D.A. Holmes School (Formerly Benton Grammar School)

Benton Grammar School was completed in 1904 and its role of former students include Academy Award winner Ginger Rogers and pioneering animator and entertainment mogul Walt Disney. Disney recalled fond memories of his time at the school, and some claim that he drew early versions of cartoons in the margins of his notebook while at this school that included animals, perhaps part of his inspiration for later characters such as Mickey Mouse. The school started with twelve rooms but quickly expanded to 20 as it needed to serve all 1,300 students enrolled in 1921. A school for white children only for most of its years of operation, school officials made the decision to transition to African American students in 1953, a reflection of changes in residential patterns in the latter years of legally enforced school segregation.1953 also saw a new name, as Benton Grammar School became D.A. Holmes School, named after a local pastor and civil rights activist. The school would continue to serve the area until 1997, when it closed. The building is now home to D.A. Holmes Senior Apartments. 

On the 12th of September 1904, Benton Grammar School opened its 12-room school, replacing the smaller Benton School on 14th and Liberty. This location on 30th and Benton carried the same name, honoring the long-time Missouri United States Senator Thomas Hart Benton. The school’s location was chosen to serve the burgeoning community of Santa Fe Place, which was benefitting from the newly constructed Benton Boulevard. The area was so sought after that by the 1920s, it was clear that the school needed to expand. In 1921, they added the west wing, carrying 8 additional classrooms. It was this year that the school enrolled over 1,300 students!

One of the students Benton Grammar School had in the early 20th century included Walt Disney, given the school's proximity to his family's home. In 1911, Disney began his studies at the school and attended until his graduation in 1918. Later in life, he shared fond memories at the school, and even created two murals for the school in 1942. Despite his fame at that time, which would only grow in the years that followed, those murals have been lost to time. Among the numerous origin stories of Mickey Mouse is Disney's recollection in 1931 that his first drawing of a mouse character occurred in this school while drawing in the margins of his notebooks. Disney also inscribed a personalized note for the school after achieving fame: “It was good to know that I have not been forgotten by my Alma Mater. Kindly extend my kindest regards to all my friends and former teachers at Benton, and be assured that I am looking forward to the time when I can visit Benton again. My best personal regards to you, Walt Disney.”

For the first half-century of this school’s history, enrollment was limited to white students under Missouri law. By the early 1950s, neighborhood demographics surrounding the school had changed. White families moved from the area in response to the desegregation of housing in Santa Fe Place, part of a citywide and nationwide change in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling against explicit residential segregation in Shelley v. Kraemer in 1948. By 1953, school officials responded to the changing demographics of the neighborhood by ordering the transition of Benton from an all-white school to a school reserved for African American children. The school was renamed from Benton School to The D.A. Holmes School at that time. Some area families hoped the name would not change, but the white city council decided to name the school after Paseo Baptist Church pastor Reverend Daniel Arthur Holmes.

The decision by the school board accelerated the pattern of white flight to neighborhoods further west. As black Kansas Citians moved into neighborhoods that were previously closed to them, city planners made decisions that marked Troost Avenue as an unofficial but widely-recognized racial dividing line for the city. With white families moving out and African Americans and other minorities purchasing homes from the mid-fifties to the mid-seventies, schools like D.A. Holmes that were east of Troost Avenue maintained the color line in public education long after the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board outlawed explicit school segregation. In Kansas City and throughout the United States in the wake of Brown v. Board, school districts were drawn in ways that perpetuated segregation. In the 1970s, some urban communities attempted to move towards integration by bussing students to schools beyond their neighborhoods, an effort that had mixed results.

With new school construction, the school board decided to close the Holmes School in June of 1997. Today, the building is a senior living apartment complex, still bearing the name of DA Holmes.

Dennis, Clarence. curiousKC | The Mystery of KC’s Missing Walt Disney Murals, FlatLandKC. May 17th, 2021. Accessed June 14th, 2024. https://flatlandkc.org/curiouskc/curiouskc-the-mystery-of-kcs-missing-walt-disney-murals/.

Dennis, Clarence. curiousKC | Who was D.A. Holmes and Why Was a School Named After Him?, August 2nd, 2021. Accessed June 14th, 2024. https://flatlandkc.org/curiouskc/curiouskc-who-was-d-a-holmes-and-why-was-a-school-named-after-him/.

Benton School, KC History. March 30th, 1979. Accessed June 14th, 2024. https://kchistory.org/image/benton-school-2.

Starns, Maria. D.A. Holmes School, African American Heritage Trail of Kansas City. Accessed June 14th, 2024. https://aahtkc.org/d-a-holmes-school.