Intro to Santa Fe Place, Kansas City

This is the first entry into a journal on one guy's experiences in moving from Minnesota to rebuild one abandoned house in Kansas City. The title of the blog comes from my neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri; the historic Santa Fe Place Neighborhood. I am diving into this project with little experience in rebuilding houses and I have never lived outside of Minnesota until this endeavor. Whether I like it or not, many learning opportunities will confront me, and I am a person who tends to understand learning opportunities best when I am able to think them through by outward expression. Writing a blog seems like my best option for reflecting on this adventure.

I like History! Let's start with a brief introduction to the Santa Fe Neighborhood history.

In 1827, John Thornton became the first person to file a claim on the 520 acre land
known today as the Santa Fe Neighborhood. The land was used as a distillery and grain
mill to serve the people on the Santa Fe Trail and those in the Westport and Kansas City
areas. In 1835 the land was purchased by Jones and Rachel Lockridge, who had five
children and several slaves.
Between 1850 and 1860, Thomas Lockridge, a son, extended the farm’s boundaries and
constructed Kansas City’s first public hall at 5th and Main Street. During the Civil War,
Thomas Lockridge sold much of the family’s farm, with the exception of the family homestead.
(By his father’s will this property could only be transferred from one Lockridge
to another, not sold.) After Thomas’s death in 1868, relatives had the will revoked, and
in 1893 they began developing an exclusive residential neighborhood called Santa Fe
Place. By 1915, Santa Fe had the reputation as “the place to live” for the rich and powerful
in Kansas City. During the 1920’s, Santa Fe maintained its elite status. Also
during this time period, J.C. Nicols began developing the Country Club district, attracting
affluent White families.
In 1931, the all-White neighborhood created a covenant that “no real estate in Santa Fe
Place could be sold, given, rented to or occupied by Black people for a period of thirty
years.” Despite the covenant, in 1948, Dr. D.M. Miller and his wife became the first
Black family to establish residency in Santa Fe. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled the
covenant unconstitutional and illegal in 1949. By the 1950’s, affluent Black families had
moved into some of the homes in the Santa Fe neighborhood.
The first of nine organized community groups, Victor Neighborhood Club, was formed in
1951 and established rules for keeping the neighborhood attractive. After struggling to
find educational services for their children, Benton School was designated a Black school
in the area. Later, the name of the school was changed to D. A. Holmes School. In 1986,
the Santa Fe neighborhood was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The
Santa Fe neighborhood has faced challenging times, and has a rich history
-Santa Fe Neighborhood Report from July, 2001