Same lawn, different centuries: KC’s Nelson-Atkins Museum has remained postcard perfect
Editor’s Note: Past|Present is a new video series from The Star that travels through time to show how scenes Kansas City depicted in vintage postcards look today. Have a postcard you’d like to share with our team? Tell us about it here.
How much has Kansas City changed over the last century? The series Past|Present finds vintage postcards featuring notable buildings and locations, then reveals the exact same scene as it looks today.
William Rockhill Nelson’s grand estate, Oak Hall, was replaced in 1933 by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The landscaping around the neoclassical facade was handled by Hare & Hare, a Kansas City firm that also laid out Loose Park.
Today, the grounds are still immaculate, but the same vantage point used for the postcard now reveals a Shuttlecock-- the sculpture project that “landed” on the lawn in 1994. At first, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s art was disparaged as too frivolous, but soon the big birdies became Kansas City icons. In recent years, the museum has even installed an art-themed miniature golf course on the grounds during the summer months.
Looking for more Kansas City history?
- The golfing connection that gave us Loose Park
- How Wrapped Walkways and Loose Park brought Christo to town in 1978
- The lasting popularity of radio’s “Brush Creek Follies”
- KC’s Thomas Hart Benton made waves in the art world
- The view from above the museum in the Star’s Zip By Zip