100 Years of the Country Club Plaza | Nichols' Folly (Full Documentary)
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- čas přidán 16. 07. 2024
- After developer J.C. Nichols announced plans to open the Country Club Plaza in 1923, some skeptics scoffed at the notion, labeling it “Nichols’ Folly.”
Over the following decades, the Country Club Plaza became the defining landmark of Kansas City, offering an alternative downtown with increasingly luxurious shopping options and serving as a springboard for suburban sprawl. It gained fame as the nation’s first planned shopping center designed to accommodate the automobile for a nation on the move.
Nichols’ Folly will examine the long and dramatic story of the Country Club Plaza. It will assess its legacy. More so, it will ponder its future.
0:00 Introduction
01:24 The Early Years
06:19 Post World War II
09:02 Civil Rights / Riots of '68
10:37 The Golden Years and The Flood of '77
13:45 The Upscale '80s
17:25 Large Corporations Buy Plaza
22:03 Protests & Removal of J.C. Nichols Name
24:45 Conclusion
Appearances by:
1. Elizabeth Rosin
2. Quinton Lucas
3. William Worley
4. Jesse Clyde Nichols III
5. Ken Block
6. Vicki Noteis
7. Alvin Brooks
8. Curt Diebel
9. Emanuel Cleaver
10. Gwendolyn Grant
11. Sly James
12. Kate Marshall
13. Chris Goode
Kansas City PBS - KCPT, Kansas City - Zábava
Our family moved to Kansas City in the mid 1970s and spent a lot of time at the Plaza shopping, going to movies, eating and enjoying its unique architecture.
And beauty. As the corporate world descended on the Plaza it began a decline when huge buildings rose up and when working class apartments buildings were turned into expensive condos it began losing its charm. Greed ruins everything eventually. I haven’t been down there in years.
I worked at Woolf brothers in the 1970s. My mom Manon Mallin, worked at Bennett Schneider for many years. My nana lived at the Locarno and I remember being up in her apartment for the Christmas lighting ceremony. I never remember anything about crime. Loved Harry Starkers, La Mediterranee’ , harzfelds, my aunt worked in the designer handbag department at halls/Swansons. Such beautiful memories
Crime did NOT PAY on the Plaza! Until the trash were allowed in…
My grandparents lived in Westwood, built a patio out of old extra tiles. It was built in blocks, Mom moved it to her new home. After there passing. Grandad worked for the Stockyards for 50; yrs. Use to talk bad about Pendergrast. We went to Putch's for dollar shaped pancakes on Sunday morning. Plaza lights. Memories, the Rabbits at Easter, rubbing the boar statue nose. Lots of memories all good
I am 77 years old and for as long as I can remember my parents took me there to shop. We went many times to Sears, Roebuck & Co. My mom bought her first sewing machine there and told my dad that she would make me clothes but she didn’t. I always got to see the Christmas lights and the bunnies at Easter with me all dressed in a fluffy dress and hat. You showed the parking lot where my parents parked and then we walked across the street to go to Sears. I saw Putsch’s Cafeteria where my husband to be went every Sunday to go eat after Church in 1965 and we got a slice of Prime rib for 85 cents that filled the plate, it was so delicious, things were so much better then. Jack Henry is where he bought the suit he got married in.
Looks like the plaza used to have more trees back then looked a lot nicer
Perhaps an investment-funded co-op could buy The Plaza, with a covenant that says only residents of the KC Metro area can own shares. I would buy some of those shares, and I'm poor. Just to own a piece of my own history and preserve it for the future.
We use to hang out on the plaza in the mid to late 80’s we use to get harassed for all kinds of things
As a black person we weren't allowed on the plaza unless we worked there we definitely couldn't live there in the early years I worked for Harzfelds an exclusive expensive department store in the 70s with the well known green and white sacks I remember we could not drive through or near the plaza without being stopped I was not able to move there to live until the early 90s that rent was high but I wanted to live in this prejudice exclusive area the place blacks and other minority was denied to live in peace I fought hard to live there in those days when I moved in I loved it the fight was worth it I remember the Brushcreek flood early 2000s my fav place to jog was Mill Creek park with the big fountain I live in Florida now came back to visit KC went to the plaza it's not the same it don't feel the same I was told it's no longer owned by the Nichols
Why, I wonder, do you imagine it changed?
That’s right I was told national guard surrounded the plaza in the 68 riot
ADOS Kansas City Missouri Checking in
That’s right my uncle said they would hang out in mill creek park in late 60’s early 70”a thats when he started seeing interracial couples, a lot of marijuana cannabis was sold too!
I miss all the local based businesses that were on the plaza during my childhood and through the 1990s. When Highwoods bought it from JC Nicols and brought in all the generic corporate tenants, it was ruined. One by one I watched so much of what made the Plaza, the Plaza disappear. I have just passed it by for years now. It's not for Kansas Citians anymore. It's just for the out of town tourists now. 😢😢😢😢
J.C. Nichols was a key figure and the primary advocate for "redlining" in Kansas City, implementing residential covenants that prevented Black people from buying homes and living in the more desirable neighborhoods.
A good black history documentary
We used to go the Plaza every chance we could but stopped when the thousands of teens began wilding. Sad they'd purposefully ruin prom nights by robbing and mob beating boys and throwing their dates in fountains. Elders out to dinner or to shop would be knocked around terrorized. Haven't been there except to drive through since all that wasn't able to be stopped. Rip Country Club Plaza
I was told Fred Arbanas lost his eye because of a disagreement with black patrons trying to enter a club on the plaza which in past years was segregated
My family member said blacks were only allowed to work on the plaza in the 40’s & 50’s if you got stop you had to have a work permit! Blacks were not allowed on the plaza until something like 64!
