Mill Creek Park

Mill Creek Park is an 11-acre greenspace at the northeast edge of the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, running along Mill Creek Parkway near West 47th Street. Created as part of the George Kessler parks-and-boulevards plan — the parkway opened in 1913 — it is best known as the home of the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain, one of Kansas City’s most famous fountains, and the nearby Seville Light. In June 2020 the Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners voted to remove developer J.C. Nichols’s name from both the fountain and the surrounding parkway in light of his role in racially restrictive housing covenants; the parkway reverted to its original name, Mill Creek Parkway.

Summary

Mill Creek Park is a small linear/triangular park, about 11.43 acres, at the northeast corner of the Country Club Plaza, organized around Mill Creek Parkway near West 47th Street.¹² The park:

• Sits at the northern/northeastern edge of the Plaza, just south of Brush Creek and within easy walking distance of the Plaza shopping district
• Lies along Mill Creek Parkway, a corridor first opened in 1913 as part of the Kessler parks-and-boulevards system²
• Is the setting for the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain (1960), among the most photographed fountains in a city that calls itself the “City of Fountains”¹³
• Includes the Seville Light (dedicated 1967), a marble-and-iron fountain honoring Kansas City’s sister-city tie to Seville, Spain⁴
• Has been maintained in part through the Nichols family and the Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation⁵

The parkway running through the park carried three successive names: Mill Creek Parkway (from 1913), J.C. Nichols Parkway (renamed in 1952 after Nichols’s death), and Mill Creek Parkway again after the 2020 renaming.²⁵

Background and history

Kessler-plan origins (1893–1913)

The park belongs to the City Beautiful–era parks-and-boulevards system that landscape architect George Kessler laid out in the first Report of the Park and Boulevard Commissioners of Kansas City, Mo. in 1893.² Beginning in 1908, the Board of Park Commissioners began acquiring and condemning land in the Mill Creek valley for a public parkway. Roadwork followed, and in 1913 the new Mill Creek Parkway opened, then running from Westport Avenue south to 48th Street.² Mill Creek — the natural watercourse that gives the park its name — drains north toward Brush Creek at the edge of the future Plaza. The park thus predates the Country Club Plaza, which J.C. Nichols opened in 1922.²

Plaza-era integration and the 1952 renaming

As the Country Club Plaza grew into the commercial and cultural anchor of the surrounding Country Club District, the parkway and its adjacent greenspace became a green northern gateway to the shopping district. In 1952, following Nichols’s death, Mill Creek Parkway was renamed J.C. Nichols Parkway in his honor.²

The J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain (1960)

The park’s centerpiece fountain was not built for the site. Its bronze figures — four heroic horsemen representing four of the world’s great rivers (the Mississippi, the Volga, the Seine, and the Rhine), with smaller children riding fish around them — were cast in 1910 by the French sculptor Henri-Léon Gréber for the Long Island estate of New York financier Clarence H. Mackay.¹³ Miller Nichols, son of J.C. Nichols, acquired the fountain and brought it to Kansas City in 1951.¹³ After refurbishment (artist Herman Frederick Simon recreated a missing fish figure), the fountain was installed at the head of the park and dedicated in 1960 to J.C. Nichols, funded by the Nichols family, the city, and public donations.¹³ It became one of Kansas City’s signature landmarks. The fountain was restored again in 2014 with support from the Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation.¹

The Seville Light (1967)

Nearby, at Mill Creek Parkway and West 47th Street, stands the Seville Light, dedicated in October 1967. Given to the city by Miller Nichols, it was created by sculptor Bernhard Zuckerman as a tribute to the sister-city relationship between Kansas City and Seville, Spain, complementing the Plaza’s Spanish-inspired architecture (including the Giralda Tower). Its central marble shaft rises about 30 feet and is topped by an ornamental iron light.⁴ on the precise design lineage of the lamp.

