How The Founder Of Riverside's Red-X Created A City And Helped Grow A Community - KCUR

A fixture in the Northland’s Riverside community for more than 65 years, Red-X is not your average general store. It’s a grocer, deli, pharmacy, liquor store, hardware store and unofficial museum. But as the Northland grows, second-generation Red-X owner Zeke Young says staying competitive is becoming more challenging. Red-X began as a filling station in 1948. “They built a little building, had some gas pumps, had a $150 inventory to start out with and so it became the Red-X,” Zeke Young, son of founder Ed Young, explains. Zeke took over the store after his dad died in 1999. The name Red-X comes from the company the filling station got its gas from. Though Riverside was a community for more than a century, it wasn’t an official city. Zeke said that when his father heard a rumor that both Parkville and Kansas City were interested in annexing Riverside, Ed got together with Fred Filger, founder of Filger Oil Company, and local attorney and developer Vic Panus to organize a... Parkville agreed not to annex Riverside’s land but convinced them to incorporate to avoid annexation by Kansas City. Riverside became incorporated in 1951. Filger was elected mayor of Riverside and Ed served as one of the city’s first aldermen. Source: kcur.org