Country Club Plaza, 47th & Mill Creek Blvd.

The first buildings to be constructed on the Country Club Plaza appear on this early postcard, published about 1930. Mill Creek Parkway, now J.C. Nichols Parkway, was named for the creek that formerly flowed there from Westport, where its waters furnished power for an early-day mill. On the extreme left side is the Chandler Landscape and Floral Company building, on the site now occupied by Swanson's. It was built in 1916, the first building on the Plaza. A filling station is conveniently located at the 47th and Mill Creek intersection. Another filling station was a block north. The Mill Creek Building housing six shops was the second building erected on the Plaza. Jesse Clyde Nichols thought of the Plaza as a buffer between an approaching Kansas City and his newly developed district of beautiful homes. Purchasing and assembling the property was a monumental task. Brush Creek valley was of rough terrain, unkempt, trash-filled and not much used except by young boys at the swimming holes on the creek. A brick yard belched black smoke from its kilns. Early photographs show a trash dump near today's Putsch's Sidewalk Cafe. Edward Buehler Delk, former Philadelphia architect, finalized the master plans for the Plaza in 1922. Edward W. Tanner, designer of most of the buildings, George Kessler, planner of Kansas City's boulevards and parks, and Herbert Hare, early landscape architect, were among those who helped Nichols' dream come true. Trips to Spain by Nichols made a lasting impression. According to Robert Witmer, He was intrigued with the colorful market places, the ornate towers, open courtyards, balconied buildings and the generous use of tile and ornamental iron, and the fountains. In Spanish the word plaza means marketplace. It seemed appropriate here. The grassy lawn at the right is the site of the J.C. Nichols memorial fountain, a gift to the city from the Nichols family. Kansas City Times, August 10, 1984.