It's funny, because that was my first thought when I saw this yt suggestion, although I've no idea why. I'm not a kcmo native, nor do I know a ton about kc history (although I love learning about it!), but I've heard of your topic before, about that being how it was. I've recently learned about Quintana maybe is the name of the area. Fascinating history, and I really would like to explore that area.
I bet it was safe then
@@Jacob-nu4ndwhat you mean safe? I don’t want jump to conclusions!
@toddgoza3522 the "knockout game" didn't exist when blacks weren't allowed to be around whites.
Write a different future by putting on a hoodie and rewriting the past? No sir, and no ma'am. Revive the entrepreneurial spirit of success and style with a local owner who cares, and who will ensure the Plaza's future is managed by a competent trust, and not a bunch of socialist bureaucrats. And provide some serious, no-tolerance security. Of course this will never happen under the current city and county administrations.
Chris Goode is the scar on this video. Hopefully the Plaza can get a better ownership group and can bring a more neighborhood, local feel to it. It’s not too late. And it’s not a failure.
Crime tends to segregate.
Ok PBS…more race info intertainment….I’m full ..No thanks
You don’t want to hear about it, huh?
Things ruining the Country Club Plaza are the change in the architecture, the change in the type of businesses, and CRIME.
People can live and shop elsewhere locally and not be in danger of being r@ped, robbed, or shot at.
The Country Club Plaza is a historical and beautiful district, the jewel of KCMO. If the city allows it to be trashed, what do they have? There WERE ordinances at one time that did not allow some races to go there, but that is no longer the case, so why let it go to ruin? How does that benefit the city? Would the city leaders cut off their nose to spite their face?
I’m 71 years old, and I know the true history here, not only of Kansas City, but of America, PERIOD. I know that JC Nichols didn’t have to go to Spain or anywhere else to get architectural designs and bring that to the plaza, because those designs were Already here through the Colored people, whom are the Indians. Kansas City, already had a wealthy establishment, WAY BEFORE JC Nichols was even born. The buildings were covered up by the system that took our history and REVERSED it. The Mud covered community that Kansas City, built over, was US. The wealth of the colored people. We had houses that would make the houses on State Line, which was ours anyway and Ward parkway and the bottoms, all belonged to us first. Our people was the first Kansas City and Benton Blvd was ours before it was for the Caucasian people. President Truman went to Church on 25th Benton Blvd, after our colored people owned it. It was ours FIRST. Everything in Kansas City belonged to the Indians aka Copper Colored ABORIGINES aka today’s Renamed African Americans and many people know that, especially the older Caucasian people, but God made good come out of the bad of the red linings that JC Nichols started that United the people and that good is Patrick Mahomes, yes a Colored man, whom has a colored dad, they both are professional sportsmen, like most are on the Kansas City, CHIEFS. JC Nichols copied off of us, whom had already the architectural development you see on the plaza before it was covered by the mud slides. If you dig under ground in most America you would see US. The buildings you see were the Greek, which are the creek Indians, you will see the Chickasaw, which I AM. You will see all the tribes of Jacob RENAMED ISRAEL all across America that JC Nichols used the format to redline the cities of America. This man was the reason why still to this day that many colored people are still renting from Caucasian people and the Caucasian community are owning all the fabulous houses in Overland Park, Lee Summit and the Plaza and Ward Parkway and Stateline, also Red Bridge and Leawood Areas, for the most part all you see are Caucasian people in those areas OWNING houses. It’s not us, because for years since I graduated from the old Central High School in 1970, all I ever witnessed was discrimination and racism in Kansas City as far as housing loans. It’s never been equal since before the 40’s when most colored people still had whole families that actually OWNED housing before the division took strong affect on over America with the JC Nichols format of REDLINING.
I hear you. I read a paper a law student did on troost and how they even would not let Jewish ppl own in ward parkway area, beautiful houses over on the MO side, gorgeous. I felt safe driving over there any year, it's how you treat people that makes the person.
You are on the right track. Look up the Tartarian empire.
@@QuartzDiamond86 all the empires happened here, First, in America the birthplace of ALL humanity in THE TRUE OLD WORLD AMERICA. America isn’t the new world, we are the old world! It was only new to the people whom spread out from among us, during the Tower of Babel. Those that stayed in the Old World America we the linage of JACOB aka ISRAEL whom are the today’s Mexicans, Hispanics, Latinos, Brazil, Cubans, Haitians, aka RENAMED African Americans, remember we were RENAMED by OBAMA in March 15, 2015 as African Americans, and Masonic Mason Jesse Jackson introduced the name change in 1981, remember he at one time was trying to run for president and then that whole ordeal with the reputation of his son, that ruined not only Jesse Jackson’s Son’s reputation but also Jesse Jackson himself. There was even speculation that Jesse Jackson had Martin Luther King, Jr. set up for assassination of the very balcony he stood with him. People think just because we have the same skin color that makes one a brother, but the Good Lord himself stated, “Beware of those in sheep’s clothing.” Unquote. Our history has been REVERSED for a reason and that reason was based on LIES!!!
Uh huh. Take the medicine as prescribed.
My first time on The Plaza was as a kid during Christmas. Our dad took us. My siblings and I were mesmerized. Such a beautiful site during the holidays.