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Volume 37, Number 2, 2015 Kansas Preservation Volume 37, Number 2 • 2015 REAL PLACES. REAL STORIES. Brown Grand Opera House, Concordia See story on page 1 A PUBLICATION OF THE KANSAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Lost! Shulthis Stadium, Home of Historic Baseball Newsletter of the Cultural Resources Division Events, Demolished Kansas Historical Society Volume 37 Number 2 arly morning on July 28, 2015, a wrecking ball began demolishing the historic Contents Shulthis Stadium at Riverside Park in Independence. The process began in 1 E Kansas Preservation Awards mid-May when the Independence school board and city council voted to proceed 8 with a project that included plans for demolition of the historic structure. Also National and State Register Nominations known as the Riverside Park Grandstand, this site hosted the first organized 13 Before & After: Heritage Trust Funds at Work baseball game under permanent lights on April 28, 1930. Mickey Mantle earned 14 his first professional league paycheck and hit his first career homerun here. College Hill Historic Resources Survey – Phase I Many people contacted the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) 19 with questions about saving the stadium. SHPO staff members had been Window Restoration at Constitution Hall communicating with the city, school board, and local concerned citizens since 23 On the Trail of Those Who Were On the Trail: 2012 about the building’s eligibility for the National Register and potential Archeological Survey at Alcove Spring funding incentives for rehabilitation. Supporters contacted the Kansas Preservation Alliance (KPA), a statewide preservation advocacy organization hosting the Kansas Endangered Places program. KPA had placed the stadium on its endangered places list in 2014. Local citizens had also begun a Change.org KANSAS PRESERVATION petition asking the school board and city council to rescind its vote. Published quarterly by the Kansas Historical The building was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places by local Society, 6425 SW 6th Avenue, Topeka KS 66615-1099. advocate, Mark Metcalf, and the nomination was scheduled for the quarterly Please send change of address information meeting of the Historic Sites Board of Review August 8, 2015. On July 13 plans to the above address or email were moved up and demolition of the stadium was scheduled for the following [email protected]. week. Local supporters filed an injunction to temporarily stop the work, but on Third class postage paid at Topeka, Kansas. July 24 the judge ruled in favor of the property owners. Governor Sam Brownback Jennie Chinn, State Historic Preservation Officer Patrick Zollner, Deputy SHPO, Editor Linda Kunkle Park, Graphic Designer Partial funding for this publication is provided by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. The contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Clockwise, demolition starting Department of the Interior, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products July 28, 2015, from News On 6 constitute an endorsement or recommendation (Tulsa, Oklahoma); grandstand from by the Department of the Interior. the northwest in May 2012 by Mark This program receives federal funds from the Metcalf; undated historic view of National Park Service. Regulations of the U.S. Department of the Interior strictly prohibit the grandstand. unlawful discrimination in departmental federally assisted programs on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, or handicap. Any person who believes he or she has been discriminated against in any program activity or facility operated by a recipient of federal assistance should write to: Office of Equal Opportunity, National Park Service, 1849 C Street NW, Washington DC 20240. ©2015 On the cover: The Brown Grand Opera House in Concordia has been undergoing restoration efforts since the early 1970s. The property owners recently completed a Kansas historic tax credit project and the project is a recipient of a 2015 Kansas Preservation Alliance Medallion Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation. Read more on page 1. KANSAS PRESERVATION AWARDS The Kansas Preservation Alliance presented its 2015 Awards for Excellence on May 8 at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka. Each year the Kansas Preservation Alliance, Inc. (KPA) recognizes exemplary efforts in historic preservation across the State of Kansas. KPA has presented more than 200 annual awards since its founding in 1979. These awards have been presented to individuals, organizations, and institutions responsible for exemplary preservation projects in 70 different communities in Kansas. he properties recognized have included houses, ranches, “Colonel” Napoleon Bonaparte Brown, a colorful local