jan 1, 1924 - Clara Barton school for Hispanic Children

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1924 Clara Barton school for Hispanic Children built: Clara Barton was located at 25th and Cheyenne Ave., on the north side of the Santa Fe Railroad's Argentine yard (across the quarter-mile long Goddard viaduct from Argentine proper). Sited near the foot of the "Old Southern Bridge" that carried Argentine Blvd. across the Kansas River from Armourdale, Clara Barton was located in part of Argentine that Mexican workers called "El Campo," one of many railroad labor camps established by the Santa Fe railroad in towns throughout the Midwest and Southwest.

The building was originally built as a three-room, segregated school for Mexican and Mexican-American children, established after four years of lobbying by civic leaders in Argentine and Anglo parents from Argentine and Armourdale, who objected to attendance and co-mingling of Mexican students with their children. (Before the construction of Clara Barton, Mexican children had been restricted to basement classrooms at Emerson Elementary in Argentine and John J. Ingalls in Armourdale.)

Miriam Cheney, who had previously taught Mexican students at the nearby Methodist Mexican Mission, was appointed the school's first principal. Approximately 125 students ranging in age from first through eighth grade were educated in classes averaging a 40:1 pupil:teacher ratio. Two additional rooms were added, one in 1928 and another in the mid-1930s. The building was named after the founder of American Red Cross, and is attributed to Rose & Peterson Architects. Source: https://khri.kansasgis.org/

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