The Very First Inter-City News

  

On January 4, 1929, the paper once known as the Mt. Washington News changed its name to the Inter-City News. With the new name came a new mission and wish list of accomplishments, as you’ll see below:

WHAT WE HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH

 (Inter-City News, January 4, 1929)

 With this issue of the paper the name is changed to the INTER-CITY NEWS. The reasons for this is that the communities of Mt. Washington, Fairmount, Fairland Heights, Fairmount Highlands, Maywood, Englewood, South Englewood and Athol and Sugar Creek are fast becoming one community, that of the East Suburbs of Kansas City. 

First Edition of the Inter-City News

   For some time the NEWS has supplied these various communities with a newspaper, but a great many people have looked upon it as the paper of only one of these communities, while in reality we have tried to make the paper represent the East Suburbs.  

   With the change in name, the size and style of the NEWS, and with an enlarged personnel, we hope to give our readers a real NEWSpaper, giving the news without bias, and without considering race, creed or politics. We intend to pursue a vigorous editorial policy as to what we believe to be the needs of the community and to lend our best effort toward seeing that the East Suburbs receive the best from its neighbors and the best from its own citizens. 

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The newspaper was founded in May of 1911 a group of boys from the Mt. Washington Methodist Church Sunday School ranging in age from 13 to 16 years old who called themselves "The Hustlers." They began publishing the Mt. Washington News, a small publication of 3 columns on 4 pages. They were assisted by two girls who wrote "society items."

   Some early items from the first edition of this newspaper included stories such as, “Charles Huckett and Herman Voght went fishing. They did not even catch a cold,” and "D. M. Bone keeps a supply of candy at the bank for children depositors," and " 'Red-headed’ people are known for good citizenship and their kindly deeds.'"

By July the news items became more substantial. The history and cost of the Mt. Washington School were discussed. Bringing water to Mt. Washington from the Independence Water Works and the chemistry of water treatment were among the topics being printed. The parents of "The Hustlers" began to see the potential for a newspaper and its advertising possibilities and they took interest.

The next year the paper was taken over by Walter Harriman, father of Hustler Whitney Harriman, who went into partnership with a print shop owner in Mt. Washington. The paper was renamed the Mt. Washington Reporter.

By the 50th anniversary of the publication in 1961 the newspaper would change hands eight times and change names five times, finally settling on "The Inter-City News" so as to include as much of the growing "East Suburbs of Kansas City" as possible. The area served by the Inter-City News was unincorporated in Jackson County and most of the area would not be annexed by Independence until 1961.

According to the Library of Congress the Inter-City News officially ceased publication in 1976.