Riverside, Missouri

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Riverside, Missouri sits on the edge of the Missouri River, tucked inside Platte County and folded into the broader Kansas City metropolitan area. Its population was 4,013 at the 2020 census, making it a small city by almost any measure. But size tells you almost nothing about a place. What does tell you something is a gas station founded in 1948, a horse racing track that carried a political boss's nickname without ever putting his name on the paperwork, and three men who chose independence over annexation when two larger cities came knocking. How did a riverside community become its own city? And what did it take to stay that way?

• 2. The Pendergast Track

  ›

  From 1928 to 1937, horse races were run at a club in Riverside that locals called the Pendergast Track. The formal name was the Riverside Park Jockey Club. The nickname came from Tom Pendergast, the city boss of Kansas City, who was the track's patron. Pendergast's name never appeared on the organization's official papers, but his association with the place was well understood by everyone who attended. The track itself had been built on the site of a former dog racing operation, and its legal standing was regarded as questionable at the time. After the jockey club ceased running races, the land was repurposed for automobile racing. That car track eventually closed in the 1990s, leaving the site without the spectators and wagers that had once defined it.

• 3. Incorporation and Independence

  ›

  Edward Young opened a gas station called the Red X store in 1948, and that single business would become a thread in the city's founding story. When both Parkville and Kansas City expressed interest in annexing the Riverside area, Young and two local business owners, Ferd Filger and Dr. Thomas M. Eagle, organized a different outcome. Together they led the drive to formally incorporate Riverside as its own city in 1951. The store Young founded remained in the Young family long after that incorporation. The Renner Village Archeological Site, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, is another layer of the area's documented past that predates the modern city entirely.

• 4. Geography and Neighbors

  ›

  The United States Census Bureau puts Riverside's total area at 5.79 square miles, of which 5.51 square miles is land and 0.28 square miles is water. The Kansas City neighborhoods of Parkdale-Walden and Briarcliff West sit to Riverside's north and east, with the cities of Parkville and Northmoor interspersed along those same boundaries. The Argosy Gaming Company operates a casino along the river, which marks a continuation of the area's history of river-adjacent commercial enterprise. The Missouri River that gave Riverside its name and its early identity still runs along the city's edge.

• 5. A Changing Population

  ›

  Between the 2000 and 2020 censuses, Riverside grew from just under 2,979 residents to 4,013, a shift that also changed the city's racial composition. In 2000, the population was 84.66% White; by 2020 that share had dropped to 62.5%, while the Black or African American population grew from 6.14% to 17.4%. The Hispanic or Latino share moved from 7.08% to 9.3% over the same span. By 2020, the median age had fallen to 35.0 years, down from 39.1 in 2010. The share of residents under 18 rose from 21% in 2010 to 25.9% in 2020, pointing toward a younger and more diverse city than the one that existed a generation earlier.

• 6. Schools and Civic Life

  ›

  Riverside falls within the Park Hill School District, and residents attend four elementary schools: English Landing, Graden, Line Creek, and Southeast. Most of the city is zoned to Lakeview Middle School, though some households are assigned to Walden Middle School instead. All residents feed into Park Hill South High School, which sits in Riverside itself. Metropolitan Community College includes the Park Hill school district in its taxation area. Riverside also has a branch of the Mid-Continent Public Library, giving the city a public reading room alongside the school system that serves its youngest residents.