Kansas Preservation
Volume 37, Number 1 • 2015 REAL PLACES. REAL STORIES.
St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Kinsley, nominated to the National Register of Historic Places See story on page 1
A publication of the Kansas Historical Society Before and After
Newsletter of the Cultural The Rorabaugh-Wiley Building in Hutchinson had been awaiting rehabilitation Resources Division for many years. This highrise downtown building was constructed in 1912 with Kansas Historical Society classical revival features that characterized many early 20th century commercial Volume 37 Number 1 buildings. Changes over the decades diminished the building’s integrity, but as a Contents contributing element in the Hutchinson Downtown Core North Historic District 1 there was an opportunity available for state and federal tax incentives to help National and State Registers of Historic Places fund rehabilitation. The $12.5 million project recently completed by owner Wiley 6 Douglas County Heritage Survey Plaza LLC restored many historic features of the building including the exterior 7 storefront, the original tile floors and the marble-paneled lobby. The building will A Survey of Historic Resources in Wichita’s South Central Neighborhood, Area II now be used as apartments on the upper floors with commercial spaces available 14 along the street. Young Buck and the Undeveloped Reach of Wildcat Creek 15 BEFORE 2015 Kansas Certified Local Government Training 18 Masonry Restoration at Cottonwood Ranch
Kansas Preservation
Published quarterly by the Kansas Historical Society, 6425 SW 6th Avenue, Topeka KS 66615-1099. Please send change of address information to the above address or email [email protected]. BEFORE Third class postage paid at Topeka, Kansas. 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 Department of the Interior, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products AFTER constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the Department of the Interior. This program receives federal funds from the National Park Service. Regulations of the U.S. Department of the Interior strictly prohibit 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 AFTER On the cover: St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Hodgeman County was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. See story on page 1. National and State Registers of Historic Places
The Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review met Saturday, February 14, at the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka to consider nominations to the Register of Historic Kansas Places and National Register of Historic Places. Among the 10 approved nominations were an Art Moderne elementary school in Independence and a Girl Scout Little House in Ashland. The nominations are now under review by the staff of the Keeper of the National Register in Washington, D.C. As of this printing, there are 1,394 Kansas listings in the National Register.
by Sarah Martin National Register coordinator, Kansas Historical Society
P. J. Lindquist Building • 118 South Main Street Lindsborg • McPherson County Swedish immigrant P. J. Lindquist commissioned the construction of this building in 1901 to house his tailor shop and an upper-floor living space. That year, Lindsborg led other McPherson County towns in investment in new commercial and residential building. Although the tailor shop was short-lived, the Lindquist family owned the building for 39 years. The family lived in the second-floor apartment for many years, apparently after closing the tailor shop. Other businesses, such as the Tea Cup Inn, subsequently occupied the commercial space. The Malm Brothers Painting Company reportedly packed and shipped stencils from this building, and research into this association continues. One interior wall provides a vibrant stencil sample that may be the work of local artist Oscar Gunnarson, a partner in the Malm Company. The building is an excellent example of an early 20th century commercial building distinguished by Italianate-style details including the cast-iron storefront and tall second-story windows with ornate metal hoods. Although the building has housed multiple tenants on both floors over the years, it retains a high degree of integrity. It is nominated for its local significance in the areas of P. J. Lindquist Building, McPherson County. commerce and architecture.
Volume 37 | 1 | 2015 1 Left to right, Washington School, Montgomery County; Bown-Corby School, Marion County.
Washington School • 300 E Myrtle Street Kansas multiple property nomination for its local Independence • Montgomery County significance in the areas of education and architecture. Washington School was constructed with the assistance of the federal Public Works Administration (PWA) and Hermit’s Cave on Belfry Hill • Council Grove officially opened in 1940. The two-story building is Morris County constructed of architectural concrete and reflects the early Belfry Hill is a prominent landmark in the Neosho River Modern Movement in architecture, defined by its stepped valley that overlooks the surrounding community of Council rectangular massing and clean lines with contrasting forms. Grove, which began as a Santa Fe Trail-era campsite along Entrances feature curved concrete walls and railings the river. Providing scenic views of the town, Belfry Hill is a characteristic of the Art Moderne style. The school tree-lined bluff with natural stone outcroppings that was designed by Thomas W. Williamson and Company, a functions as a local park welcoming visitors. A portion of Topeka-based firm with hundreds of public school Belfry Hill was developed in 1901 as a natural and historical commissions. Washington School served the community park, and it was further enhanced in 1921 as part of the of Independence as a public grade school until 2011. It is centennial commemoration of the opening of the Santa Fe nominated as part of the Historic Public Schools of Kansas Trail. The area within the stone outcropping has long been and New Deal-era Resources of Kansas multiple property interpreted by local historians as the place where Italian nominations for its local significance in the areas of priest Giovanni Maria de Agostini lived for five months in education and architecture. 1863. Still today, the town’s identity and heritage tourism are rooted in these early 20th century efforts to promote the Bown-Corby School • 412 North 2nd Street area’s frontier and trail-era history. This site is not nominated Marion • Marion County for association with the community’s mid-19th century Built in 1929, the Bown-Corby School is an excellent example of Late Gothic Revival architecture, which emerged as a popular style for schools in the period following World War I. The building has red brick walls with ashlar limestone detailing, projecting bays, buttresses, and quoined stone surrounds, all typical of the architectural style. It retains the original wood and steel windows, which is unusual for a public school building of this age. The building was designed by Wichita-based architect S. S. Voigt and served as the town’s grade school for 62 years, closing in 1992. It was named in honor of Anna Bown and Jenny Corby, two long-time teachers in the Marion school district. It is nominated as part of the Historic Public Schools of Hermit Cave on Belfry Hill, Morris County.
2 Kansas Preservation Left, Fix Farmstead, Wabaunsee County.
Parsonian Hotel • 1725 Broadway Avenue Parsons • Labette County In the heart of downtown Parsons, the Parsonian Hotel was constructed in 1954 and intended to provide accommodations for business travelers, to promote new commercial and industrial ventures, and to attract conventions to town. Construction of the building was financed primarily by the sale of stock to local residents who made up the ownership group. The building reflects the International architectural style, which was popular before and after World War II. The eight-story, history, but rather for its local significance as an early 20th concrete-frame building has a two-story base that covers century historical attraction. the majority of the site, and a six-story hotel room tower set back from the edges of the base. The two-story base is Fix Farmstead • 34554 Old K-10 Road • Volland vicinity constructed primarily of red brick, with aluminum windows Wabaunsee County and storefront, limestone accents below the storefront, The Fix Farmstead is situated in a picturesque rural setting concrete window-surrounds at the second story, and on a terrace above the West Branch of Mill Creek, less than horizontal projecting concrete canopies. The tower is a mile northeast of the unincorporated hamlet of Volland. constructed of yellow-brick, concrete, and aluminum The property is accessed by a long lane that extends from double-hung ribbon-windows. It is nominated for its local the gravel road. The farmstead is comprised of an significance in the areas of commerce and architecture. impressive Italianate-style house, a tenant house, barn and granary, storage cellar, storm cellar, and garage. The Kansas Route 66 Historic District • SE 50th Road • Baxter German-American Fix family migrated to Wabaunsee Springs • Cherokee County County in 1860. Upon his return from service during the This segment of Route 66 north of Baxter Springs, totaling Civil War, John R. Fix married Rebecca Larch and settled on 2.1 miles, is located between the historic Brush Creek this land in Washington Township. The majority of extant bridge on the north and Willow Creek on the south. The farmstead features post-date 1880, likely representing the entire length of the historic Route 66 in Kansas totaled only height of prosperity on the farm. It is nominated as part of 13.2 miles, entering Cherokee County near Galena and the Historic Agriculture-Related Resources of Kansas multiple exiting south of Baxter Springs. Cherokee County opened property nomination for its local significance in the areas of bids for the construction of this portion of the road on early settlement, agriculture, and architecture. March 12, 1923. This was part of a larger federal highway
Left to right, Parsonian Hotel, Labette County; Kansas Route 66 Historic District, Cherokee County.
2 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 1 | 2015 3 Left, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Hodgeman County; below, Girl Scout Little House, Clark County.
project between Joplin, Missouri, and Baxter Springs. The Girl Scout Little House • 448 West 6th Avenue Federal Highway Commission designated Route 66 as part Ashland • Clark County of a new national highway network on November 11, 1926. The Girl Scout Little House in Ashland was built in 1937 by This section of road remained an integral part of Kansas laborers employed through the Works Progress Route 66 until a bypass was completed in the early 1960s. Administration (WPA), with Ed Burr serving as the project As a result, the road has largely served local traffic and supervisor. The Little House was built to serve the Ashland tourists traveling the old route. The Kansas Department of Girl Scout troop, which formed in 1924, 12 years after Transportation designated this road a Kansas Historic Juliette Gordon Low established the first American Girl Byway in 2011. It is nominated as part of the Historic Scout troop in Savannah, Georgia. It was erected in a Resources of Route 66 in Kansas multiple property residential neighborhood on land donated by Mr. and nomination in the area of transportation. Mrs. W. R. Nunemacher. The local Girl Scout building committee raised funds to complete the project from St. Mary’s Catholic Church • 14920 SE 232 Road individuals, businesses, churches, and community groups. Kinsley vicinity • Hodgeman County The small stone building was dedicated to the community A group of Irish-born settlers erected St. Mary’s Catholic in February 1938, and it has served the Girl Scouts and the Church in rural Hodgeman County in 1904. The Ashland community ever since. The small building is made parishioners had attended the German St. Joseph Catholic of locally quarried stone and exhibits the Rustic style Church located five miles south, but in 1903 a dispute typical of New Deal-era buildings. It is nominated as part of arose between the German and Irish members in regard to the New Deal-Era Resources of Kansas multiple property a proposed location for a new church building. The Irish nomination for its local significance in the areas of social members wished to have the new location two miles north, history, government, and architecture. but an agreement could not be made. As a result, the congregation split. St. Mary’s church suffered a devastating fire on January 1, 1928, leaving only the exterior walls to be salvaged. The parishioners hired builder Joseph Sebacher to rebuild the church with plans drafted by Emporia-based architects Henry W. Brinkman and Stanley Hagan. This same team had just completed a new building for St. Joseph in nearby Offerle. St. Mary’s church closed its doors in 1997. The small church features a stone exterior, Gothic-arch windows, a red tile gable roof, and a center bell tower. It is nominated for its local significance in the area of architecture.
4 Kansas Preservation National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the country’s official list of historically significant properties. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and Strother Field Tetrahedron Wind Indicator, Cowley County. archeological resources. Eligible properties must be significant for one or Strother Field Tetrahedron Wind Indicator more of the four criteria for evaluation. Properties can Strother Field, Winfield, Cowley County be eligible if they are associated with events that have This tetrahedron wind indicator once functioned as a part made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of the World War II-era Strother Army Air Field in its role in of our history. They can be eligible if they are associated the Battle of Kansas, a highly significant effort to train with the lives of persons significant in our past. pilots and test, build, and deliver airplanes to the Pacific Distinctive construction can qualify properties for the front during World War II. Strother Field is centrally located National Register if they embody the characteristic of a between Winfield and Arkansas City in Cowley County and type, period, or method of construction, or represent was named for Captain Donald Root Strother, the first the work of a master, or possess high artistic values, or Cowley County pilot killed in World War II over Java. The represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose field was built in 1942 with four runways: two parallel components may lack individual distinction. Lastly, runways with a north-south orientation and two properties may be eligible for the National Register if perpendicular crosswind runways in a northeast-southwest they have yielded or may be likely to yield information orientation. The wind indicator, which alerted pilots to important in prehistory or history. The National Register wind direction to aid in landing aircraft, is centered recognizes properties of local, statewide, and national midfield in its original location. It is a three-dimensional significance. triangular object measuring approximately 27 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 15 feet tall. The exterior is galvanized tin The Register of Historic Kansas Places is our state’s with lights along the edges. Just five World War II-era official list of historically significant properties. Properties tetrahedron wind indicators are known to exist at former included in the National Register are automatically Kansas airfields. It is nominated as part of theWorld listed in the state register. However, not all properties War II-era Aviation-Related Facilities of Kansas multiple listed in the state register are included in the National property nomination in the areas of military and Register. The same general criteria are used to assess the engineering. eligibility of a property for inclusion in the state register, but more flexibility is allowed in the interpretation of the criteria for eligibility. Related Internet Links: National Register of Historic Places: nps.gov/nr Kansas Historical Society (National and state registers): kshs.org/14638
4 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 1 | 2015 5 Douglas County Heritage Survey: Interpreting a Rural Historic Landscape
In 2014 consultants Dale Nimz and Susan Ford completed the historic resources survey of Wakarusa Township, the unincorporated rural area that surrounds the city of Lawrence. This third phase of the Douglas County Heritage Survey, which began in 2012, was an unusual opportunity to document the buildings and structures in a rural historic landscape that is undergoing rapid development and change. Survey is an essential step in preservation planning. One of the key elements of the proposed preservation plan element of Horizon 2020, the Lawrence/Douglas County comprehensive plan, is to “conserve the rural character of unincorporated Douglas County in strategic areas.”
by Dale Nimz Preservation consultant
Left to right, Baldwin Barn, 1879; Baldwin Smokehouse; Baldwin Granary, circa 1887.
his article will describe the heritage survey, outline the Wakarusa Township carried out in 2013 and 2014, the Tdevelopment of agriculture, present examples of the consultants identified buildings and structures that survey findings, and summarize recommendations for appeared to be architecturally and historically significant in preservation in rural Douglas County. The ongoing natural, the history and development of the township, including cultural, and historic resources survey is administered by both representative and outstanding examples of the the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council, a building forms, types, and styles present. The consultants Certified Local Government. The 2014 survey project was funded by a Historic Preservation Fund grant from the Kansas Historic Preservation Office with matching funds and services from the Douglas County Commission. Besides historic preservation, the council has set broad goals for conservation. For example, the council has awarded a major grant for a 2015 Systematic Inventory for Natural Areas and Habitat in Douglas County to the Kansas Biological Survey. With the inventories of historic resources as well as natural areas and habitat, the council will have a rich description, which can be used to interpret the rural landscape in new and innovative ways. In the survey of Eben Baldwin House, 1903.
