Argentine is a

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City (commonly known as KCK) is the third-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As ...

, located in the southern part of Wyandotte County. It is bordered on the west by the

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters * Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for tur ...

community, on the east by the Rosedale community, on the south by Johnson County, and on the north by Armourdale community and by the

Kansas River The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a meandering river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is potentially the southwestern most part of the Missouri River drainage, which is sometimes in turn the northwesternmost portion of ...

. Argentine was primarily recognized for the prosperous silver smeltery for which it was named. Built on the site of a former

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

reservation, the proximity of the railroad, local lumber sources, the smeltery, and in later years, steel manufacturing, meant that the city enjoyed a considerable amount of economic success for quite some time. When the smeltery finally closed, the city found itself in the throes of an unprecedented financial crisis and began to seek entry to nearby Kansas City in 1907. Although the community was annexed and became the seventh ward of Kansas City, Kansas in 1910, the neighborhood retains its own distinct flavor and personality. Prominent nearby landmarks include Argentine Carnegie Library (the last Carnegie library in the

Kansas City metropolitan area The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

), the grave of

Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; (March 9, 1768October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the Territorial evolution of the United States, expansion of the United States onto Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

's brother, the Shawnee prophet Tensquatawa at White Feather Spring, Sauer Castle at 945 Shawnee Road, and the Argentine mural located at 30th Street and Metropolitan Avenue. The neighborhood is the location of one of three rail yards on the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at vario ...

, the Argentine Yard.

Education

Primary and secondary schools

It is in the Kansas City, Kansas School District. Its local high school is J. C. Harmon High School, which opened in 1973 as the fusion of Argentine Senior High School and Rosedale Senior High School. The neighborhood has its own middle school, Argentine Middle School.

Public libraries

Kansas City, Kansas Public Library currently operates the South Branch Library in Argentine, with of space. The name was chosen to reflect that it serves the entire southern region of the city and not a single neighborhood. It formerly operated the Argentine Carnegie Library which opened in 1911 in a storefront and received its own Carnegie building in 1917. By 1998 it, on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, was the sole remaining Carnegie library in the city. In 2012 the current South Branch opened, and it cost $6 million, with a third of it made in fundraisers by local residents. The school district agreed to pay for the rest if residents raised $1.5 million to $2 million. An old grocery store was demolished to make way for the current library, and the school district took possession of the former library.

References

{{coord, 39, 04, 30, N, 94, 40, 21, W, type:city_region:US-KS, display=title Neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kansas Populated places established in 1880 1880 establishments in Kansas

Education

Primary and secondary schools

Public libraries

Further reading

References