Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Reporter's Notebook: 100 years of feuding neighbors on Armour

Posted by Peter Rugg on Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 2:27 PM

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​The struggle in Hyde Park among Section 8 landlords, renters and homeowners is the subject of this week's feature story ("Battle on Armour"). One complaint is that some neighborhood residents believe out-of-town landlords are filling buildings with only low-income tenants and creating the perfect conditions to attract crime. Arguing over who's the best tenant for the boulevard is nothing new.

Reading newspaper stories from the late 1920s and early 1930s, it was clear that Kansas City's middle class was bemoaning the riffraff on the boulevard decades ago.

One sad story laments the death of social graces and the new neighbors who would never deign to mix with the former great homeowners:

Persons who never aspired to acquaintance with the exclusive

residents of Armour now mount with assurance the steps of mansions,

that once were barred against them.

The kitchenette has taken the place of the proud and stately butler

and his competent corps of assistants. The parlor, bedroom and bath has

succeeded the elegant privacy that reigned for a quarter century in the

first few squares east of Main street on the boulevard that took its

name from the wealthy Armour family.

Even the cocky little 1931 Ford coupe has invaded a thoroughfare

once sacred to the matched team hitched before the graceful landau and

the expensive Victoria, Stenographers and salesmen dash up and down

East Armour with the same confidence once enjoyed only by scions of the

rich and powerful.

If only the 1930s newspaper men could see it now.

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