Tfarms, schools, churches, courthouses, cemeteries, train businessman who had arrived in Concordia in 1876 from depots, stores, bridges, banks, libraries, post offices, street Missouri with his bride Katherine and a rumored suitcase improvements, landscapes, and neighborhoods. Rural full of money. Brown’s generosity for the community was properties, properties in small towns, and properties in believed to have been spurred by the construction of rival urban areas have all received awards. In addition, advocacy opera houses in nearby Beloit and Lincoln. Construction awards have been presented to individuals, groups, and of the theater was overseen by his son, Earl Van Dom organizations for a variety of historic preservation efforts. Brown. At a total cost of $40,000, the theater, built of Nominated projects must meet the intent of the Secretary of local limestone and bricks, held its grand opening on the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties September 17, 1907. Only four years after the opening both and the criteria for listing properties in the National Register Colonel Brown and his son Earl were dead, leading to a of Historic Places. To be eligible for a KPA Award for long list of other owners and uses, its final use being as a Excellence, preservation work must be substantially movie theater until the last showing in 1974. A year earlier completed by December 31 of the previous year. The the theater was listed in the National Register, and in 1975 following projects received awards: it passed into the ownership of the City of Concordia, its restoration being selected as a community bicentennial Save our Stage, Brown Grand Opera House, Concordia project. Phase I of the project, consisting of an exterior (Cloud County) restoration, began in 1976, including a new roof and the Medallion Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation restoration of the façade back to its original appearance. Multiyear projects are nothing new in the world of historic Left to right, Brown Grand Opera House, Cloud County; Chris preservation, but occasionally a project comes along that Johnston, KPA; Senator Elaine Bowers; Larry Uri, Monte Wentz; spans beyond years to decades, with incredible results. The Marlesa Roney; Everett Miller; Susie Haver; Susan Sutton; Mark Brown Grand Opera House was built from 1905 to 1907 by McAfee; Paul Rimovsky; Bob Drake. VOLUME 37 | 2 | 2015 1 Left to right, Dillon House, Shawnee County; Mark Burenheide, KPA; Vance Kelley; Ian Pitt; Senator Laura Kelly; Ross Freeman; Shawn McGarity; Brenda Spencer; Rick Kready. Phase II followed, with a complete interior restoration Capitol to the east. In addition, the larger home allowed including plaster repair, gold leaf stenciling, and the Dillon and his wife, Susie, to host parties and gatherings. The reproduction of the original painted Napoleon curtain that home showcased their extensive art and antique collections, had been water damaged in a tornado. The most recent acquired on their many trips to Europe. The family owned project, in 2014, included a structural upgrade of the stage, the home until 1941, when the contents were auctioned and along with backstage facility improvements. The final result the building was acquired by the American Home Life after more than 30 years of community effort is a fully Insurance Company, which converted it to their modern theater, appearing just as it did on opening night headquarters offices. The First Presbyterian Church was the in 1907. next to acquire the property, using it as a community house State historic preservation tax credits were utilized to fund for a time before planning to demolish it as part of a church this rehabilitation. expansion in 1989. Historic Topeka facilitated a conversation The project team included the City of Concordia; Abram between First Presbyterian and the State of Kansas, which Concrete; Alsop Sand Company, Inc.; Brown Enviro-Control resulted in a property swap to rescue the building in 1997. Heating & Plumbing; Campbell & Johnson Engineers; Central For a decade following the swap, the first floor of the Dillon Kansas Electric; Dudley Williams and Associates, P.A.; Gopher House was used for meetings, gatherings, and events. In Stage Rigging; Heartland Scenic; J.R. Robl Grantwriting; 2012 the house again faced the possibility of demolition, and Kansas Coring & Cutting, LLC; Martin Eby Construction; in 2013 the house was purchased by Pioneer Group in a state Peltiers Foundry & Machine; Pryor Automatic Fire Sprinkler, auction, with the intent of creating an office for its Inc.; R & L Fire & Security Specialists, LLC; Service Master of companies, as well as opening the house to the public as an NCK; Tom’s Music House; Duclos Foundation; Kansas event space. Exterior work included reconstruction of the Historical Society; Cloud
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