In the late 1890s, Kansas City’s Brush Creek Valley was a marshland populated by beavers and foxes and traveled mainly by fur trappers, Native Americans, and hardy settlers, but J.C. Nichols envisioned something more. Born in Olathe, Kansas, in 1880, Nichols worked from the age of eight and, while still in college, earned enough with a friend to travel to Europe, where bicycle tours through bustling marketplaces, Old World towns, and the colorful tiled plazas of Spain helped shape his vision. When development began in 1922, the Country Club Plaza took form with Spanish-style tiled roofs, ornate towers, and courtyards, while Nichols selected sculptures, fountains, wrought iron, and tiled murals brought from Europe to adorn its streets and sidewalks. It became known as a place for setting styles and trends, including the introduction of the permanent wave in a Plaza beauty salon, and its holiday lights tradition began in 1925 with a single strand of lights on the buildings before growing to more than 200,000 lights.
