Blue Hills is a residential neighborhood on the East Side of Kansas City, Missouri, immediately south of Ivanhoe in the same corridor between The Paseo and Prospect Avenue. Built out in the early twentieth century as a white working-class district, it turned almost entirely African American within roughly a decade of the early 1960s through blockbusting. It is the home ground of two of the city’s longer-running neighborhood institutions — Blue Hills Community Services, a community development corporation founded in 1974, and the Blue Hills Neighborhood Association, formed at the end of the 1990s. The neighborhood was hit hard by the 2008 foreclosure crisis, carried a 27 percent vacancy rate as late as its 2016 quality-of-life plan, and sits beside Bruce R. Watkins Drive — the highway now the subject of a federally funded plan to undo some of its damage.

Boundaries

Sources disagree on the northern edge. The Blue Hills Neighborhood Association and the UMKC Center for Neighborhoods both give the boundaries as 47th Street (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) on the north to 63rd Street on the south, Paseo Boulevard on the west to Prospect Avenue on the east, about four miles southeast of downtown.12 Wikipedia instead places the northern boundary at Swope Parkway, keeping 63rd, Prospect and The Paseo.3 The neighborhood covers ZIP codes 64110 and 64130.3

Either way, Blue Hills occupies the Paseo-to-Prospect corridor directly south of Ivanhoe, whose own southern boundary is Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard (49th Street) — so the two neighborhoods’ stated limits overlap slightly depending on which source is used.

Development and racial transition

Most of the neighborhood’s houses were built in the 1910s and 1920s.3 The neighborhood association’s own history instead dates the neighborhood’s construction to the 1930s; the two accounts have not been reconciled here.1

Blue Hills was predominantly white and working class for decades. Beginning in the early 1960s, blockbusting — real-estate agents inducing white owners to sell cheaply on the threat of racial turnover, then reselling at a markup to Black buyers, the same practice documented along the Troost corridor — drove rapid demographic change. By the 1970s more than 95 percent of Blue Hills residents were African American.3 The area’s 2016 quality-of-life plan recorded the neighborhood as 91 percent African American, 5 percent white, 3 percent Latino.4 For the legal and lending architecture that shaped where Black Kansas Citians could buy, see restrictive-covenants-kc and civil-rights-era-kc.

Blue Hills Community Services

Blue Hills Community Services (BHCS) was founded in 1974 as a not-for-profit community development corporation working on housing, education, community engagement and advocacy in Blue Hills and adjacent neighborhoods — making it one of Kansas City’s older neighborhood CDCs, predating the community-development-corporation status that Ivanhoe’s council took on in 2009 by thirty-five years.45 BHCS was the lead agency for the neighborhood’s LISC-supported quality-of-life planning.5

BHCS built a modern, green-technology building at 5008 Prospect Avenue as the first phase of a commercial redevelopment plan for the Prospect corridor; it functions as a business incubator, giving area contractors office space and resources, and as community meeting space.64 By 2014 the organization had completed 225 home repairs and 15 rehabs and had built new houses on formerly vacant lots, and had converted an overgrown lot into a community garden and orchard.6

BHCS merged into Swope Community Builders effective May 31, 2018; on June 4, 2018 the combined organization renamed itself Community Builders of Kansas City (CBKC), headquartered at 4001 Blue Parkway. BHCS executive director Edgar Palacios described the merger as one that “honors and extends a 44-year-old commitment of revitalizing communities, improving neighborhoods, and enhancing the quality of life”; CBKC president and CEO Art Chaudry framed it as a way to “maximize synergies” and increase investment along the Troost, Prospect and Brush Creek corridors. The merger was structured so that BHCS’s assets would continue serving the community.7 Blue Hills therefore no longer has an independent CDC of its own name.

