Highlights of Mission Hills
Nichols' Vision
Jesse Clyde Nichols
1880 - 1950
J.C. Nichols was born August 23, 1880, on a farm near Olathe,
Kansas. In 1905, he bought his first tract of land -- ten
acres near 51st Street and Grand Avenue in Kansas City,
Missouri. He turned it into the city's first "suburban"
development.
For his first suburban development in Johnson County, Kansas,
Nichols envisioned beautiful homes surrounded by landscaped
gardens and recreational areas. In 1912 his company built the
first house on the northwest corner of 59th Street and State
Line Road where there had once been a log cabin used by the
Indian agency as a headquarters and home.
Located south of the Shawnee Indian Mission, Mission Hills
featured large lots and streets curving through its natural
hills. It was surrounded with green space, lakes, and walking
trails.
Nature had provided wooded hills, meandering streams, lofty
plateaus and pleasant valleys for Mission Hills. It has
continued to be a city of beautiful homes and gardens.
Kansas Goes to Missouri
Christmas 1998 - Governor Mel Carnahan had a little bit of Kansas
to help brighten his holiday season. A 40-foot blue spruce grown
in a back yard in Mission Hills, Kansas, adorned the front yard of
the Governor's Mansion in Jefferson City, Missouri.
"When I got the e-mail, I didn't believe it," said Gene Fox,
a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Conservation. "I
said, 'Mission Hills? They've made a mistake.'" The reason
this blue spruce was transported across the state line? Its
conservation-minded owners could not transplant the tree, and
were looking for a good home for it.
Attention: Star Watchers
In 1990, the film, Mr. & Mrs. Bridge, starring Paul
Newman and Joanne Woodward, was filmed in our own hometown. The
setting was a private residence.
Understanding their need for privacy, our community accepted the
famous couple as "just folks." While youngsters did frequent the
fringes of the movie set to see their mothers' "heart-throb," Paul
Newman was often seen browsing the local shops -- just another
shopper!
In the winter of 2000, filming began in Mission Hills on
"The Painting," an interracial love story set during the civil
rights era. The independent feature starred such familiar faces
as Clifton Davis (TV's "Amen"), Charles Shaughnessy (TV's "The
Nanny") and Stacey Dash (the film "Clueless"), as well as
newcomers, Heath Freeman, Cody Dorkin, and Bumper Robinson.
Filming took place at a private residence in Mission Hills that
served as one of the movie's principal locations. The film
was produced by Santa Monica Productions.
Some Noted Mission Hills Residents
Mission Hills is the hometown of one of the greatest and
most successful professional golfers of all time, Thomas
Sturges Watson. Watson was inducted into the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame in 1991.
When noted author Ernest Hemingway turned eighteen, he tried to enlist in
the army to serve in World War I, but was deferred because of poor vision.
He took a job at the Kansas City Star, where he learned some
stylistic lessons that would later influence his fiction.
When Hemingway heard the Red Cross was taking volunteers as ambulance
drivers, he quickly signed up and was accepted in December of 1917. He left
his job at the paper in April of 1918, and sailed for Europe in May.
Ernest Hemingway later became a foreign correspondent in
Paris and began writing novels based on his war experiences.
He returned to the Kansas City area in 1928 and, with his
second wife Pauline, stayed with his aunt in her home in
Mission Hills, Kansas, where he completed his novel, A
Farewell to Arms.
In 1931 the couple lived on the Country Club Plaza where
Hemingway worked on his novel, Death in the Afternoon.
The couple’s second son, Gregory, was born in Kansas City.
Life is Like A Box of Chocolates...
Clara Stover
One of the landmark homes in Mission Hills once belonged to
famed confectioner, Russell Stover.
Russell Stover was born in 1888 in a sod house in northwest
Kansas. His wife, Clara Lewis, was also a farm girl, and was
born in 1882 in Iowa.
In 1921 the Stovers introduced an edible "brainstorm" named
the "I-Scream" bar, which was later called the "Eskimo Pie."
It was a chocolate-covered ice cream square in a little bag.
It looked like a roaring success, but 15 months later, the
Stovers were almost broke. They ended up with just enough
money to buy a small home and go into a candy-making business
they called "Mrs. Stover's Bungalow Candies." Russell sold
the candy, while it was Clara who made it.
The couple eventually settled in Kansas City and their company
grew dramatically. The company's memorable headquarters were
downtown at 1206 Main Street. It was a sweet-smelling factory
with a pastel "garden" office on the fourth floor.
Sixty-six-year-old Russell Stover died May 11, 1954.
Clara Stover survived him by 20 years. She carried on
the candy business until selling out in 1960. At age 93
she died on January 9, 1975, but her candy lives on under
the same familiar name.
Ewing Kauffman
One of Kansas City's foremost philanthropists is Ewing M.
Kauffman, whose home was Mission Hills, Kansas.
Many knew Ewing Kauffman as owner of the Kansas City Royals
baseball team, which his wife, Muriel, enthusiastically
encouraged him to buy. But his quiet humanitarian efforts,
which far outnumber his public efforts, have made a permanent
and lasting impact on Kansas City.
Ewing Kauffman was born September 21, 1916, on a Cass County
farm near Garden City, Missouri. He moved to Kansas City in
1924, and served in the Navy during World War II.
In 1945, he returned to Kansas City and worked as a
pharmaceutical salesman until he quit to form Marion
Laboratories in 1950. Kauffman led the company from fledgling
beginnings to sales of $930 million the last full year before
its 1989 merger with Merrel Dow Pharmaceuticals.
All the while, "Mr. K." was known for his countless acts of
kindness to every employee, from the highest executive to the
lowest wage-earner.
Ewing Kauffman and Canadian-born Muriel McBrien were married in
February, 1962, and spent much of their married lives devoted to
the support of many charitable endeavors. Ewing Kauffman died at
his Mission Hills home in August 1993. Muriel died as a result
of complications from surgery in March 1995.
Through their foundations, the Kauffmans left a living legacy
to the Kansas City community. The Muriel McBrien Kauffman
Foundation was founded to support the performing arts and health
care causes. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation champions youth development and
entrepreneurial leadership.
Contact Mission Hills Chapter
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