One of the grandest experiments of American urban planning, the Country Club District, lies tucked in the heart of Kansas City. Initiated in 1905, it eventually spilled over 6,000 acres and attracted national attention to a city still forging its identity.

In a discussion of her new book, author LaDene Morton examines a project that required a half-century of careful development to fully fulfill the vision of founder J.C. Nichols. Home today to many of the city’s most exclusive residential areas and commercial properties, the district’s boundaries still are unmarked. Only now is the entirety of its story being told.

Morton, who runs consulting firm I/O & Company, is a former researcher and policy analyst at Midwest Research Institute and past vice president of the Applied Urban Research Institute.