Long ago on independence square (Kansas City, Springfield: agriculture, cemeteries, African-Americans)

[WCHS'59]

In 1926, Army personnel from Fort Riley, Kansas, came to Independence to dedicate a local but uncompleted facility.


The facility was designed by a local man. At the time it was conceived, there was only $1200 in the kitty for building.



A house owned by Robert Weston of Weston Blacksmith Shop fame and a house belonging to a druggist had to be purchased and razed to clear the building site.


Music for this dedication event was furnished by the Walnut Park Orchestra. (Walnut Park is a subdivision that includes the Walnut Park church at 23rd and Pearl. I am not aware of how large the subdivision actually is but there was at one time a Walnut Park grocery at Pearl and South Avenue.)

What was the EXACT name of this facility? No reasonable facsimiles accepted.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Young School.

I'm sorry, our judges are not accepting that answer.

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

Hiram Young?

Congratulations, you are the first to respond with the complete and correct answer!

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

In 1926, Army personnel from Fort Riley, Kansas, came to Independence to dedicate a local but uncompleted facility.


The facility was designed by a local man. At the time it was conceived, there was only $1200 in the kitty for building.



A house owned by Robert Weston of Weston Blacksmith Shop fame and a house belonging to a druggist had to be purchased and razed to clear the building site.


Music for this dedication event was furnished by the Walnut Park Orchestra. (Walnut Park is a subdivision that includes the Walnut Park church at 23rd and Pearl. I am not aware of how large the subdivision actually is but there was at one time a Walnut Park grocery at Pearl and South Avenue.)

What was the EXACT name of this facility? No reasonable facsimiles accepted.

The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building.

You left the commas out, chuckle.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

I'm sorry, our judges are not accepting that answer.

They need to go back to school.

[WCHS'59]

Look magazine began publishing in 1937. Although it was a bi-weekly it was a competitor to the weekly Life magazine.



Look’s circulation reached 7.8 million at its height, beating out the Saturday Evening Post and coming in second only to Life.


Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, Spartacus, The Shining), was a photographer for Look.


When the Saturday Evening Post went belly up in 1969, Norman Rockwell began illustrating for Look.


Look went belly up in 1971 still having a circulation of 6 million.



A few years earlier Look magazine had taken a look at Independence, Mo.


What did Look magazine bestow upon Independence?

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

What did Look magazine bestow upon Independence?

A passing glance?

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Look magazine began publishing in 1937. Although it was a bi-weekly it was a competitor to the weekly Life magazine.



Look’s circulation reached 7.8 million at its height, beating out the Saturday Evening Post and coming in second only to Life.


Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, Spartacus, The Shining), was a photographer for Look.


When the Saturday Evening Post went belly up in 1969, Norman Rockwell began illustrating for Look.


Look went belly up in 1971 still having a circulation of 6 million.



A few years earlier Look magazine had taken a look at Independence, Mo.


What did Look magazine bestow upon Independence?

All-American City

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

Which Independence school was named for a well-known slave?

Which Independence school was named for a well-known slave? None were.

Young school was not named for a well-known slave. The school was named for a well-known ex-slave.

Hiram Young was born a slave in 1812 in Tennessee and then moved as a slave to Missouri. In 1847 he and his wife were freed in Greene County, Missouri (Springfield). As a slave, no one but his master would have ever heard of him at his release. And no one in Independence would ever hear of him until this ex-slave moved to Independence via Liberty and began manufacturing wagons in 1851.

If Young had not been released from slavery he would have remained a slave until 1865 when he had seventeen years to live. He probably would not have moved to Liberty or Independence and there would have been no naming of a school after him.

Most (but not all) of the slaves in the Confederacy were declared free on paper by the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863 but those slaves in the Union, including in Missouri and three other states officially remained slaves until the war was over and the thirteenth amendment made it a fact in December 1865.


Young fled Independence in 1861 and went to Kansas. He did not return to Independence until 1868 where he started the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He also started the first school for blacks in Independence. This was an action that probably significantly reinforced his standing to claim the honor of having the Independence School District in 1934 name a school after him.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

All-American City

Right On--actually it is All-America City.

In 1961, Independence received the first of three such awards to Independence over the years but the first award was the only one in which Look magazine was involved.

Look magazine started the awards around 1948.