The Brookside Story: Shops of Every Necessary Character

Brookside's burgundy-and-blue-striped awnings represent both a quaint corner of Kansas City where you can tread the creaky wooden floors of the Dime Store and a pragmatic philosophy that changed the way America planned its cities. Renowned developer J.C. Nichols's "plan for permanence" was built on his conviction that if a community could offer its residents everything they would want and need, build to high standards and plan for future growth, the community would last. The Brookside shopping district has been giving the community everything it could want and need since 1919, helping it weather economic turbulence, natural disasters and dramatic changes.


About the Author
Morton, Ladene: - For the last thirty years, LaDene Morton has lived and worked in the Brookside area, including ten years as a tenant in Brookside and later serving as project manager to the Brookside Community Improvement District. For those same thirty years, she has worked in the field of community development research and analysis and spent her career studying how communities like Brookside work. In addition, her historical novel, What Lies West, was a 2010 finalist for the WILLA Literary Award, presented by the writers association Women Writing the West.