J.C. Nichols Entering His Company's Office at 310 Ward Parkway, ca. 1940.
To carry the birth analogy for Ward Parkway to its logical conclusion, J.C. Nichols served as midwife to Kessler’s doctor and the Ward’s parentage. At 29, Nichols was the youngest of the group in 1909. In cooperation with the Wards and several other investors, including grain dealers H.F. Hall [later donor of the Linda Hall Library] and H.W. Shields, Nichols prepared over 1,000 acres of potential residence property for sale. When Ward Parkway was planned and donated to the city, he sold real estate for the Wards on a straight commission basis. Because of the continuity of his company to the present, and his later development of the Country Club Plaza, J.C. Nichols is probably the best known of the founders of Ward Parkway in the 1990s.

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