6 Kansas Preservation also were directed to be aware of natural resources such as A rural historic landscape is “a geographical area that woodlands, intact prairie, wildlife habitat, viewscapes, and historically has been used by people, or shaped or modified waterways and their influence on cultural development, by human activity, occupancy, or intervention, and that but were not required to survey these natural resources. possesses a significant concentration, linkage, or continuity The 2013 historic resources survey focused on the of areas of land use, vegetation, buildings and structures, eastern area of the township and the 2014 survey roads and waterways, and natural features.” Different parts completed the southwest and northwest areas of the of Wakarusa Township can be viewed as smaller township. Reconnaissance survey inventories were entered components with distinctive geographical features within in the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory, khri.org, for a the overall landscape. The contemporary landscape is total of 113 properties and 381 buildings and structures in characterized by the contrast between the expanding urban Wakarusa Township. In 2014 the consultants also compiled development of Lawrence, the proliferation of exurban more detailed descriptions, histories, and arguments residences for urban workers, and the consolidation of for significance for 19 intensive inventories of most family farms into fewer specialized agri-businesses. potentially significant properties selected from the In Wakarusa Township the rural historic landscape 2013 reconnaissance survey. reflects the distinctive geography of the area as well as the
Left to right, Brownlee House, circa 1890; Brownlee Barn, circa 1890.
Why invest in a county-wide survey and what do the findings historical development by settlers, farmers, and rural mean? Changing land use often leads to the neglect and residents. The township contains areas of river bottom land destruction of historic buildings and structures. Agricultural defined by the Kansas and Wakarusa Rivers as well as buildings that are not suitable for contemporary production upland to the south with ridges and features such as Blue may be replaced and farmsteads may be altered to make way Mound. The Kansas River forms the northern boundary for exurban residences and supporting structures. Yet many and the northeast and northwest parts of Wakarusa of these buildings are still valuable if they can be adapted for Township lie in its flood plain. The Wakarusa River flows contemporary uses. And these buildings are significant not through the center of the township until it turns northeast just for their utility. In the heritage survey, the resources and empties into the Kansas River. Generally, the inventoried reflect the development of agriculture and rural topography ranges from the lowlands of the Kansas River communities in Douglas County. Despite the random valley to upland prairie in the south. and sometimes inexplicable process of preservation, the Buildings and farmsteads that range in age from the buildings and farmsteads extant are a tangible record of the territorial period to the post World War II period reflect the county’s agricultural heritage—a heritage that was not well historical development of Wakarusa. Two towns, Franklin recorded in historical descriptions, photographs, and other and Lawrence, were founded in the center of the township, documentary evidence. but after the end of the Civil War, only Lawrence Wakarusa Township, which surrounds the expanding prospered. The Franklin site is now included in the city city of Lawrence, can be interpreted as a rural historic limits of Lawrence. As one of the earliest settled counties, Eben Baldwin House, 1903. landscape that has changed dramatically since 1945. agriculture was fully developed in Douglas County by the
6 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 1 | 2015 7 end of the 1870s. From 1866 to 1878, the Kansas Board of buildings. The first two decades of the 20th century were Agriculture reported that agricultural production grew termed the “Golden Age of Agriculture.” rapidly. The state climbed from 25th to fourth in corn When Douglas County was described by historian Frank production and from 24th to first in wheat production. Blackmar in 1912, the principal crops were winter wheat, Two major factors—railroad expansion and improvements kafir corn, and hay, but the county also ranked high in the in technology—contributed to this dramatic expansion. production of Irish potatoes, livestock, and there were The expansion of railroads in Douglas County provided more than 200,000 bearing fruit trees in the county, more access for transporting farm products to market and than half of which were apple. During the early 20th supported the intensive settlement of rural communities. century the size of farms increased and there were fewer The Santa Fe Railway built a line along the south bank of farms. Improved technology allowed individual farmers to the Kansas River and the Leavenworth, Lawrence, and plant, cultivate, and harvest larger areas more quickly. After Galveston Railroad built south from the river through the 1910 affordable tractors became available to small farmers. center of the township and county. By the early Between 1915 and 1920 the number of tractors in Kansas 20th century, this line was incorporated into the increased from 2,493 to more than 14,000. Another Santa Fe system. agricultural trend evident in Douglas County was the
Left to right, William Meairs House, 1878; William Meairs Smokehouse, c. 1878.
After a drought and grasshopper plague devastated growth of the dairy industry. Because it was difficult to Kansas during the mid-1870s, agricultural leaders urged transport, milk had a limited market. With advances in farmers to diversify. They argued that farmers should raise a refrigeration and transportation, dairy farming became variety of crops, some for their use at home and some for industrialized by the 1920s. Mechanization made farmers cash sale. With diversification, farm families would be more more productive so fewer farmers were needed. By 1920 self-sufficient even if the corn or wheat crops failed. only 30 percent of Americans lived on farms. Although a detailed interpretation will require intensive Although there are a number of part-time farmers in research, it appears from the variety of farm buildings Douglas County in 2014, there are only a few large extant that many Douglas County farmers during the late commercial producers. In the 21st century the rural 19th and early 20th century raised a variety of crops and landscape is being changed by the suburban expansion of livestock in addition to corn and wheat. The 1890s were a the city of Lawrence and extensive exurban development transition between agricultural expansion and adaptation for rural subdivisions and homesites. to the agricultural marketplace. As farmers produced more, In the 2014 survey 10 houses and eight barns were prices fell. Then, following these difficulties, Kansas farmers evaluated as individually eligible for the National Register enjoyed a period of prosperity and relative stability. Rising and 26 other buildings were evaluated as potentially grain prices allowed farmers to improve their standard of contributing to National Register thematic or district living and invest in machinery, improved houses, and farm nominations. Four farmsteads provide examples of
8 Kansas Preservation resources surveyed in the township—the William Meairs individual owners of National Register eligible properties. farm, the D. H. Wiggins farm, the Brownlee farm, and the An interpretive bus tour of selected properties would Eben Baldwin farm. William (Billy) Meairs arrived in provide public recognition and education about the Douglas County as a territorial settler and the farm has agricultural heritage of Douglas County. Other public been passed down in the family since that time. The stone presentations could provide practical information about Italianate style house and adjacent smokehouse on the such topics as appropriate techniques for stone masonry, farm were constructed in 1878. wooden windows, and delayed maintenance. The More typical and well preserved examples of a farm house fundamental goal of public education would be to and barn are the D.H. Wiggins house and barn. The house is support the stewardship of rural historic properties. an upright and wing folk house type constructed about 1900 Ongoing educational programs are needed to help and the gable roof barn was constructed about 1910. develop an informed constituency of property owners A different house and barn illustrate the range of style and others interested who could advocate for the and type found in Wakarusa Township. The S. A. Brownlee long-term preservation of the rural historic landscape house is a well preserved Queen Anne style residence of Douglas County.
Left to right, D. H. Wiggins House, c. 1900; D. H. Wiggins Barn, c. 1910.
constructed about 1890 and the gambrel-roofed barn was constructed about the same time. The Eben Baldwin farm is an authentic historic landmark in Wakarusa Township. Baldwin was a prominent As these examples illustrate, settler who owned at least 800 acres, most in the Kansas River bottom land northwest of Lawrence. Baldwin was a the rural historic landscape grain farmer and stock grower who raised Galloway cattle and Clydesdale horses. The majestic stone barn was built in of Wakarusa Township 1879 and the house, which replaced an earlier residence that burned, was constructed in 1903. As these examples illustrate, the rural historic landscape deserves recognition of Wakarusa Township deserves recognition and protection. Based on the heritage survey findings, the consultants and protection. recommended further survey in Lecompton Township to the west. Another recommendation is to coordinate the heritage grant program with the maintenance needs of significant historic properties and the nomination goals of
8 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 1 | 2015 9 A Survey of Historic Resources in Wichita’s South Central Neighborhood, Area II
The 2014 survey of South Central Neighborhood, Area II, in Wichita was conducted in accordance with the Wichita Historic Preservation Plan of 2001 and seeks to address plan goal number two, “Complete a reconnaissance survey of the 1919 city limits” with the objective to document structures in that area and identify those with historical significance. The Wichita- Sedgwick County Planning Department received a 2014 Historic Preservation Fund grant to do the study, updating the directive that it be performed at intensive level. Data collected will add to eight previous surveys throughout the city, all of which provide information that can guide rehabilitation and re-use of properties.
by Barbara Hammond Preservation consultant
he south central survey area two is located one mile Tsouth of Wichita’s business district between Morris and Bayley Streets, and bounded east/west by railroad tracks and the Arkansas River. The survey produced 274 inventory forms that included dwellings—both single and multiple— Top to bottom, 1212 S Waco; 11055 Water and non-dwelling buildings. Along Broadway there are 14 buildings including a motel, a mortuary, Fire Station Number 2, a large church, and two used car lots. Eight buildings Although no historic district could be drawn, there associated with warehouse complexes are located on Santa Fe are interesting examples of domestic architecture that Avenue near the railroad tracks. Other than that, survey area demonstrate that this is a neighborhood of pattern book two is principally residential, and attention here is on single houses. The south central area two study underscores this dwellings, pattern book houses, and identification of with references from Daniel D. Reiff’s book, Houses properties associated with this context. The period of from Books (2000). Reiff finds extensive evidence that significance for this survey is 1880-1964 and 22 buildings communities such as Wichita were built by local were found to be potentially eligible for individual listing in carpenter-contractors from published plans, illustrations, a historic register under Criterion C. However there are not and patterns. Using Fredonia, New York, as a model, he enough intact, contiguous buildings to nominate any asserts that smaller cities did not support many professional historic districts. In spite of several blocks of residences that architects, with the result that residential construction are supported by historic context, the high incidence of relied heavily on pattern book designs. Of particular secondary siding (78 percent) prevented this group from interest is the anecdote in which Reiff describes Benjamin qualifying as contributing structures in a district. Luke (1877-1956), who worked as a carpenter and
10 Kansas Preservation Left to right, 1101 S Emporia; 1109 S Main; 1116 S Wichita; 1144 S Water.
contractor in Fredonia in the early 20th century. Evidence In the survey area the residential architecture has of Luke’s methods is found in interviews with Luke’s remained significantly static and is not high-style. Rather, it daughter. Elizabeth Luke attested to the fact that her reflects the middle-income options of the people who lived father’s office contained pattern books that he might show there. A small number of dwellings remain that were built to clients. However, she said, he also designed his own in the 1880s and 1890s, and most represent house forms houses. By fortunate coincidence, the Wichita Historic from the first half of 20th century when the area was Preservation Office has in its research files notes from an developed to capacity. Because the neighborhood has not interview by staff members with Wanda Wilson Dunegan suffered a great loss of houses since then, those that were in 2009. Dunegan is the daughter of Marvin R. Wilson built in that time frame are extant; only three dwellings (1884-1968), a contractor who originally found work in have been built since 1950. Wichita as a streetcar operator, having built a house for his There are many repetitions of the architectural styles in new bride on south Wichita Avenue. Opportunity knocked the neighborhood, particularly the ubiquitous one-story in 1927 when Wilson’s father-in-law platted land on south Queen Anne and Neoclassical cottages, and Gable Front Waco Avenue. John Holland recruited Marvin Wilson houses with stylistic interpretations. Resemblances within as general contractor for a series of speculative houses each style strongly suggest the use of pattern book or (extant). In a parallel incident to Reiff’s interview with contractor-drawn plans. Benjamin Luke’s daughter, Wanda Dunegan reported that Information gained from this study will serve to her father, too, had drawn his own architectural plans, and expand the existing documentation of historic residential, that she had many of his drawings in her possession. She civic/social, commercial, and industrial buildings of did not know how he learned to do this. Based on Reiff’s Wichita, particularly as a supplement to the multiple extensive research, supposition would allow that as a property documentation forms, Residential Resources of carpenter Wilson began working with pattern book plans Wichita, Sedgwick County Kansas, 1870-1957 and after study and experience, was able to draw plans and Commercial and Industrial Resources, Wichita, Kansas making changes for variety. This idea is illustrated by 1872-1964. similarities in many of the bungalows that he built in survey area two.
Left to right, 1256 Market; 1252 S Main; 1228 S Waco, 1226 S Main.
10 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 1 | 2015 11 Young Buck and the Undeveloped Reach of Wildcat Creek
by Brad Logan Kansas State University
housands of years before it was home to Tthe modern people of Manhattan and the Wildcats of Kansas State University, Wildcat Creek linked communities of extended or nuclear families that were attracted by its rich resources. Those resources included a reliable source of water, arable land, abundant game, diverse wild plants, and good quality stone for tool-making. Late in the 19th century amateur archaeologist William Griffing recorded extensive evidence of early inhabitants along the creek, passing the information to Jacob V. Brower, who included a sketch map of Wildcat Creek valley in his publication, Quivera (1898). The map depicts locations of presumed lodge remains and ridge-top mounds. The former are now known primarily as the homes of families who lived there during the Late Prehistoric period (circa CE 1000-1400) and the latter as burial sites used by people of the Woodland period (circa CE 1-1000). Sadly, nearly all mounds in this region have since been vandalized, scarred by a tell-tale divot in the center that echoes non-professional excavation, and many of the house sites have been destroyed by cultivation and the growth of Manhattan.
