Amanda Arnold Arch -- Manhattan KS
N 39° 10.799 W 096° 33.791
14S E 710485 N 4339578
This arched doorway which used to be part of a former Manhattan KS school building. It is now on display, memorializing Anne Armold and all the teachers who came to the area in the territorial pioneer days
Waymark Code: WMGWH6
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 04/16/2013
Views: 5
Amanda Arnold rode the steamboat Hartford to Manhattan when the city was still the wild frontier of Kansas Territory. She was the first schoolteacher in Manhattan.
Now she is memorialized by this arch and, probably dearer to her heart, by the Amanda Arnold Elementary School in Manhattan.
From the school website: (
visit link)
Amanda Arnold Elementary School was named for Miss Amanda Arnold, the first teacher in Manhattan. Because she was the last surviving member of her family, there was no marker placed on her grave at her death in 1923. In 1995, thanks to the combined efforts of the AA PTA, teachers and students as well as the Polly Ogden Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Manhattan Monument Company, a marker was finally placed on her grave at Sunset Cemetery." [end]
The small plaque on the arch details the odyssey of this arch, which is now in its third home. It started as the entry to the Central School. When the Central School was razed, this ornate doorway was preserved and moved to a neighborhood, where it stated for 60 years. In 1985 it was finally moved to this spot near the Riley Co. Courthouse.
"AMANDA ARNOLD ARCH
This stone arch stood from 1878-1924 as the entry to Central School, 600 Leavenworth. At the suggestion of Judge Sam Kimble, Contractor Mont J. green Sr. contributed this arch as a memorial to Amanda Arnold an early teacher who came on the steamboat Hartford, and all the pioneer Manhattan schoolteachers.
It was moved to Evergreen and Poyntz, where it was cared for by the Kimble, Moore, and Richards families until 1985, when through the kindness of J. D. Richards it was relocated in the present site."
The old site of the Central School is now occupied by Woodrow Wilson Elementary, which looks like it was built in the 1950s:
The old site of the Central School is now occupied by Woodrow Wilson Elementary, which looks like it was built in the 1950s.