Loose Park | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Type | Urban park |
Location | Kansas City, Missouri, United States |
Coordinates | 39°01′54″N94°35′41″W / 39.0317°N 94.5947°W Coordinates: 39°01′54″N94°35′41″W / 39.0317°N 94.5947°W |
Established | 1925 |
Owned by | City of Kansas City, Missouri |
Website | https://kcparks.org/park/loose-park/ |
Loose Park is the third largest park in Kansas City, Missouri, located at 51st Street and Wornall Road. It has a lake, a shelter house, Civil War markers, tennis courts, a water park, picnic areas, and a Rose Garden. The Rose Garden hosts all types of outdoor special events including theatrical performances and wedding ceremonies. The Japanese Tea Room and Garden is a small traditional Japanese garden conceived as a cultural exchange between the sister cities of Kurashiki, Japan and Kansas City, Missouri.
The original pasture belonged to Kansas City pioneer Seth Ward. During the Battle of Westport in American Civil War Confederate General Sterling Price is said to have to commanded his forces from gun emplacements on what became the south end of the park.
In 1897, Ward leased the land to the Kansas City Country Club for its first golf course. In 1907 J.C. Nichols bought land around the course to form the Country Club District and Country Club Plaza. In 1925 when the golf club moved to Mission Hills, Kansas the land became a city park. In 1926, Ella Loose bought the property from the Hugh Ward estate (the son of Seth Ward) so that it could be made into a park to honor her husband, Jacob Loose. She gave the property to the city in 1927. Jacob Loose founded the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, which produced Sunshine Biscuits and other products. [1]
In 1957, the Loose Park Garden Center was built at 5200 Pennsylvania Avenue for meetings and horticultural exhibitions of various kinds. The garden center has two large meeting rooms with small kitchens attached to the meeting rooms.
In 1977, international artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude selected Loose Park for their art installation concept called Wrapped Walk Ways, consisting of 135,000 sq ft (12,500 m2) [2] of orange-yellow colored shiny nylon fabric and a budget reportedly exceeding US$130,000(equivalent to $581,323 in 2021). Mayor Charles Wheeler presented Christo with a key to the city for this brief project, which Christo described as "exquisite" and deserving of national front-page coverage. [3]
In 1979 Neal Patterson, Cliff Illig and Paul Gorup founded the Cerner Corporation while on a picnic in the park. [4]
In 2006, the Japanese Tea Room and Garden was dedicated as a small traditional Japanese garden. It was conceived as a cultural exchange between the Sister Cities of Kurashiki, Japan and Kansas City, Missouri. [5] [6]
Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and the team clubhouse and practice facilities are located in Kansas City, Kansas, near Children's Mercy Park. The club competes as a member of the Western Conference in Major League Soccer (MLS), having returned in 2015 after spending ten seasons in the Eastern Conference.
Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the most populated municipality of the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Kansas–Missouri state line and has a population of 2,392,035. Most of the city lies within Jackson County, with portions spilling into Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a port on the Missouri River at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west. On June 1, 1850, the town of Kansas was incorporated; shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory. Confusion between the two ensued, and the name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish them soon after.
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area. Its largest city is Kansas City, Missouri and other principal cities are Overland Park, Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas, and Lenexa, Kansas. Other suburbs with populations above 100,000 are Olathe, Kansas, Independence, Missouri, and Lee's Summit, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri and Kansas. With 8,472 square miles (21,940 km2) and a population of more than 2.2 million people, it is the second-largest metropolitan area in Missouri and is the largest metropolitan area in Kansas. It has central counties in both states.
The Gates were a group of gates comprising a site-specific work of art by Bulgarian artist Christo Yavacheff and French artist Jeanne-Claude, known jointly as Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The artists installed 7,503 vinyl "gates" along 23 miles (37 km) of pathways in Central Park in New York City. From each gate hung a panel of deep saffron-colored nylon fabric. The exhibit ran from February 12 through February 27, 2005.
Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and landscape elements wrapped in fabric, including the Wrapped Reichstag, The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Running Fence in California, and The Gates in New York City's Central Park.
Events from the year 1978 in art.
The economy of the Kansas City metropolitan area is anchored by Kansas City, Missouri, which is the largest city in the state and the 37th largest in the United States. The Kansas City metropolitan area is the 27th largest in the United States, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 population estimates. The metro's economy is large and influential to its region.
The list of neighborhoods of Kansas City, Missouri has nearly 240 neighborhoods. The list includes only Kansas City, Missouri and not the entire Kansas City metropolitan area, such as Kansas City, Kansas.
Charles Bertan Wheeler, Jr. is a former American politician who served as a Missouri state senator and as mayor of Kansas City, Missouri from 1971 to 1979, in addition to having held other elected offices.
Sporting Club, formerly OnGoal, LLC, is a group of Kansas City investors that owns or represents a portfolio of athletic organizations under the Sporting Club umbrella. Its flagship property is Major League Soccer franchise Sporting Kansas City.
The Country Club District is the name of a group of neighborhoods comprising a historic upscale residential district in Kansas City, developed by noted real estate developer J.C. Nichols. The district was developed in stages between 1906 and 1950, and today is home to approximately 60,000 and includes such well-known Kansas City neighborhoods as Sunset Hill and Brookside in Missouri, Mission Hills, Fairway, and the oldest parts of Prairie Village in Kansas, making it the largest planned community built by a single developer in the United States. Ward Parkway, a wide, manicured boulevard, traverses the district running south from the Country Club Plaza, the first suburban shopping district in the United States.
Seth Edmund Ward was a trader on the California, Oregon and Santa Fe trails who parlayed his success into a real estate empire, some of which is part of today's Country Club District in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Kansas City Country Club (KCCC) was founded in 1896 in Kansas City, Missouri and today located in Mission Hills, Kansas being the wealthiest city in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The Country Club District and Country Club Plaza of Kansas City are named for the club, which claims to be the third oldest country club west of the Mississippi River.
Seth Sinovic is an American former soccer player. He most recently played as a left back for the New England Revolution in Major League Soccer.
The following is a timeline of the history of Kansas City, Missouri, United States.
Kurashiki is a historic city located in western Okayama Prefecture, Japan, sitting on the Takahashi River, on the coast of the Inland Sea. As of March 31, 2017, the city has an estimated population of 483,576 and a population density of 1,400 persons per km². The total area is 355.63 km².
Jacob Leander Loose was an American businessman who founded Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company.
Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980–83 was a 1983 environmental artwork in which artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude surrounded an island archipelago in Miami with pink fabric.