Holy Rosary Church constructed in 1895 is the anchor of Columbus Park. (Doug Hill)
[dropcap]C[/dropcap]olumbus Park has been known as Kansas City, Missouri’s Little Italy since the late 19th century. It still is, along with a considerable population of Vietnamese drawn to the shared Catholic religion that’s served by Holy Rosary Church in the neighborhood’s center.
The church has a place in KC’s notorious mafia crime-family history for conducting mobster Nick Civella‘s 1983 funeral. The city’s mafia was involved in politics and crime for nearly a century. Much of the activity was centered within Columbus Park’s several square blocks.
That notoriety lies far in the past, however. Today, Columbus Park is a pleasant neighborhood with restaurants and galleries beside residences.
Bistros, hair salons and art galleries are interwoven among residential. Shown here: a ramen shop’s outdoor seating area. (Doug Hill)
Holy Rosary provides a variety of social services to the community, including this credit union. (Doug Hill)
Family name carved in stone on a residential front yard. (Doug Hill)
Evidence of the neighborhood’s heritage are found on each block. (Doug Hill)
Building wall painted in the Italian flag’s tricolors. (Doug Hill)
Trap Gallery on Gillis in Columbus Park. (Doug Hill)
Residential properties tend to townhouses, apartments, lofts and single-family dwellings. (Doug Hill)
Owing to a shared Catholic faith, Columbus Park is now part Vietnamese and part Italian. (Doug Hill)
New streetcars serving Columbus Park are a throwback to the neighborhood’s early 20th century era. (Doug Hill)
Much of the early 20th century architecture, such as this 1923 soda water factory, remains, albeit in repurposed fashion. (Doug Hill)
Missouri limestone quarried nearby was used extensively throughout Columbus Park in the late 19th century. This is a yard wall. (Doug Hill)
Doug Hill earned a double-major undergraduate degree in English and East Asian Studies from the University of Kansas and a master's in human relations from the University of Oklahoma. He's been a freelance journalist and photographer in central Oklahoma since 1997.
