Brookside

Brookside is one of Kansas City’s most-celebrated streetcar suburbs — a planned residential neighborhood developed by the J.C. Nichols Company in the 1910s-1920s as part of the broader Country Club District. The Brookside shops, begun in 1919 (first shops opened 1920), are described as Kansas City’s first suburban shopping area and among the oldest planned shopping centers in the United States. The neighborhood’s leafy streets, historic homes, and walkable village character anchor its enduring appeal.

Boundaries

Brookside is bounded by 55th Street to the north, Gregory Boulevard to the south, Troost Avenue to the east, and Ward Parkway to the west.¹ The traditional core is centered on the Brookside shops at 63rd Street and Brookside Boulevard.² Some informal definitions extend the neighborhood farther south and west.

History

Pre-development (1880s-1910s)

The land that became Brookside was farmland + small estates through the late 19th century. The John Wornall House at 146 W. 61st Terrace, a local landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places (listed May 21, 1969, ref. 69000109), survives from the area’s pre-development era.¹³⁴ As Kansas City’s population grew + the streetcar network expanded southward, real-estate developers identified the area as suitable for planned residential expansion.⁵

J.C. Nichols Company development (1910s-1920s)

J.C. Nichols (jc-nichols) — the same developer who built the Country Club Plaza — developed Brookside in the 1910s as part of his broader Country Club District master plan; the neighborhood shops were “conceived before the first World War.”² The company’s full development records are held in the J.C. Nichols Company Records at the State Historical Society of Missouri.⁶ Brookside functioned as a streetcar suburb — the Country Club streetcar line ran along the corridor now traced by the Trolley Track Trail⁵ — while its commercial center was also, in the Brookside Business Association’s words, “designed to serve the automobile set.”²

Construction of the Brookside shops began in 1919 — the September 1, 1919 Country Club District Bulletin headline read “Construction Begun on First Group of Neighborhood Shops at Sixty-Third and Brookside Boulevard” — and the first shops opened in 1920, with the center completed over the following decade.²⁷ Brookside is described as Kansas City’s first suburban shopping area, predating the more-famous Country Club Plaza (planned 1922, opened 1923).²⁸ The center was deliberately designed to serve the surrounding residential neighborhood as a walkable village center, with specialty stores, grocers, pharmacies, medical offices, a community center, and the first south-side police + fire stations.²

Restrictive covenants

Like the broader Country Club District, Brookside was developed with restrictive racial covenants that prevented properties from being sold to or occupied by Black buyers and other excluded groups. The covenants enforced racial segregation in the neighborhood from its founding until the 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer Supreme Court ruling rendered them unenforceable.⁹

The legacy of the covenants — and the redlining patterns that reinforced them — continues to shape Brookside’s demographics today. While the explicit legal architecture of segregation was ended in 1948, the wealth concentration + housing pattern it established persists.⁹ Brookside remains predominantly white + relatively wealthy compared to many KC neighborhoods.

See restrictive-covenants-kc for detailed coverage of this history.

Mid-20th-century stability (1930s-1980s)

Through the mid-20th century, Brookside operated as a stable, affluent, family-oriented neighborhood. The shopping center continued to anchor commercial activity — the Brookside Business Association was founded in 1939 as the “63rd & Brookside Business Association”² — and Brookside Boulevard retained its tree-lined character. The Country Club streetcar line served the corridor until the system’s final runs in June 1957.⁵ Brookside Charter School + private schools serve the neighborhood.

Modern era (1990s-present)

Brookside remains one of KC’s most-desirable + highest-priced neighborhoods. The Brookside shops retain their original buildings + architectural character and remain active commercially, with more than 90 shops, restaurants, and offices anchored by independent + small-chain retail.² The shopping center is not listed on the National Register of Historic Places (checked against the Missouri SHPO Jackson County inventory, 2026-08-05).³

The annual Brookside St. Patrick’s Day Warm-Up Parade (44th annual scheduled for 2026) is one of KC’s most-attended community events. The Brookside Art Annual brings tens of thousands of visitors to the neighborhood.²

Architecture

Brookside’s housing stock is dominated by early-20th-century craftsman, bungalow, Tudor revival, and Colonial revival homes. Many of the original Nichols Company-developed homes survive in good condition. Lot sizes are modest by suburban standards but generous compared to other urban-core KC neighborhoods.

The Brookside shops feature the same Spanish/Mediterranean-inflected revival styling that Nichols would later refine at the Plaza.⁷²

Notable businesses (present-day Registry)

The Brookside shops host dozens of independent KC businesses. Notable operators (subject to current verification):

• Brookside Toy & Science
• Foo’s Fabulous Frozen Custard
• The Crow’s Coffee Brookside [if multi-location verified]
• Local Pig
• Aixois (French bistro)
• Brookside Barrio Restaurant
• Various boutiques + galleries

Annual events + traditions

• Brookside St. Patrick’s Day Warm-Up Parade — Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day²
• Brookside Art Annual — early May²
• Brookside Holidays — winter²

Cultural significance

Brookside is a leading Kansas City example of the streetcar-suburb pattern that defined early-20th-century American residential development — its spine literally follows the old Country Club streetcar right-of-way.⁵ The neighborhood is often cited in urbanism + planning discussions as a model of walkable, mixed-use, family-oriented development.

The neighborhood’s enduring appeal — stable values, distinct character, intact historic architecture — also makes it a frequent reference point for KC’s ongoing housing-policy discussions.

Restrictive covenant + redlining history

Brookside was developed with restrictive racial covenants by the J.C. Nichols Company. These covenants — and the broader Country Club District restrictive-covenant system — were central to KC’s 20th-century housing segregation.⁹ See jc-nichols + restrictive-covenants-kc for detailed coverage.

The covenants were ruled unenforceable in 1948. Subsequent redlining + private discrimination perpetuated similar exclusion patterns for decades, and Brookside’s demographic patterns still reflect this history.⁹

Adjacent neighborhoods

• country-club-plaza — north
• country-club-district — west
• waldo — south
• crestwood — east

Sources

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia — “Brookside, Kansas City” (boundaries: 55th, Gregory, Ward Parkway, Troost; Wornall House) ↩ ↩²

2. Brookside Business Association — “About Brookside” (1919 Country Club District Bulletin headline, first shops 1920, first-suburban-shopping-area claim, 1939 association founding, events, 90+ businesses) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

3. Missouri State Historic Preservation Office — Missouri National Register Listings, Jackson County (Wornall, John B., House, 146 W. 61st Terrace, listed 5/21/69; no Brookside shops listing as of 2026-08-05) ↩ ↩²

4. National Park Service, NPGallery — NRIS record 69000109, Wornall House, Kansas City, MO (listed May 21, 1969) ↩

5. Kansas City Public Library — “How Long Did Trains Run on the Rail Line Now Known as the Trolley Trail? Your KC Q Answered” (What’s Your KCQ?, April 2019; Country Club streetcar line, final runs June 1957) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. State Historical Society of Missouri — J.C. Nichols Company Records, 1896–2007 (K0106), collection description / finding aid ↩

7. Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Valley Special Collections — “Brookside Shopping Center” (photograph, Eldridge Slides of Kansas City collection; digital-collections record) ↩ ↩²

8. Wikipedia — “Country Club Plaza” (planned 1922, opened 1923) ↩

9. Wikipedia — “Country Club District” (racially restrictive deed covenants, Shelley v. Kraemer 1948, persistent legacy) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