1940-1949

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1940-1949

1940-1949

1940

St. Matthew's Church members

1940

St. Matthew's summer vacation school class.

1940

Brenner Ridge School

1940

Riverside Topography

1941

North Amercian Avaition WW2, Fairfax

This is a clip from an old 8mm home movie by Emery Brenner showing David Brenner who is watching a B 24 bomber take off from the Fairfax plant from a picnic they were having at the top the current Indian Hills. The actual bomber plan in Fairfax was called North America Avaition and produced the B 25 Mitchell. The NAA operated from August 6, 1940 to August 15, 1945, where they produced 6608 Mitchell's or about one every four hours for 60 months.

Lakeside School 1941

Brenner Ridge School, 1-3 grade 1940-41

Same everything as the above photo, except they were able to sit this time and they moved around a couple of the girls on the ends.

1941

Brenner Ridge School

Includes Jim Wedua

From Pat Martsolf : Another picture of Brenner Ridge this one from 1941 you will notice some of the same students are in this picture the reason being that each room had 2 or 3 grades I may have some names wrong as well as spelling with the help of my sister Jean Blair I’ll identify as many as we could

4th row right to left Teacher Ms Trout, Donald Railey, maybe C J Tarter not sure of next 3 then Eddie Stinnett,Eldon Arnold not sure of next one then could be Billy Swan. Row 3 Phyllis Gardina next ?Alice Stout next two unknown Hazel McGinnis,Jimmy Brenner next ? Little girl standing was Joyce can’t remember her last name. Row 2 , I believe that is Annetta Brenner,Edith Gardina ,Jean Blair next 5 unidentified then Marjorie D eBow, Lila Crouchet. Row 1 James Grainger,Wayne Swetnam, maybe Jimmy Payton the 3 boys in front we believe the middle boy is David Brenner last was a little Mativie boy. Jean may be able to add to this

BELGIAN BOTTOMS

Article from the 1990's

EARLY 40'S

St. Matthew's Church choir.

1941

August 21

Riverside Down's horse track grandstand torn down.

1941

Fourth generation and future Riverside Mayor and Platte County Eastern Commissioner, David Brenner riding his bike at the cottages that were across from Red X.

Emery Brenner holding Brenda (Teters) Brenner [David's sister] at the cottages across from future Red X, September 1942.

1940's

Cock fighting was well known in the Belgian Bottoms and the annual hog butchering. This photo was posted by the Vandepopulier family.

1940's

Riverside baseball. Lester Swetnam is in striped shirt.

1941

November 26

Baby Lovett plays at the Riverside Supper Club

St. Matthew's Church about 1942.

1942

A grainy 8mm scene taken from a film clip from Emery Brenner driving west on West Platte. Fata's is on the left.

1942

Little Cottages that were across the street from the future Red X until the early 90's. Above this was were Brenner Station was 10 years before.

Emery and Nettie Brenner about 1940. The cottages were still there during the flood of 93 and Red X used this cottage as their office for while and then it was demolished.

1943

Looking north from Fairfax towards Riverside.

This was 5 years after the horse track closed.

1944

January 23

1944, April 20.

October 15, 2024

Is there any more info about the POW camp in Riverside MO?
My Father was a guard there briefly.

Now that I think of it, the cold storage facility might have been the caves in Bonner Springs. KS.

There was a discussion about POW from Riverside helping with farming, etc. because so many of the men were overseas during WWII. It was a farming community then.

The caves were on Loring Road and are still very busy today.

A Zip line company is located there, also.

Again, JL Erickson Davis

Thanks

Brenner Ridge School late 40's.

Students in Platte County schools lined up when the bookmobile visited. Brenner Ridge School in (what is now) Riverside was among the regular stops. Photo from the 1942 annual Superintendents Report for Platte County schools.

1944

St. Matthew's Sunday School classes

1946

From 1844 to sometime around 1855, the land the hospital sits on had been handed down to Peter Brenner, who sold or handed that part down to his son, John P. Brenner who kept it until about 1905 when he kept part of it for himself and either sold or handed it down to his son, John W. Brenner. John W. was a dairy farmer who provided dairy products for the area as well as grew his own feed for the cows. At the age of 57, John W. sold the dairy barn and out buildings to Dr. Tom Eagle in 1946, who had the intent to start an animal hospital, where the building would serve the business well until it was demolished in 2014 for the current hospital. Doctor's T. Noyes and Barrow's would take over in the early 60's. In the mid-70's Dr. Barrows would leave and start his own place in Platte Woods in a home formerly owned by Cook. Cook was the president of the Cook paint company. Dr. Barrow's since retired and his building was re built in 2016. Jim Sparks started at Eagle as a 15 year old kennel assistant in 1980 and his partner, Dr. Silvius also started as a kennel assistant at Eagle in the late 80's.

