The railroad had a major hand in the development of the area with routes to Kansas City and Olathe. A railroad station was built in the town in 1870 and the town formerly knows as Campbellton was renamed to be Merriam. The new town name was derived from the name of the secretary treasurer of the railway.

Soon after the railroad came to town, Kansas City had well over 75,000 people living in the city. As the population grew, executives from the railroad saw the need and opportunity to build an amusement park which was completed in 1880. The park drew 20,000 people per day, a huge crowd in today’s standards. The cost to enter the park was only 25 cents. In comparison, amusement park rates today cost upwards of $50. That is a 200 percent increase since the days of the railroad.

The original mission home built by the Quakers still stands in downtown Merriam today. The home was used as a school house for 32 years until the city outgrew the school building and a new building was erected. Several buildings came and went as school buildings and many of them are standing today and use as community centers and more.

Nearly 120 years after the Quaker building began educating students, Merriam is still educating students in from K through 12. The student to teacher ratio is a little over 11 to 1, which is an excellent ratio and atypical of many public school systems.

There are also many opportunities for a college degree in the universities and colleges in and around nearby Kansas City.

Merriam is a city located just 8 miles south from Kansas City, Kansas. Merriam , Kansas is a has a population of under 11,000 people. Merriam is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area and also less than 7 minutes away from Shawnee, Kansas and near to Olathe and Overland Park. All three of these cities, Shawnee, Olathe and Overland Park were ranked among the best cities to raise a family.

The Kansas City Metropolitan Area is made up of 15 counties and estimated to have some 1.99 million people. Though the Kansas City metro area is anchored in Kansas City, Missouri, which spans over 318 square miles, the Kansas State side of the metro area is the largest metropolis in the State of Kansas . The next largest metro area in the state is Wichita, Kansas . There are many satellite cities surrounding the Kansas City Metro Area and these cities have over 100,000 cities each.

These many satellite cities are results of the city sprawl, which took off just after World War II, as the idea of the suburbs became the American dream residents began to build larger homes with more land on the edges of the city and the inner city began to decline. Kansas City more than doubled its physical breadth in a 20 year period from 1940 to 1960. Today, the sprawl continues but the focus has turned back to the inner city with plans to revive the downtown infrastructure.

Merriam edges up to the interstate highway that leads directly into downtown Kansas City. Transportation in the area is very convenient and an international airport is just north of the Missouri side of Kansas City. Bus systems and railways make navigating the Kansas City area a breeze.

The city limits of 66203 Merriam have 4.3 square miles of land. The city had just over 11,000 people in 2000. However, the population has since decreased and is now estimated to be around 10,773, because the city had a decrease of 230 people in less than one decade. The city’s population density is 2,550 people per square mile and there is an average of 1,168 housing units per square mile.

The racial demographic of the city shows that 89 percent of the population is White, almost 6 percent is Latino or Hispanic, 4 percent is Black, 2 percent is Asian, 2.3 percent are from two or more races, less than 1 percent are Native American or Pacific Islander and 2.3 percent of the population claim two or more races.

The ancestry of the city is also reported to be nearly 22 percent German, with the next largest group being 13 percent English. The Irish ancestry can be traced to over 11 percent of the population and nearly 8 percent are American.

The age breakdown of 66203 Merriam reflects that 8 percent of residents are between the ages of 18 to 24, 34 percent are between 25 and 44, 23 percent are ages 45 to 64 and 12.2 percent are 65 or older, leaving 21 percent under 18 years old. The median age for Merriam , Kansas is 36 years old and the male to female ratio reports 90.9 males to every 100 females.

The climate in Merriam , Kansas is a humid continental climate. The humidity is due to the Missouri River and Kansas River and the area receives moderate precipitation with extreme hot and cold. The extreme heat comes in the summers, as the moist air rides upward from the gulf. Winters can be bitterly cold, with lows dropping below zero a few times a year. The 66203 area sees snow and an occasional ice storm during the winter months. Spring and autumn are enjoyable but scattered with thunderstorms, which can quickly become severe. Kansas is in Tornado Alley, where many strong storms form with an outbreak of tornados. The area is also prone to flooding which can become epidemic.

While the climate of Merriam , Kansas brings a vast difference of ups and downs, highs and lows, the 66203 economy is more stable than the weather. Of the population eligible to be in the workforce, that is 16 years of age and older, 73.9 percent are employed. The employment rate of Merriam , KS is 10 percent higher than the national average. The average time workers spend traveling to work is 18 minutes, which is less than the national average of 25 minutes.

The workforce in Merriam , KS enjoys earning more than $7,000 dollars per year over than the national median household of $41,994. Merriam is also a blessed community in that only 4.3 percent of the families live below poverty level, compared to the 9.2 percent national average for families living below poverty level.

There are just over 3,000 single family homes occupied by owners in Merriam , Kansas and the median value of homes in Merriam is $112,900, which is just under the United State’s average home value of $119,600. The average monthly cost of owning a home with a mortgage is $927. Renters also occupy 1,759 housing units in the 66203 area.

Residents in Merriam , Kansas enjoy the amenities of the nearby big city attractions such as the many museums, symphony, amusement park and water park, community centers, parks, zoo, professional sports teams, shopping centers and historical landmarks and more.

The Kansas City Metro Area is a growing and expanding region, both in size, population technology and green practices. Urban revitalization is just one way the area residents are looking inward for growing room, rather than sprawling onto the farmlands and prairies that lie outside the suburbs. Built in the heart of the country, the metro area, including 66203 Merriam , Kansas is set on preserving its historic past and providing a promising future for the next generations.

The metro area takes the responsibility to develop the urbanization seriously. In fact, the metro area currently has no light rail or subway system. The need for such public transportation is evident, however the voters have denied building a system to date. Considerations are now being taken into account on how the system would affect current businesses, resources, neighborhoods and resident tax dollars.

There is an initiative in place to introduce a light rail system from the zoo in the heart of the metro area and upwards toward the international airport. Such an improvement would mobilize a large amount of residents and visitors in the downtown area and provide a central location to branch from for the growth of the transit system.

Still one obstacle remains, the funding is not available, even if the federal government paid half of the cost. The estimated cost quoted to the taxpayers was near 800 million dollars and the system is now projected to be near 1.4 billion dollars. Those are dollars that the local economy and tax payers cannot afford to spend.

More plans are forming to reintroduce another agenda on the upcoming ballots to put it to a vote once again.