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Quindaro Townsite | |
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| Location | Kansas City, KS |
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| Coordinates | 39°09′14″N 94°39′42″W / 39.15389°N 94.66167°W |
| Built | 1857 |
| NRHP reference No. | 02000547[1] |
| Added to NRHP | May 22, 2002 |
Quindaro Townsite was once a settlement, then a ghost town, and later an archaeological site. It is around North 27th Street and the Missouri Pacific Railroad tracks in Kansas City, Kansas. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 22, 2002.
The townsite was purchased and organized in 1856 from and by Wyandots for development as a port-of-entry for Free Staters settling further within the Kansas Territory,[2] with construction starting in 1857. The boomtown population peaked at 600, rapidly settled by migrants. They were supported by the New England Emigrant Aid Company, who were trying to help secure Kansas as a free territory.[3] One of several villages hugging the narrow bank of the Missouri River under the bluffs, the town was established as part of the resistance to stop the westward spread of slavery. Quindaro's people also aided escaped slaves from Missouri as a "station" on the Underground Railroad.
After Kansas was established as a free state, there was less need for the port and growth slowed in the commercial district. At the same time the economy in Kansas suffered from speculation.
In 1862 classes were started for children of former slaves, and in 1865 a group of men chartered Quindaro Freedman's School (later Western University), the first black school west of the Mississippi River. Former slaves continued to gather in the residential community, which became mostly African American by the late 19th century. The area was incorporated into Kansas City in the early 20th century. Western University closed in 1943.
The town sharply declined during a nationwide economic depression and the American Civil War. The lower commercial townsite was abandoned and became overgrown. It was rediscovered during archaeological study in the late 1980s, which revealed many parts of the 1850s town.[4] The only structure surviving from Western University and Quindaro is a full-size statue of abolitionist John Brown. In 1978 the John Brown Memorial Plaza was dedicated.
The John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act designated it the Quindaro Townsite National Commemorative Site in 2019, allowing the National Park Service to provide technical and financial assistance for preservation and education.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- ^ Morgan, Perl Wilbur (1911). History of Wyandotte County, Kansas: And Its People. Vol. 1. The Lewis Publishing Company. pp. 102–103. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
The towns of Kansas City [Missouri], Leavenworth, and Atchinson were concidered pro-slavery ports. The Free State people wanted a "port of entry of their own, ... The land was purchased from wome Wyandot Indians ... 1856.
- ^ "Judgment Day, Part 4: 1853-1861". Africans in America. PBS. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
- ^ Swann, Michael M. (1998). "The Educational Value of Quindaro Townsite in the 21st Century" (PDF). Cultural Resource Management. US Dept of the Interior, National Park Service, Cultural Resources. p. 34. Retrieved March 13, 2022.