Folgers Coffee in KC

I don't think the Frisco served the old Folgers Coffee plant in KC (was it the KCS?). However, do any of you Kansas City locals remember/know where the Folgers plant was located? (Street corners/etc.) I can remember seeing it... but I can't remember where it was exactly.

Memory recall:

Way back when I was in my early twenties, my family and I had been gone from KC for several years. Oddly, every now and then I would smell coffee and instantly I would have memories of me playing on the playground at Whitmore Elementary School in Rosedale, or walking to Whitmore school, that sort of thing.

One day we (my new wife and I) were visiting with my parents and we fell to talking about our KC years. I mentioned this odd memory jog that would happen when I smelled a fresh can of coffee being opened/etc and puzzled over it. Dad said: "Well, you're remembering that because of the way the Folgers plant would smell when the wind was in the right direction. The entire area would smell like fresh roasting coffee!" Didn't know that at the time!

Speaking of Whitmore Elementary: The school and its asphalt playground (fenced) was only a couple blocks or so from the Frisco's crossing of Southwest Boulevard as it headed for Miriam/Olatha and points south. I have memories of hearing the blatting of a horn... followed by the frantic "plop! plop! plop!" sound of my sneekers hitting the pavement as I ran to the southeast corner of the playground. There, clinging to the chain link fence, I would watch as the Frisco would parade its trains before me. I definitely recall seeing FA1's, F's, and such as that. All in full-striped black and yellow splendor. How I wish I would have had the ability to take pictures!

Anyway, if you know the street names of the location of the old Folgers Coffee complex, I would appreciate learning exactly where it was.

Thanks.

 

7th and Broadway. The plant is currently under renovation for upscale apartments. I miss that smell.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/development/article18353747.html

 

Thanks Derrick. Armed with your info I can probably figure it out. To the east of Broadway, the topo shows Admiral Boulevard where 7th should have been. So, it must have been west of Broadway at 7th?

The smell was very distinctive, and fortunately, very pleasant. Not so the stockyards/packing plants!

I may not go very far with the idea, but I'm toying with the possibility of a 1950s/1960s V scale switching route that includes the Folgers facility.

Thanks again.

 

The Folgers plant was between 7th and 8th on the east side of Broadway. The backside of the plant and the railroad service was on May St. The tracks are still visible on Google maps. Also visible is a bridge one block north of the plant that crosses the Interstate highway.

The plant was indeed switched by KCS. I was lucky enough to see them work the plant one evening in the late 1980's. The plant was on an extreme grade coming up out of the market area. I read at one time the KCS owned the largest Shay ever constructed, built specifically to work the extreme grades on some of their KC area trackage.

In the early to mid 1980's I lived at 9th and Jefferson and could smell coffee from the Folgers plant that was about 4 blocks east. Most of the time I enjoyed the smell, but I didn't think it smelled quite so good in the summer evenings when my non-air conditioned apartment was around 90 degrees and it was so hot I couldn't sleep. Fortunately this was after the stockyards shut down.


Dale Rush
Blair Line LLC
Carthage, MO

 

Thanks Dale for some additional info.

The stockyards/packing plant smell was, well, pretty stifling! I remember my older sister and I would make a big deal of the smell as Dad drove our car over the Intercity Viaduct between KCKS and KCMO.

Ah, it would be great to have a Time Machine to be able to go back and detail the scenes I remember as a lad to see if I remember them correctly, as well as fill in a lot of blanks that my mind has supplied images for, correctly or not.