Kansas City is located in the northwestern portion of the state of Missouri, at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers. The region that now includes Kansas City was first explored by non-Natives beginning in the 18th century. On the famous Lewis and Clark expedition, the two men paused at the meeting of the rivers and noted that the area was suitable for settlement. Once the Santa Fe Trail was trekked in 1821, the region began to see passers-by on their way out West, but one man named Reverend Isaac McCoy chose the spot to settle his family. His son John, now considered to be the “father of Kansas City,” established the area as Westport and Westport Landing in 1834. Westport became gradually popular as an outfitter for travelers of the Santa Fe, California, and Oregon trails, and by 1850, the settlement was incorporated as the Town of Kansas. In the first 50 years of its growth, the Town of Kansas grew from 2,500 residents, to over 160,000. This boost in population prompted the town to change its name to Kansas City in 1889.

Some of the city’s modern development that took place at the beginning of the 20th century was part of the City Beautiful movement, a method of city planning that attempted to reduce urban decay by introducing examples of glorious architecture that counterbalance the effects of industrialization. Kansas City’s network of parks and boulevards, Union Station building, and Liberty Memorial are all directly part of, or influenced by this movement, and still survive today as examples of Kansas City’s unique beauty. In the 1920’s, real estate developer J.C. Nichols and designer Edward Buehler Delk collaborated on the Country Club Plaza project, which is an upscale shopping district modeled after Seville, Spain. Nichols’ and Delk’s heavy use of fountains in the design spurred Kansas City’s love affair with the romantic architectural feature; now Kansas City features over 200 fountains and is nicknamed “the City of Fountains.”

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