Walt Disney used to frequent a theater on this midtown KC corner. See how it’s changed
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.
As Kansas City seeks feedback on a proposal to change the name of Troost Avenue, this installment of Past|Present peeks at a stretch of the street which was beginning to flourish in the 1920s.
A postcard sold in the early part of the decade shows the beginnings of suburban retail growth from Linwood Avenue north to 31st Street.
The Wirthman Building on the west side of Troost contained shops and offices, and most notably, the Isis Theater, which was often attended by a young Walt Disney. It’s where he met organist Carl Stalling, and established a working relationship that the two later resumed in Hollywood.
Looking for more Kansas City history?
- How has this corner of downtown Kansas City changed during the last 100 years? This episode of Past|Present takes us back in time.
Troost Avenue has become known as Kansas City’s dividing line — and its roots run deep in the city’s history of racial segregation and slavery. Was the street named for a slaveholder?
Do you remember what KCI’s triple terminals looked like when they first opened? The continuous curved interiors from 1972 are quite different than what travelers see at Kansas City’s new terminal building.
Where did Kansas City get its name? Why isn’t it named for the state in which its located?
Between Westport and the Plaza used to be home to one of KC’s first integrated communities, where Black people owned homes and Charlie Parker went to Penn School. Learn more about the Steptoe neighborhood and its history.