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Benton Grammar School. The Benton Grammar School (later renamed the "D.A. Holmes School") was a K–8 public school in Kansas City, Missouri. [1] [2] Originally opened in 1868 as a whites-only school, the school was converted to an all-black school in 1953.
Benton Grammar School (former): Walt Disney Murals – Kansas City MO. City: Kansas City, MO. Site Type: Art Works, Murals. New Deal Agencies: Federal Arts Project (FAP), Arts Programs. Completed: 1942.
- September 1911
- Feb. 18, 1931
- Nov. 7, 1941
- Feb. 13, 1942
- Corrine Mitchell
- 1953
- Fall 1964
- 1995
- Mural Mystery
In the fall of 1911, young Walter Disney walked through the doors of The Benton Grammar School, a large, red brick building where Disney would attend elementary school through June 1917. During his time at Benton, Disney regularly battled tired eyes due to his morning paper routes. He also ran track, did a solid impression of Abe Lincoln and foster...
“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.” A 1931 edition of “The Bentonion” yearbook acquired by Vintage Disn...
A Friday edition of The Kansas City Star, published Nov. 7, 1941, announced Disney’s upcoming 1942 reunion at his former grammar school. The column revealed a few details of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) mural project planned to go up in the school’s hallways to commemorate Disney’s early years in Kansas City. The Benton Grammar School hall...
Eleven years after penning the letter to his former administrators, Disney arrived back in Kansas City for the reunion. Press coverage of Disney’s visit to The Benton Grammar School reported more than 800 students, faculty and parents in attendance. The celebration included recognition of Disney’s grammar school relay track team, a skit celebrating...
While the two murals depicting characters including Snow White, the Seven Dwarfs, Mickey Mouse and Pinocchio to name a few, were based on original Disney drawings, the project was actually completed by artist Corrine Mitchell and a team of around 90 artists assigned to the WPA mural project. “The artist who executed the murals was remarkable in her...
The Benton Grammar School became D.A. Holmes School in 1953. Named after local civil rights leader and Paseo Baptist Church pastor Reverend Daniel Arthur Holmes, the D.A. Holmes School converted to a segregated all-Black school the same year.
In 1964, La’Verne Washington enrolled at D.A. Holmes School. “I remember as a child, from Kindergarten to sixth grade, the joy of walking around that building and looking at those gigantic murals of Mickey, Minnie and Goofy,” Washington said. Washington, a soul artist living in Washington D.C., grew up in Kansas City and remembers the misplaced Dis...
In 1995, more than 50 years after Disney’s stopover at The Benton Grammar School, it was Diane Disney Miller’s turn to tour her father’s former hometown. Along with her husband Ron and Disney scholar Dan Viets, Diane’s Kansas City stay included a guided tour of D.A. Holmes. But by 1995, the murals were nowhere to be seen. “The school was still oper...
D.A. Holmes School closed its doors for good in 1997. The historic space sat vacant for several years, before it was purchased from the Kansas City Missouri School District in 2002 and redeveloped into a senior living community. “Walt Disney’s Missouri: The Roots of a Creative Genius,”a 2002 book published by The Kansas City Star and written by Vie...
May 4, 2022 · Walt Disney attended the Benton Grammar School. Walt graduated from seventh grade, and he surprised his parents by delivering a patriotic speech to the graduates. In later years, his sister...
- Jim Korkis
Sep 2, 2018 · Walt was still living at the Bellefontaine address during this time (graduating from Benton Grammar School on June 8, 1917, and working as a candy and news butcher for the Van Noyes Interstate News Company during the summer of 1917). After the summer was over, Walt joined his parents in Chicago, attending Mc Kinley High School. Time passed.
May 22, 2015 · By 1931 he was waving the “Benton” flag (Fig. 5): Disney sent the drawing to his alma mater in Kansas City—the Benton Grammar School he had attended from 1911 to 1917, located on Benton Boulevard, both named for Senator Thomas Hart Benton, the painter’s great-great-uncle.4 In 1932 Benton included Mickey Mouse in an array of cartoon ...
Sep 8, 2021 · September 8, 2021 ·. Walt Disney began attending Benton Grammar School at 3004 Benton Blvd. in Kansas City, Mo., 111 years ago on Sept. 5, 1910. The Disney family had recently moved from Marceline to Kansas City.
