There is good access to the Interstate and Federal highway system, with I-435, I-470, and US-71/I-49 running through the area, including the Grandview Triangle.

The town site was originally platted in 1845 by Randall Allen; it received its name when in 1854 Edwin Alfred Hickman purchased 40 acres in Washington Township to build a steam-powered grist and saw mill along Hart Grove Creek.

He had moved down from Independence when wood became scarce for his mill there and he sought to take advantage of the large amount of traffic on the nearby Santa Fe Trail at that time.

An Independence milling company purchased the equipment, and a local neighbor, Solomon Young (great-grandfather to President Harry S Truman) used some of the lumber to build a barn.

Charles Jefferys was a prominent business man who emigrated from Belgium, heir to a fortune from holdings in the British West Indies.

His farm manager, Jacob Palmer, learned that Jayhawkers planned to murder Jefferys, ostensibly under the assumption that he had assisted the local rebel guerrillas and for his ownership of slaves.

His farm had been visited by men asking for Jefferys' assistance; Henry Younger, father of guerrilla and future Jesse James Gang member Cole Younger, had been shot and was at Dodson, a small community north west at the current location of 85th Street and Prospect.

Not wanting to keep the prisoners for any length of time, they attempted to take them to local authorities and had stopped at Jefferys farm when they were intercepted by a Quantrill patrol.

Quantrill's men took charge of the prisoners, led them out the large gate where Ruskin High School now stands, and disappeared into the brush near the Little Blue river.

The raid was a reprisal for a number of incidents and resulted in Lawrence being completely burned, and most of the male residents being murdered.

While the battles in the east were vast and impersonal, the war in Missouri and Kansas was very personal, pitting neighbors and families against one another after the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854.

His properties and farms continued to be run; however Jeffereys' son returned to Hickman Mills to slowly sell off the land.

In recent years the rails have been completely removed, Red Bridge Road realigned, and the location of the original stop and depot are approximately where the off-ramp of southbound US-71 now exists.

Northeast of the church is a smaller stone building with the date "1921" on the face which once served as the town bank.

About 1/2 mile east of town center along Red Bridge Road on the north side near the fire station is a monument to General Order No.

From 93rd Street it crossed the property that once contained the Mall, turned west down Bannister Road (formerly County Highway W) and turned south at the town of Holmes Park between what is now Marion Park Drive (the former rail bed of the FRISCO line) and Hickman Mills Drive (old US-71) to a point about one mile northwest of the original town site.