Which street was named after a Dutch doctor, who was pivotal in the construction of Kansas City's first hotel?
What bustling business district challenged downtown as a hub of commerce?
Where did the richest man in Kansas City live in 1951?
Troost Avenue.
Surprised? Father David Paisius Altschul was when he first started researching the corridor's history more than 20 years ago. Now, that knowledge is on display.
Last week, a steady stream of families, students and nuns in black habits strolled the second floor of the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center, taking in the "200 Years on Troost" exhibit on opening night.
Surveying the crowd, with hands folded in front of his long robes, Altschul knew many of the visitors by name. The driving force behind the annual Troost Festival, Altschul is the director of Reconciliation Services, a religious charity at 31st Street and Troost Avenue, and the most prominent visionary for the struggling corridor.
The amateur historian first started researching the area's heritage in 1985. In 2001, after being ordained in the Serbian Orthodox Christian tradition, he returned to the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2001 to pursue a master's degree in social work and wrote a 69-page study about community building on Troost Avenue.
"We can't create a new sense of village if we've not faced the traumas of the past," he says.
Traumas like the displacement of Native American communities, the use of slaves on the Porter Plantation, the discriminatory tactics that turned Troost into a dividing line between the city's Caucasian and African American communities.
The "200 Years on Troost" exhibit highlights those darker episodes while also describing the avenue's hey-day as a thriving business district flanked by lavish neighborhoods inhabited by the city's most wealthy and influential residents. Though fascinating in its own right, the exhibit, Altschul says, is meant to be a catalyst for further dialogue.
In coming weeks, he says, his group is hosting a series of "Transformative Conversations," focusing on different aspects of Troost's history. Representatives from the Osage Nation, the Jewish and Greek communities, among others, will describe their ties to the diverse corridor. "All these pieces, we've lost touch with," Altschul says of the area's heritage. "This is an opportunity to bring them back together."
The exhibit runs until the end of October, but bookmark this Web site to stay in the loop on upcoming conversations.
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Anyone remember Don's Barbecue on Troost, around 39th I think? Had the best brisket, homemade italian dressing, and Michelob on tap. I remember it from the 60's, don't know when it closed. The area was a little seedy at the time but still had Penney's and more
Meeting with the Troost folks over the past few years has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. My original objective was to introduce change to the educational system in our Kansas City area.
But the current main objective? It seems to be that we gather together as a community, introducing change in ourselves, which then radiates outward (in small or large ways) in every aspect of our lives, including education. Surprise, surprise!
In other groups, one sees an ebb and flow, depending on who agrees with who, and who leads/follows/floats along. With this group, the particular emphasis is not on politics or social structure, but in getting past that. We're learning to find the dividing lines/meeting places (as one friend likes to say) within ourselves and our group, and to find the "genius" (as other friends say) in each one: in short, neighbors celebrating neighbors.
After thirty years of teaching in Kansas City, Missouri, I'm finding Troost to be a liminal, magical place. Hope you'll join us.
Nancy Merrill Sayed
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