wealth.” Kansas City uses this new wealth for civic improvement. It gladly voted $43 million in bonds in 1947. The city’s slum area is only 6% and is dwindling. Whenever the city needs to expand it annexes a neighboring area and keeps building. Once known as the most sinful town in the U.S. – a condition abetted by the late Pendergast machine – Kansas City votes on a reform administration in 1940 which cleaned it up.
Nowhere is the contrast between St.Lois and Kansas City more noticeable than in civic improvement. Kansas City is eager to better itself; efforts to make St.Louis pay for its own civic health run into endless delays.Kansas City’s first citizen, Star Editor Roy Roberts, whose solid, influential paper has argued for civic betterment since its founding, says, “In St.Louis the wealth is reaching the third generation, and when this happens in any town it goes dead for a while. In Kansas City we are just now making our wealth.” Kansas City uses this new wealth for civic improvement. It gladly voted $43 million in bonds in 1947. The city’s slum area is only 6% and is dwindling. Whenever the city needs to expand it annexes a neighboring area and keeps building. Once known as the most sinful town in the U.S. – a condition abetted by the late Pendergast machine – Kansas City votes on a reform administration in 1940 which cleaned it up.