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Wyandotte County, Kansas

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Bruce School - Argentine Area

Location: Argentine Area (Fourth [24th] and Ruby)

Other Names:  Lincoln

Information from the Simmons Funeral Home at Strong Avenue and South 37th Street:  "This was the Lincoln school, located at the southwest corner at 24th and Strong Avenue.  It was a landmark in Argentine for seventy-eight years.  The photo at your left was taken in 1888 during the construction of the schoolhouse.  The buildings at the extreme left are a portion of the smelter plant.  Being built so early, the schoolhouse was one of the few structures to have experienced all the great floods of 1892, 1903, 1908, once in the teens and 1951.  This school was first named Bruce school, and later, when Argentine was annexed in 1910, the name was changed to Lincoln.  The first principal was John Smith, and the first faculty was Lena Brown, Ethel Stafford and W. D. Holmes.  During the school's early years, high school pupils attended classes in two rooms upstairs until the completion of the new Argentine high school building in 1908.  This elementary school was the oldest building in the public school system when retired from service by the Board of Education in June 1961.  It was replaced with the completion of the new Emerson school and the addition made to Stanley School.   Some of the pupils also were transferred to Franklin school."

At your left is the "Lincoln School".  In the lower, left-hand background is a portion of the Kansas City Structural Steel.  This school and the children attending it saw the beginnings of two major industries in the Argentine area:  the smelter plant and the Kansas City Structural Steel plant.

SUMMARY

1891 - Early school mentioned in Argentine Board of Education minutes. Board was planning to sell building. Located at Fourth (24th) and Ruby. Buying lots for a new school.

September. Contract for new building at Fourth and Strong.

1896 - High school classes and superintendent's office to Bruce.

1903 - Flood water eight feet deep in building, fourteen feet on outside.

1903-04 - Address listed as corner of Fourth Street and Strong Avenue. Today would be 24th and Strong.

1904 - Water four feet deep around building.

1910 - Name changed to Lincoln when Argentine was annexed as KCKs already had a Bruce School in the bottoms.  High school students attended Sumner High School.

See "Lincoln School - Argentine."

PRINCIPALS

1888-93 - John R Smith / 1893-96 - W F Bufkin / 1902-04 - Thomas N H Collins / 1904-05 - Etolia Burkin / 1905-10 - Philip K Brown / 1910 - See information on Lincoln School

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Contact the History Webmaster - Patricia Adams

History Site created on December 02, 2002
Page last updated: 05-Jan-2009