Southwest Boulevard (Kansas City)
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Southwest Boulevard (simply known as "The Boulevard" locally) is an arterial street in
Kansas City, MO Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...
and
Kansas City, KS Kansas City (commonly known as KCK) is the third-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As ...
.


Description

On the north end Southwest Boulevard starts as 19th Street at Baltimore Avenue in Kansas City, MO, and travels southwest crossing the state line into Kansas City, KS at 31st Street and continues until crossing 39th Avenue at which point it continues as Merriam Lane. Southwest Boulevard passes through the
Crossroads Arts District Crossroads is a junction where four roads meet. Crossroads, crossroad, cross road(s) or similar may also refer to: Film and television Films * ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa * ''Cross Roads'' (film), a ...
and the West Side Neighborhood in
Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
and also the Rosedale Neighborhood in
Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
. Throughout the Kansas City area, the Boulevard is known for its wide selection of authentic Mexican restaurants and grocery stores. It is the home of the
Boulevard Brewing Company Boulevard Brewing Company is a brewery located in Kansas City, Missouri. The Brewers Association currently ranks the American arm of Boulevard's parent company, Duvel Moortgat USA, as the 4th largest craft brewery, and the 13th largest active br ...
which was founded in 1989 and is now one of the largest craft breweries in the USA, with a capacity of over 600,000 barrels per year.


History

Southwest Boulevard originated as two roads, one being the main street of Rosedale, Kansas, when it was platted in 1872 as "Kansas City Avenue", and the second called "The Rosedale Road", or "Kansas City Boulevard", on the Missouri side.Southwest Boulevard - Merriam Lane Corridor Master Plan
(2010)
Two property owners provided land to link the two roads in 1887, and the entire road was later renamed as "Southwest Boulevard."Landis, Margaret
A History of the City of Rosedale
Ch. 10 - "Southwest Boulevard" (1976)
Heeded Plaint of Motorists: Rutty Southwest Boulevard is to be made permanently smooth
''The City Hall'' (October 1910, p. 160)
One of those landowners was Simeon Bell, who later donated the land upon which Eleanor Taylor Bell Hospital was built on Southwest Boulevard, and which housed the University of Kansas medical school until the 1920s. The Rosedale-Kansas portion of the road was originally
macadam Macadam is a type of road construction pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam , in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the original mat ...
ized, and was paved in 1915. The Boulevard twice faced devastation during the 1950s, first by water during the
Great Flood of 1951 In mid-July 1951, heavy rains led to a great rise of water in the Kansas River, Missouri River, and other surrounding areas of the Central United States. Flooding occurred in the Kansas, Neosho, Marais Des Cygnes, and Verdigris river basins. ...
, and then by fire, in 1959, when an oil tanker explosion killed six people and caused widespread property damage. Part of the road used to be signed as U.S. 69Kansas, a Guide to the Sunflower State
p. 500 (1939)
until the 18th Street Expressway was completed in the 1950s.


Major intersections


See also

*
39th Street (Kansas City) 39th Street is a major east–west street in Kansas City, Missouri, running almost 5 miles from State Line Road at the Kansas-Missouri border to Topping Avenue in Kansas City's East Side. It was originally named Rosedale Avenue as it led to the ...
* Linwood Boulevard (Kansas City) *
Prospect Avenue (Kansas City, Missouri) Prospect Avenue is one of the major north-south streets in Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City metropolitan area. It begins in the north at E Reservoir Drive in the Pendleton Heights, Kansas City, Pendleton Heights neighborhood of the Hist ...
* The Paseo (Kansas City)


References


External links


Southwest Boulevard Photographs
Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library {{coord, 39, 5, 17.29, N, 94, 35, 18.33, W, region:US, display=title Streets in Kansas City, Missouri Boulevards in the United States