One, Two, 10 Little Subdivisions:

WPHA Growth Along 75th Street

In the last article in this series, we introduced Albert Heslip, a country marshal for Jackson County who owned a farm in the WPHA area.  Heslip was also in the real estate business, as numerous transactions in county land records indicate.  Between 1910 and 1913, Heslip saw the increasing value of his own remaining farmland (from 74th Street to 75th Street between Ward Parkway and Belleview Avenue) as residential real estate.  He sold off a 167-by-100 foot lot facing Ward Parkway to Minnie A. Washer in 1912.

 

In March, 1913, Heslip created the seventh subdivision in the WPHA area, “Westmoreland Heights.”  From the plat document, it would appear that his farmhouse sat on Lot No. 1; that lot is now the last three homes on the west side of the 7400 block of Jarboe.  The lot he sold off previously, which is now 7419 Ward Parkway, is now the oldest home in the subdivision.

 

Others also saw the increasing land values in the area.  The remaining Wornall family land near 75th and Wornall was soon acquired by several different people in a complicated series of transactions.  In May 1917, James F. Pickett created the eighth subdivision, “Westmoreland Terrace”, which consists of the west side of the 7400 block of Jefferson Street.

 

A large group of business owners created the ninth subdivision, called “Waldo Center”, in January 1920.  It extends from 74th Street to 75th Street and from Washington Street to Wornall Road, and was the first subdivision not restricted to residential use.  And in July 1923, James and Harriet Stanwood created “Stanwood Place”, the tenth subdivision in the WPHA area, also for commercial use.  It is made up of the commercial property facing 75th Street between Washington Street and Pennsylvania Street, including the present-day parking lot behind the buildings.