National and State Registers of Historic Places
Shawnee Methodist Mission
53rd and Mission Road
Fairway (Johnson County)
Listed in National Register
Oct 15, 1966
National Historic Landmark, 5/23/1968
Architect: Not listed
Category: church school
Shawnee Mission was one of many established as a manual training school attended by boys and girls from Shawnee, Delaware, and other Indian nations from 1839 to 1862. At the height of its activity, Shawnee Mission was an establishment of 2,000 acres with 16 buildings, including three large brick structures, which still stand. The school was abandoned in 1864 and for the next sixty years the building served variously as Union Army barracks, a dance hall, dairy bottling plant, apartments, and a boarding house. In 1927, the state bought the three remaining buildings and began restoration work and landscaping on the 12-acre grounds. The property was nominated to the National Register in 1968.
