American Smelting and Refining Company Flood

Transcribed article: Landmark Faces Doom. Former Silver Smelter Stack to be Razed. Kansas City, Kansas, Plans Sewer in That Section of Argentine. Approval of a construction of a part of the Ruby avenue storm sewer today sealed the fate of a long-time landmark - the towering brick smoke stack at Twenty-second street and Metropolitan avenue in the Argentine district. The city agreed to pay $13,650 to the Kansas City Structural Steel company for the easement and the company agreed to raze the nearly 200-foot stack. Plan Line Underneath. The sewer is run almost directly beneath the unused stack. Any other location would call for extensive condemnation of buildings, city engineers point out. A combination of sentiment and economics had so far preserved the stack, constructed during the turn of the century in connection with a silver smelting operation. Cost of dismantling would exceed any salvage, it is believed. The stack is to be torn down a piece at a time, it was decided after investigating showed that nearly a million dollars in insurance covering buildings as far always as the new Argentine high school would be required if the stack were blasted down. Estimate Cost Risk. Cost of insurance alone would be approximately $12,000 it was learned. The silver smelter operated from 1881 to 1901. August R. Meyer, for whom Meyer boulevard is named, held a controlling interest at one time. During peak operation in 1898, the smelter made daily shipments of a ton of silver bricks and $20,000 in gold, in addition to accounting for approximately one-fifth of the nation's lead output. Originally another stack up the hill at the site of Argentine high served the smelter, to which it was connected by a mile-long system of tunnels. To obviate this tunnel system, the towering stack was built, high enough to clear the hills and catch prevailing winds. Thein in 1901, the smelter closed, "temporarily" and was never reopened. For 20 years it had been the principal industry of the Argentine district, giving rise to the name of Silver Avenue. Kansas City Star, January 30, 1958.