history
Naturally, to get to all of these eateries, you had to have gasoline, and Oak was populated with a variety of service stations. One of the first was Paul Degenhardt’s Standard Oil station at 69th Street. One longtime resident told of visiting the station when he first came to Gladstone in 1960; Degenhardt told him he must be new in the area. The man asked how he knew and Degenhardt responded that he knew practically everyone in town and he didn’t know the newcomer. Other stations recalled were the Sinclair, where you could get towels and glassware with your gas; Pete’s Phillips 66; a Mobil and a Fina station at 72nd and Oak; and a Clark station at 74th Terrace – now a car dealership. There were physicians, too, along the street, although not too many. Some of the names mentioned were Zacharias, Legg, Sportsman and Craig. The only hospitals were Spelman Memorial in Smithville and North Kansas City Hospital, which opened in 1958 with 80 patient beds.
Life was certainly simpler – as were the rules – in the ’50s, because when Williams’ grocery store burned, it reopened within days after the fire, doing business under a circus tent with wooden pallets on the floor to help with food displays and shelving. Today’s health departments would hardly allow such an occurrence. Another fire – this one intentional – paved the way for one of the Northland’s first banks. Branham’s Auction Barn at 70th and Oak was set ablaze as a training exercise for the City’s then all-volunteer fire department on a Sunday afternoon in February 1964. The fire made way for the First National Bank (which had shared office space with the Gladstone Water Department under the water tower), and ended a long run of businesses that had been housed where the old barn sat. There were other eateries along Oak besides Henry’s and Frenchie’s. Griff ’s burger bar greeted parents and teens at 70th Terrace, and it later became the Patio Drive-Inn. Other national chain drive-ins were Dairy Queen, located where the Smokehouse is today, and Texas Tom’s, at 76th Terrace. Jim G served burgers northward at 75th Terrace, where Enterprise rents cars. Though not on Oak, Lou & Tiny’s sandwich shop was recalled at North Locust just south of 72nd. Reagan’s and the Shady Lane Inn were mentioned and both located near Shady Lane, as was Jamie’s, home of chicken livers.
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Other fixtures along Oak were hardware stores. Kramer’s was remembered on the east at 76th Terrace and also between 74th and 75th terraces but on the west. Ray Sapp, who opened later, also had two locations: on the west side of Oak midway between 72nd and 73rd, and on the southeast corner of 72nd. It was said that Sapp extended credit to many customers – he sold a lawnmower in the winter to a resident, who took the machine home and began using it in the spring. Some residents remembered a blacksmith’s shop – Pennington’s – at the southwest corner of 72nd, and a saddle shop – Doolittle’s – where Sapp had his first store. Apparently you could buy horses from Doolittle’s, too.