The original Menorah Hospital started out near the UMKC campus. See what’s there now
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Before 1931, Kansas City’s healthcare hub was centered on Hospital Hill near Gillham Road.
In October of that year, the Jewish Memorial Hospital opened for business on a 7-acre site a few miles to the south—between Brush Creek and Rockhill Road, across the street from what is now UMKC.
Within a few months, its name had changed to Menorah Hospital.
A 1938 brochure touted the facility’s “non-sectarian care,” as well as its “kosher kitchen for those who desire it,” glass-enclosed solariums, a cancer clinic and “the best outfitted X-Ray room for any hospital its size.”
In 1951, the name was changed again to the Menorah Medical Center, reflecting even more services and building additions—that by 1961 included a 6-story tower.
After the HCA hospital chain purchased Menorah, the medical center moved to its current location in Overland Park in 1996.
Though the old structure was razed to make way for the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, a portion of one wall was left intact and incorporated into one of the buildings on the west edge of the Stowers campus.
Looking for more Kansas City history?
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