It begins in the north at E Reservoir Drive in the Pendleton Heights neighborhood of the Historic Northeast and stretches south for 10.5 miles to its southern terminus at Blue River Road.
Prospect became one of the main commercial thoroughfares of the East Side during the 1950s and 1960s, providing the entertainment that the African-American community was barred from in locations such as Westport, the River Quay, and the Country Club Plaza.
[3] Decades of municipal disinvestment caught up in the late 20th century, leading the one-time hub of neighborhood businesses and commercial activity to become a corridor of blight and decay.
[2][4] Similar to revitalization projects across the East Side (such as those on Troost Avenue and The Paseo, grassroots organizations have championed efforts since the 2010s to make the Prospect Corridor safer and attract investment to boost development.
[2][4][5][6] Prospect Avenue played a pivotal role in Kansas City's response to the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968.