Excavators expose blades at the Young Buck site; inset, artifacts from the Woodland Horizon found at Young Buck.
12 Kansas Preservation n 1937 excavations by archaeologists of the Smithsonian north has been cultivated and the larger portion to the IInstitution under the direction of Waldo R. Wedel south is in woods. It is vulnerable not only to encroaching demonstrated that some of Griffing’s putative lodge sites development but to flooding, recently exacerbated by urban might hold preserved remains. At one such site they expansion. Floods have increased erosion, exposing stone exposed the floor of a house with the remains of four debris on the steep cut-bank at its western edge. These interior supporting posts centered on a fireplace, a series of threats spurred our effort to recover as much information smaller posts around its perimeter, and five pits that served from the site as possible. We are particularly grateful to the as food caches. Among the artifacts they recovered were landowners, Dave Dreiling and Robert and Linda Reffit, pottery sherds, chipped stone tools (points, knives, celts, who endorse its listing in the National Register. Our work and scrapers), and ground stone implements, including a toward that goal has been supported by grants from the milling stone suggested to be evidence of the cultivation of Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) awarded by the domestic crops. These remains were defined as evidence of Kansas Historical Society. a theretofore unknown archeological culture now called the Smoky Hill phase of the Central Plains tradition (Late Prehistoric period). Wedel believed that “further work at this Wedel believed that “further work at this and related sites nearby ought to extend considerably the and related sites nearby ought to extend range of artifact types and other traits characteristic of the culture, and will thus make possible a much better cultural considerably the range of artifact types and and chronological correlation with other prehistoric culture other traits characteristic of the culture, and complexes of the region.” Unfortunately, the site he investigated now lies under Seth Child road and an adjacent will thus make possible a much better cultural strip mall. Likewise most of the other house locations and chronological correlation with other have been destroyed by cultivation and residential and commercial development. Thus it was with guarded hope prehistoric culture complexes of the region.” that archeologists from Kansas State University (KSU) undertook excavations at a site along an as yet undeveloped reach of Wildcat Creek in 2013 and 2014. In November 2012 and April 2013 we conducted We were implementing the recommendations of KSU preliminary investigations and mapping of the Young Buck archeologist Lauren W. Ritterbush, as part of the Manhattan site. In many of the small screened shovel tests we found Archaeological Survey completed for the city of Manhattan debris from the making of chipped stone tools. Especially in 2009. Among the known sites recommended for National abundant were blades, elongated flakes struck from a core of Register of Historic Places testing and evaluation was stone. These were commonly fashioned by Central Plains 14RY402. We named it Young Buck for the four-point deer tradition peoples into end scrapers used to clean hides. we saw during a lunch break, ambling down the path we Examples of such scrapers had been found by Stanislawski. had made between excavation units at the site the previous Material from two of the small shovel tests helped us autumn. The site had been surveyed in 1964 by Michael pinpoint an area where native peoples at this site made Stanislawski, the first archeologist on the faculty of KSU, stone tools. One test contained 61 pieces of tool-making and a few years later by a student from the University of debris and the other just 10 meters from it held 253, an Kansas. Though they had found pottery and chipped stone astonishing number from a relatively small test! Both tools, recording the site with the Kansas Historical Society in were just a few steps from the cut-bank of Wildcat Creek, 1968, no one had worked there since. The recommendation verifying that a rich part of the site is threatened by erosion. to evaluate the site stemmed from the fact that it appeared Our initial tests also revealed archeological remains over a to have escaped major land modifications despite much larger area than previously thought. surrounding development (including a sewer line installed These early shovel tests sufficed to determine the less than 100 meters from it in 2010) and that it appears to horizontal extent of the site, but somewhat larger, correlate with a lodge site on Brower’s map. controlled excavations were necessary to discern how deeply The site occupies a terrace on the south side of the stream buried the preserved remains of human activities are and to and lies on land owned by two different parties; that to the gain more data about early human use of this location. 12 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 1 | 2015 13 Moreover, these were needed to see if the deposits still Our first excavations at Young Buck were sufficient to had integrity, meaning that they were in their original nominate the site for the National Register, but those of the stratigraphic context and had not been disturbed by any of subsequent field school put frosting on the cake. The the damage to the site over the past 700 to 1,000 years. This metaphor is not entirely apt unless one considers it an is necessary to determine if the potential still exists to gain upside-down cake; we discovered evidence of an earlier, significant information about the activities of its prehistoric more deeply buried occupation by members of a different occupants and to thus be eligible for National Register culture. During our previous excavations we had not found listing. These excavations were carried out in November artifacts below 40 centimeters. However, elsewhere at the site 2013 with support from another HPF grant. Finally, the students in the archaeological field school found artifacts June 2014 Kansas Archaeological Field School, a research buried 40 to 50 centimeters below the modern surface. Initially, we attributed these to the downward movement of artifacts through animal burrowing, but in two adjoining Our first excavations atY oung Buck were excavation units the number and size of artifacts suggested sufficient to nominate the site for the otherwise. On the final day of excavation, fulfilling Murphy’s Law of Archaeology (“you always find something National Register, but those of the subsequent important on the last day”), a student digging in a third field school put frosting on the cake. adjacent unit found a corner-notched projectile point at 46 centimeters deep. Other points found at the site had been arrow tips. A and educational program of KSU, provided the opportunity student had found one a few days before at 20 centimeters in to expand our investigations. Although the field data from a unit dug in the previously tilled area where Stanislawsky this past summer have not yet been fully analyzed, that had found a complete one during his survey. We had also recovered in 2013 has and provides ample evidence that the found the base of an arrow point during the HPF project in Young Buck site deserves nomination to the National the upper 10 centimeters of a unit, but the last day’s find is Register. Those investigations recovered more than 1,800 different. Unlike the smaller, penetrating tip of an arrow, it artifacts, including an arrow point fragment, end scrapers, is a dart point, the tip of a projectile that was launched with other chipped stone tools, a few animal bones (including an atlatl or throwing stick. That means of propulsion, deer), and sherds of relatively thin cord-roughened pottery abandoned by the Late Prehistoric period in our region, had like those found at the Griffing site by Wedel. Many blades, been preferred for thousands of years before. Thus, we knew the blank type preferred for scrapers, were found as well, and that we had found a trace of earlier activity. Soon after that all were made of local flint or chert like that found on a find, another student found a complete knife and a few nearby upland ridge. Many (80) of the unused blades were sherds of pottery, as well as large flakes and other chipped recovered from a single 1 by 2 meter area excavated stone debris. The pottery differs distinctively from that of in November 2013. That this many useful blades were the Central Plains tradition. It is thicker and its exterior discarded in one area suggests that whoever made them, surface had been smoothed rather than roughened with a given easy access to a rich and handy source, could afford to cord-wrapped paddle. Such ceramic ware is characteristic of be very selective of those kept for final shaping into scrapers. the Woodland period, sites of which have been recorded Importantly, we found no evidence of site disturbance along Wildcat Creek. One of them, Don Wells (14RY404), from plowing on the wooded portion of the site. That area was excavated by archaeologists from KSU under the does not appear to have ever been cleared for farming, direction of Patricia O’Brien in the early 1970s. It is less which disturbs the context in which shallowly buried than a quarter of a mile from Young Buck. cultural remains were deposited. Had the site been plowed, Previous to these HPF-funded investigations, evidence of occupation by people of the Central Plains archaeologists had not found evidence of occupation by tradition would lack stratigraphic integrity, reducing its Woodland and Late Prehistoric people in the same location research potential. While the northern part of the site, along Wildcat Creek in a relatively undisturbed stratigraphic about 25 percent of its area, had been tilled it has long been context. The Young Buck site now offers archaeologists the out of production and may yet retain intact deposits. opportunity to compare the adaptation of different
14 Kansas Preservation ceramic-age cultures in one spot. We can address questions in their subsistence practices? If these people differed about how they were similar or different in various aspects of significantly in these regards, to what factor or combination their lifeways, such as their utilization of local resources. Did of them can we attribute the difference? Did local resources they differ in their use of readily available chert for making change or was culture change independent of environmental piercing, cutting, and scraping tools? Do ceramic remains circumstances? These and many other questions have been show gradual or sudden change in how people of these posed by archaeologists in the region before, but rarely do cultures made and used vessels? Did their hunting practices we have the chance to try to answer them at one site. Young differ with regard to various animals, that is, did they prefer Buck gives us that chance, unless the continued growth of certain species over others? Does bone preservation differ Manhattan along the undeveloped reach of Wildcat Creek between the two stratigraphic levels, and if so, how do we takes it from us. account for that? To what extent was agriculture important
2015 Kansas Certified Local Government Training
n Kansas 17 cities and counties operate preservation programs Iacknowledged by the National Park Service as Certified Local Governments (CLG). That certification means they have established a local preservation ordinance; they maintain an active preservation commission; and they work to identify, designate, and protect historic resources in their communities. It takes a hard-working, dedicated It takes a hard-working, preservation commission and staff to maintain a vibrant local preservation program. Continuing education and training are vital dedicated preservation to their success. Toward the goal of supporting all the CLG staff and preservation commissioners in the state, the Kansas State Historic commission and staff to Preservation Office (SHPO) is pleased to announce a special opportunity for continued learning. maintain a vibrant local Qualified preservation professionals from various backgrounds and locations across the country will present a one-day Commission preservation program. Assistance Mentoring Program (CAMP) for CLG staff and local preservation commissioners on Friday, August 28, 2015 at the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka. CAMP is a signature training offered by the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions (NAPC) using hands-on exercises, group discussions, and mentoring. The training planned for this year’s CAMP will focus on the legal basics of preservation, standards and guidelines used for design review, tips for building public support, preservation planning and local incentives, Look for more details and registration and a hands-on design review exercise. information coming soon. Please contact Katrina Ringler, CLG coordinator, with any questions at 785-272-8681, ext. 215; [email protected].
14 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 1 | 2015 15 Archeology Certification Seminar Students Get a Different Perspective on History
by Virginia A. Wulfkuhle Public archeologist, Kansas Historical Society
As the public archeologist at the Kansas Historical Society (KSHS), I am privileged to work closely with the Kansas Anthropological Association (KAA). For 40 years the KAA has partnered with the KSHS on the Kansas Archeology Training Program (KATP). Each year KAA members provide the primary portion of the volunteer workforce for the field school. This knowledgeable group of individuals is dedicated and experienced. They work alongside professional archeologists in the field and in the artifact processing lab. Last year 161 KATP participants contributed 5,645 hours to the field school in Miami County.
any KAA members choose to enroll in intensive Mcourses, taught by professionals and coordinated and certified by KSHS staff, to learn archeological methods. Their 11th annual certification seminar was held in McPherson on February 21-22, 2015. Thirty-three KAA members took Historical Archeology, which is a core course in the KAA certification program. The intensive course was taught by Andrew P. Wilkins, an archeologist with Louis Berger & Associates, Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri. The class provided an overview of the field of historical archeology. Topics included the history of the field, method, theory, artifacts, and current topics in research. Hands-on exercises allowed students to practice the newly introduced principles. KAA certification has been a key part of the Kansas Archeology Training Program from its inception in 1974. Enrollment in this internal education and recognition system is not required for KAA members. Seven certification categories—Basic Surveyor, Advanced Surveyor, Basic Crew Jann Rudkin, Denver, Colorado, studies a sherd of Delft ware, Member, Advanced Crew Member, Basic Lab Technician, while Pat and Emmett Bauer, Lindsborg, take notes on other Advanced Lab Technician, and Outreach Specialist— ceramic specimens.
16 Kansas Preservation require some formal classes and other requirements attendance at some KATP events is mandatory, the specific to each. Classes, most combining lecture and certification program also involves considerable individual hands-on components, are taught during the field school work, which broadens amateur horizons. simply for the information or for college credit, which is A one-time fee of $10 is the only charge to enroll in especially helpful for college students and teachers who any or all of the categories, insuring that the program need college credit for recertification. In 2005 two-day is accessible to all who want to participate. A total of KAA certification seminars, usually in February, were 386 KAA members have participated in the program instituted to provide another opportunity for advancement since its inception. through the certification program, although KAA members For more information about the annual Kansas need not be enrolled in certification to attend. Eight core Archeology Training Program, contact me at 785-272-8681, classes are offered in rotation, and an interesting array of ext. 266; [email protected], or visit kshs.org/14623. 20 or more elective courses supplement them. Although
Left, Rose Marie Wallen and Beth Olson, Lindsborg, puzzle out a stratigraphy exercise; below, instructor Andrew Wilkins explains fine points of ceramic classification to Nancy Arendt, Deb Calhoun, and Vita Tucker.
16 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 1 | 2015 17 Masonry Restoration at Cottonwood Ranch
he house at Cottonwood Ranch is single Tstory and U-shaped built in three stages beginning in 1885. The exterior walls of the house are made up of two wythes (two units of width) of locally quarried limestone laid in both random rubble and coursed work. Smoky Hill chalk of the Niobrara formation in shades of pink and yellow are utilized for the quoins at the building corners as well as for the stones outlining the door and window openings.
Above, Cottonwood Ranch in Studley is open for tours May through September, exterior self-guided tours available year-round; left: John Fenton Pratt built the ranch where he raised sheep.
18 Kansas Preservation The exterior wythe of the west elevation wall had stones, numbering them and laying them down on a tarp separated and was no longer bonded to the interior wythe of sketched to mirror the positioning of the stones on the wall. stone. The exterior stones were bulging out 6 inches in some Old mortar was removed and the stones cleaned, then the areas and the mortar joints had cracked and stones were exterior wythe was rebuilt with the existing stones and new coming loose. The contractor carefully removed the exterior mortar using native sand to match the historic appearance.
