Old Buildings, New Attitudes

Archive for July, 2008

Did you make it downtown on Saturday (July 26th) for the Sidewalk Sale?  It was packed pretty early and there seemed to be quite a few people downtown all day.  And people seemed to be buying a lot and getting great deals – I know I did!

Thanks to all of the businesses that participated.  I also want to give a BIG thank you to our intern Stacy.  This is her last week with us and we are so sad to see her go.  She is graduating from the University of Central Missouri with a double major in tourism and Spanish.  She has been so fun to work with and is an incredibly hard worker!  The Sidewalk Sale was her event to plan and she did an amazing job!

I stopped by City Hall this morning to check out the Chapungu sculptures now featured outside in the gardens.  According to this article, Tom Lovell of the LS Parks & Recreation Department contacted Powell Gardens about featuring a few of the sculptures at City Hall.

We are so privileged to have this amazing art displayed right here in Downtown Lee’s Summit!  Powell Gardens is featuring over 50 of these world-reknowned sculptures right now – I went a couple of weeks ago and they were truly amazing.  Make sure to visit www.powellgardens.org to learn more about these sculptures.

Sarah

We had a few old photos sitting around of this building on Third Street.  This time, though, I’m only going to show you a few ‘before’ shots.  The photos were scanned and aren’t the best quality, but see if you can guess the building/business by posting in the comments section.  Both photographs were taken around 1994.  Later this week, I’ll show the ‘after’ pictures and you can see if you were right! 

    

 

Downtown Lee’s Summit Main Street has moved its office!  We’ve spent the past couple of weeks gradually packing, and now we are officially moved!  While we still have boxes to unpack and our old office to clean up a bit, for the most part we are up and running again in our new space.

Here are a few pictures of our old office as we started our move last Friday (July 25th).  The movers had to go all the way down that long staircase…not an easy task!

We are so happy for Alona & Ralph Johnson that they have sold their building and are starting their retirement, but we will definitely miss them.  The new owner is planning on renovating the upstairs into his office, and will most likely rent the first floor.

Although sad to leave our old office behind, we are excited about our new space.  We are now located above Bike America in the Douglas Street Business Center.  Our new landlords, the Alberts, have been great to us and painted all the walls for us before we moved in.  The movers finished yesterday (Sunday) so we’ve spent most of today trying to get settled.  I have a feeling it will take us awhile!  Here are some ‘work-in-progress’ shots of our new space – the first one is of our conference room and the second one is Jeanine’s office.

It’s really nice that we each have our own office space.  Plus we all have windows and beautiful brick walls!  We love that once again we can showcase how the second floor of an historic building can be used as a beautiful office space!  Once we have everything in place, I’ll post more pictures. 

Sarah

While we have been packing, we have come across a lot of great photos of Downtown Lee’s Summit.  It has inspired us to do some ‘before & after’ comparisons.  It doesn’t take long to forget what things looked like in the past.  Do you remember our sidewalks and trees before the streetscape construction?  What about how our buildings looked in 1989?  That’s what we are beginning to document.  Things are changing all the time here! 

Here is a great one – Hartley’s Furniture.  This picture was taken in August 2006, courtesy of Gina Tominia.  Not only does it show the buildings before, but also the construction along Douglas Street.

BEFORE

Now here is the block after…notice the new brick pavers, trees, sidewalks and the Vogue Condominiums.  A combination of federal and state historic tax credits were used on the buildings, as well as State Neighborhood Preservation Tax Credits for the residential infill.  Thanks to Gina for this picture as well.

AFTER

Isn’t it amazing how different that block looks now?  You might be surprised at some of the other transformations downtown.  Stay tuned…as we begin scanning our older pictures, I will update with more ‘before & after’ comparisons!

 

 

This weekend my husband and I went on a ‘staycation.’  Ok – it’s kind of a silly term that’s been thrown around lately.  But it just means that instead of flying off somewhere, we stayed close to home.  We went into Kansas City and had a great time.  While we were at Union Station in Kansas City on Saturday, we watched passengers wait for the Amtrak and wished we had thought to take the train from our very own Lee’s Summit station.  I can remember only one time in my life that I took the train – in 4th grade.  So I decided to check out the fares and schedules, and thought I would share with all of you. 

