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History · Summit Township

Half of Summit Township’s homes were built after 1974

Most of Summit Township was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1974. Below: maps from 1887 on.

0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
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What stands out about Summit Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Summit Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18874 editions of the USGS map, 1887 to 1981. Watch Summit Township change.
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Start Summit Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Summit Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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On the map

Summit Township on the map, 1887 to 1981

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Summit Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Summit Township on the 1887 USGS mapSummit Township on the 1894 USGS mapSummit Township on the 1961 USGS mapSummit Township on the 1981 USGS map1887Butler sheet · 1:125,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Summit Township.

The story so far

Summit Township, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Summit Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Summit Township is one of twenty-four townships in Bates County, Missouri, and is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area within the USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 317. Summit Township was so named on account of the relatively elevated prairies within its borders.

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 312 to 255 (-18%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Gone or out of use
Black SchoolschoolFry SchoolschoolHerrell SchoolschoolRedmond SchoolschoolSummit Schoolschool
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Summit Township
Elizabeth ChapelGlass

Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Deepwater TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townShawnee TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMount Pleasant Township2 historic placesB

Questions about Summit Township’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.