The Franklin Center

The Franklin Center was built in 1897 as the elementary school in Argentine Kansas, which at that time had not yet been consolidated as part of Kansas City. For years Franklin Elementary School did well in the neighborhood; however, after the silver smelter closed leaving hundreds in the neighborhood unemployed, things began to change. The community began to change from a middle/upper class neighborhood to a rundown neighborhood. However, years later after becoming part of the Kansas City Kansas school district, the school was renovated and enlarged. The school flourished once again for decades until the neighborhood slowly decreased in size and wealth and the district was forced to close the school in 1972. After being vandalized and broken into, the school district sought to sell the building. A number of neighborhood organizations began to discuss the idea of making the building a community center but were unable to pay the $52,000 that the district was asking. After discussions the school district agreed to sell the building to the newly formed Franklin Center Inc. for only $5,000. The sole requirement was that the building be only used by non-profit organizations and if it was not it would be sold back to the school district.

The Franklin Center quickly became a thriving community center that housed a coffee shop, day care, Spanish speaking office, adult education classes, food coop and a General Store. We recently met a kid named Max who grew up around the Franklin Center who said that all the kids hung out there and that it was the place where they all had their first job. However the leadership of the center began to slowly decline and finally about a year and a half ago all of the non-profits in the center left and abandoned the building. Because of the contract it cannot be sold to a business but the school district does not want to deal with it either. As a result it was left sitting empty, which led to thorough vandalism. This then is the current state of this beautiful and historic building.

YSF has began the conversation with other groups in the neighborhood to ask the question of what could we do to revive this building to once again be a community center. As this conversation is in process, we have begun by thinking of tangible ways of bringing life and excitement back to the building so that this can be a project that the community embraces and makes their own. We have for the last two weeks been projecting movies on the outside of the building on Friday nights and have had as many as 30 kids and parents show up. There is a “Vive Franklin Center” float in this weekend’s annual city celebration. These are just small things but they are beginning to get the neighborhood excited about owning this as their own.

You may wonder why is YSF involved in this? It is not going to be a church or a ministry center, but just a community center. It has been said that the worst part of poverty is not the loss of money but the loss of hope. I believe that this is true in this neighborhood. The people here are not the poorest of the poor but many just have the idea that there is no hope of progress in their lives or in the community. So I see this not just as a community center but a place that can begin to bring hope and opportunity back into this community. True, this may not be a church. But this could be a place that kids can experience love and acceptance and be given an opportunity to succeed. If this becomes true, then I believe that the Franklin Center could become a place where people in this neighborhood see a glimpse of the Kingdom of God.