Westwood, Kansas

Westwood, Kansas is a city of 1,750 people (2020 census) on 0.41 square miles in northeast Johnson County — among the most densely populated municipalities in the Kansas City metro.¹ Incorporated 1949 from postwar subdivisions on land once held by Shawnee leader Joseph Parks and later the Swatzell family, it sits on the Kansas side of State Line Road opposite the Westwood neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri.¹

Overview

County	Johnson County, Kansas
Incorporated	19491
Population (2020)	1,7501
Area	0.41 sq mi (all land)1
Density framing	Second-most dense city in the KC metro (secondary sources; treat as comparative claim)1
ZIP / area code	66205 / 9131

Westwood maintains its own police department and sits between Rainbow Boulevard, Mission Road, 47th Street, and Shawnee Mission Parkway on the Kansas side of the state line.¹

History

Indigenous land and the Parks grant

The area was part of the broader homeland of the Kanza (Kaw) and Pawnee peoples before nineteenth-century removals and treaties.¹ In the 1830s, Captain Joseph Parks, Head Chief of the Shawnee, worked with the U.S. government on the relocation of Shawnee people from Ohio to northeastern Kansas. Under an 1854 Shawnee treaty, Parks received 1,290 acres straddling what became Johnson and Wyandotte counties.¹

Parks died in 1859 without a will. His heirs spent decades disputing division of the tract. Land that became Westwood was ultimately awarded to Parks’s granddaughter Catherine and her husband John Swatzell, who in 1898 built a stone house still standing at 4958 Rainbow — treated locally as the community’s founding residence.¹

Postwar suburb and incorporation

After World War II, land around the Swatzell home developed as a Kansas City suburb. Residents formed the Hudson Mission Homes Association to bring streets and utilities.¹ Westwood incorporated as a city in 1949. The name echoed the already-established Westwood neighborhood across the state line in Missouri and existing local uses (including Westwood View elementary school and nearby subdivisions).¹

Original city bounds ran roughly 47th Street (north), Rainbow Boulevard (east), Shawnee Mission Parkway and the rear lines of homes on 51st Terrace (south), and Mission Road (west). In 1960 the city annexed Westport Annex and Westport View, extending east toward State Line along 47th Place, 47th Terrace, and 48th Street.¹ In a 1973 vote, residents declined consolidation with neighboring Westwood Hills.¹²

Community life

The Westwood Neighborhood Association formed in 1987 to host events; its first president was sixteen-year-old Tom Shanks. The first Oktoberfest was held in the park at 50th and Rainbow and continues as an annual event.¹ The city maintains a public history program that includes a walking tour and short essays (for example on 1972 federal revenue-sharing controversy and local broadcast property history).²

Sources

See also

• johnson-county-ks
• roeland-park-ks
• fairway-ks
• mission-hills-ks
• shawnee-nation-in-kc
• Wiki

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia — “Westwood, Kansas.” — asserts: 2020 pop. 1,750; 0.41 sq mi; density rank claim; Joseph Parks / 1854 grant / 1,290 acres; Swatzell home 1898 at 4958 Rainbow; Hudson Mission Homes Association; incorporation 1949 and naming rationale; original bounds and 1960 annexation; 1973 Westwood Hills merger decline; Neighborhood Association 1987 / Oktoberfest; own police department. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶

2. City of Westwood — “History” (index of municipal history features) — asserts: walking-tour program; federal revenue-sharing episode; 1970s Westwood / Westwood Hills merger press clip framing. ↩ ↩²