Blue Hills Neighborhood Association

The Blue Hills Neighborhood Association (BHNA) is a separate resident body from BHCS. The association’s own site dates its formation to 1999 and describes it as one of the largest neighborhood associations in the Kansas City area, governed by an elected board serving two-year terms and meeting on the fourth Saturday of most months; the UMKC Center for Neighborhoods lists it as established in 1998.12 Its stated concerns are crime reduction, housing deterioration, home-ownership education, neighborhood tensions, discrimination, service connection, youth engagement, and community participation.2 Programs have included a Community Emergency Response Team, a community garden and orchard, an annual walk-a-thon funding high-school scholarships, a pocket park built with a “Health Happens in Neighborhoods” grant, and Blue Hills-Beautiful, an eight-week block-by-block annual cleanup run with city departments and community partners.21

Housing and vacancy

Blue Hills was hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis: houses were boarded and residents moved out.3 KCUR’s 2014 photographic comparison of the neighborhood — part of the station’s Beyond Our Borders project on the divisions east of Troost — found roughly 3,600 residential properties with 55 percent owner-occupied and values recovering toward pre-recession levels.6

The 2016-2018 Quality of Life Plan, prepared by BHCS with LISC, recorded a harder picture: population 5,311, 51 percent owner-occupied, a 27 percent vacancy rate, median household income $32,404, 17 percent unemployment, and 80 percent of adults with at least a high-school education. Age distribution ran 31 percent under 20, 36 percent aged 21-49, 18 percent aged 50-64, and 15 percent over 65.4 The plan’s three goals were increasing youth and young-family engagement, expanding the home-repair program, and expanding new commercial and residential development along the Prospect corridor; the barriers it named included aging housing stock, low property values, low household incomes, blight along Prospect, and a lack of retail meeting residents’ needs.4

Wikipedia describes the neighborhood as having largely recovered by 2021, with some boarded houses remaining, as younger residents bought and repaired them.3 Vacant lots in Blue Hills also fall within the inventory of the Land Bank of Kansas City.

Bruce R. Watkins Drive

Bruce R. Watkins Drive — U.S. Route 71, planned from 1951 as the “South Midtown Freeway” and completed in 2001 — runs through the western side of the neighborhood; the highway appears inside the mapped Blue Hills study area of the 2016 quality-of-life plan, and BHCS’s Prospect Avenue building is described as visible from it.46 Citywide, the road destroyed about 2,000 homes and, by the NAACP’s estimate, affected the livelihoods of some 25,000 people, overwhelmingly in majority-Black East Side neighborhoods, and it took three decades to build.8 The specific number of Blue Hills structures taken for the right-of-way was not located.

Kansas City is now studying whether to undo part of that. With a $5 million federal planning grant plus $2.5 million in city funds and MoDOT money, the city has proposed converting a five-mile stretch of US-71 between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 85th Street — a span whose northern end is Blue Hills’ own northern boundary — into a below-grade “grade-separated parkway” with ground-level overpasses reconnecting the divided sides. A community meeting on the proposal was held April 9, 2026. Cost estimates for the studied alternatives ran $130-150 million for a freeway option and $70-90 million for a boulevard option; the parkway option’s cost was not yet established. Implementing major changes requires a federal judge to lift the highway’s 1985 consent decree.9

Today

Blue Hills remains a majority-Black residential neighborhood organized around BHNA and, since 2018, served by CBKC rather than a standalone Blue Hills CDC. Schools serving the neighborhood have included Troost Elementary, J.J. Pershing Elementary, Frances Willard Elementary, Southeast High School and Paseo High School; Hogan Preparatory Academy, a charter school, operates in the neighborhood and was named an implementation stakeholder in the 2016 plan.34

