Real Estate & Houses for Buy & Sale Kansas City, MO

Things Not to Miss in Kansas City

• Explore the extensive art collection at the Nelson – Atkins Museum of Art
• Feast on authentic Kansas City BBQ
• Roam around the Kansas City Zoo’s penguins, zebras and giraffes
• Try your luck at the casinos
• Enjoy live music at the historic 18th and Vine Jazz District
• Shopping around Country Club Plaza

Highlights

Kansas City is well known for its contributions to the musical styles of jazz and blues as well as to cuisine, specifically, Kansas City-style barbecue. With over 200 fountains it is has earned the nickname, “City of Fountains,” and claims to have the second most in the world, just behind Rome. The city also has more boulevards than any city except Paris and has been called Paris of the Plains. Many universities, colleges, and seminaries are located in the Kansas City metropolitan area, including the University of Missouri–Kansas City, Rockhurst University and Kansas City Art Institute among others.

History

Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri. It is located in the western part of the state, at the junction of the Missouri and Kansas rivers. Kansas City is located in Jackson, Clay, Platte, and Cass counties.

In 1821, the year Missouri entered the Union, French trader François Chouteau came from St. Louis to establish a trading post on the site of the present city to take advantage of the growing fur trade with the Kansa, Osage, Wyandotte, and other tribes. In 1833, a settlement called Westport Landing was laid out by John Calvin McCoy and developed. The community became the Town of Kansas and was incorporated as a city in 1850 and renamed Kansas City in 1889. The city’s name reflects its Native American heritage—its site was within the territory of the Kansa, or Kaw, Indians.

The city grew rapidly in the mid-1880s as the starting point for gold prospectors and settlers heading westward. The coming of the Missouri-Pacific Railroad in 1865 and the spanning of the Missouri River by the Hannibal Bridge in 1869 also contributed to the city’s growth. It also prospered as a center for the nation’s cattle business.

The Kansas City metropolitan area, once known primarily for agriculture and manufacturing, has expanded its economic base to include strong growth in areas of telecommunications, banking and finance, and the service industry. A transportation hub since the 1800s, the area enjoys a national and regional prominence as a distribution and manufacturing center. Kansas City ranks nationally as first in greeting-card publishing (Hallmark Cards is located there), frozen food storage and distribution, and hard winter-wheat marketing; second in wheat flour production; and third in auto and truck assembly. The area is one of ten federal regional centers, and the federal, state, and local governments are among the top employers. The city is also a regional center for health care.