Amtrak has a great website where you can look up fares and schedules to/from Lee’s Summit.  A quick search reveals that two trains service Lee’s Summit to Kansas City – the Ann Rutledge and the Kansas City Mule.  It looks like a round-trip ticket to/from Kansas City is about $16, but they offer special discounts such as AAA, students, and Seniors (62+).  Daily westbound departures (to KC) are at 1:19 pm and 8:50 pm; daily eastbound departures (to St. Louis) are at 8:06 am and 4:36 pm.  You can even stop in two other Main Street communities along the way - Warrensburg and Washington.   

Trails and Rails is a great program sponsored by both Amtrak and the National Parks Service.  Say you decide to take the Ann Rutledge train from Lee’s Summit all the way to St. Louis and beyond.  While traveling between St. Louis and Springfield, Illinois, you can learn about the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial which includes the Gateway Arch, the Museum of Westward Expansion, and St. Louis’ Old Courthouse.  A little history with your train ride!

The railroad is a huge part of our history here in Lee’s Summit.  Even the ‘summit’ part of our City’s name is tied to the railroad – Lee’s Summit is the highest point on the railroad between Kansas City and St. Louis!

The Amtrak is a great alternative to driving if you’re looking for a quick weekend trip nearby.  Plus, on street parking by the Amtrak Station on SW Main is FREE.  Want to get a fare schedule fast?  Both the Downtown Lee’s Summit Main Street office and the Lee’s Summit Chamber office have schedules available.

Next time I decide to take a trip, I’m going to check out Amrak.  And if you just have to take a day trip - hop on the train in Downtown Lee’s Summit and enjoy the ride!

We have several events coming up this week.  It’s hot and gas prices are high…so you might as well stay in Lee’s Summit and enjoy downtown!

First, the Lee’s Summit Arts Council will host an art installation inside City Hall this Thursday, July 24th at 6:30 pm.  Artist Jim Ryon will unveil some of his acrylic landscapes and jazz pieces.  Not Just Desserts will provide refreshments.  Check out his artwork at www.jimryon.com.

Friday, July 25th is Music in the Park, 6:30 pm – 10:00 pm.  Bring your lawn chairs down to Howard Station Park on SE Main for two bands presented by Jerry’s Bait Shop.  Jorrin Tyler (www.jorrintaylor.com) will play first, then The Scott Moyer Band. 

Saturday, July 26th stop downtown for The Sidewalk Sale.  Approximately 24 participating stores will sell quality items at low prices.  For a complete list of participating stores, visit www.downtownls.org. 

The Downtown Lee’s Summit Farmer’s Market at the corner of 2nd & Douglas is also on Saturday at the corner of 2nd & Douglas.  Sweet corn, peaches, and tomatoes are all in season.  Don’t forget you can visit the Farmer’s Market every Wednesday and Saturday until November 1st!

Hi Everyone,

Reading the news this past weekend, it was great to see Downtown Lee’s Summit mentioned.  Just thought I’d share…

• Both the Lee’s Summit Journal and Kansas City Star mentioned the Lee’s Summit Parks & Recreation’s Jamaican Jam.  Scheduled for this Friday, July 18th, the festivities start at 7:00 pm and go until 10:30 pm in front of City Hall (220 SE Green Street).  Four Reggae performers will take the stage.  Food and drinks are available, and people are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.  We love having these great summer concerts in Downtown LS!
• Sunday’s (7/13) Fashion Forward article in Star Magazine featured products from both Pophearts and Molly Jayne’s Boutique.  Congratulations to both of these Downtown LS businesses for being recognized!
• Money Magazine ranked Lee’s Summit as the 79th Best Place to Live in the United States for 2008.  The online information even mentions downtown and our recent streetscape construction!
• And finally, Brad Culbertson and I sat down with Sean McAnally last week to give him a quick update about the CID.  Check out the Downtown CID article from Saturday’s (7/12) Lee’s Summit Tribune. 

Since I work in downtown revitalization, I like to read about what’s going on in other cities… 

• My sister is living in New York City this summer, so I’ve had a huge interest in anything New York.  I just read about plans to eliminate two lanes of traffic on Broadway from 42nd Street to Herald Square.  The new ”Broadway Boulevard” esplanade would be a pedestrain walkway with room for cafe tables and chairs, etc.  The closing of streets to make pedestrian malls has long been an issue up for debate among Main Streeters.  
• Since I was just there in March, an article about Philadelphia’s innovative use of 3-D traffic controlling devices also caught my eye.  I read about them in Sunday’s Kansas City Star, but this article includes a great picture.  Traffic controlling devices always create debate – but this new idea is at least intriguing.

That’s it for today!

Sarah