Shawnee: “Gateway to Kansas”
R.O. Larsen, Shawnee realtor, was an important promoter of Shawnee, Larsen was key in the long-term success of a promotional booklet entitled: “Shawnee—The Gateway of Kansas.” The booklet was first published in the mid-1920s when the city was proud of the new “brick highway between Shawnee and Olathe,” and city leaders were increasingly interested in marketing the area. 3,000 copies of the first edition were distributed in only the first few days. Over the years the “Gateway to Kansas” booklets were widely distributed by Larsen through his real estate business—10,000 copies by 1942. Larsen usually enclosed one of the booklets in each letter he sent out. Schools and churches called on him each year for a number of his booklets.
The 1931 edition of this booklet summarized the area’s history and focused on what the community had to offer in a section titled “Fifty Years Later.” In an attempt to keep up with the community’s growth, statistics in the booklet now in the museum collection were crossed out and updated in red ink. Highlights among the booklet’s statements: “Shawnee is the most densely populated and most highly developed agricultural section of Johnson County.” “Shawnee Township supplies more garden, fruit and dairy products to the Kansas City market than any other section of Johnson County.” “Shawnee Merchants are active, and Shawnee can show more business than any town in the County, except the County Seat.” The community was promoted as having “practically no rental property—it is a community of home owners.”
The “Gateway of Kansas” booklet invited people to settle in the community, “an ideal home community, affording all the comforts of the country, combined with all the advantages of the city.” This booklet is a special resource to understanding the community’s development and image.
--ALBUM vol. 18, no. 3 (summer 2005)