18 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 1 | 2015 19 Cottonwood Ranch State Historic Site • Studley
he Pratt family established a ranch on the high plains in the late 19th century. Here they raised Tmore than 1,500 Merino sheep. John Fenton Pratt was a photographer who captured images of life on the ranch and in the region. Many of these photographs are preserved among the collections of the Kansas Historical Society and can be seen in the online digital archives, kansasmemory.org.
In 1982 the state of Kansas purchased approximately Visitors will see interpretive signs related to the 23 acres of the original Pratt ranch. It was listed in the architecture and the history of this ranch. Exterior exhibits National Register of Historic Places in 1983, nominated are open daily dawn until dusk. Interior tours are available for its association with the settlement of western Kansas May – September: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Thursday - Saturday and for its architecture. The Kansas Historic Society (closed 12 - 1 p.m.) The site is located at 14432 E. U.S. 24 in operates the site in partnership with the Friends of Studley. For more information 785-272-8681, ext. 211; Cottonwood Ranch. [email protected].
New Staff Member Sarah B. Hunter joined the Cultural Resources Division in February 2015 as the review and compliance coordinator for the State Historic Preservation Office. She received a master’s degree in historic preservation from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin with a concentration in materials conservation. Her thesis research was a materials investigation of early concrete technology used in Seguin, Texas, during the mid-19th century. She worked in collaboration with UT Landmarks and the UT Architectural Conservation Laboratory to conduct an evaluation of graffiti control treatments. Prior to graduation, Sarah completed an internship in materials conservation at the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. Sarah is an active member of the Association for Preservation Technology and the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and has presented original research at annual and regional meetings. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in art history from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. Her other interests include volunteering with local animal shelters and rescue groups, running, restoring furniture, and traveling the backroads of the United States.
20 Kansas Preservation Historic Sites Board of Review
The Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review is a group of 11 Jennie Chinn, State Historic Preservation Officer professionals from various fields that meets quarterly to J. Eric Engstrom, Wichita, governor’s designee review and recommend nominations to the National Toni Stewart, Topeka Register of Historic Places and the Register of Historic Sharron Hamilton, Salina Kansas Places, and award preservation planning and Kathy Herzog, Lawrence rehabilitation grants. As prescribed by the Kansas Historic John W. Hoopes, Lawrence Preservation Act of 1977 (K.S.A. 75-2719), the board is Joseph Johnson, Wichita comprised of the following members: the governor or the Samuel Passer, Wichita governor’s designee, the state historic preservation officer or David H. Sachs, Manhattan such officer’s designee, and nine members appointed by the Gregory Schneider, Topeka governor for three-year terms. At least one member must be Margaret Wood, Topeka professionally qualified in each of the following disciplines: architecture, history, prehistoric archeology, historical archeology, and architectural history.
Cultural Resources Division State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), Archeology, Historic Sites Staff
Jennie Chinn Chris Garst Amanda Loughlin Tricia Waggoner Preservation Officer (SHPO) Laboratory Archeologist Survey Coordinator Highway Archeologist 785-272-8681, ext. 205 785-272-8681, ext. 151 785-272-8681, ext. 226 785-272-8681, ext. 267 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Rick Anderson Bob Hoard Sarah Martin Tim Weston National Register Historian State Archeologist National Register Coordinator SHPO Archeologist 785-272-8681, ext. 228 785-272-8681, ext. 269 785-272-8681, ext. 216 785-272-8681, ext. 214 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Patrick Barry Sarah B. Hunter Ken Price Virginia Wulfkuhle Senior Administrative Assistant Review and Compliance Architect Public Archeologist 785-272-8681, ext. 257 Coordinatior 785-272-8681, ext. 212 785-272-8681, ext. 266 [email protected] 785-272-8681, ext. 225 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Lisa Berg Katrina Ringler Patrick Zollner Historic Sites Supervisor Kristen Johnston Grants Manager/CLG Coordinator Division Director and 785-272-8681, ext. 211 Tax Credit Coordinator 785-272-8681, ext. 215 Deputy SHPO [email protected] 785-272-8681, ext. 213 [email protected] 785-272-8681, ext. 217 [email protected] [email protected] Dorothy Booher Gina S. Powell Office Assistant Marsha Longofono Archeologist 785-272-8681, ext. 230 Senior Administrative Assistant 785-272-8681, ext. 258 [email protected] 785-272-8681, ext. 240 [email protected] [email protected] CONTACT US
20 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 1 | 2015 21 Pre-sorted standard U.S. Postage Paid Topeka KS Historical Society Permit No 157 6425 SW 6th Avenue Topeka KS 66615-1099
Happenings in Kansas Online at kshs.org/events
May 22 June 25 Heritage Trust Fund workshop • Wichita Heritage Trust Fund workshop • Santa Fe Depot, Dodge City May 29-30 July 22 Art in the Garden • Red Rocks, Emporia Heritage Trust Fund workshop • Kansas Historical Society, Topeka June 5 July 25 John Knifechief, Mountain Man Rendezvous • Pawnee Indian West Fest: National Day of the Cowboy • Kansas Historical Museum, Republic Society, Topeka June 5, July 10, August 14 July 29-31 Sundown Film Festival • Kansas Historical Society, Topeka Archaeology in the Classroom • Overland Park June 5-20 August 8 – Historic Sites Board of Review • Kansas Historical Kansas Archeology Training Program • Ellis County Society, Topeka June 20 August 28 – CAMP (Commission Assistance Mentoring Territorial Days • Constitution Hall, Lecompton Program) • Kansas Historical Society, Topeka
Find the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office on Facebook and follow the Kansas Historical Society on Twitter.
Join the Preserving Kansas listserv under Preserve at kshs.org. 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 County Convention & Tourism; original pergola porch on the east of the house, masonry Community Foundation for Cloud County; and the Kansas repointing and cleaning, clay tile roof repair, new gutters and Department of Wildlife, Parks & Tourism. downspouts, new replica windows, existing window repair, and trim repair and painting. Interior work included full Dillon House Restoration, Dillon House, Topeka mechanical and electrical upgrades, extensive plaster repair, (Shawnee County) structural reinforcement, a new elevator shaft, and Medallion Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation recreations of original finishes. After surviving the threat of “None come too early, none stay too late,” Hiram Price demolition twice, this piece of Topeka’s history has been Dillon inscribed on the entry hall fireplace mantel of his restored to its former glory. 1913 home at 9th and Harrison streets in Topeka. He had Federal historic preservation tax credits were utilized to swapped his existing home and an undisclosed amount of fund this rehabilitation. cash for the location. After the swap Dillon worked to design The project team included Pioneer Group, Inc.; Historic and build a new home on the property, which afforded his Preservation Partners; Treanor Architects; Bartlett & West, family a great view of the recently completed Kansas State Inc; Lattimer Sommers & Associates; Professional Left to right, Dr. E. A Lyons House, Norton County; Representative Travis Couture-Lovelady; Scott Sproul; Lisa Brooksher, KPA; Norman Nelson; Colette Miller; Gloria Nelson; Len Schamber; Tara Vance; Linus Schamber.
Engineering Consultants; Woltkamp Construction into disrepair. Work included restoration of the front doors, Company; and Spencer Preservation. repair or replacement of porch pillars, creation of replica wagon wheel porch trim, removal and relaying of brick, and Lyons House Project, Dr. E. A. Lyons House, Norton tuckpointing. Windows were removed, repaired, and (Norton County) reinstalled, and storm windows were added for functionality. Honor Award for Excellence in Restoration Interior walls were replastered, while the first foor woodwork The Dr. E.A. Lyons House, which was listed in the National was stripped, repainted, and reinstalled. An ADA compliant Register in 1988, was built by Lyons in 1888 as his home, entry ramp was installed via the addition of a second porch including the office for his dental practice. Lyons had arrived to the southwest side of the building, with trim replicating in Kansas in 1871 as a homesteader, and arrived in Norton that of the original front porch. The home can now serve a by covered wagon in 1885. A prominent civic leader, he renewed life as offices, just as it did for Dr. Lyons beginning helped build and manage the opera house, and was involved nearly 130 years ago. with the Masonic Lodge. The house, one of the first brick A 2010 Heritage Trust Fund grant as well as financing homes in the city, has two front doors, one for the residence from the Norton County Community Foundation and and one for the business. Around 1915 Lyons added a Federal Home Loan Bank 2013 Jobs Grant helped fund this bathroom and screened-in porch on the northwest side of rehabilitation. The project team included Norton County the first foor, and also added a basement to replace the old Community Foundation, Schamber Historic Preservation, cellar. These changes allowed another bedroom to be added Norton Correctional Facility, Garrett’s Heating, Plumbing & on the second foor. A second-foor bathroom was added in Electric, Prestige Drywall, Luther Construction, Scott Evans the 1940s. Prior to the rehabilitation the house had fallen Construction, Mid-Continental Restoration, 4-D
Left to right, Marshall Theatre, Riley County; Tim Bruce; Adam Crowl; Mel Borst, KPA; Representative Sydney Carlin; Brent Bowman; Ward Morgan; Brenda Morgan.
2 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 2 | 2015 3 Left to right, Samuel Kimble Farmsteat, Riley County; Becky Katzenmeier; Jenny Danenburg, KPA.
Construction, Mike Gnad Masonry Construction, Don’s The project team included Icon Investments, Bowman Floor Covering, A Place for Everything, Skrdlant Welding, Bowman Novick, LST Consultants, and Ron Fowles Cornerstone Building & Design, Roger Goltl Plastering, D Construction. and B Machine Works, and Roy Construction. Stone House at Prairiewood, Samuel Kimble Farmstead, Marshall Theatre Historical Rehabilitation, Marshall Manhattan (Riley County) Theatre, Manhattan (Riley County) Merit Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation Merit Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation The simple Kansas farmstead is a common sight across the Having served multiple purposes over the years, a building state, and the Samuel Kimble Farmstead in Manhattan is an can often find itself in need of an overhaul. The Marshall example typical to the Flint Hills. Samuel Kimble was an Theatre in Manhattan was no different. Built in 1909 and early pioneer in the Manhattan area, having moved from designed by architect Carl Boller, a well-known Midwestern Ohio in 1857 to work as a carpenter and stonemason at Fort theater designer, the two-story brick building containing an Riley. In 1860 he moved his family from Ohio and began 1,100 seat theater was regarded as one of the top theaters in building the stone house and farm buildings on the the region. Sold to the Dickinson movie chain in 1921, the farmstead west of Manhattan in 1860. The two-story building passed to J.C. Penney’s in 1960. When Penney’s left limestone house was constructed from 1860 to 1861, nestled the building in 1987, it then served as Dollar General, City against the hillside such that the hill helped to keep the Farmers market, church, salon, and several offices before the house cool in summer and warm in winter. A two-story recent rehabilitation. Work included removal of the tile and gabled addition also of stone was added to the west side of stucco from the original exterior brick, tuckpointing of the the original house in the1880s. In later years the Kimble brick, and removal and rework of all exterior doors and house fell into disrepair when the descendants who owned windows to closely match the original, historic openings. the farmstead moved from the area in the 1940s. The house Inside, the entire mechanical and electrical systems were was abandoned and left vacant for more than 20 years. In replaced to meet code, all while tenants still occupied the the 1970s when Robert and Joan Page purchased the building. The tenant spaces were completed with modern property neighboring farmers were using the house to store finishes and construction to meet the tenant needs. hay and for sheltering piglets. The Pages cleaned up the However, on the second foor a quarter of the original wood house and did some rehabilitation work in order to make a fooring was rejuvenated to provide a foor finish for two comfortable home for their family. Mr. Page had been using tenants. A new ADA compliant entrance required the one of the barns as a studio until a fire in 1990 destroyed it, addition of new supporting walls and footings in the leaving only the limestone shell. As part of the rehabilitation basement. After extensive upgrades, the Marshall Theatre is the 1970s interior finishes and appliances were replaced with able to continue serving as an important part of Manhattan’s historically appropriate fixtures, including a freestanding downtown district. hutch with sink for the kitchen cabinets and a custom-built
Left to right, Thomas County Hospital, Thomas County; David Brown; Casey Steiner; Kathy Herog, KPA; Tim Wilson; Mayor Gary Adrian; Tim Quigley; Brenda Spencer; Brian Hall; Angela Morehead.
refrigerator designed to look like an ice box. Non-historic and the St. Thomas Hospital in Colby is an example of one carpet fooring was replaced with reclaimed wood, and the of those projects. Built in 1941 the hospital was constructed original second foor wood fooring was retained. As of local brick salvaged from the old high school that originally the house would not have had electric lighting, originally stood on the site. The three-story hospital had a that which was installed was designed to be discreet, and in hipped red clay tile roof and six-over-one double-hung wood more visible locations period-appropriate fixtures were windows. The raised central entrance was modern in design selected. Outside, the buried spring that originally ran with ashlar stone with brick banding contrasting with the through the front yard was uncovered, thousands of square Georgian Revival-style building. An addition was built in feet of hand-stacked native stone retaining walls on the site 1948 that included emergency facilities and a polio ward. A were restored, and the shell of the burned barn was turned two-story chapel was also included as part of the expansion. into an outdoor patio space. The chapel helped blend the modern style of the addition The project team included Go Katz Properties, LLC; and into the original building by incorporating a clay tile roof. Capstone 3D Development Group. The hospital closed in the 1970s, leaving the building subject to the usual forces of historically insensitive remodeling and St. Thomas Historic Residences, Thomas County eventual abandonment. SWD Architects developed an Hospital, Colby (Thomas County) adaptive design for 30 new affordable apartments that Medallion Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation maintains the historically significant areas within the The Work Projects Administration expanded services to rural original building. The adaptive reuse design preserves the communities throughout America in the projects it built, original circulation path and historic details throughout the
Left to right, Lawrence Turnhalle, Douglas County; Jim Clark, KPA; Shawn McGarity; Senator Marci Francisco; David Dunfield; Joy Coleman; Dennis Brown; Mike Goans.