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Blue Hills Neighborhood Association — official site — asserts: boundaries 47th Street (MLK Boulevard) to 63rd Street, Paseo Boulevard to Prospect Avenue, about four miles southeast of downtown; the neighborhood developed “during the 1930’s”; BHNA established 1999 and among the largest neighborhood associations in the Kansas City area; elected board with two-year terms; general meetings the fourth Saturday of most months; program focus on crime reduction, resident communication, service coordination, paid youth internships and beautification. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. UMKC Center for Neighborhoods — “Blue Hills.” — asserts: boundaries 47th to 63rd Streets, Paseo Boulevard to Prospect Avenue; association established 1998; officers (president Linda Brown, vice president Catina Taylor, treasurer Judith Boyd, secretary Jakini MeNab); mission areas including crime, housing deterioration, home-ownership education, discrimination and youth engagement; meeting schedule and location at 5309 Woodland Avenue; Community Emergency Response Team, community garden and orchard, walk-a-thon and scholarships, Blue Hills-Beautiful eight-week cleanup, pocket park funded by a “Health Happens in Neighborhoods” grant. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Wikipedia — “Blue Hills, Kansas City.” — asserts: boundaries Swope Parkway (north), 63rd Street (south), Prospect Avenue (east), The Paseo (west); ZIP codes 64110 and 64130; most residences built in the 1910s and 1920s; predominantly white working class until the early 1960s; blockbusting from the early 1960s; more than 95% African American by the 1970s; severe impact from the 2008 financial crisis with boarded houses; substantial recovery by 2021 driven by younger buyers renovating; schools Troost, J.J. Pershing, Frances Willard, Southeast High and Paseo High. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  4. Blue Hills Community Services with LISC Kansas City — Blue Hills Quality of Life Plan Update 2016-2018 (PDF) — asserts: BHCS founded 1974; contact address 5008 Prospect Avenue; total population 5,311; 51% owner-occupied; 27% vacancy rate; median household income $32,404; 80% of adults with at least a high-school education; 17% unemployment; racial composition 91% African American, 5% white, 3% Latino, 1% other; age split 31% under 20, 36% age 21-49, 18% age 50-64, 15% over 65; three goals (youth and young-family engagement, home-repair expansion, new commercial and residential development); barriers including aging housing stock, low property values, blight along the Prospect corridor and lack of retail; the BHCS building at 5008 Prospect as first phase of a Prospect corridor redevelopment plan; implementation stakeholders including Hogan Preparatory Academy, UMKC, Town Fork Creek Neighborhood Association, the Land Bank of Kansas City and BHNA; neighborhood map showing 71 Hwy, The Paseo, Prospect, Woodland and Brooklyn Avenues and 49th through 63rd Streets. (PDF retrieved and text-extracted 2026-08-13.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  5. LISC Kansas City — “Blue Hills” quality-of-life plan page — asserts: BHCS has served as lead agency for the neighborhood since 1974; the 2016-2018 Quality of Life Plan and an accompanying Neighborhood Monitoring Report. ↩ ↩2

  6. KCUR — Suzanne Hogan, “Then And Now: Pictures Show Changes In KC’s Blue Hills Neighborhood” (2014-05-14) — asserts: Blue Hills lies between Prospect Avenue and Paseo Boulevard from 47th to 63rd Streets; Blue Hills Community Services’ green-technology building on Prospect, visible from the highway, operating as a business incubator; 225 home repairs, 15 rehabs and new homes on formerly vacant lots; community garden and orchard on a formerly overgrown lot; roughly 3,600 residential properties, 55% owner-occupied, values rising toward pre-recession levels; part of KCUR’s “Beyond Our Borders” project on divisions east of Troost; comparison built from 2011 Google Street View imagery. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. Community Builders of Kansas City — “Swope Community Builders Honors Roots; Becomes Community Builders of Kansas City” (press release, 2018) — asserts: merger with Blue Hills Community Services effective May 31, 2018; name change to Community Builders of Kansas City announced June 4, 2018; BHCS’s 44-year commitment; quotations from CBKC president and CEO Art Chaudry and BHCS executive director Edgar Palacios; headquarters at 4001 Blue Parkway; BHCS assets to continue serving the community. ↩

  8. KCUR — “Highway 71 tore through Kansas City’s Black neighborhoods. Can that damage be repaired?” (2025-04-30) — asserts: ~10-mile route from Bannister Road to the downtown loop; 2,000 homes destroyed and ~25,000 livelihoods affected per the NAACP; 1951 first identified in city planning documents; 1965 abandonment of the western Country Club Freeway route; 1973 NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawsuit; 1985 consent decree; construction 1990-2001; ~$300 million; Blue Hills among the article’s topic tags. ↩

  9. KCUR — “Kansas City’s plan for Highway 71: Move it below ground” (2026-04-09) — asserts: proposal to convert a five-mile stretch between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 85th Street into a grade-separated below-grade parkway with ground-level overpasses; $5 million federal planning grant plus $2.5 million city and MoDOT funds; April 9, 2026 community meeting; cost estimates $130-150 million (freeway) and $70-90 million (boulevard); a federal judge must lift the consent decree before major changes. ↩

See also

Categories
  • Concept
  • Neighborhood
  • Black History
  • Blockbusting

On the record — ks.city/wiki/neighborhoods/blue-hills · last revised 2026-08-13