The Eagle Animal Hospital is the oldest continuously operating business north of the river at the same location. The second is Red X which began in 1948. Officially, the oldest business is the Filger Oil, Company that began in the 1930's. Although the business name: Filger Oil has remained the same, it has occupied several different locations in Riverside.

White City Motel for sale, 8-13-1944

Park A Nite Motel, late 1940's.

The Midcontinent Library is just behind this today.

Eagle Scout David Brenner about 1947

1940's.

From Chuck Belinda. For you newer people---this was generally just west of the Misty Woods neighborhood.

Dice will roll no more on this table, which was smashed late yesterday in a raid by state patrolmen on Green Hills, gambling joint near Parkville on Missouri highway No. 45. The raid was made on orders of Gov. Phil M. Donnelly. Patrolmen, under the leadership of Lieut. H. J. Turnbull, confiscated $3,340.72, and many pieces of gambling and horse-booking paraphernalia. The boxes in the left foreground contain chips used on the dice table. Trooper W. S. Barton, 1112 Crescent avenue, Intercity district, is shown smashing the table. He was one of the three patrolmen who visited the place earlier to get information and evidence, and who were on hand a half-hour before uniformed patrolmen arrived yesterday. They found 150 customers, and arrested thirteen alleged operators.

Green Hills then and today (2018)

Mayor Betty Burch and Mitch were married at Green Hills.

Texaco Baseball Team, late 40's

Second photo back row from right to left, Johnny Pete, Lester Swetnam, Blair, Wetzel, rest unknown.

Date unknown.

Back row, left to right: Johnny Pete Filger, Don Deckard, Ken Blair, Corky Minster & Lynn Wetzel.

Front row: Leonard Stubbs, Jim Wedua, Jim Heller & Bob Gieseke.

Texaco Cafe

February 17, 1947

Exterior view of the Jockey Club in 2018. The far left side was once a barber shop owned by Wayne Bush and where Jim Coen began before moving up the street and was also operated by Frank Sparks.

1947

Shippee publishes his archaeological findings in and around Riverside.

1947

Beverly Lumber opened in Riverside in 1947. was one of the earliest businesses in Riverside was actually here before the foundation of the city. It was founded by Frank McKnight with his brother-in-law Bill Dowd as manager of the first yard. In 1947 the company purchased the A.J. Higgins Lumber Company of Tracy, later moving it to Platte City. In April 1949, the firm purchased the White Lumber Company in Riverside.

The Riverside location became the headquarters. Locations were later started in Leavenworth and Atchison, Ks. The company remained a family business with McKnight's two daughters as owners and three of Dowd's sons as president and managers of the two largest yards - Riverside and Leavenworth. Walt Dowd is president of the company. Over the years the company was hit by floods and fires, but has since survived and prospered. The company had a store in St. Joseph in the late 1940s, and was planning to close it when it was destroyed by fire in 1951. The Riverside store was flooded several times in 1947, 1951 and 1952. The worst flood was in 1993 when the water was eight feet high at the Riverside headquarters, and it took three months to clean up the damage. The store was purchased by the City and the store closed in Riverside in 2013.

1948

E. H. Young opens the first Red X. He would take his profits and continue to add to the building. He borrowed the name, Red X from the company that delivered the gas and oil. He liked the name because it was short and was easy to fit into an ad.

FACEBOOK POST FROM PAT MARTSOLF: Hi Gary I just saw the picture of red x it. Brought back a memory I must have been about 7 or 8 Ed Young’s store was a small place then. It was usual for my mom and siblings to be sent to the grandparents during the Christmas holidays that year when Daddy picked us up at the union station in K C we stopped pm the way home and picked up bicycles that Ed had stored for us til our return. I’m almost 90yrs old bit I can still see Daddy and Ed. coming across that parking lot with those bikes. Thanks for dredging up so many good memories

[Pat's post was December 13, 2018 and she was almost 90 and said she was about 8 on her first memories, the Red X would have looked like the photo]

1948

Riverside Drive In Opens

Red X is so small it's nearly invisible in this photo. It actually to the right of center by the road.

1948 Riverside Drive In Ads

Fat's sold ice along with gas and groceries. This sign was sent by a facebook member and said the number mean the weights of the ice you could buy. The ice house was in a small building off to the side of the parking lot.

BEVERLY LUMBER-1949.

was one of the earliest businesses in Riverside was actually here before the foundation of the city. It was founded by Frank McKnight with his brother-in-law Bill Dowd as manager of the first yard. In 1947 the company purchased the A.J. Higgins Lumber Company of Tracy, later moving it to Platte City. In April 1949, the firm purchased the White Lumber Company in Riverside.