McClure Flats was  called the Kansas City Ghetto and was located just south of the Old KC Star building and stretched all the way to 20^th and McGee.  McClure Flats existed between 1880 until around 1919, although there is some conflicting information on the date of its demise.

The Flats, which stretched from 20^th Street north to the Old KC Star building, was populated mostly by immigrants and was referred to as a “tenement”, a “slum” or a “ghetto”.  The conditions in the Flats were not good.  Newspapers reported that the residents of the Flats lived in small “cave like” brick structures with no running water nor windows.  The picture does show that each small dwelling did have a chimney so at least they had a way to heat in the winter.  What did they burn in the fireplace.  I don’t know.   As one might imagine with no running water, the conditions and sanitation of the area was reportedly disgusting and eventually led to its condemnation and destruction in 1919.  At this time authorities were also dealing with the Spanish Flu epidemic and felt that the horrid conditions in the Flats would lead to further spreading of the flu.

I also found an article, printed on August 17, 1906, which said that the Flats were condemned during that year.  The article, titled “Flats Condemned:  Kansas City takes Drastic Action Against A Old Eye-Sore” says,

The McClure flats, known as the local “Ghetto,” were today condemned by the board of health as unfit for habitation.  All of the 120 apartments were ordered vacated by some six hundred occupants.  The sanitary conditions are the worst ever found here.

Evidently the city did not follow through on the condemnation as I found another article dated 1910, which says that at this time, there were 10,000 people living in the slum, none of whom had running water.  Again, imagine the sanitary conditions that must have existed.  As mentioned earlier, officially the Flats were closed and destroyed in 1919 during the Spanish Flu Epidemic.

As one might imagine, there were some nefarious activities going on in the flats during these times as well.  A 1901 article in the Kansas City Gazette tells a of woman who was selling infants in the flats for profit.  The woman, Mrs. Addie Dehmer, who lived in a “miserable” looking house at 2613 Grand (a couple blocks south of Crown Center) reportedly purchased the infants from Dr. Mathis’ hospital at 1227 Michigan Avenue.  She then sold the infants to beggars who used the children to garner pity from residents on the street.  The police eventually raided Mrs. Dehmer’s home, finding “five or six half starved infants piled on a single bed”.

Please review the images with this post as I have added some history of the buildings surrounding the area.  Today, a significant portion of what was the McClure Flats is an open parking long (20^th and McGee) There is also a block of buildings, then the Scientology building now located where the flats would have been.  If you look at the image with the red circles you can see the tower from the KC Star building in both images.  In the older image it appears that the flats run all the way to the KC Star building.

A story with a bit more recent note is that in 2017 when a new building was being built at 18^th and McGee human bones were found as the foundation was being worked on.  It is probable that the bones belong to a one-time resident of McClure Flats.  The 1940 image of a small gas station and hamburger joint is the location where the bones were found.  Again, check the images with this post to see the location of those bones over time.

Fun Fact: The location of McClure Flats was one of the proposed locations for the new Royals Stadium that was voted down.

I need to thank Tami’s Unique Kansas City History Facebook page which is where I first saw the image that led to this post.  I encourage you to check out her page, it has a lot of neat old images of Kansas City.  Please check out my website at www.jonathanjonesauthor.com.  And you might as well pick up a signed copy of any of my books while you are there!