4 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 2 | 2015 5 Left to right, Wiley Building; Chris Johnston, KPA; Gregory Hand; Jay Manske; Wes Darnell; Rick Kready. building while also incorporating a large portion of the included commissioning of a historic structure report, original layout in the new apartment foor plan. clearing the building of years of accumulated junk, structural Federal and state historic preservation tax credits were repairs to beams and trusses, repairs to parapet walls, a new utilized to fund this rehabilitation. The project team roof, stone foundation repairs, replacement of door sills, included Cohen Esery Affordable Partners, LLC; Kansas siding, eaves and soffits. Decorative brackets were repaired Housing Resources Corporation; Stark Wilson Duncan and reinstalled; new half round gutters and futed Architects, Inc.; Travois Design & Construction Services, downspouts installed. A building that was failing from LLC; Bob D. Campbell & Company, Inc.; Hoss & Brown neglect and infiltration of water was stabilized, made water Engineers, Inc.; Construction Technologies, LLC; Spencer tight and sold to a new owner. A historic preservation Preservation; R4 Capital, LLC; City of Colby; and covenant running with the land was put in place to ensure PreservingUS, Inc. it, and with it the German heritage of Lawrence, will be protected into the future. Turnhalle Preservation, Lawrence Turnhalle, Lawrence State historic preservation tax credits were utilized to fund (Douglas County) this rehabilitation, as well as grants from the National & Honor Award for Excellence in Preservation Cultural Heritage Program, Douglas County Board of Historic preservation projects are often buildings that once Commissioners, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, served as centers for their communities. Turnhalle in the Douglas County Community Foundation, and the Lawrence is a special example of one such building, serving Sherry Miller Charitable Trust. as the center of the local German community, the largest The project team included Lawrence Preservation immigrant group to populate Lawrence in the 19th century. Alliance, Dunfield Design, openhanddesign, Bartlett & West Standing in frontier contrast to the more elaborate Engineers, Trettel design + build, and Treanor Architects. Turnhalles that still stand in major metropolitan areas, the Wiley Plaza Rehabilitation, Wiley Building, rusticated stone structure in Lawrence was built in 1869, Hutchinson (Reno County) eight years after statehood and only six years after Quantrill’s Honor Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation Raid destroyed most of the city’s downtown. Failing In 1912 dry goods merchant Vernon Wiley announced plans significantly when purchased by the Lawrence Preservation to build an eight-story concrete and steel skyscraper that Alliance (LPA), in September 2012, LPA planned and secured would be twice as tall as any other building in downtown funding for a major stabilization project. LPA recognized Hutchinson at the time. Searching for $350,000 in funding, that a revived Turnhalle would serve as a key element in Wiley traveled to New York with building plans in hand. remembering the powerful stories of immigration in our rich After multiple rejections he successfully piqued the interest cultural past, not just for Lawrence and Douglas County, but of Chase Manhattan Bank. Local lore tells that the president for the Midwest and the entire country as well. Work of Chase Manhattan said, “If you have nerve enough to
Left to right, W. R. Gray Studio; Barbara Poresky, KPA; Brennan Aleman; Tim Sutherland; Randall Tucker.
build an eight story skyscraper out in the middle of the W. R. Gray Studio Restoration, W. R. Gray Studio, St. prairie, we ought to have the nerve to lend you the money.” John (Stafford County) After being built utilizing the newest in electric power tools Honor Award for Excellence in Restoration and a 24-hour construction schedule, 10,000 people focked A highly unique building type, the W. R. Gray photography to the grand opening. Wiley’s new store occupied the first studio in St. John was built in 1900, and was the first four foors, with a tea room on the mezzanine. More than 90 structure in the State of Kansas built specifically as a photo office suites occupied the remainder of the building. With studio. Containing both the studio storefront at the street the closing of the Wiley store in 1990, the building sat and the residence at the rear, the wood framed building vacant until the present rehabilitation of the first foor for served continuously as a photography studio for 76 years. commercial tenant space, and foors two through nine for A unique large sloping window in the middle of the housing. Exterior work included replacement of non-historic building allows plenty of natural light into the studio windows with new thermal one-over-one sash windows to space. Gray specialized in glass plate photography, and refect the original glazing pattern and profile, replacement worked in the studio from 1905 to 1947. Gray’s daughter of non-historic storefronts with historically appropriate Jessie worked with him, and continued using the building aluminum storefronts, and restoration of terra cotta. as a photo studio until 1981. After being neglected for Although many of the character-defining features on the several years, water damage from a failed roof had destroyed building’s interior had been compromised in past 320 square feet of the original dark room area, leaving a hole remodeling projects, those features that remained, including in the roof and the foor. The purpose of the project was to the open character of the first-foor commercial spaces, repair the roof, stabilize the structure and repair the exterior historic circulation patterns and historic corridor finishes, envelope of the building. Work on the exterior included a including terrazzo foors on the upper levels, were preserved. new roof, painting and repair of the original wood siding, Federal historic preservation tax credits were utilized to and restoration of exterior window sashes and doors. Inside, fund this rehabilitation. the dark room area was demolished and rebuilt, while the The project team included Wiley Plaza, LLC; WDM front wall was left in place and repaired. Outside, trees Architects; MKEC Engineering Consultants, Inc.; Key growing too close to the house were removed and a parking Construction; Davis Preservation; First National Bank of lot was added to provide better drainage away from the Hutchinson; WNC & Associates, Inc.; Historic Preservation house to the street. Thanks to this work, this unique building Partners, Inc.; Manske & Associates, LLC; and the City of will continue to stand on the Main Street of St. John. Hutchinson. The project team included Gray Photo Studio; the Gray Photo Studio Restoration Board; Sutherland Builders, Inc.; William Morris Associates Architects; Mike Saylor; Mark Batchman Construction; Smiley Concrete; and Davis Electrical, Inc.
6 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 2 | 2015 7 National and State Registers of Historic Places
The Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review met Saturday, May 9, at the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka to consider nominations to the Register of Historic Kansas Places and the National Register of Historic Places. Among the eight approved nominations were an elementary school in Goodland, a commercial district in Topeka, and a Smoky Hill Trail segment in Chapman. The nominations are now under review by the office of the Keeper of the National Register in Washington, D.C. An additional properties were removed from both registers.
by Sarah Martin National Register Coordinator, Kansas Historical Society
Grant School • 520 W 12th Street • Goodland roofs and dormers, stone quoining, and central tower. The Sherman County building refects Progressive Era tenets of school design Grant School was built in 1926 to relieve overcrowding at with a combined auditorium and gymnasium space and other public schools in Goodland. It served the community specialized classrooms. It is nominated as part of the as an elementary school from 1926 to 1969 and then as a Historic Public Schools of Kansas multiple property junior high school until 2015. The opening of Grant nomination for its local significance in the areas of School coincided with the addition of kindergarten to education and architecture. the district’s curriculum, resulting in the district’s first purpose-built kindergarten classroom. The school, which Baldwin City School & Gymnasium/Auditorium exhibits the Late Gothic Revival style, was designed by 704 Chapel Street • Baldwin City • Douglas County Hutchinson-based architects Mann and Company, a firm Kansas City-based architect Charles A. Smith designed the known for its designs of schools. The school refects Baldwin City School, which opened in January 1923. The traditional elements of the Gothic Revival style with its building embodies Progressive Era tenets particularly variegated red brick exterior, stone detailing, multiple gable involving specialized classrooms. It hosted both elementary
Left to right, Grant School, Sherman County; Baldwin City School and Gymnasium/Auditorium, Douglas County.
8 Kansas Preservation Left to right, South Kansas Avenue Commercial Historic District, Shawnee County; Mill Block Historic District, Shawnee County. and high school classes until a new high school was built from a narrow city lot to an entire city block in width. It is in 1969. Topeka-based architect Thomas W. Williamson nominated for its local significance in the areas of designed a detached auditorium and gymnasium that was commerce and architecture. completed in 1942 as part of the Work Projects Administration program. Both buildings functioned as a Mill Block Historic District • 101-129 N Kansas Avenue part of the local public school system until 2011. The Topeka • Shawnee County property is nominated as part of the Historic Public Schools The Mill Block Historic District is a five-building, light of Kansas and New Deal-era Resources of Kansas multiple industrial district along Topeka’s main commercial street, property nominations. Kansas Avenue, just north of the central business district, between 1st Avenue and NW Crane Street. The buildings South Kansas Avenue Commercial Historic District refect the light industrial and commercial warehouse Topeka • Shawnee County development that occurred along the river at the north end Topeka’s South Kansas Avenue Commercial Historic District of the downtown commercial core once the presence of includes 10 city blocks between 6th Avenue on the north railroads was firmly established in Topeka. Constructed and 10th Avenue on the south. The blocks fanking South between 1904 and 1930 as wholesale warehouse and Kansas Avenue form the primary historic commercial distribution facilities, the buildings communicate the thoroughfare in the central business district of Topeka. The evolution of this industry from rail to road transportation. district incorporates all of the commercial, social, and civic The resources continue to function as warehouses. The functions necessary for the development of a successful district is nominated for its local commercial significance. urban center, with evidence of specific building booms and the infuence of policy changes, such as urban renewal, Church of the Assumption Historic District • 204 and present in the variety of building types and styles. The 212 SW 8th Avenue • 735 SW Jackson Street • Topeka patterns of growth and density of the commercial core Shawnee County paralleled the development of the city as it grew mainly The Church of the Assumption (1924) and Assumption south and west from the original town site. Revitalization Rectory (1929) were listed in the National Register of efforts in the 1960s and 1970s encouraged larger-scale Historic Places in 2008. The buildings, along with an development, and many businesses relocated away from associated garage, were nominated for their architectural the traditional commercial center. South Kansas Avenue significance as examples of the Mission Revival and was left with a concentration of banks, restaurants, and Renaissance Revival styles. This new nomination expands offices for government, utilities, and private companies. the boundaries to include the two associated schools, the The nominated area represents the plethora of architectural former Hayden High School (1939) and Assumption School styles popular during the course of Topeka’s history. (1954), and adds an argument for the property’s Buildings vary in scale from one- to 16-stories high and educational significance. The Church of the Assumption
Volume 37 | 2 | 2015 9 Left to right, Church of the Assumption Historic District, Shawnee County; Westheight Apartments Historic District, Wyandotte County. established the first Catholic elementary school and high Oscar D. and Ida Barnes House • 901 N Broadway school in Topeka. For much of the period of significance, Avenue • Wichita, Sedgwick County Hayden High School served all of the city’s Catholic The Oscar and Ida Barnes House is located in Wichita’s parishes. The construction of Assumption School in 1954 Midtown neighborhood and was completed in 1911. It is during the baby boom illustrates the rapid expansion of an excellent example of the Italian Renaissance style growth of Catholic education after World War II. exhibited on a foursquare, a common house form of the early 20th century that allowed for considerable variation Westheight Apartments Historic District • 1601-1637 and experimentation in style. The Italian Renaissance style Washington Boulevard • Kansas City • Wyandotte was most popular in Wichita between 1900 and 1920. In County residential architecture, it is typically characterized by a The Westheight Apartments Historic District on the 1600 low, hipped roof with ceramic tiles, wide eaves with block of Washington Boulevard in Kansas City, Wyandotte brackets, a symmetrical façade, stucco or masonry walls, County, includes four multifamily apartment buildings and Classical columns and details. The Barnes House also constructed between 1947 and 1952. It is a locally rare exhibits the Craftsman style in its built-in cabinetry, collection of simple, yet distinctly Modern Movement geometric window designs, and interior foorplan. The apartment buildings. In their design, the Westheight architect is unknown, although it may have been Charles Apartments embraced basic tenets of the Modern Terry, who worked with Oscar Barnes on the design of Movement aesthetic, which were more commonly applied several commercial buildings. It is nominated to the to commercial buildings or later, large apartment buildings. National Register as part of the Residential Resources of By contrast, nearly all contemporary Wyandotte County Wichita multiple property nomination for its local apartment projects featured buildings that enlarged and significance in the area of architecture. adapted the single family dwelling form and traditional historically derived architectural idioms to fit a multi family purpose. The buildings have fat roofs, rectangular massing emphasized by projecting entrance and stair towers, and wide expanses of windows. The district distinctly embodies national design trends from the mid 20th century when the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) heavily infuenced the design of multi family housing that was constructed using agency backed mortgages. It is nominated for its local significance in the area of architecture.
Oscar D. and Ida Barnes House, Sedgwick County.
10 Kansas Preservation Left to right, Smoky Hill Trail & Butterfield Overland Despatch Segment; Long House, Brown County.
