Bit of History - March 24, 2021

Did you know that when the town of Ridgeway was first laid out, Walnut Street ran all the way to Third Street?  Today, it stops at Second Street and the final block is private property.  I have found old plat maps of Grant Township and Ridgeway from 1876, 1898 and 1917 when browsing around the digital maps section of the State Historical Society of Missouri.  The plat maps for both 1898 and 1917 both show that Walnut did run from Second to Third, but it seems to have been vacated sometime after the last plat map that I found.  I would love to know if anyone has any other information about this.

City of Ridgeway, Missouri Plat Map, 1917

Thanks to Proposition 2, my curiosity got the better of me about the Ridgeway School fire and the history of the current gym. I started digging around in Newspapers.com and I found several articles covering the fire and all that came afterward.  Seems that someone at the Kansas City Star was very interested in this little community and followed the story through to the opening of the new school.  I will share more of this story next week – it is truly heartwarming how the people of this town worked together to provide for the students. 

Editor's Note:  In 2021, the voters residing in the Ridgeway R-V school district voted on Proposition 2 asking them to decide if the school district should use bond money to build a new school gym.  The old field house, formerly a military warehouse deconstructed and moved to Ridgeway and rebuilt by volunteers, was in great need of costly repairs.  The proposition did not pass, but the administrators were able to secure enough donations and grants to get the new gym built.  It was completed in 2022 and students and community members alike are currently enjoying it.