Winnwood Beach

Winnwood park, located between north Kansas City and Liberty, is pictured on an old promotional post card put our by Frank Winn, who built the park. (The name apparently was misspelled by the printer.) The park opened in 1913 about the time the Kansas City, Clay County and Excelsior Springs Railway went into service in Clay County. The interurban trains brought visitors to the park from Kansas City, North Kansas City, Avondale, Moscow, Maple Park, Claycomo, Ravena, Glennaire, Liberty, Mosby, Prathersville, Excelsior Springs and stations along the route. Winn, a member of a prominent pioneer family with large land holdings in Clay County, was an authority on purebred hogs. When the interurban line was being planned he traveled to Atlantic City, N. J., and returned with ideas for an amusement park. He fashioned many of Winnwood Park's features after those he had seen at Atlantic City. Post cards called it Atlantic City of the West. The park's feature was the large lake used for boating and swimming and which was surrounded by a large wooded tract with primitive cabins for camping, rented on a weekly or monthly basis. A large dance floor with big bands was popular, and a boardwalk was lined with concessions and side shows. For years after the park's closing and the death of Frank Winn, his wife and his sister, Mary Winn, lived in the large red brick pre-Civil War Winn mansion, not far from Winnwood Lake. Later the home was razed to make way for a residential subdivision. Today Highway I35 follows the right-of-way of the old interurban line and part of Winnwood Lake remains just south of the busy roadway. Kansas City Times, June 30, 1978.