By Don Bradley
On cold mornings, smoke rises from one or more of the holes in the roof of the 4 Acre Motel.
Trash gathers against the buildings like blown leaves. Old couches, tires and mattresses clutter the parking lot which sparkles from broken glass.
If the legend is true that Marilyn Monroe once stayed at this place, it’s been a while.
The classic old motel at 8220 Hickman Mills Drive –its towering neon sign a beacon to travelers for decades –shut down a few years back and promptly descended into ruin, vagrancy and crime.
Homeless people start fires in the rooms.
Neighbors want something done, the owner feels ganged-up on and the city is hearing it from everyone.
“To say it’s an eyesore is an understatement –it’s an embarrassment,” said Diane Hershberger, executive director of the Marlborough Community Coalition.
“It attracts nefarious activity and is not a reflection of our community.”
Eddie Guinn of Guinn Group Properties bought the property two years ago. Early on, he thought at least some of the buildings could be restored and used in a housing project.
Not anymore. He knows the site must be razed, but he is working first on getting the property rezoned from commercial to residential. His plan remains housing.
Guinn said the rezoning process takes time and he will clean the site when the city tells him he can. His workers have tried to secure the property, but homeless people then undo everything the workers did, Guinn said.
“I know it’s not attractive,” Guinn said. “But I can’t control the homeless that go in there.”
“But that place has been this way for a long time and nobody cared when the previous owner had it. Now everybody’s on me to get it cleaned up.”
The 4 Acre Motel, with restaurant and cocktail lounge, opened around 1940 during the golden era of highway motor courts. Sunday dinner was big at the restaurant, even for non-guests.
Over the decades when it was a welcoming sight to travelers, it also put together quite the rap sheet.
According to websites that track such things, the 4 Acre has seen holdups and shootouts going back to the 1950s. A police officer was reportedly shot there.
In 1992, water service stopped because someone stole the water meter.
In 2016, a Southwest High School honor student was found strangled in a room. Her father was convicted of second-degree murder, sexual abuse and incest.
Since closing, neighbors say it’s become a den for vagrancy, drug use and possibly prostitution.
The Kansas City Planning and Zoning Department includes the following witness statement under “property violations” on its Compass website:
“4 Acre Motel. Homeless camp on property. I witness this every day. There is an abundance of trash on property. There are always fires. I’ve witnessed the fire department on-site at least three times. Homeless camp is dismantling the wooden fence to start fires. How do we get this business torn down?”
Fifth district at-large Councilman Darrell Curls thinks that will happen soon.
“We’ve met with the owner and we’re working with the neighborhood groups and we’re looking to get it demolished and I think it will be within 45 days,” Curls said this week.
Steve Walker, president of the Marlborough East Neighborhood Association, thinks Curls and 5th District Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw both want something done, but that’s been the talk for a long time.
“There’s probably homeless in there right now,” Walker said a recent cold morning as he stood at the motel entrance and talked about the motel, but not just the motel.
“All along this strip is just blight,” he said motioning in both directions on Hickman Mills Drive. “This is the city’s doing. They let it get to this point.”
Curls, who was elected last year, agrees the strip needs help.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said. “It used to be a lot different.”
Walker said he and others pulled nearly 4,000 illegally-dumped tires from a nearby lot.
“Investors come in here and see what’s going on here and they don’t want anything to do with it,” Walker said. “We’ve tried, we’ve tried, we’ve tried…”
He recently walked the motel grounds with Guinn and wants to believe the owner when he says something will be done soon.
Can’t come soon enough for neighbors.
“It’s been a very active old motel,” Walker said.
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