Historic places face threats every day. Those threats vastly exceed Historic Kansas City’s resources, but we seek to work with historic neighborhoods, whom we can assist to preserve the history and character that is important to them. Saving a historic structure takes months to build a coalition, work with city planning and gain the support of councilmembers.
HISTORIC DESIGNATION NOMINATION
HISTORIC KANSAS CITY supports the Valentine Neighborhood Association, which has applied for the local designation for a new district called the Norman School Historic District. The District encompasses three blocks bounded by 35th Street to Valentine Road and the west side of Pennsylvania to the east side of Summit Street (Southwest Trafficway).
The district includes 60 contributing resources constructed between 1902 and 1929. (The larger Valentine Neighborhood extended from 33rd Street to W. 40th Street between Broadway and Southwest Trafficway).
See Valentine Neighborhood website HERE.
BACKGROUND
Kansas City Life owns 18 properties in the proposed historic district, 9 of which are vacant lots in place of previously demolished buildings. In February, Kansas City’s Historic Preservation Commission placed a 45-day hold on demolition permit applications for four historic multi-family buildings owned by KC Life. Submission of the Norman School Historic District nomination has further delayed demolition while the nomination proceeded through city review processes.
The Norman School Historic District’s boundaries sit just south of where Kansas City Life started tearing down 23 unoccupied homes in the fall. The insurance company bought the properties near its 3520 Broadway headquarters decades ago. Many of the residences subsequently sat and deteriorated. Kansas City Life said structural and design issues made them impossible to repurpose and pledged to eventually redevelop the lots.
But pushback from the Valentine Neighborhood Association has stemmed, in part, because residents believe Kansas City Life was demolishing the homes without any known plan or timeline for developing the vacant properties. The company has drawn up project concepts but not yet submitted any plans to the city.
Learn more about why Valentine has pushed back against Kansas City Life at SAVE VALENTINE.
SUPPORT THE VALENTINE NEIGHBORHOOD – PUBLIC HEARING
On June 27th, KCMO’s Historic Preservation Commission unanimously recommended approval for the Valentine Neighborhood Association‘s proposal to create the Norman School Historic District. On Wednesday, August 20th, the Kansas City City Plan Commission will be holding a hearing at City Hall to issue its recommendation before the proposal proceeds to City Council. The case number is CD-CPC-2025-00100, and the the case will be heard when the Commission resumes after lunch at 12:30 pm. The hearing will be held on the 10th Floor of City Hall and remotely by video conference. Citizens wishing to participate virtually should do so through the video conference platform Zoom, using the link
This is the first of a three-part public hearing process. The recommendations of the Historic Preservation and City Plan Commissions will be submitted to City Council for the final consideration of the proposal.
View the application and more at CompassKC HERE.
TAKE ACTION:
Support the historic designation of the Norman School Historic District by submitting a letter or email of support to the Historic Preservation Commission ahead of their meeting on the morning of Friday, June 27th. Additional levels of approval needed for establishing the new local historic district will require consistent advocacy from neighborhood stakeholders and all those supporting preservation of the significant homes and multi-family buildings of the District. We urge all individuals and neighborhood organizations in support of the Norman School Historic District, and historic preservation more generally, to reach out to your Council members ahead of the proposal’s additional hearings in September.
NORMAN SCHOOL HISTORIC DISTRICT
Built between 1902 and 1924, the Norman School Historic District is locally significant under Criterion C in the area of ARCHITECTURE. The District’s residential resources were designed and developed by a variety of individual entrepreneurs and realty companies, following earlier association with the McGee family landholdings and Interstate Fairgrounds. The District is named for its sole non-residential resource, the Norman School, a visually prominent Progressive-Era school of native limestone. The Kansas City Shirtwaist style predominates among the District’s contributing buildings, accounting for 27 residential homes consistent with material, massing, and stylistic elements characteristic of the style within the District. Also present are a cluster of Prairie Style homes built from 1919-1923. Eight contributing, purpose-built multi-family residential resources remain in the District. All are consistent with the registration requirements listed in the Colonnaded Apartments MPDF to be listed under Criterion C as contributing resources to a district. They exhibit a variety of the sub-types described in the MPDF, with only one example of a design repeated across multiple resources.
Sources
- Valentine Neighborhood Application to the Kansas City Register of Historic Places
TRIGGERS TEMPORARY HOLD ON DEMOLITION
Once an application has been filed, no building permit for alteration, construction, demolition, or removal of a property being considered for designation under an application for an HO district may be issued until the historic preservation commission has dismissed or denied the application for designation, or until the city council has denied designation in accordance with the procedures established in 88-580-01-C. and 88-580- 01-E., though no stay on the issuance of a permit may be for more than six months from the filing of the application. Some exemptions can apply.