A portion of Westheight Manor was accepted to the National Register of Historic Places on March 26, 1975. This was largely through the efforts of Ms. Lenore Bradley, Adminstrator for the Kansas City, Kansas Civic Arts Council, with an assist from the City Planning Department. The historic district so designated was generally bounded by 18th Street on the east, 24th Street on the West, Oakland and Everett Avenues on the north, and Washington and Nebraska Avenues on the south, with a southerly extension along either side of Hoel Parkway to State Avenue - a rather irregular boundary that reflected both uncertainty as to the National Register criteria and the lack of a detailed survey of the Westheight area.

As the City's historic preservation program progressed, it became increasingly obvious that the historic district should be expanded. Accordingly, yet still without the aid of an intensive survey, a new preliminary application was prepared covering the balance of Westheight Manor Nos. 1, 2, and 3. This application was submitted to the State Historic Preservation Department, and was approved by the Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review on July 3, 1979. Before the necessary paperwork could be submitted to the U. S. Department of Interior, however, the federal regulations governing National Register applications were changed extensively. A new application was subsequently prepared, reviewed and presented to the Board on August 10, 1981. At that time, the proposed expansion was approved for entry in the Register of Historic Kansas Places and recommended for approval to the National Register. The expanded district was entered in the National Register on February 19, 1982. Based on the results of the historical and architectural survey of the Westheight Manor neighborhood, the decision to designate the area as an historic district was fully justified.

In 1985, with the consent and approval of the Board of Education, Wyandotte High School was designated as a Kansas City, Kansas Historic Landmark. An application for National Register designation was subsequently filed by the Kansas City, Kansas Landmarks Commission, and was approved on April 30, 1986, in time for the high school's fifty-year reunion celebration.

The only portions of Westheight Manor not presently on the National Register of Historic Places are the Westheight Manor Shops, and the residential area south of State Avenue and west of 22nd Street. An intensive survey of the residential area (Westheight Manor No. 5, Hanrion Place, and The Uplands) was completed in August 1988, with the recommendation to the State Historic Preservation Department that it should be added to the Westheight Manor Historic District. In addition, this survey disclosed information regarding the historical significance, architectural integrity, and overall planning of the historic Westheight Manor neighborhood which reinforces the correlation of that area to both the above described residential area and the Westheight Manor Shops. Other than the shops, the balance of Westheight Manor No. 4 consists of recent construction unrelated to the historical development of Westheight, and was therefore not included in this survey.

Continue on to Appendices:
Appendix One