J.C. Nichols and the Shaping of Kansas City: Innovation in Planned Residential Communities

Born and reared on the outskirts of Kansas City in Olathe, Kansas, Jesse Clyde Nichols (1880-1950) was a creative genius in land development. He grew up witnessing the cycles of development and decline characteristics of Kansas City and other American cities during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These early memories contributed to his interest in real estate and led him to pursue his goal of neighborhoods in Kansas City, an idea unfamiliar to that city and a rarity across …