On February 3, 1903, Chicago meat packers Armour & Company and Swift & Company founded the North Kansas City Development Company and purchased several thousand acres of Clay County property north of the Missouri River from Willard E. Winner for relocation of their plants and stockyards, but newly adopted Congressional legislation thwarted those plans. In 1907, company officials instead sent Hugh J. Curran with Armour-Swift personnel to carry out development through the North Kansas City Development Company, and for thirty years, until his retirement in 1937 as company president, he led the work of founding, developing, and building North Kansas City. In recognition of his efforts, land on the west side of Swift Avenue between 17th and 18th, a city park used since the early 1900's, was dedicated Curran Park on July 31, 1931. The park was used for picnics, concerts, baseball, high school football, and numerous other public activities, including night horseshoe pitching contests, before its park contract was canceled on February 15, 1946, with discontinuance of service and removal of six street lamps.