Fall 1979 John & Mary Pritchard found and run Kansas City's affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International. Habitat Kansas City's first ground breaking; set goal to build 50 homes in 10 years.
Sept 1986 Habitat KC hosts HFHI 10th Anniversary; Jimmy Carter & Andrew Young (mayor of Atlanta) attend. Celebration at the Music Hall includes homeowners & Habitat children’s choir to raise awareness of plight of the homeless. Cyclists ride from Santa Rosa, CA to Kansas City. Fullers and group walk from Americus, GA to KC. Approximately 2,000 people attend.
1989 Habitat KC celebrates 10th Anniversary Nov 9&10 Habitat KC's 50th house is started during the Raising the Roof celebration.
1993 Parade of Homes - six two-story houses are moved five miles across the city to Paseo.
1994 Kansas City's first "Women Build" House.
1995 100th house celebration, Oct 28th (sponsored by Commerce Bank & William T. Kemper Foundation). Millard Fuller challenges Habitat KC to build 10 houses in next 10 years.
1996 Habitat KC hires its first paid Executive Director. John Pritchard retires (which, for him means taking Fridays off).
1997 Habitat KC builds the first concrete house in the metropolitan area.
1998 Habitat KC offices move to 1423 Linwood Blvd. Habitat KC begins exploring the ReStore concept.
2000 Habitat KC celebrates 20th anniversary with dinner at Muehlebach Hotel in June. Attended by over 400 guests, homeowners, volunteers and donors; including the Fullers, State Street Foundation Executives, etc. The next day, a picnic was held and over 150 people attended. Pledges totaling $500,000 were made by State Street Foundation, James B. Nutter, DST Systems, Fortis Benefits and Larry and Debbie Bridges.
2000 ReStore opens in a temporary location at 31st & Wayne then moves to its current home at 4701 Deramus.
2001 Pioneered new house design using Universal House Design elements. The family moved in 2002.
2003 & 2004 With a grant from the Missouri Housing Development, Habitat’s VISTA volunteers implement Taking Care of the Neighborhood (TCN), a home repair program.
2005 Habitat for Humanity Kansas City founder John F. Pritchard dies.
2006 In response to Hurricane Katrina, HFHKC in partnership with the City of Kansas City, built the components for ten houses, which were transported via Kansas City Southern to Hammond, LA.
2009 Habitat KC celebrates 30 years of building homes, hope and lives in the urban core of Kansas City with a neighborhood block party. Mary Pritchard and many past homeowners, sponsors, board members and volunteers attended. Plans were announced to begin working on federal funding through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to do renovations on foreclosed and vacant properties, greatly increasing the number of families we are able to serve.
2010 Habitat KC ReStore celebrates 10 years. Thousands of tons of materials have been diverted from landfills and more than a million dollars has been raised for the Habitat KC housing program. A second ReStore location is announced for later this year.
