Leawood, Kansas, a suburban community in the Kansas City Metropolitan area, is located in Johnson County, approximately 10 miles southwest of downtown Kansas City, MO. It covers 14.7 square miles and resembles an elongated rectangle running north/south. Interstate-435 crosses through the City and is just north of the center of the community. The City is bordered on three sides by the cities of Overland Park and Prairie Village, Kansas and on the fourth by Kansas City, Missouri. The City’s land area is approximately 75% developed and growth is expected to continue in the future.
With more than 60 years of tradition, Leawood, Kansas, set in northeast Johnson County, is both a premier residential community and a prestigious business address. The City features an inviting mix of elegant established neighborhoods, new high-profile developments and distinctive office buildings. Leawood truly combines the best of historic tradition with the momentum of the contemporary.
Native Americans were the first inhabitants of the area eventually established as Leawood and in the early 1700’s Daniel Boone explored the land with French and American traders. Among those who made Leawood what it is today was Oscar G. Lee, a retired police officer from Oklahoma. When Lee arrived in 1922, he brought with him a lifetime of dreams about his own future. He sought to make those dreams real on land he purchased between what is now 79th and 103rd Streets and State Line and Belinder Roads. This purchase became the foundation of present-day Leawood. Then in 1948, following the establishment of a housing development by the Kroh brothers, Leawood was incorporated.
From the start, the residents of Leawood hoped and planned for a tightly knit community with the convenience of a big city and the peacefulness of a small town. Today, with picturesque parks and streets, highly rated schools and welcoming churches, Leawood is all that the founders had envisioned.