Smoky Hill Trail & Butterfield Overland Despatch Register of Historic Kansas Places – Nominations Segment • 522 Golf Course Road • Chapman Long House • 3633 Horned Owl Road • Hiawatha Dickinson County Brown County This nominated segment of the Smoky Hill Trail and The Long House is located on a farmstead in northern Butterfield Overland Despatch is located adjacent to Indian Brown County and was completed circa 1910. It was the Hill Cemetery on the west side of Chapman in Dickinson home of widow Hettie Long, her unmarried son Fred, and County. This portion of the road began as a military route her son Howard and his family. The residence is an connecting Fort Riley with the Santa Fe Trail south of excellent example of the Craftsman and Prairie styles Ellsworth. By the late 1850s the Smoky Hill Trail developed exhibited on a foursquare, a common house form of the through Kansas between Leavenworth and Pike’s Peak, early 20th century found in rural and urban areas Colorado, and functioned briefy as the Butterfield throughout the country. Prairie and Craftsman stylistic Overland Despatch in the 1860s. The six-acre property is elements include the square porch columns, windows with nominated as part of the Historic Resources of the Santa Fe vertical muntins, low-pitch roof, and wide overhanging Trail multiple property nomination, as a tertiary route, eaves. The first-foor interior, in particular, refects a meaning it was not created solely for Santa Fe trade but was transition between the earlier Victorian era and the occasionally used as a supporting road. The period of emerging Craftsman movement. The house, possibly built significance encompasses the duration of use for long- from a catalog plan, appears to be identical to a house in distance travel, beginning in 1853 with its use as a military nearby Falls City, Nebraska. An architect or builder for road and ending with the last stage coach service over this either residence has not been identified. It is nominated for segment in 1870. its local significance in the area of architecture.
Removals McClinton Market • 1205 E 12th Street • Wichita Sedgwick County The McClinton Grocery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on June 28, 2011, for its local significance in the area of commerce and its associations with community leader and state representative Curtis McClinton, Sr. It was nominated as part of the African American Resources of Wichita multiple property nomination. The building was demolished in early January 2015.
McClinton Market, Sedgwick County. Volume 37 | 2 | 2015 11 National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the country’s official list of historically significant properties. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and Hitschann Double Arch Bridge, Barton County. archeological resources. Eligible properties must be significant for one or more of the four criteria for evaluation. Properties can be eligible if they are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. They can be eligible if they are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. Distinctive construction can qualify properties for the National Register if they embody the characteristic of a type, period, or method of construction, or represent the work of a master, or possess high artistic values, or represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction. Lastly, properties may be eligible for the National Register if Hitschann Cattle Underpass, Barton County. they have yielded or may be likely to yield information important in prehistory or history. The National Register Hitschmann Double Arch Bridge • Barton County recognizes properties of local, statewide, and national Hitschmann Cattle Underpass • Barton County significance. Two 1930s-era bridges near Hitschman were listed in the The Register of Historic Kansas Places is our state’s National Register of Historic Places on April 16, 2008, for official list of historically significant properties. Properties their local significance in the areas of social history, included in the National Register are automatically government, and architecture. They were nominated as listed in the state register. However, not all properties part of the New Deal-era Resources of Kansas and Masonry listed in the state register are included in the National Arch Bridges of Kansas multiple property nominations. The Register. The same general criteria are used to assess the bridges were demolished in October 2014, and the Kansas eligibility of a property for inclusion in the state register, State Historic Preservation Office requested they be but more flexibility is allowed in the interpretation of the removed from the National Register. criteria for eligibility. Related Internet Links: National Register of Historic Places: nps.gov/nr Kansas Historical Society (National and state registers): kshs.org/14638
12 Kansas Preservation Heritage Trust Funds at Work
he Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church and TArvonia School buildings sit near each other in rural Osage County. A Heritage Trust Fund grant to the property owners has recently concluded with beautifully restored windows and doors, a freshly repaired and painted pressed metal ceiling, and repointed mortar joints. Smaller preservation projects still remain to be done, but the pair of buildings will be around for many years to come because of the work done to date.
Volume 37 | 2 | 2015 13 College Hill Historic Resources Survey – Phase I
by Rachel Nugent Rosin Preservation, LLC
ass Street in Lawrence, Aggieville in Manhattan—many cities have commercial districts Mor neighborhoods associated with their local educational institutions. The College Hill neighborhood in Topeka, associated with Washburn University, is one such example with a unique and storied history. It is a collection of quiet, tree-lined streets that lies just north of the University, southwest of downtown Topeka. The houses within the residential neighborhood are a mix of high styles and vernacular forms that highlight the architectural diversity of this early suburban community whose history parallels the development of Washburn University. The heart of the neighborhood, College Avenue, was listed as a National Register Historic District in 2007, significant for its architecture and associations with important patterns of development. The City of Topeka, the College Hill Neighborhood Association, and the neighborhood’s property owners recognized the shared historical importance and architectural similarities between College Avenue and other streets in the neighborhood. Understanding the need to create a baseline architectural study of the neighborhood, they initiated a multiphase project to survey distinct sections of the neighborhood and prepare recommendations to inform future preservation efforts.
During fall 2014 Rosin Preservation surveyed the two Register designation. A variety of primary and secondary southern sections of the neighborhood to document the resources, such as Sanborn Fire and Insurance Maps, city style, materials, condition, and architectural integrity of the directories, and written histories provided background resources to determine the potential for Historic District information about the people, buildings, and developments expansion. Survey Area 1 occupies roughly 50 acres west of that created the residential community that exists in 2014. College Avenue and contains 153 primary resources. Survey Rosin Preservation uploaded survey information Area 2 occupies roughly 19 acres east of College Avenue and ecording each building’s physical features and historical contains 67 primary resources. information to the Kansas Historic Resources Inventory The survey team set out in perhaps the coldest week in (KHRI) database, found at khri.kshs.org. When linked with November 2014 to examine every resource in the survey digital records from past and future surveys, this database areas regardless of age, whether it had been previously enhances the understanding of historic resources in surveyed, or its existing National College Hill.
14 Kansas Preservation Map of College Avenue Historic District and survey areas. Survey Area 1, west of College Avenue, contains 153 primary resources.
The primary resources represent a range of construction The consultants identified Survey Area 1 as a contiguous dates, from 1893 to 2007. The majority were constructed group that retains historical and architectural integrity and between 1910 and 1929. They refect the growth of the city, appears to meet at least one of the four National Register as families moved away from the commercial center and criteria. Resources with excellent or good integrity in Survey into less developed areas. They also refect the growth of Area 2 are concentrated in the west half of the area. Because Washburn College as it developed houses on vacant land of the location bordering the existing district, the around its campus as an additional source of income. large concentration of resources with architectural integrity, The majority of the houses are Prairie or Craftsman and the strong associations with historic contexts developed style, refecting the dramatic period of growth in the early in the nomination, Survey Area 1 in its entirety and portions 1900s, the era of popularity for these styles. Other houses of Survey Area 2 appear to merit consideration as an in the neighborhood are simple, National Folk forms that expansion of the boundaries of the College Avenue refect a more modest approach to high style architecture Historic District. of the period. Beginning in 1871 Washburn University developed on a The architectural integrity of each resource was assessed parcel of donated land that at the time was located in rural based on retention of historic elements. They were rated as Topeka. During this time, president of the college Peter “excellent,” “good,” “fair,” or “poor.” Integrity ratings McVicar and the board of trustees organized a program of represent a sliding scale of alterations to the historic fabric speculative land development on a portion of the college and the features of individual buildings such as overall form, property as a means of providing supplemental income for primary wall cladding, and windows. The survey revealed the institution. In selling the land, college leaders hoped to that 78 percent of the houses in Survey Area 1 and roughly bring middle- to upper-class individuals and families to the 45 percent of the houses in Survey Area 2 retain “excellent” area. These individuals would, in turn, support the college by or “good” architectural integrity. offering room and board to students. In addition, the college
Volume 37 | 2 | 2015 15 Kappa Sigma Fraternity House, 1501 SW Boswell Avenue, Topeka, Shawnee County.
deeded lands to professors in lieu of pay, further spurring intersection of 15th and Lane streets. Additionally, construction. The sale of these lots contributed to the early deed restrictions, which set a minimum cost of financial success of the college for nearly 30 years, and the construction among other regulations, ensured neighborhood thus became known as College Hill. continuity of houses throughout the neighborhood. Developers at Washburn College envisioned Due to its associations with Washburn College, the College Hill as a complete neighborhood that offered all of College Hill neighborhood developed a status as a the amenities of the city. Because of its distance from progressive area, and “a community of culture and downtown Topeka, the neighborhood offered services such openness.” A building boom occurred in the 1920s, the as churches and schools for its residents and gained a greatest period of growth in the neighborhood, with the reputation as a suburban area. The neighborhood had a construction of more than 100 new houses. The majority strong sense of community from the beginning, and of the houses were owner-occupied by individuals with a published items such as the College Hill newspaper and a range of occupations, including contractors, business College Hill telephone directory. A commercial district owners, engineers, and physicians. A large number worked developed on the east side of the neighborhood, near the for the Santa Fe railroad in various positions, such as clerk,
16 Kansas Preservation John and Laura Hamilton House, 1616 SW Boswell Avenue, Topeka, Shawnee County.
superintendent, or civil engineer. Many of the owners Research revealed interesting histories on many had live-in housekeepers or rented rooms to students or properties. Several prominent politicians also resided in the other individuals. area, including Senator Elwaine Pomeroy with his wife and Because of the proximity to and association with three children, who lived at 1619 Jewell Street beginning in Washburn University, many professors and students resided 1964. John D. M. Hamilton lived in the Colonial Revival in the area, such as Leon Schnacke, an administrator at the style house at 1616 SW Boswell Avenue with wife Laura and college who lived at 1400 SW Jewell Avenue. Some houses two children. Hamilton served as a state representative, even served as fraternity and sorority houses, such as the chairman of the Kansas GOP party and chairman of the unique Free Classic Queen Anne style house at Republican national party, among other positions, in the 1501 SW Boswell Avenue, which housed both the Kappa 1920s and 1930s. The house was reportedly built by Laura Sigma fraternity and the Alpha Delta fraternity from the Hamilton’s father as a wedding present to the couple. 1910s to the 1930s. This house was constructed from 1906 to The house at 2202 SW 17th Street stands distinctly apart 1909 as a full-scale model of a display house featured at the from the surrounding houses in the neighborhood. 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. The International style house was designed by Floyd
Volume 37 | 2 | 2015 17 Nelson Antrim Crawford House, 2202 SW 17th Street, Topeka, Shawnee County.
Wolfenbarger in 1938 for Nelson Antrim Crawford. Crawford residential design. A rectangular form, sleek, clean lines, was a prominent journalist, author, magazine editor, and a low-pitched roof, and natural stone cladding highlight educator in Topeka. The house features an asymmetrical the changing design aesthetic of the period. form, large unbroken planes of concrete panel walls, and The College Hill Neighborhood remains a quiet, glass block windows. residential neighborhood with a strong sense of community Although the greatest period of growth occurred in and cohesive arrangement of residential resources, as the early 1900s, new houses constructed around the was intended by early developers. The survey of the mid-20th century infilled previously vacant lots and neighborhood revealed the intact historic fabric and the showcased popular architectural styles. The house at potential for expanding the boundary of the College 1503 SW Washburn, completed in 1953, exemplifies the Avenue Historic District. Ranch form, an expression of Modern Movement
18 Kansas Preservation Window Restoration at Constitution Hall in Lecompton
Through a generous Heritage Grant from the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council, the Kansas Historical Foundation invited nationally-recognized window restoration expert, Bob Yapp, to conduct a window restoration workshop at Constitution Hall State Historic Site in Lecompton in April 2015. Yapp along with 18 of his student participants, novices, and contractors alike, successfully restored and weatherized nine, double-hung windows located on the second foor. These windows were not the original 1856 six-over-six glass pane sashes, but rather two-over-two replacements installed in the first decade of the 20th century when Constitution Hall underwent a major remodeling by the Lecompton Oddfellows Lodge.
by Tim Rues, Site Administrator, Constitution Hall State Historic Site, and Katrina Ringler, Historic Preservation Grants Manager, Kansas Historical Society.
Top, Constitution Hall State Historic Site, 319 Elmore, Lecompton, Douglas County; workshop participants finish restoration of wooden window sashes by cleaning off excess glazing putty.
he Douglas County grant also enabled a private built using a technique known as “balloon frame” construc- Tcontractor to complete the restoration and tion. This type of framing replaced the older, heavy, timber- weatherization project of the one remaining second foor frame construction with lighter, long-milled boards. Most of window and eight of 10 first foor windows in June. Now the materials for Constitution Hall were produced locally. both the top and bottom window sashes can be opened to These materials included lumber, stone, and brick. Door, cross ventilate the building as they were originally designed. windows, and trim probably were imported from factories in This window restoration project finished just in time for the the East. Most of the lumber to construct Constitution Hall 20th anniversary of the grand opening of the historic site. was likely produced at a sawmill on a tract of woodlands that Constitution Hall is a simple two-story, wood-frame Samuel J. Jones owned on the Kansas River bottom near rectangular building measuring 25 feet by 50 feet. It was Lecompton. Old-growth, native, eastern cottonwood lumber
Volume 37 | 2 | 2015 19 Workshop participants posed for a class photo with instructor Bob Yapp, front row, third from right. was used for its foor boards, joists, wall studs, roof sheath- proslavery delegates dominated the convention and created ing, rafters, wall lath, and foundation sills, and old-growth, a document that protected slavery no matter how the people native black walnut lumber was used for its exterior siding of Kansas Territory voted. Antislavery opponents refused to and door frames. participate in what they considered to be an illegal process. Perhaps the oldest Kansas wood frame building left in its Eventually the Lecompton Constitution was defeated at the original location, Constitution Hall has stood at 319 Elmore national level and soundly rejected by Kansas voters after a Street in Lecompton for 159 years. Lecompton was the third and final vote. The rancorous national debate ensued territorial capital from 1855 to 1861. No other building from and paralyzed Congress; splintered the national Democratic that era has survived. From 1857 to 1858 Constitution Hall Party; catapulted Abraham Lincoln onto the national was one of the busiest and most important buildings in all political stage; and hastened the country toward civil war. Kansas Territory. Thousands of settlers and speculators filed Constitution Hall has served the Lecompton community claims in the United States land office located on the first historically as a center of local social, community, and foor. Upstairs the district and supreme courts periodically commercial activities. Its longest use, from 1894 to 1986, met to try to enforce the territorial laws. Three territorial was as a meeting place and lodge for the local Odd Fellows, legislative sessions were convened on the second foor Masonic, Rebekah, Modern Woodmen, Grand Army of the assembly room; the first was proslavery controlled, the final Republic, and the Ku Klux Klan. two were dominated for the first time in Kansas history by Designated a National Historic Landmark by the National free-state majorities. These last two sessions marked the end Park Service in 1974, Constitution Hall was purchased in of the proslavery party dominance in Kansas politics. In fall 1986 by two Kansas state senators from the Lecompton 1857 the Lecompton Constitutional Convention met in the Rebekah Lodge and donated it to the state to serve as a state second-foor assembly room to draft a constitution to gain historic site operated by the Kansas Historical Society. statehood for Kansas. Newspaper correspondents from Preservation work began in 1990 and was completed in 1996. across the country gathered to report on the meetings. The
20 Kansas Preservation
The Mountain-Plains Museums Association (MPMA) Registration is is hosting its annual conference in cooperation with now open. the Kansas Museums Association (KMA) in Wichita this year. The conference is scheduled for September 27-October 1, 2015. See mpma.net for more information.
