Wagons loaded with gold and silver once rolled down the streets of this KCK neighborhood
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Argentine, which means “silvery” in Spanish, sprang up on the south banks of the Kansas River in 1880, spurred by the Santa Fe Railroad’s decision to build train yards there.
The view down Argentine’s Silver Avenue around the turn of the century was nothing spectacular. But reports say that from 1882 to 1901 it wasn’t unusual to see bags of gold and silver piled on wagons nearby.
Those precious metals (along with lead) were the product of a smelter that operated for nearly twenty years in the heart of Argentine. Rail cars brought in tons of ore to be processed by the Consolidated Kansas City Smelting & Refining Company.
They did so largely because of August Meyer, a St. Louis native turned Kansas Citian who’d studied mining in Europe. Meyer saw the potential in the Argentine operation, which quickly became one of the world’s largest smelting plants--complete with a “colony” of workers and their families that totaled nearly 3,000.
Profitable? Hugely.
To the tune of millions of dollars annually.
At least until Meyer merged with another mining company, which opted to shut the plant down in 1901—when new smelters nearer the source of the ore began to go on line.
In 1909, eight years after losing its largest employer, Argentine was consolidated into Kansas City, Kansas, resulting in name changes for some of its streets.
That’s why if you go looking for the blocks pictured on this postcard, you’ll have to adjust—Second Street became Twenty-second Street.
And though a small stretch of Silver Avenue still exists, most of it is part of an apartment complex parking lot near the 18th Street Expressway.
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Looking for more Kansas City history?
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Interurbans, as they were known, were crucial to the metro’s expansion too
Did you know that Vanderslice Hall at the Kansas City Art Institute was originally August Meyer’s home?
