Strawberry Hill is a Kansas City, Kansas neighborhood on the bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. It is now a mainly South Slavic community.
Strawberry Hill was previously known as Splitlog Hill, after Mathias Splitlog, a wealthy Indian mill owner who purchased the area and built a mansion on it in 1870. He later sold parcels to the Catholic church and to railroad interests.
After the area was subdivided, the new Strawberry Field neighborhood was established in the late 19th century Immigrants from Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Russia found a home along the river's hillside. They built a community where people could worship, celebrate and prosper while maintaining their distinct Slavic heritage.
Strawberry Hill is still home to the churches the Slavic immigrants built. Slovenian Catholics founded Holy Family Church and Croatian Catholics founded St. John Church.
To the south, Serbian Orthodox founded St. George Church in 1906 and Russian Orthodox founded Holy Trinity Church in 1917. Both have moved to Johnson County, KS. St George Church is now in Lenexa, KS and Holy Trinity Church is in Overland Park, KS.
The neighborhood is bordered by I-70, 7th St, Central and Minnesota.
In 2013, Kansas City author James Marinovich published On Strawberry Hill And Other Croatian-American Tales, a collection of magic-realist stories that take place on Strawberry Hill.
Further reading
- Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas - Historical and Biographical; Goodspeed Publishing Co; 932 pages; 1890.
References
External links
- Strawberry Hill Neighborhood Association, hosted by the SHNA
- Community Life in Strawberry Hill, from a Library of Congress website
- Strawberry Hill Museum and Cultural Center
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