Main Street (Kansas City, Missouri)

Main Street or Main is one of the major streets in Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City metropolitan area. Main Street serves as the main administrative dividing line for house numbering and east–west streets in Kansas City; for example, it separates East 59th Street from West 59th Street. Address numbers on east–west streets increase in both directions as one moves away from Main Street. This should not be confused with the Kansas City "East Side" and "West Side," a cultural distinction which has arisen from a history of racist segregation in the city, separated by Troost Avenue approximately 1 mile east of Main Street.^[1]

The main portion of Main Street is 4.6 miles (7.4 km) long, traveling south from 6th Street in Downtown Kansas City to 47th Street / Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard at the Country Club Plaza. This section of Main Street is predominantly commercial and mixed-use, connecting the Financial District, Kansas City Power & Light District, and Crossroads downtown with Union Hill, Westport, and the Plaza Area in midtown. It continues north as Delaware Street into the Kansas City River Market at its northern terminus and as Brookside Boulevard into Brookside at its southern terminus.

Main Street continues south of the Plaza for 4.5 miles (7.2 km), mostly through residential neighborhoods, from 1.3 miles (2.1 km) from Ward Parkway to 85th Street. It is noncontinuous at 59th Street, 1.3 miles (2.1 km) south of Ward Parkway, where it is interrupted by Brookside Boulevard. These portions service the South Plaza, Brookside, Armour Hills, and Waldo neighborhoods.

Two noncontinuous minor stubs are also designated as Main Street. From north to south, they run:

• 0.6 miles (0.97 km) from 89th Street to 94th Street.
• 0.1 miles (0.16 km) from 96th Street to 97th Street.

A final 300 feet (91 m) section of Main Street also exists between 164th Terrace and 165th Street in the suburb of Belton, Missouri, though it is not considered part of Main Street in local lexicon.