[4] The city started as a planned upscale community for the elite by J.C. Nichols to be built around the Mission Hills Country Club (Kansas) on the hills above Brush Creek just south of the Shawnee Methodist Mission.

After it dramatically grew, it moved to what today is the Kansas City Country Club.

[6] Nichols opposed incorporation of the community fearing that a city would not adequately meet the needs of its residents or properly enforce housing covenants.

One of the most publicized early enforcements involved forbidding the family of a sick woman to enclose her porch with glass.

[7] Faced with prospects of annexation by neighboring relatively lower income communities seeking its wealthy tax base, Mission Hills incorporated as a city in 1949.

[9] In 1928 Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Pauline, stayed at the house of W. Malcolm and Ruth Lowry at 6435 Indian Lane.

He later gave an autographed copy of the book to Don Carlos Guffey, the Kansas City doctor who delivered his son Patrick.

The inscription, which is now in the University of Missouri-Kansas City library, said "...with much admiration and grateful remembrance of a Caesarean that was beautifully done and turned out splendidly.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.02 square miles (5.23 km2), all land.

According to Forbes Magazine, Mission Hills ranks as the third wealthiest municipality in the country.

The 2020 United States census counted 3,594 people, 1,241 households, and 1,094 families in Mission Hills.

The Johnson County Library serves the residents of Mission Hills.

Mission Hills is a setting for the ABC Family television drama Switched at Birth.

The show is set in Kansas City, Missouri, but the main characters live in Mission Hills.

Mission Hills was ranked number 3 on the Forbes list of America's most affluent neighborhoods.

[26] Notable individuals who were born in and/or have lived in Mission Hills include: