From Hyde Park to Westwood, Troostwood to Crestwood, Sunset Hill to Center City, Kansas City’s Midtown neighborhoods boast a unique charm born of their development as the streetcar suburbs of an expanding city. In a discussion of her new book, Kansas City’s Historic Midtown Neighborhoods, Mary Jo Draper of the Midtown KC Post uses vintage photos in examining the history and character of the area stretching from 31st to 55th streets and State Line to The Paseo. As people moved out of the crowded downtown area after 1880, Midtown’s neighborhoods emerged – beginning with a wave of mansions along Armour, Troost, and Broadway and then the rise of Midtown’s distinctive apartment buildings. Architects and developers laid out tree-lined streets, and churches, schools, businesses, movie theaters, and other entertainment venues quickly followed the migration to the “south side.”