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Our History
A century ago, not long after the end of World War, people were ready to enjoy all the modern conveniences. The Crestwood Shops, which opened in 1921, would help. with that.
Kansas City was rapidly expanding. One of its new sub-divisions was Crestwood, which was developed by the J.C. Nichols Company in an area that had previously been known for pasture and woodland. The work of Hare & Hare, the renowned landscape architecture firm ensured that the bucolic setting would retain much of its beauty even as it was transformed into a suburb. One amenity planned by the Nichols Company was the Crestwood Shops.
Edward W. Tanner was the architect for the Crestwood Shops. He was the principal designer for the Nichols Company, and was responsible for the design of most of the buildings ‘on the Country Club Plaza, in addition to the Linda Hall Library and approximately 2,000 houses in this area. The Crestwood Shops were created in the classic American colonial style. The original stores were at the west end of the property. Within a few years, storefronts were opened along 55th Street between Brookside Boulevard and Oak Street.
Shoppers would find the Crestwood Shops easy to access. Car ownership was still new enough to be a novelty to many people -- and there was parking, right in front of the stores. Neighborhood residents might decide to take a walk on a nice day, window shopping, or crossing errands off their lists. For those traveling from farther away, there was the Country Club streetcar line, which ran on tracks parallel to Brookside Boulevard; the Trolley Trail now marks that site. Very quickly, real estate ads started touting proximity to the Crestwood Shops as a plus for the discerning home buyer.
In the early days, the Nichols Company sometimes envisioned what their customers would want, and then tried to find a tenant to fill that need. Back in the 1920s, that included a millinery shop, among others. However, that practice quickly fell out of fashion, as did, well, hats. Through the years, the Crestwood Shops have had a tremendous variety of businesses, including restaurants, bookstores, gift shops, and clothing boutiques, as well as a few more unexpected ones, such as cold storage lockers, construction companies, and even @ music school: In earlier eras, it was possible to see an osteopath, take out a mortgage loan, get shoes resoled, drop off dry-cleaning, have the furniture reupholstered, and hire a plumber ~- all in the Crestwood Shops.
Then as now, many of the businesses in the Crestwood ‘Shops were locally owned, and, in some cases, were run by several generations of one family. The Muehlbachs had been in the grocery business since the 1870s. George Muehlbach & Sons were located in the Crestwood Shops from the 1920s until the early 1980s. (The Crestwood Shops once boasted three grocery stores. There have also been specialty stores, such as bakeries and butcher shops.) For many years, be- ginning in the 1930s, Eva Atwell operated the Crestwood Beauty Shop. (At times, there have been several salons in the Crestwood Shops.) Crestwood Flowers holds the longest tenancy. It dates from 1932. Marguerite Glenn was the original proprietor. Since the late 1970s, Ruth Ann Swearingen has been the owner.
By the 1930s, there was such a proliferation of pharmacies that there was one anchoring each comer of 55th Street. Crown Drugs was on the west side. The east side was home first to Brecklein & Tucker, then to Brecklein & Horst, and eventually to Brecklein & Rings. An early-day innovation that boosted foot traffic was the presence of giant statues of rabbits as Easter neared. This would be a precursor of popular activities in the coming decades, such as the midsummer sidewalk sales, Halloween festivities, and the Holidays in Crestwood events. Home design has been a staple, with interior and architectural design firms among the tenants of the 1920s and later decades. Antique stores and art galleries became prolific in the post-World War Il era, and especially in the 1960s and beyond. Dolphin Interiors, the Lenord Gallery, the Sebree Gallery, the Crestwood Gallery, and Elva Needles Antiques were among those who fulfilled the needs of those in search of tasteful furnishings and art.
The shareholders of the J. C. Nichols Company agreed to a merger with Highwoods Properties in July 1998. Not long after that, Highwoods decided to sell some of its local real estate holdings. A group of local merchants purchased the Crestwood Shops in early 2000. Among them were the ‘owners of businesses that are still in Crestwood today including Charlecote, Crestwood Flowers, and George Terbovich Design Inc.
