Lee's Summit, Missouri

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Lee's Summit is a city in Cass and Jackson Counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. In 2006, the city's population was estimated at 81,913.., making it the sixth-largest city in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area and the sixth-largest city in Missouri.

In 2006 CNN/Money and Money magazine ranked Lee's Summit 44th on its list of the 100 Best Cities to Live in the United States.

History

Incorporated by William B. Howard in the 1850s, the town was originally called "The Town of Strother" but changed its name in 1868 to the current name, "The Town of Lee's Summit" to reflect its relatively high elevation. Some say the town had an even earlier name, for Dr. Pleasant Lea, but was changed during the Civil War to "Strother," the first name of Dr. Lea's wife, so as not to be confused as a General Lee sympathizer.

In 1912, R.A. Long, the owner of a lumber company, began building his estate, named Longview Farm, on the western edge of the city and into part of Kansas City. When complete, it had a mansion, five barns and 42 buildings in the 1,700 acres. The farm also had a church, Longview Chapel Christian Church, which was completed in 1915. It soon became internationally known as a showplace farm. Today, one of the horse barns is home to Longview Farm Elementary, and the site of Longview Community College. The church and mansion are on the National Register of Historic Places. Other parts of the farm have been turned into Longview Lake, Longview Community College, and a development called New Longview.

In March 2006, a new City Hall was dedicated replacing one that was considered insufficient for the size of the city. The downtown city hall construction had closed portions of 2nd street, Main Street, and Green Street. Currently, the city is working on a streetscaping project for downtown called "Diggin It"

Geography

Lee's Summit is located at (38.922607, -94.374127). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 61.7 square miles (159.7 km²), of which, 59.5 square miles (154.1 km²) of it is land and 2.2 square miles (5.6 km²) of it (3.50%) is water.

Demographics

City Population
Census year	Population

1960	8,267
1965	12,813
1970	16,204
1975	21,765
1980	28,742
1985	33,846
1990	46,418
1995	57,466
1997	62,657
1999	67,079
2001	73,128
2002	76,043
2003	79,515
2004	82,528

As of the census of 2000, there were 70,700 people, 26,417 households, and 19,495 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,188.0 people per square mile (458.7/km²). There were 27,311 housing units at an average density of 458.9/sq mi (177.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 93.17% White, 3.47% African American, 0.36% Native American, 0.99% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.52% from other races, and 1.42% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.97% of the population.

There were 26,417 households out of which 40.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.1% were married couples living together, 8.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.2% were non-families. 22.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.12.

In the city the population was spread out with 29.2% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 33.1% from 25 to 44, 20.9% from 45 to 64, and 10.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 91.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $60,905, and the median income for a family was $70,702. Males had a median income of $49,385 versus $32,837 for females. The per capita income for the city was $26,891. About 2.8% of families and 3.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.7% of those under age 18 and 4.7% of those age 65 or over.

According to a 2006 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $66,475, and the median income for a family was $79,606.

Education

Lee's Summit is served by parts of three public school districts: Lee's Summit R-VII School District, Blue Springs R-IV School District, Raymore-Peculiar R-II School District. Lee's Summit has two religious private schools as well: Lee's Summit Community Christian School and Our Lady of Presentation Catholic School. Longview Community College is located on the extreme western edge of Lee's Summit. The college is part of Metropolitan Community College (Kansas City) or MCC for short. It also is home to the Summit Technology Center which is a branch campus of the University of Central Missouri.

Notable residents

Transportation

Major roads

I-470 is a Interstate 70 bypass around Kansas City.
US 50 - Follows I-435 from the west to I-470 then spurs off in Lee's Summit and becomes just U.S. 50.
MO-150 - A highway linking southern Lee's Summit, and Grandview to the Kansas suburbs at State Line Road.
MO-291 - Formerly an eastern bypass route of U.S. 71, the minor freeway connects Harrisonville and Lee's Summit to Independence, Sugar Creek, Liberty and Northern Kansas City. It is follows I-470 in parts of Lee's Summit.
MO-350 - Connector highway that brings together I-435 with I-470 and U.S. 50.

Other

Lee's Summit (Amtrak station)

References

External links

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Last updated on Saturday March 08, 2008 at 15:46:36 PST (GMT -0800)
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