Leeds, MO, 37th Street

Thirty-seventh, the main street in Leeds, is shown in a photographic post card in black and white mailed in 1917. Telephone poles line the dirt road. Homes as well as business houses, such as a feed store, the Renick greenhouse and flower shop and the Leeds horseshoeing shop are pictured.(After the Harry S. Truman sports complex was completed in 1972, 37th Street was renamed Stadium Drive.) In 1926 a report on the resources and opportunities of Jackson County stated: Although within the corporate limits of Kansas City, Leeds is a municipality within a municipality. Leeds has many manufacturing plants and is the location of 13 greenhouses, from whence comes approximately 90 percent of all the home-grown cut flowers used in Kansas City...The Howe and Renick greenhouses, with 70,000 square feet of space are the largest in the district. The rose production here this year will run close to the million mark. During the winter months it takes more than 25 carloads of coal to heat the glass-enclosed houses. In addition to the 13 greenhouses, Leeds boasts of a railroad tie-treating plant, which has an output of more than 100,000 ties a month, three rock quarries, a woodworking plant in which wooden parts for automobiles are manufactured; a coal, grain and feed mill concern; a concrete products company; two ice plants and a lumber concern. These in addition to many retail stores create lucrative employment for many persons. The district also is the location of a branch of the Kansas City Telephone Co., the Blue Valley Bank, police station, fire station, two churches and a post office. Modern improvements similar to those enjoyed within the heart of Kansas City have been installed in Leeds. Plans now are under way for the construction of a steel mill, which will be the second largest plant west of Chicago. A map of the area drawn by a Journal-Post staff artist was included in the report and showed the course of the Blue River through the district, and four railroads serving the area. The Leeds assembly plant of General Motors was built in 1928, and production began the next year. The company recently observed its 50th anniversary there with a three-day celebration. The post card was furnished by Annette (Smart) Epperson of Sumner, Mo., who wrote: This is a post card of Leeds, Mo., in 1917. Most of the business places at that time were owned and operated by the Renick families of Leeds, our relatives. Kansas City Times, September 21, 1979.