Faxon
Faxon School
37th & Paseo Blvd.
In the fall of 1906 some of the south side schools were very overcrowded so the Board of Education made a decision to open another school in the growing south side of Kansas City.
Interestingly, in connection with the choice of a site for the school there became a difference of opinion among members of the School Board as well as the Superintendent‘s office. Some wanted the site at the corner of Armour Boulevard and The Paseo, others disagreed. Their arguments were that the only reason for another school was to relieve the other very overcrowded ones in the area and that it would be twenty-five years before there would be any building development south of thirty-seventh street. They also argued that it was poor judgment to locate a school so far away from the schools needing relief and on a site that was surrounded by fields and apple orchards.
However, those with the clearest vision of the future prevailed. A corner of Thirty-seventh and Paseo was purchased from the Squier Manor Estates and plans were made for the organization of the school. Temporary buildings were ordered to be erected and were ready in February, 1907. The school became known as the Faxon School in honor of Mr. Frank A Faxon, a highly regarded citizen of Kansas City and a member of the Board of Education.
The enrollment for the first year, 1907, was 88 students and by 1910, enrollment was 278. The students had outgrown the temporary buildings. In 1910, the Board voted in favor of a permanent building and in September, 1911, a new brick school building was completed. By 1922 the Faxon School housed 900 Students.