The Plaza is an outdoor museum of romantic Spanish architecture and
European art where people
actually live and work every day amid its beauty. It was designed in 1922 as
the nation's first suburban shopping district. Since then, its open-air
public art gallery has continuously added to its collection, with fountains,
sculptures and murals that bring to the heart of our city the very best of
the Old World and the new.
INTERNATIONAL
WORKS OF ART ADORN PLAZA STREETS AND SIDEWALKS
Those who have traveled overseas might do a double take when they stroll
past the statue of Sir Winston Churchill. Just steps away two of Spain's
landmarks--the Giralda Tower and the Seville Light -- tower majestically
on the horizon. Down the street in a quiet courtyard sits an original
bronze of Pomona by Italian sculptor Donatello Gabrielli. Is this England,
or maybe Spain, or could it be Italy? What a surprise to the traveler to
find these magnificent European works of art in the heart of the Midwest
-- on Kansas City's famed Country Club Plaza. More
ONE
MAN'S VISION SHAPES THE CITY
Before the turn of the 20th century, the Brush Creek Valley was little
more than a watering hole for those on their way to somewhere else. Fur
trappers, Native Americans, soldiers and early settlers all walked its
banks, but their journeys took them elsewhere. Only one man had the vision
to see the little valley as something more. With steadfast determination
and hard work, Jesse Clyde (J.C.) Nichols changed the face of the land
forever, transforming a swampy, unappealing tract of land into the
country's first shopping center, the Country Club Plaza. More
