North Topeka, Kansas is an area of

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa language, Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the Capital (political), capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the County seat, seat of Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the ...

. Although not officially a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

, it is treated like one by many of its residents, and experiences relatively low crime rates compared to the rest of Topeka. Unlike most of the City of Topeka, North Topeka is served primarily by the Seaman USD 345 School District. The City of Topeka was actually incorporated in North Topeka.

Historic North Topeka

William Curtis (grandfather of Charles Curtis, who was born in North Topeka and went on to become

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice ...

under Hoover) and Louis Laurent laid out a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in 1865 that they called Eugene (possibly after a place in Indiana). Less than a year later, on New Year's Day, what is now North Topeka welcomed the first

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

( Union Pacific) to town. The advent of the

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

assured that this area would for much of the 19th century be the industrial heart of the Kansas capital (excluding the mammoth

AT&SF The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and S ...

shops across the river). In April 1867, southside Topeka

annexed Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...

Eugene, the first such city expansion. At the time more evenly matched in population and economy, north and south played a tug-of-war for industry and

commerce Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, nation ...

during the remainder of the 1800s. In 1903, North Topeka suffered the devastating effects of a major

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

. However, many fine buildings dating from that period remain, and, when restored, will make North Topeka a showplace of Victorian-era commercial and residential

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

Landmarks of North Topeka include

* The Great Overland Station (http://www.greatoverlandstation.com/) (1927) is a neo-classical station designed by Los Angeles firm Gilbert S. Underwood; the building has a spectacular interior typical of grand stations of the early 20th century. Over the years, many dignitaries passed through; in June 1945, Gen. Eisenhower stopped here on his way to Abilene. North Topeka was one of the most photographed of Union Pacific's mid-sized stations. It has been fully restored.

Education in North Topeka

* North Topeka Schools:

Topeka Public Schools Topeka USD 501, also known as Topeka Public Schools, is a public unified school district headquartered in Topeka, Kansas, United States. It is one of four school districts that serve the city of Topeka. Serving 13,430 students in the 2019-2020 s ...

serve over 13,000 students, employing more than 1,300

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

s and 1,100 support staff. Student

ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

breaks down into 3 main categories: 42% white, 27% Hispanic, and 27% Black.

External links

* http://explorenoto.org - NOTO Arts and Entertainment District * http://northtopekabusinessalliance.org/ - North Topeka Business Alliance * http://www.greatoverlandstation.com/ - Great Overland Station * http://www.usd345.com/ - USD345 Seaman Schools * http://skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/schs/preservation/northtopeka.html * https://www.topekapublicschools.net/ {{authority control Geography of Topeka, Kansas Populated places in Kansas