Petticoat Lane, East from Main Street

Petticoat Lane -- East 11th Street, Kansas City, Mo., a postcard scene in color published by the South-West News Company, Kansas City, Mo., pictures the street on a warm summer day, about 1908.Striped red and white awnings on store windows help to keep out the hot sun in a day before air conditioning; ladies in long summer dresses and summer hats and a one-horse shay with fringe around the top (foreground) tell the weather story.A single early vintage automobile, parked near the fire plug, shows a new means of transportation has come that will soon dominate the scene; the horse and buggy and the rings in the curb along the sidewalk will all be gone.The establishment in the foreground on the right is Browning King's haberdashery for men and boys. In 1913 Harzfeld's occupied that site with a fine 11-story building for their ladies' ready-to-wear, millinery and shoe store. Today the AT&T Town Pavilion, a 38-story concrete and steel office building, nears completion on this old Petticoat Lane site, Main to Walnut. A three-level restaurant and retail mall will occupy the three lower levels.The famous Emery, Bird, Thayer department store is pictured at the left center. Far in the background at 11th and McGee is the tall spire of the First Congregational Church, a site now occupied by the Trailways Bus Company.Petticoat Lane, in the heart of Kansas City, was given its name in the 1890s. It was modestly described by an early-day writer as receiving its name by virtue of garments of the same name exposed by the whims and whiffs of Kansas prairie winds.Kansas City TimesJuly 18, 1986Streets Postcard Categories Special Collections