The History of our Public Schools
Wyandotte County, Kansas

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Location: West side 2nd Street between Ohio and Riverview (in Bottoms - French Bottoms - old Kansas City, KS) - District #3

• Hoyles 1892 City Directory:  (colored) 222 North 2nd
• 1912 City Directory:  (colored)  2nd sw corner Ohio Ave.

Building Closed: 1929

Architectural Blue Prints and/or Plot Plan of School Building

Rules and Regulations, Bd of Educ, KCKs, 30 June 1905 - First six grades, two-room frame, Second Street, between Ohio Ave and Riverview Ave.  Boundary - all of the First Ward and that portion of the Fifth Ward east and north of Missouri Pacific Railroad.  Mrs. Royal, Janitress, 311 N. 2nd St.

SUMMARY

1886 - Wood School was being repaired after complaints from the Mercantile Club (forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce). The colored people in old Kansas City, Kansas complained of poor school facilities and begged for improved housing quarters. The Colored School Committee, in answer to the colored people's request, rented a church building in old Kansas City, Kansas at $12.50 a month. 

1887 - The Baptist Church for colored in the Wood district having been abandoned and the furniture moved to storage, a new colored school was needed there.

1888 - The colored children attended school in a rented building. On December 20, 1888 the Board of Education bought, from Lewis G. Ferguson, lots 219-221, Shute's Addition, for $6000. The information we have refers to an earlier Bruce School, but the information is not complete. This area in the "Bottoms" was referred to as "The Patch."

Contract for a two-room Bruce School for colored at Second and Armstrong was awarded to L. G. Ferguson at a cost of $1634. Records say that the buildings on the old Bruce site sold for $113 in 1890. The city directories, beginning with 1892, list Bruce as a school for colored.

The following is found in the 17th Annual Report of the Board of Education of the City of Kansas City, Kansas for the Year 1902 and 1903 : p. 98, First six grades, two-room frame. Second Street, between Ohio Avenue and Riverview Avenue. Boundary - all of the First Ward and that portion of the Fifth Ward east and north of Missouri Pacific Railroad. Mrs. M L Ross, Principal.

After the 1903 flood occurred, the Board determined that Bruce, the African American school in the Wood district, could be restored. The contractor was H. J. Davidson.

1916 - May 9 - There is a letter from the KCKs BOE notifying the Water Department that the water service has been leased to the Kansas City Bridge Company.  Click here to see notice.  (.pdf)

A Topping Survey of 1921 was taken. The Board owned the grounds only. The school had physically been moved to a leased site two blocks south and the sign on the front entrance said, "Bruce's Night School - Enroll Here."

In 1929, the Board discussed abandoning school.  We have no further information and have to assume that this was the building on the leased site south of the original Bruce school.

PRINCIPALS

1888 - A. J. Neely / 1889-94 - J. J. Bass / 1894-1903 - J. R. Harrison / 1903-07 - Mrs. M. L. Ross (Mattie) / 1907-09 - Harvey Thopkins, head teacher / 1909-14 - Woody Jacobs / 1914-15 - Homer Wilburn / 1915-18 - Gertrude Jenkins / 1918-21 - Myrtle Stewart / 1921-24 - Myrtle Young / 1924-25 - Beatrice Scholl / 1925-26 - Vera Jackson / 1926-29 - Jessie Saunders

Ward Boundaries

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Contact the History Webmaster - Patricia Adams

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