Argentine is a

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest 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 of ...

, located in the southern part of

Wyandotte County Wyandotte County (; county code WY) is a county in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 169,245, making it Kansas's fourth-most populous county. Its county seat and most populous city is Kansas City, with which ...

. 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 turni ...

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 river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwesternmost part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwesternmost portion of the extensive Mississippi River dr ...

. 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 an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

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 Argentine Branch Library, sometimes known as the Argentine Carnegie Library is a building located at 2800 Metropolitan Avenue in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas that formerly served as a branch of the Kansas City, Kansas Publi ...

(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 th ...

), the grave of

Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and ...

's brother, the Shawnee prophet

Tensquatawa Tenskwatawa (also called Tenskatawa, Tenskwatawah, Tensquatawa or Lalawethika) (January 1775 – November 1836) was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. He was a ...

White Feather Spring The White feather Spring is in the Argentine section of Kansas City, Kansas. It is on private property. White Feather Spring gets its name from Susan White Feather, the first property owner after the Treaty of 1854 land parceling. History In ...

Sauer Castle The Sauer Castle is an Italianate architecture home at 935 Shawnee Road in Kansas City, Kansas, built from 1871 to 1873. It was designed by famed architect Asa Beebe Cross as the residence of Anton Sauer. He had married Francesca in Vienna, Aus ...

at 945 Shawnee Road, and the

Argentine mural Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish ( masculine) or ( feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

located at 30th Street and Metropolitan Avenue. The neighborhood is the location of one of three

rail yards A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...

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 larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and ...

, the

Argentine Yard Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish ( masculine) or ( feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

Education

Primary and secondary schools

It is in the

Kansas City, Kansas School District Kansas City USD 500, also known as Kansas City Kansas Public Schools, is a public unified school district headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas, United States. As of 2021, it has approximately 23,690 students enrolled in the district in grades P ...

. 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 Kansas City USD 500, also known as Kansas City Kansas Public Schools, is a public unified school district headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas, United States. As of 2021, it has approximately 23,690 students enrolled in the district in grades P ...

Public libraries

Kansas City, Kansas Public Library Kansas City, Kansas Public Library (KCKPL) is the public library system of Kansas City, Kansas, headquartered in the Main Library. The library serves Wyandotte County, Kansas. It is governed by the Board of Education of Kansas City Kansas Public ...

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

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 United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, 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