Forgotten Places: Zarah
Zarah was a small community once located along the Santa Fe Railway line, close to the current intersection of Shawnee Mission Parkway and Woodland Road. In 1869, B.F. Hollenback bought the land from John Ham, a Shawnee Indian, and shortly thereafter platted the townsite. The original plats show 44 lots and one main street. According to some accounts, the town name was LeRoy, then Brighton, before it became Zarah. Apparently the community did not attract many settlers, as it does not show up in the 1874 atlas of Johnson County.
By the late 1880s, there was at least one store building in Zarah, and a post office opened there in 1890. Twelve years later, Harry King Sr., formerly a local potato farmer and dealer, became the postmaster. He also bought the general store which housed the post office. For years the King store was a fixture in the community. King was active in public life, serving as director of the Monticello school board, in various township offices, and as a county commissioner from 1908 to 1912. His son, Harry King Jr., became postmaster in Zarah in 1945 and he also served on the county commission from 1957-65.
Zarah never became a boom town. The population reached fifty by 1910, and by 1954 there were fewer than one hundred residents. Around 1930, the town consisted of eight houses, two gas stations, two stores, a grain elevator, a bank, and a restaurant. It was also home to a baseball team and an amusement park. Starrwood Park, located to the east of Mill Creek in an area formerly known as “Buckeye Grove,” began as a tourist camp in 1922. Starrwood later featured game booths and a dance pavilion with live music and was a popular entertainment venue for area residents.
Zarah went into decline during the Great Depression and never recovered. In July, 1954, the post office in Harry King’s store closed. The location was annexed by the city of Shawnee around 1970.
--ALBUM vol. 15, no. 3 (summer 2002)