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Kansan
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Leaving Lawrence
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2000
(USPS 650-640)
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Jazz museum pays tribute to Kansas City's musical past
By Jason McKee Special to the Kansan
There was a time when the Kansas City jazz scene was hopping. In the golden age of jazz, from the 1920s to the 1950s, music flowed from the historic district near 18th and Vine streets, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Jazz players from across the country came to play at the clubs that lined the streets.
There aren't many legendary musicians who walk the streets like native son Charlie Parker, who cut his teeth on 18th and Vine streets before heading to New York to revolutionize jazz with his brand of bebop. Now, only a few remnants of that era remain such as the Gem Theater, old diners and closed-down pool halls and churches.
The district was given new life several years ago when former mayor Emanuel Cleaver spearheaded an effort to return it to its former glory. Now a museum stands along the street to pay tribute to its one-time heroes. The American Jazz Museum honors the men and women who contributed to the popularity of the music.
"Its still popular here," said Archie Turner, security specialist at the museum. "You just have to know where the right places are. There's only about six or seven places to go, but they go all night."
The Blue Room, the only jazz club in the, features live music four nights a week and is open until 1 a.m. on weekends. Outside of the former jazz district, a few clubs in Westport and the downtown area feature jazz musicians, but there isn't a centralized location for the clubs.
Turner said he thought popularity had decreased because there wasn't any hype about the clubs.
"The clubs are packed, but there are no lines outside like some of the dance clubs," he said. "Everybody is inside."
But Lee Hill Kavenaugh, who sits in with bands across town, playing the bass trombone, said he thought Kansas City had lost its place in the jazz community.
"Kansas City is more of a blues town," Kavenaugh said. However, she said that the town was moving back toward its roots of the '40s and '50s with the swing and bebop of Parker.
Kalley's Westport Inn, 500 Westport Road, is a bar and grill located in the Ewing Boone building. Albert Gallatin Boone, the grandson of frontiersman Daniel Boon, operated a store in the building for six years. Photo by Carrie Julian/KANSAN
Westport: full of history
Current businesses show community's 'colorful' past
By Molly Gise
Kansan correspondent
Saloons, taverns and general stores used to stand where the bars, clubs and vintage stores that now line Westport Road are located. And more than 150 years before teen-agers and twenty-somethings would traverse this popular area of Kansas City, Mo., pioneers filled the streets of the town of
Westport before heading West to seek their fortunes.
"This was a colorful place to be in the 1830s and 1840s," said John E. Perruca, owner of Pryde's Old Westport, 115 Westport Road.
The father of Westport and a cofounder of Kansas City was a young surveyor named John Calvin McCoy, according to the Web site of the Westport Historical Society (http://www.westporthistorical.org), which traces the early history of this district through the man's life.
At age 19, McCoy moved to Western Missouri in 1830 with his parents. By 1833, he had built a two-story log building on the land that now is the intersection of Westport Road and
"This was a colorful place to be in the 1830s and 1840s,"
John Perruca
Pryde's Old Wesport owner
Pennsylvania Street.
"The historic site can truly be said to be the birthplace of Kansas City," according to the Web site.
McCoy opened a general store where he traded with Native Americans and sold supplies to westbound wagons. But McCoy had bigger plans for his home.
In 1834, after purchasing the land around his home, McCoy planned and mapped out a town, which he called Westport. By 1835, he filed this town
plat at the courthouse in Independence, Mo., and the town of Westport was incorporated on Feb. 12, 1857.
"Westport was just a little frontier town." Perruca said.
The new town developed rapidly because it was the farthest place west of the Missouri River, and it had a strategic location at the junction of three major wagon trails, the Oregon, the California and the Santa Fe, Perruca said.
Not only was Westport more convenient than other frontier towns, like Independence, but it also was cheaper.
"It was like the last chance to buy gas before you went out on the great prairie." he said.
See WESTPORT on page 4B
The 18th and Vine district was once home to Kansas City's jazz clubs. Now the Negro Leagues Baseball Hall of Fame and the American Jazz Museum draw tourists to the area.
Illustration by Maggie Curry/KANSAN
Museums reflect accomplishments of African-American community
By Kursten Phelps Special to the Kansan
Johnnie Lee doesn't just go to work. Every day, he relives the seeming invincibility of a Satchel Paige fastball and Jackie Robinson's strength of character as he broke baseball's color barrier.
"I've always been absorbed in black history, the legacy of Blacks and baseball, so for me, it's really a labor of love," Lee said.
Lee, a Kansas City, Mo., resident for 48 years, has worked in the gift shop at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City's 18th and Vine district for about a year. After volunteering there since 1991, Lee now is paid to chat with visitors and share his love of baseball and Kansas City.
The museum deals with more
Jonnie Lee
"I've always been absorbed in black history, the legacy of blacks and baseball, so for me, it's really a labor of love."
Kansas City, Mo., resident
than just baseball. Housed in the same building as the American Jazz Museum, it is the modern centerpiece that celebrates the cultural heritage of one of Kansas City's most historic neighborhoods.
During the first half of the 20th century, 18th and Vine streets were the heart of Kansas City's African-American community. In
the era of Jim Crow laws, the district thrived with churches, Black-owned businesses, newspapers and clubs.
"It was really a Black bloodline, because at that time discrimination was at an all-time high." Lee said. "In the '20s and '30s, KKK membership was at its height, so Blacks had to congregate somewhere, and this is where they came. Anybody that was somebody came here and intermingled."
Among those visitors to 18th and Vine streets were baseball players from the Negro leagues. African Americans, who had been excluded from white baseball by segregation, played on teams that barnstormed around the country in the early 1900s, playing anyone who would take them on.
See MUSEUM on page 4B
Drawn to Kansas City
Casinos are among popular entertainment options that draw students away from Lawrence and into the Kansas City metro area
See page 5B
Open air shopping
The Country Club Plaza offers upscale restaurants, stores and specialty shops in a unique atmosphere
See page 3B
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