11th & Main St. looking North, Kansas City, Mo.

Shoppers crowd the sidewalks and cross the street at will, without regulation or traffic lights, in this busy 1910 scene at 11th and Main. Handsome glass globes suspended from an iron post combination street market and street light are seen in the foreground, just below a Peck’s store sign. The George B. Peck Dry Goods Co. was successor to Doggett Dry Goods, which had been located at the same site. Listed in an early Peck’s advertisement were their buyers at 2 Walker Street, New York; 66 Faulkner Street, Manchester, England; 3 Cite Trevise, Paris France; 25 Theater Street, Chemnitz, Germany, and 16 Rossenberg Strasse, St. Gall, Switzerland. The big department store extended from Main to Baltimorem with entrances on both streets. A small tea-room and soda fountain were conveniently located near a postoffice substation toward the back of the first floor. At the right of the post card is the newly finished 15-story Waldheim Building. The entrance is on 11th. Aaron Waldheim of St. Louis purchased the site in 1905 and the building was occupied in 1907. A son, Millard Waldheim, also of St. Louis, continues the ownership today, with Schmelzer-Wysong management. Florsheim Shoes, on the corner, and the Cake Box Bakery presently occupy street level space in the Waldheim Building. Kansas City Times, April 21, 1978.