This is a photograph of the dining room at Grinter Place, Wyandotte County, Kansas. Harry and Bernice Hanson purchased the house and property from Reverend Henry C. and Martha V. Grinter Kirby's daughter in 1950. The Hansons owned and operated a chicken dinner restaurant on the site until the mid-1960s. Built in 1857, Grinter Place is the oldest home in Wyandotte County and overlooks the historic Delaware Crossing on the Kansas River. It is a two-story brick house built and owned by Moses and Annie Grinter. He operated a ferry across the Kansas River and from 1855 to 1860, Grinter owned a trading post, that sold about one hundred sixty types of goods including clothing, powder and bullets, perfume, sugar, and scissors, among other things to the Delawares in exchange for cash and furs. The Grinters also farmed, raised poultry and livestock, and planted an apple orchard on their farmstead. Through the assistance of the Junior League of Kansas City, Kansas, and the Grinter Place Friends, the State of Kansas acquired the site in 1971 and now the Kansas Historical Society administers the former Grinter residence as a state historic site.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
Dining room at Grinter Place, Wyandotte County, Kansas