The 2020 renaming

On June 30, 2020, amid nationwide protests over racial injustice and renewed scrutiny of J.C. Nichols’s legacy, the Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners voted unanimously to remove the Nichols name from both the fountain and the parkway.⁵ Historians had documented that Nichols pioneered racially restrictive covenants that barred African Americans, Jews, and other minorities from his subdivisions, a practice that shaped Kansas City’s lasting patterns of residential segregation.⁵⁶ The parkway reverted to its original name, Mill Creek Parkway; the board removed Nichols’s name from the fountain without immediately assigning a new official name.⁵ The Nichols family and the Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation publicly endorsed the change the same day and pledged funds toward the fountain’s upkeep.⁵ The episode is treated in more detail at plaza-fountain-renaming-saga.

Long-term significance

Mill Creek Park condenses several threads of Kansas City history into a few acres: the City Beautiful parks-and-boulevards vision of George Kessler, the Plaza-building ambition of J.C. Nichols and his son Miller, the city’s identity as the “City of Fountains,” and the 21st-century reckoning with the human cost of Nichols’s housing practices. The fountain remains one of the most recognized images of Kansas City, regularly used in postcards, tourism imagery, and civic celebrations, while the park itself functions as the green front porch of the Country Club Plaza.

Sites and notable places

• J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain (1960; Gréber figures cast 1910) — the park’s centerpiece and one of KC’s most famous fountains; the Nichols name was removed by the Parks Board in 2020.¹³⁵
• Seville Light (1967) — marble-and-iron fountain at Mill Creek Parkway and W. 47th St honoring the Kansas City–Seville sister-city tie.⁴
• Mill Creek Parkway — the City Beautiful parkway (opened 1913; J.C. Nichols Parkway 1952–2020) that defines the park’s spine.²
• country-club-plaza — the adjacent Spanish-themed shopping district to the south.
• See kansas-city-fountains for the broader fountain inventory.

Sources

Footnotes

1. “Mill Creek Park Fountain” — City of Fountains Foundation (COFF), cityoffountains.org (accessed 2026-06-12). Fountain location at W. 47th St and Mill Creek Parkway; figures by Henri-Léon Gréber (1910) for Clarence Mackay; arrived KC 1951 via Miller Nichols; dedicated 1960; four-river horsemen and fish figures; 2014 restoration by the Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. “Mill Creek Park” / Kansas City Parks & Recreation reference materials, kcparks.org (accessed 2026-06-12); George Kessler 1893 Report of the Park and Boulevard Commissioners. Park ~11.43 acres; land acquisition begun 1908; Mill Creek Parkway opened 1913 (Westport Ave to 48th St); renamed J.C. Nichols Parkway 1952 after Nichols’s death. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

3. “Mill Creek Park Fountain” — The Clio, theclio.com/entry/142076 (accessed 2026-06-12). Gréber 1910 commission for Mackay; four rivers (Mississippi, Volga, Seine, Rhine); brought to KC by Miller Nichols 1951; refurbished by Herman Frederick Simon; dedicated 1960. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. “Seville Light Fountain” — City of Fountains Foundation (COFF), cityoffountains.org/seville-light-fountain (accessed 2026-06-12). Located at Mill Creek Parkway and W. 47th St; given by Miller Nichols; dedicated October 1967; sister-city tribute to Seville, Spain; ~30-ft marble central shaft with iron light feature. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. “Kansas City, Missouri, Parks Board Votes To Remove J.C. Nichols’ Name From Iconic Fountain And Parkway” — KCUR, kcur.org, June 30, 2020 (accessed 2026-06-12). Unanimous Parks Board vote; parkway restored to Mill Creek Parkway; Nichols name removed from fountain; Nichols family / Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation endorsement and maintenance pledge. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

6. “Who Was J.C. Nichols? The Mixed Legacy Of The Man Whose Name Could Be Taken Off Kansas City’s Most Famous Fountain” — KCUR, kcur.org, June 12, 2020 (accessed 2026-06-12). Restrictive covenants barring African Americans and Jewish residents; role in Kansas City’s residential segregation. ↩