22 Kansas Preservation On the Trail of Those Who Were on the Trail: Archeological Survey at Alcove Spring by Robert Hoard, State Archeologist, Kansas Historical Society
The archeological survey underway with a flock of white pelicans overhead. Photo courtesy Tom Parker.
lcove Spring, on the Blue River downstream from Marysville, is one of the best-known Astops along the Oregon-California Trail and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Diaries from those in the trail describe travelers stopping at this place, waiting to cross the Blue River nearby. The Donner-Reed party, who met tragedy later in California, camped here in 1846. Along with its historical significance, the site retains many of the landscape features mentioned in emigrant diaries in a pleasant natural setting. Best known among them is the spring and waterfall for which the site is named. The names of many emigrants are carved into the rock above the waterfall. The best known is that of James Reed from the Donner-Reed party. Today the property is owned by the Alcove Spring Historical Trust and is open to the public as a park.
Plans to improve parking and access to the site led to a Archeological surveys require time, labor, and resources. consensus among involved parties that an archeological None of these was budgeted for this project, nor were they survey of areas of the park where the ground will be required. The park is owned by a non-profit organization, disturbed by construction would be desirable. The focus was and no federal funds were committed to the construction, on two parking areas that would be leveled and graveled. which would have triggered federally mandated measures to One of these areas is in close proximity to a distinct set of protect cultural resources. Still, the potential for harm to trail swales, features that add to the importance of the site. trail-era resources such as campsites was a reality.
Volume 37 | 2 | 2015 23 Left to right, Participants contact a metal detector survey; volunteer Steve Ukena with an 1866 shield five cent piece.
Fortunately, interest in trails, in archeology, and in this site in particular made it easy to solve this problem. A volunteer effort was organized that included members of the Alcove Spring Historical Trust, the Oregon-California Trail Association, the Kansas Anthropological Association, the Wheat State Treasure Hunters, the National Park Service, the Kansas State Historic Preservation office and the Archeology office of the Kansas Historical Society, and interested individuals. As a result, 12 people spent their Saturday conducting a systematic survey of the proposed parking lots. The survey techniques centered on the use of metal detectors. Since many of the remaining artifacts from the period of use of the trail—the mid-1800s—are metal, using metal detectors is an efficient means of determining where activities took place. Volunteers lined up at one end of each survey area and Recovered objects include horseshoe nails and an 1866 five walked in the same direction, a few feet apart, scanning with cent piece. Five cents was worth a lot more in 1866 than it is their detectors. Metal detector operators were backed up by now, so it’s safe to assume that whoever lost this coin along volunteers with cameras, forms, bags, and GPS receivers. the trail would have appreciated having a metal detector When an object was found, it was carefully excavated and to find it. identified. Objects related to the active period of the trail Once the proposed parking lot areas were surveyed, we had their location recorded using GPS units and were used the remaining daylight to investigate an early stone collected for cleaning and analysis. As might be expected, house in the park. This produced parts of a cast iron stove, a the survey lines became a little irregular, and participants fork, and a harmonica reed, among other items, representing were chatting over the sounds of the metal detectors early settlement in the area. While none of these finds will signaling buried metal, but overall the proposed parking change the way we view this site, they add some color and lots were thoroughly investigated. personality to the narrative of events, events that were We didn’t really know what to expect. There was potential formative to the expansion of the United States. It also for a large amount of trail related debris at the parking lot provided an opportunity for people with many different locations. As it turned out, there wasn’t much, which is perspectives on history, archeological sites and artifacts, and good—it means the proposed parking lots won’t disturb investigation strategies, to work together on a common goal important sites. But what was found was of interest. and have a good time doing it.
24 Kansas Preservation Historic Sites Board of Review
The Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review is a group of 11 Jennie Chinn, State Historic Preservation Officer professionals from various fields that meets quarterly to J. Eric Engstrom, Wichita, governor’s designee review and recommend nominations to the National Toni Stewart, Topeka Register of Historic Places and the Register of Historic Sharron Hamilton, Salina Kansas Places, and award preservation planning and Kathy Herzog, Lawrence rehabilitation grants. As prescribed by the Kansas Historic John W. Hoopes, Lawrence Preservation Act of 1977 (K.S.A. 75-2719), the board is Joseph Johnson, Wichita comprised of the following members: the governor or the Samuel Passer, Wichita governor’s designee, the state historic preservation officer or David H. Sachs, Manhattan such officer’s designee, and nine members appointed by the Gregory Schneider, Topeka governor for three-year terms. At least one member must be Margaret Wood, Topeka professionally qualified in each of the following disciplines: architecture, history, prehistoric archeology, historical archeology, and architectural history.
Cultural Resources Division State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), Archeology, Historic Sites Staff
Jennie Chinn Chris Garst Amanda Loughlin Tricia Waggoner Preservation Officer (SHPO) Laboratory Archeologist Survey Coordinator Highway Archeologist 785-272-8681, ext. 205 785-272-8681, ext. 151 785-272-8681, ext. 216 785-272-8681, ext. 267 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Rick Anderson Bob Hoard Ken Price Tim Weston National Register Historian State Archeologist Architect SHPO Archeologist 785-272-8681, ext. 228 785-272-8681, ext. 269 785-272-8681, ext. 212 785-272-8681, ext. 214 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Patrick Barry Sarah B. Hunter Katrina Ringler Virginia Wulfkuhle Senior Administrative Assistant Review and Compliance Grants Manager/CLG Coordinator Public Archeologist 785-272-8681, ext. 257 Coordinatior 785-272-8681, ext. 215 785-272-8681, ext. 266 [email protected] 785-272-8681, ext. 225 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Lisa Berg Gina S. Powell Patrick Zollner Historic Sites Supervisor Kristen Johnston Archeologist Division Director and 785-272-8681, ext. 211 Tax Credit Coordinator 785-272-8681, ext. 258 Deputy SHPO [email protected] 785-272-8681, ext. 213 [email protected] 785-272-8681, ext. 217 [email protected] [email protected] Dorothy Booher Office Assistant Marsha Longofono 785-272-8681, ext. 230 Senior Administrative Assistant [email protected] 785-272-8681, ext. 240 [email protected] CONTACT US
Volume 37 | 2 | 2015 25 Pre-sorted standard U.S. Postage Paid Topeka KS Historical Society Permit No 157 6425 SW 6th Avenue Topeka KS 66615-1099
Happenings in Kansas Online at kshs.org/events
September 6, 13, 20, 27, October 4 November 6 Sundays on the Porch • Red Rocks, Home of the William Allen Kansas Historical Foundation Annual Meeting • Kansas White Family, Emporia Historical Society, Topeka September 12 November 7 Heritage Days • Mine Creek Civil War Battlefield, Pleasanton Historic Sites Board of Review • Kansas Historical Society, Topeka September 24-26 November 8 Bald Eagle Rendezvous • Constitution Hall, Lecompton Scan and Share: Recording Military Experiences • Things They September 25-26 Carried Home, Kansas Historical Society, Topeka Taste of Wyandotte County • Bus trip with the Kansas November 11, 26, 27 Historical Society All locations closed for state holidays October 18 Kansas Cooking: Making Molé • Kansas Historical Society, Topeka
Find the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office on Facebook and follow the Kansas Historical Society on Twitter.
Join the Preserving Kansas listserv under Preserve at kshs.org. Kansas Preservation
Volume 37, Number 3 • 2015 REAL PLACES. REAL STORIES.
Kansas Archeology Training Program See story on page 10
A publication of the Kansas Historical Society New Foundation Continues Preservation of Home on the Range Cabin Newsletter of the Cultural by Katrina Ringler Resources Division Historic Preservation Grants Manager, Kansas Historical Society Kansas Historical Society Volume 37, Number 3 he Peoples Heartland Foundation was recently formed to continue Contents Tpreservation of the Home on the Range Cabin historic site in Smith County. 1 The foundation received the cabin and surrounding property as a gift from the Seven Properties Nominated to trustees of the Ellen Rust Living Trust that had maintained the site for several National Register of Historic Places previous decades. In 2010 and 2012 the Home on the Range cabin was the 5 recipient of two separate Heritage Trust Fund grants, administered by the Kansas Ivanpah: A Little Schoolhouse with a Big Story Historical Society, totaling more than $32,000. The grants, along with numerous 10 People and Environment Along Big Creek: Kansas donations, allowed the trustees to complete restoration of the cabin in 2013. Archeology Training Program Work included landscape grading around the building, rebuilding of the north 14 and south walls, and restoration of the original loft area. Work continues to Kansas Archeology Training Program Receives National Recognition provide furnishings for the cabin as it might have appeared in the 1870s. That is the period Dr. Brewster M. Higley wrote “My Western Home” while living at the small cabin near West Beaver Creek. His poem, later set to music by a friend, Kansas Preservation became the Kansas state song in 1947.
Published quarterly by the Kansas Historical Clockwise from top: Pete and Ellen Society, 6425 SW 6th Avenue, Rust with the cabin in this undated Topeka KS 66615-1099. photo. The couple is credited with Please send change of address information saving the cabin on its original site, to the above address or email [email protected]. declining many offers to sell it Third class postage paid at Topeka, Kansas. individually to entities that would have moved it off site or out of state; Governor Sam Brownback Jennie Chinn, State Historic Preservation Officer the cabin as it appeared before Patrick Zollner, Deputy SHPO, Editor restoration work began in 2010; the Linda Kunkle Park, Graphic Designer cabin today, work included restoration Partial funding for this publication is provided by of the upper level loft based on historic the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. The contents and opinions do not photos; restoration work required necessarily reflect the views or policies of the dismantling and rebuilding the north, Department of the Interior, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products stone wall of the cabin. constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the Department of the Interior. This program receives federal funds from the National Park Service. Regulations of the U.S. Department of the Interior strictly prohibit 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: Father and daughter team, Jack Edens of Fredonia and Kim Rack of Lawrence, share an excavation unit overlooking the beautiful Big Creek valley in Ellis County at the 40th annual Kansas Archeology Training Program field school in June 2015. Read more on pages 10 through 14. Photograph by Nancy Arendt. Seven Properties Nominated to National Register of Historic Places
At its regular quarterly meeting held at the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka on Saturday, August 8, the Historic Sites Board of Review voted to forward seven nominations to the office of the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C., to be evaluated by its professional staff. If staff members concur with the board’s findings, the properties will be included in the National Register.
by Amanda Loughlin National Register and Survey Coordinator, Kansas Historical Society
Above, Great Bend air field hangar, Barton County; Below, Great Bend Norden Bombsight Storage Vaults, Barton County.
Great Bend AAF Hangar and Great Bend AAF Norden Bombsight Storage Vaults • 9047 N 6th Street • Great Bend • Barton County The Great Bend Army Air Field (AAF) hangar is directly associated with the federal government’s wartime aviation operations from 1939 to 1945. The concrete, wood, and metal squadron hangar built from 1942 to 1943, was designed by the Army Corps of Engineers for the maintenance and modification of aircraft as part of a national defense strategy that placed air fields in south central and southwest Kansas. The well-preserved hangar is the oldest remaining resource from Great Bend’s World
Volume 37 | 3 | 2015 1 Above, Fulton High School and Grade School, Bourbon County; below, Evangelical Lutheran School, Lincoln County.
