KANSAS CITY, Mo. — KSHB 41 News reporter Braden Bates covers parts of Jackson County, Missouri, including Lee's Summit. Send Braden a story idea by e-mail.
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The historic Northeast is a place full of history, from its buildings to its homes. Historic Kansas City released its list of the 2026 Most Endangered Places, which features several historical housing sites in northeast KC.
The Tuscawara and Dorson apartment complexes sit catty corner from one another on Benton Boulevard, and both made this year's list.
Between the two buildings, that is 42 units that could be lived in.
The Tuscawara sits completely empty with boarded up windows, doors and visible fire damage on the building's exterior on the left side.
The Dorson currently has a few units occupied.
For every vacant building, Dylan Van Gerpen, the president of the Northeast Neighborhood Coalition, said there is impact to the neighborhood.
"It hurts losing the historical integrity, but also seeing a hole in the block of a neighborhood," Van Gerpen said. "I think the Northeast has a little more than 2,100 vacant parcels."
The buildings face big threats as they sit empty.
"Apartment housing, particularly in northeast neighborhoods, is at risk, mostly from vacancy and deterioration," Ethan Starr, the executive director of Historic Kansas City, said.
The list is comprised through nominations. Many neighborhood associations contributed, submitting buildings they want to see get featured because of their historical value.
"Put effort towards saving these historic buildings in what may be the last chance," Starr said.
While out on this story, the Kansas City, Missouri, Fire Department sent notification of a partial building collapse. This was about two miles away from where we were filming.
The building, while not on the 2026 Endangered Places List, was vacant and in similar condition to some of the other buildings we had been covering. It showed what can happen as the front wall collapsed onto the street.
The smoke stains on the exterior, and confirmation from KCPD, revealed it had been impacted by a previous fire.
Back at the Tuscawara, the fire risk is immediate.
"This is our fire period of the year. This building has been on fire two times within the last year," Starr said.
The left side of the colonnade style building was chard on the lower level patio.
Every year it sits empty, it falls deeper into disrepair, losing not only housing opportunities but pieces of the city's living history.
"Architecture to me is also kind of an art form, right? So we have living art in our urban core instead of going to a museum and looking at a painting," Van Gerpen said.
The list being a last stitch effort for preservation. Preservation efforts also carry financial stakes for the broader community.
"Preservation is incentivized at a state and federal level. Now if we lose the components of buildings and the buildings themselves that have historic significance, then our community cannot benefit from those incentive programs," Starr said.
He pointed to several federal and state incentives that work to save buildings like these. He said if interested parties don't step in, it could lead to the demolition of the buildings.
Van Gerpen said these efforts can significantly improve housing, especially affordable housing.
For Van Gerpen, the future he sees for the Historic Northeast builds on what is already there.
"Full and lively and so culturally rich and diverse, which we already are, just even better," Van Gerpen said.
See the full 2026 Most Endangered Places List here.
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