Long before the shopping mall existed, Kansas City dreamed up the Country Club Plaza: opened in 1923 as the first shopping center in the world designed for the automobile, and still one of the most beautiful places in America to take a stroll.
The Plaza’s Spanish Revival architecture — red-tile roofs, ornate towers, mosaics and fountains inspired by Seville — gives its 15 blocks a storybook feel. Shoppers browse national brands and local boutiques between sips of coffee, while horse-drawn carriages clip-clop past some of the city’s most photographed corners, like the Giralda Tower and the Neptune Fountain.
When the holidays arrive, the Plaza becomes pure magic: hundreds of thousands of lights outline every tower and dome for the famous Plaza Lights, a Kansas City tradition that begins each year on Thanksgiving evening and glows into January.
Come for the shopping, stay for the architecture, the people-watching and the fountains. The Plaza is Kansas City elegance at its most relaxed.
