See how time has shaped KC hill that has been health care hub for more than a century
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.
Kansas Citians have long used the term “Hospital Hill” for the area east of Gillham Road between 22nd and 25th Streets. The first City Hospital began operation there in 1870 in a small frame building on 22nd Street.
It wasn’t long before the fast-growing city found itself in dire need of a bigger facility. Col. Thomas Swope, of Swope Park fame, donated a large tract nearby to house a new, more modern, public hospital.
In 1908, General Hospital opened at 23rd and Holmes. Above its entrance the imposing brick structure bore a quote from William Shakespeare, “The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.”
In 1930, its name changed to General Hospital #1. That’s the year that General Hospital #2 opened its doors to Black patients across the street at 508 E. 22nd Street. The new building was seen as a political feather in the cap of Boss Tom Pendergast.
Research Hospital, originally German Hospital, also joined the burgeoning health care cluster on the hill with a facility of its own..
The vintage streetscape pictured on the postcard looks remarkably tranquil compared to the same view today. In it, we can see office buildings and parking garages from the University Healthcare, formerly Truman Medical Center, campus, Children’s Mercy Hospital and the UMKC Medical School.
But what about that tall smokestack that’s still standing? Turns out it’s part of the old Municipal Hospital Power Plant that provided heat for General Hospital back in the day.
Looking for more Kansas City history?
Keeping patients isolated often meant building tuberculosis wards, clinics and hospitals. “What’s Your KCQ?” looks back at some of them.
The mysterious death of Col. Thomas Swope still baffles us today
The Pendergast years were marked by a. number of bloody exchanges, including one on Election Day 1934