Strang’s Suburbia
While J.C. Nichols was trying to lure new residents into his upscale developments and to change Johnson County’s image from a “place for farmers,” William Strang directed his development efforts toward a broader group. His Overland Park residential developments were marketed toward the middle-class city dweller dreaming of a more peaceful existence, away from the odious sounds and sights of the city. Offering convenient transportation on the Strang Line from suburban home to downtown workplace, Strang painted a hopeless future for any family foolish enough not to escape city life as soon as possible.
Strang’s promotional booklet “A Home on Overland Turnpike” contrasted the troubled city resident with the content suburban home owner. The city dweller, Strang said, whether renter or home owner, could never escape the burden of work and unpaid bills, or the worry that one’s child might be run over by a street car or an automobile. The sound of the street cars passing night and day gradually beat a person down, and began to “crowd out of his soul everything that is beautiful and artistic.” Unfortunately, even weekend trips out to the country were not enough to allow one to understand the “tremendous secrets of Nature.”
Those who dwelt outside the city in Strang Land Company developments, however, could look out over “the smoky skyline of the crowded city,” and enjoy the quiet, safe, beautiful living environment of their dreams. To the naturally gorgeous area, Strang added the attraction of electric railway transportation, graded streets, an athletic field, an aviation park, and “city conveniences” such as natural gas and electric lights.
Not only could one escape the city by returning to the suburbs each evening after work, but Strang also explained that some of his tracts were ideal for truck gardening and dairy farming. Kansas Citians were urged to consider moving to this wonderful place “where you can have space to raise chickens, to grow flowers and vegetables; where you can keep your own cow and be independent.”
Strang’s subdivisions included Overland Park, Overland Hill, Overland Heights, Overland View, Overland Place, Eleanora Heights, Milburn Place, and Morrison Ridge. Offering varying tract sizes and building restrictions, Strang asserted that “whatever your requirements or means, from the large country place to the modest cottage, they can be met and satisfied in some one of the additions.”
If one were not yet convinced that Overland Park was the ideal place to live, Strang assured prospective buyers that the Strang Land Company was a solid corporation with capital of $300,000. He also differentiated his company from “ordinary” real estate companies by explaining that the Strang Land Company did not merely want to make money, but also desired to help thrifty home builders and wise investors benefit from rising property values. This would, in turn, benefit the adjacent Strang railway, and the entire area would prosper. Perhaps Overland Park is not today as William Strang might have envisioned it during the early twentieth century, but the community has indeed prospered and continues to thrive.
--ALBUM vol. 10, no. 2 (spring 1997)