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University Daily Kansan, July 27, 1983
More than 60 percent of St. John's parishioners are older than 65. Here, Draga Rodina and Mildred Yadrich walk home after 8 a.m. Mass.
St. John's is the center of the Croatian community in Kansas City, Kan. Some residents fear that the church will be closed if parishioners can't support it.
Wanda Johnson and Mellisa Sigler get a break from their fifth-grade classes. They attend St. John the Baptist Parochial School.
Strawberry Hill rich in history
In the 1860s Chief Splitlog and his band of exiled Wyandot Indians from Ohio made a new home along Jersey Creek in what is now an old part of Kansas City, Kan.
They often traveled up the hill that then overlooked all of Kansas City, to pick wild
Hence the name — Strawberry Hill.
EVEN THOUGH THE Indians outlasted the strawberries, the berries lived on in name.
Today Strawberry Hill is a Catholic Crowned community with a heritage as rich as any in the country.
The first Croatians to come to Kansas City were recruited from Yugoslavia in the late 19th century to work in packing houses along the Missouri River.
The Croatians lived on the river's bottom land east of Strawberry Hill and west of what is now Novi Beograd.
The Irish bought the hill from the Indians and built tightly spaced rows of small, two-story houses.
The hill was then in Wyandotte City, separate from Kansas City, Kan.
SOON THE IRISH families on the Hill had saved enough money to move farther west in the city, and the Croatians had saved enough money to buy houses on the Hill. Some had saved enough money to quit work at the packing houses and finally start businesses of their own.
In 1900 the Croatians started their own Catholic parish — St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. Since then Strawberry Hill has been a predominately Croatian neighborhood.
Still, reminders of other inhabitants remain. Streets in the community are named after the Wyandot Indians, and though St. Mary's has been closed, the Irish houses are still being used.
But now the neighborhood is growing old.
AFTER WORLD WAR II the neighborhood was troubled by prosperity. Those who came back from the war did not come back to the Hill. Like the Irish before them, they bought better homes west of Strawberry Hill in Kansas City, Kan.
"Hundreds of kids got married and moved off the Hill," said Nick Tomasic, Strawberry Hill resident and Wandvatte county district attorney. "That was it."
With young Croatians moving off the Hill and new immigrants buying homes west of the Hill, the population of the Hill began to get steadily older.
Tomasic said that 60 percent of the parishioners at St. John's were 65 or older and that the old parishioners on fixed incomes found it difficult to support the church
Today the Croatian culture in Kansas City, Kan, centers on St. John the Baptist Church, although Croatians have spread throughout the city.
"YOU DON'T HAVE Slavic people on the Hill anymore. You have different nationalities," said Mr. Almajon, a professor of Russian language.
"This (Strawberry Hill) used to be about 99 percent Catholic," Tomasic said. "It's not now."
The construction of Interstate 70 on the east
side of the neighborhood eliminated about 200 homes, along with about a third of the Hill.
Although many Croatians have moved away from Strawberry Hill, they retain their loyalty to the company.
"They all come back," he said.
They are come back, he said.
Though the Croatians may come back to Strawberry Hill, their numbers are not as great as they once were.
The grade school, which had 50 or 60 students to a grade in the early 1960s, had 261 students last year, or an average of 29 students a grade.
Croatians in Kansas City, whether they live on Strawberry Hill or not, know a lot about the history of the Croatan people there.
SISTER DANIEL, who teaches third grade
John's, had his students last year, but not all of
them.
Parish organizations at St. John's, such as the Tamburtizans, perform ethnic舞和 dances and expose the people of Kansas City to Croatian customs.
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS, such as the Catholic Club and Boy Scout Troop 19, meet at the parish, exposing people who may not live on the Hill to the Croatian culture.
The culture of the Croatians in Kansas City should remain strong as long as there are people on the Hill to support the church, Tomascic said.
"but we have no money in reserve," he said. "We're on a day-h-day basis. We get the opportunity to do something."
Mary and Danny Tokic walk down Strawberry Hill, past the parochial grade school, to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, classes every day.
Photos and text by Steve Zuk
The passing of time hasn't been kind to the Strawberry Hill community. Many of the younger residents have chosen to move out, while older residents have remained behind.