Dorri Partain
Dorri Partain
Managing Editor
When Scarritt Elementary was completed in 1890, not one teacher or student could have imagined its cornerstone would end up thousands of miles away as a memento. Named for early Northeast Kansas City resident Nathan Scarritt, the red brick building at Askew and Lexington Avenues grew with an addition in 1906.
One early student, James Kilroy, graduated from Scarritt in 1897 and years later, his children James Jr, John and Mary would also attend and graduate from the same school.
After graduating from Northeast High School in 1937, Mary married and began raising a family. While none of her children ever attended Scarritt school, they were reminded daily of their family’s ties to it.
According to Mary’s son Craig Carter, the family had moved to Tucson, Ariz., and were planning to build a new home there when she learned the original Scarritt School was about to be demolished for a new building at that location. She inquired if the cornerstones — dated 1890 and 1906 — would be available.
As Carter recalled, the stones were wrapped and made the journey from Kansas City to Tucson via Greyhound Bus Lines. As the home was built, the 1890 cornerstone was placed on the inside wall near the front door. The 1906 cornerstone was built into the home’s fireplace.
The new home, along with the old cornerstones, was built in a territorial style with burnt adobe brick and rough-hewn timbers and completed in 1963.
The Carter family owned the five-bedroom home until 2010.
While the new owners — who did not wish to be named — have completed some updates to the home they appreciate its unique features, especially the Scarritt cornerstones.
In an email, the home’s owner stated, “Every guest questions the Scarritt School Cornerstone, they think the house was a school, then I need to explain the whole history and I created a booklet about it.”
They said they use the home as an event space named Scarritt House and state it “has a legend and a family history, and with the test of time will remain timeless!”
An original school cornerstone that stayed closer to its original location can be found resting in the front yard of a home along east Sixth Street, within the Lykins neighborhood.
As the chiseled stone verifies, Lykins School was completed in 1907. The school faced Lykins Square Park at 4114 E. Seventh St. The district closed the school in 1933 and it sat vacant until 1940 when it reopened as the Lykins Community Center.
Damaged by fire in 1956, the first floor and foundation was later reused for a new building completed in 1959. In 1973, the community center moved to another vacant school building in Lykins and the entire building was demolished. A former student who lived nearby salvaged the cornerstone, and now the cornerstone lies in the yard of his grandson.
While the owner did not wish to be named, he said he remembered the old community center and is proud to keep the cornerstone as a memento to his grandfather — and it’s not for sale.
Even closer to its original location, the cornerstone for Thacher School has been incorporated into a marker facing Independence Avenue. Now considered green space for Northeast Middle School — the corner where the school once stood has been renamed Thacher Field.
Thacher opened in 1900 at 5008 Independence Ave. and was used by the school district for over 100 years. After a lengthy battle to save the building, it was demolished in 2015 but many elements of the building and its facade were salvaged for reuse and to build a monument that highlights the salvaged cornerstone that reads Thacher School 1900.
The Thacher Field marker was dedicated by school board members, former Thacher students and community members in 2021. The Indian Mound neighborhood marker on Wilson Road also used salvaged elements from Thacher School.
Julia Williams
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