1882 Wright and Grote City Plan or Map of Kansas City, Missouri

This is a rare 1882 Carl Gothe de Grote and Harry T. Wright city map of Kansas City, Missouri - published in Kansas City! The map captures Kansas City in its moment of most explosive growth, illustrating the engines of said growth, including urban development plans, railroads, and the Kansas City Stockyards.

A Closer Look

Wash color highlights additions (Smart's Addition or Rice's Addition), subdivisions, and neighborhoods throughout. These additions underscore the incredible growth Kansas City during the second half of the 19th century. A dotted and dashed line to the left of the 'West Kansas City Addition' and close to the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers marks the state line. Kansas City, Kansas is labeled just to the left of the state border. Railroads, such as the 'Kansas City, St. Joseph, and Council Bluffs Railroad', the 'Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad', and the 'Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad', traverse the city and railroad depots, machine shops, and other affiliated buildings are identified.

The Kansas City Stockyards

The Kansas City Stockyards occupy land not far from the largest railroad depots and are connected to large stockyards across the Kansas River by the Armourdale Bridge. These stockyards boomed during the second half of the 19th century, and by 1871, the Kansas City stockyards were the second largest in the United States, with Chicago having the largest. The Great Flood of 1951 destroyed the Kansas City Stockyards, and they never fully recovered.

Kansas City in the late 19th century

Following the American Civil War (1861 - 1865), Kansas City expanded explosively. In 1869, the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad opened a bridge across the Missouri River at Kansas City. With fast railroad access to lucrative markets, Kansas City's population quadrupled over the subsequent 50 years. The city officially changed its name to Kansas City in 1889.

Publication History and Census

This map was compiled and drawn by Carl Gothe de Grote and published by Harry T. Wright in 1882. We note five examples of the 1882 edition cataloged in OCLC: Yale University, Harvard University, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Denver Public Library, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Subsequent editions published in 1884 and 1886 are also cataloged in OCLC.