18th & Vine Historic District | Kansas City, MO

Photo (L-R): Blue Room Jazz Club, Negro League Baseball Museum

Along with New Orleans’s Basin Street, Beale Street in Memphis, 52nd Street in New York and Los Angeles’s Central Avenue, the intersection of 18th and Vine is one of the most famous street corners in the world…….the birthplace of Kansas City Jazz. The 18th and Vine Historic District was the center of commerce for the city’s African American community from the 1920s into the 1960s with thriving commerical, residential and entertainment areas. Today, the redeveloped district features a pair of museums that focus on KC’s role in African-American history: the Kansas City Jazz Museum and the Negro League Baseball Museum. Both feature well-presented exhibitions of greats from Statchel Paige and the Kansas City Monarchs to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. Other neighborhood sites of interest include the restored Gem Theatre, the Blue Room jazz club, and the long-time offices of the city’s first and most prominent African American newspaper, The Call. For more information regarding Kansas City’s 18th and Vine Historic District please visit the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association website.

18th and Vine Historical District
18th & Vine Street
Kansas City, MO 64108
Offical Website: N/A
Map & Driving Directions: N/A

For more information on black travel destinations world wide be sure to visit Discover Black Heritage, A Travel Guide to Black History and Culture.