U.S. Route 56 in Missouri
Ward Parkway is a boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri, near the Kansas-Missouri state line. Ward Parkway begins at Brookside Boulevard on the eastern edge of the Country Club Plaza and continues westward along Brush Creek as U.S. Route 56 until it turns southward across the creek just before the Kansas-Missouri state line. It then continues south for four miles, terminating at Wornall Road near West 95th Street.
Ward Parkway has a wide, landscaped median, which is decorated with fountains and statuary. Many of Kansas City's finest large houses are along Ward Parkway in the Country Club District.
The street name derives from the family of pioneer Seth E. Ward who owned property on both sides of the parkway and whose house at 1032 West 55th St. is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Ward Parkway was created as part of developer J.C. Nichols's overall plans for the Country Club District. Desiring a boulevard that would exceed the aesthetic value of all other streets in Kansas City, Nichols hired landscape architect George Kessler, who had designed several other boulevards throughout Kansas City, Missouri.
As Nichols platted the district, beginning in 1906, he reserved space for Ward Parkway. The largest lots in the district were reserved for houses to be built along the boulevard. The Kansas City Parks Department added Ward Parkway into its formal boulevard system. Nichols traveled to Italy and England to buy statues and monuments to place in the boulevard's wide median. He also placed ponds and decorative urns throughout the parkway's length. To promote his development, Nichols periodically placed photographs of the large houses being built along Ward Parkway in Sunday editions of the Kansas City Star. Nichols even moved into a house just off Ward Parkway, on West 55th Street.
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