War II air field. The Great Bend Army Air Field Norden nominations for its local significance in the areas of Bombsight Storage Vaults, built in 1943, are utilitarian architecture and education. concrete structures also designed by the Corps for the storage and issue of the Norden bombsights during World Evangelical Lutheran School • 308 N. Indiana War II and were part of the national defense strategy in the Street • Sylvan Grove • Lincoln County area. The structures are nominated as part of the World War The Evangelical Lutheran School is located on the east edge II-Era Aviation-Related Facilities of Kansas multiple property of Sylvan Grove, directly north of the Bethlehem Lutheran nomination for its statewide military significance. Church. The two-and-a-half-story building reflects the Prairie School style of architecture and is constructed of Fulton High School and Grade School • 408 W. Osage native limestone, a common building material in this area Street • Fulton, Bourbon County during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The school The Fulton High School and Grade School is comprised is associated with the early German Lutheran immigrants of three buildings. Designed by Wichita architect Fred G. that settled in this area, following the efforts of Christ McCune, the 1917 Progressive Era school building is a Kruse, a railroad man from Chicago known as a two-story brick example of a town graded school, which community builder and founder of Lutheran churches. The was built during a period of standardization in the education system. In 1936 a gymnasium/auditorium was attached to the north side of the brick school. This gymnasium, constructed as part of a Works Progress Administration project, contains salvaged limestone from the demolition of an 1882 school building at the same location. The third building at the site is a free-standing, one-story cafeteria constructed in 1964. The property functioned as a combined high school and grade school until 1966 when the high school consolidated with Fort Scott; the elementary school closed in 1978. The property is nominated as part of the Historic Public Schools of Kansas and New Deal-era Resources of Kansas multiple property
2 Kansas Preservation Above, Francis Byron (Barney) Kimble House, Riley County; below, Martin Cemetery, Stafford County.
1913 school, designed by Salina architect C.A. Smith, Martin Cemetery • US-50 Highway • St. John replaced an earlier building at the same location. The vicinity • Stafford County parochial school operated every year except one between The Martin Cemetery is nominated for its local significance 1913 and 1981. At the start of the 1918-1919 school year, in the areas of exploration and settlement and African Lincoln County’s Council of Defense closed the Evangelical American ethnic heritage. This small half-acre burial Lutheran School due to anti-German hysteria during World ground south of St. John in Ohio Township holds the War I. The school is nominated for its local significance in remains of members of the Joseph Martin family. It is the areas of architecture and social history. significant as the only known vestige of a unique group of African American settlers from Illinois. Their houses of Francis Byron (Barney) Kimble House • 720 Poyntz worship are gone, and their descendants have moved away. Avenue • Manhattan • Riley County The cemetery, however, remains as a reflection of their The nominated property was home to Barney Kimble and contributions to the history of Stafford County. The his wife, Mary Ann, from 1912 until Barney’s death in cemetery includes the graves of approximately 20 people, 1920. It is a two-story limestone, Queen Anne Free Classic though only a few are marked. style house with Colonial Revival influences. The form and layout also relate to the American Foursquare with a large hipped roof over the core of the house and smaller intersecting gables on all four sides. The nomination includes the main house and two limestone outbuildings (a stable and a barn), a grouping rarely found within the Manhattan city limits, particularly in an area that has seen growth and change throughout the 20th century. The Kimble House is nominated as part of the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century Residential Resources of Manhattan multiple property nomination for its local significance in the area of architecture as a vernacular interpretation of the later Queen Anne Free Classic style.
2 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 3 | 2015 3 National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the country’s official list of historically significant properties. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources. Eligible properties must be significant for one or Papes Barn, Ellis County. more of the four criteria for evaluation. Properties can be eligible if they are associated with events that have Papes Barn • 890 Ellis Avenue • Ellis vicinity • Ellis County made a significant contribution to the broad patterns The Papes Barn, constructed circa 1910, is nominated for its of our history. They can be eligible if they are associated local significance in the area of agriculture as it relates to with the lives of persons significant in our past. Ellis County’s early agricultural history and the family farm Distinctive construction can qualify properties for the economy of the early 1900s. The limestone barn also is nominated for its architectural significance as a vernacular National Register if they embody the characteristic of a gambrel-roof barn, which was specifically designed for hay type, period, or method of construction, or represent storage essential to raising livestock. Czech immigrants the work of a master, or possess high artistic values, or Ignaz and Josephine Papes were part of a six-family represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose settlement south of the town of Ellis in Smoky Hill components may lack individual distinction. Lastly, Township. Their barn is one of two surviving resources properties may be eligible for the National Register if associated with early Czech settlement in the township. It they have yielded or may be likely to yield information is nominated as part of the Historic Agriculture-Related important in prehistory or history. The National Register Resources of Kansas multiple property nomination. recognizes properties of local, statewide, and national significance. The Register of Historic Kansas Places is our state’s What is a Multiple Property Nomination? official list of historically significant properties. Properties included in the National Register are automatically A multiple property documentation form (MPDF), also listed in the state register. However, not all properties known as a thematic nomination, streamlines the method listed in the state register are included in the National of organizing information for future National Register listing Register. The same general criteria are used to assess the and preservation planning purposes. Individual properties eligibility of a property for inclusion in the state register, are compared with resources that share similar physical but more flexibility is allowed in the interpretation of the characteristics and historical associations. Information criteria for eligibility. common to the group of properties is presented in the historic context, while information specific to each Related Internet Links: individual building, site, district, structure, or object is National Register of Historic Places: nps.gov/nr placed on an individual registration form. View a list of the Kansas Historical Society (National and state registers): thematic nominations in Kansas, kshs.org/14634 kshs.org/14638
4 Kansas Preservation Ivanpah A Little Schoolhouse with a Big Story
Ivanpah School District 72, Greenwood County
I first came across the name “Ivanpah” on maps while doing research on the 1910s oil boom in southeast Kansas. It intrigued me as a funny name that didn’t sound like anything else in the area. It turns out that “Ivanpah” is a Southern Paiute word meaning “clear water” and the only other Ivanpah is in the Mojave Desert in California. An online search for “Ivanpah” is apt to first turn up material about Ivanpah, California, home to one of the largest solar energy plants in the world.
by Jay Price, History Department Chair, Wichita State University
everal years ago I decided to go visit the Kansas version, In spring 2014 I revisited this community as part of a talk Stoday little more than a schoolhouse in the Flint Hills. for the Symphony in the Flint Hills and a short chapter in I wrote about this encounter in the Kansas Traveler in 2008. the symphony’s companion book. By now there were A few months later I received a call from Gerry Brazil, who considerably larger volumes of digital resources out there had read the article and invited me to be part of a gathering that I hoped might reveal more about this odd location and at the Ivanpah school to meet with local longtime residents how it got its strange name. In the years since that first foray with family names like Wiggins, Barker, French, Black, and out to visit the schoolhouse the profusion of newspaper Stanfield. Most grew up on farms or had ties to farms; databases and digitized sources have totally transformed although a few were the descendants of drillers who lived research. Many important local history resources are now near the oil pumping units. They knew very little, however, online as well allowing researchers to do keyword searches in about the name of the community other than it had the text. These include the Library of Congress’ Chronicling been the name of a now defunct post office next to the America database, items on the Hathi Trust, and those part of school building. the now defunct Blue Skyways website. A particularly good
4 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 3 | 2015 5 Ivanpah school program, 1911 set of sources come from the Kansas Historical Society’s which the Ivanpah schoolhouse sat, was a miller in Eureka, Kansas Memory online archives with digitized county plat and brother of a miller in Emporia and one in Lindsborg. atlases, and portals to ancestry.com, Heritage Quest, and These initial hints deepened the story, but only by a little. newspapers.com. Presbrey and Thompson didn’t show up in the standard At first the search seemed to lead to more questions. A histories of Kansas such as those of Cutler or Blackmar. visit to the Historical Society’s Kansas Historic Resources Even histories of Greenwood County did not shed much Inventory (kshs.org/khri) is a good starting point. It showed light on these two men. Visits with local families, such as at that the Ivanpah schoolhouse dated from 1880 and “this is the Brazil’s well-attended annual chili feeds, revealed no the only building presumed to remain from the town of recollection of either person. Besides, a name like Thompson Ivanpah.” Since the school was not in the National Register, was so common that searches could produce a lot of the Historical Society’s useful and user-friendly database false leads. would not be of much help. A search on the digitized As my talk for the Symphony in the Flint Hills newspaper databases initially referenced only Ivanpah, approached, however, I googled “A. H. Thompson” and California, which made headlines in the early 1870s as the “Greenwood County.” What came up was a Wikipedia site of a modest silver strike in San Bernardino County, article. We historians are trained to dismiss Wikipedia for California. being inaccurate and the initial hits seemed to be about The first Kansas references in the newspapers dated about Washington, D.C., so I was about to move on, dismissing 10 years later in articles in the Emporia News from 1878 and this search to another dead end, when I decided to check 1879 in reference to a Frank Presbrey as the editor of the into the footnotes of the Wikipedia piece and I followed the Eureka Herald who lived in the community. The digitized plat additional leads. What I found that night, sitting in bed maps at the Historical Society, meanwhile, showed a 1903 typing on a laptop, made my jaw drop. plat in which the Ivanpah post office was on the land of an Almon Harris Thompson was born in Stoddard, New A. H. Thompson. The 1880 census listed Thompson as a Hampshire. He went to Wheaton College, and became wool grower but the 1900 census did not show him living friends with a young John Wesley Powell. Thompson in the area. By the 1920s the site had transferred to the married John Wesley Powell’s sister, Nellie, in 1862. Almon Teichgraber family that ran an important milling operation and John both served in the Civil War and John W. Powell in central Kansas. R. E., Teichgraber, who owned the land on lost his arm at the Battle of Shiloh. Afterwards, Thompson
6 Kansas Preservation went on to become a self-taught entomologist and served on Powell’s expeditions to the Rocky Mountains. His wife, Ivanpah School Nellie, was a botanist in her own right, serving as curator of District 72 the Illinois Natural History Society. A. H. Thompson did not go with Powell on his famous 1869 trip down the Grand Canyon but he was chief topographer and geographer for Powell’s second expedition down the Colorado River in 1871. This was a mapping expedition, with Thompson basically the second in command and a key figure in naming a number of places in Utah and Arizona. The web page of the National Geographic Society includes the following: In 1873, after a year and a half of mapping, Thompson and his topographers completed the first comprehensive map of the Colorado Plateau and Grand Canyon. In the process he may have been the first white man to travel openly in the Shivwit Indian country. He was also possibly the first white man to look into Bryce Canyon . . . . Frederick Dellenbaugh, one of the project’s topographers, would later recall Thompson’s achievement: “To his foresight, rare good judgment, ability to think out a plan to the last detail, fine nerve and absolute lack of any kind of foolishness, together with a wide knowledge and intelligence, this expedition,” and the scientific work of the entire Powell survey, he added—“largely owe success.” The school is the only building remaining from the town Thompson himself, notably laconic, had merely said, “We of Ivanpah, located about five miles north of U.S. 54, done middling for greenhorns.” west of Eureka. Built in 1880 of limestone and wood It turned out that A. H. Thompson was responsible for frame, the school has a gable roof with clapboard entry. creating many of the maps of Utah, Nevada, and the Great It appears to retain its original two over two wood Basin, with a tendency to use Paiute names . . . like Ivanpah! windows and wood door. The Ivanpah school is By the late 1870s, however, the expeditions wound down featured in the Historical Society’s Kansas Historic and Thompson searched for new opportunities. He showed Resources Inventory (KHRI), a research and education up in Kansas in 1878 as a person interested in scientific tool for professionals and homeowners. In addtion to endeavors. The 1878 meeting of the Kansas Academy of entries made by historic preservation professionals, we Science held its business meeting in Topeka at Thompson’s rely on members of the public to provide information office. At this time, he also expressed interested in wool about the places important to them, which ensures that ranching in the Flint Hills, such as in Greenwood County. the site continually expands. To view, edit, search, and For a time Thompson became a noted figure in the state’s explore KHRI, visit kshs.org/khri. sheep raising community. It was at this point that he became acquainted with Frank Presbrey, noted in an article in the Emporia News on March 29, 1878: Rocky Mountain range, and spent two years in establishing Prof. A. H. Thompson and Frank J. (sic) Presbrey, of the topography of the Colorado canyons, and had charge of Washington, D. C, friends of Mr. Davis, our school the expedition under Prof. Powell. Mr. Presbrey is manager superintendent, arrived in town Tuesday, with a view of of the national newspaper correspondence bureau at locating in Lyon county in stock farming. Prof. Thompson Washington, and is an experienced newspaper man. We was leader of the first government expedition to explore the trust these gentlemen will decide to locate among us.
6 Kansas Preservation Volume 37 | 3 | 2015 7 The school building remains in good condition thanks to the efforts of individuals who have maintained it. In September 2008 it was the site of an event where alumni of the school and their friends and relatives shared memories of the community, the school, and the area. Two key individuals involved in the organizing the event were Gerry and Kathleen Brazil. The Brazils had acquired a vacation property nearby and quickly became involved in efforts to preserve and celebrate local history. For several years their annual chili feed brought together local and visitors alike to appreciate the rich heritage of the Flint Hills.
On July 19, 1878, the Emporia News announced that fact that seemed hard to believe: Frank Presbrey, small town “Professor A. H. Thompson, of Washington, D.C., has lately newspaper editor, and Frank Presbrey, New York marketing purchased here, and intended building and equipping his mogul, were the same person! ranch at once,” noting “this gentleman was the geographer Frank Presbrey was born in 1855 in Buffalo, New York, of the Colorado River exploring expedition of the the son of Otis Presbrey, who gained some prominence government . . . .” How Presbrey and Thompson knew each in President Grant’s administration overseeing affairs other is still unclear. These articles are critical to the story, involving internal revenue for Virginia, West Virginia, and however, in part because they prove that Powell’s A. H. Washington, D.C. Presbrey went to school in Princeton Thompson was the same one in the Ivanpah narrative. where he was a classmate of Woodrow Wilson. In June 1878, Thompson purchased land in Greenwood County, the just months after the Emporia News article, Presbrey married land where the Ivanpah post office sat. However, just a few his first wife, Emma C. Cochen, of Mount Vernon, Ohio. years after this endeavor, he returned to Washington, D.C., By early 1879 the Presbreys had decided to make where he worked for the United States Geological Survey, Kansas their home. The Wichita Eagle on January 30, 1879, later serving as its chief geographer. While there, he was part mentions the creation of “Ivanpoh [sic], Greenwood county, of a select group of folks to come together to form the Mrs. Emma C. Presbrey, postmistress.” Presbrey himself National Geographic Society! Thompson died in 1906 and is wrote a glowing testimonial in April 10, 1879, about the buried in Arlington National Cemetery. That’s just half of the wonders of Greenwood County! The next day, the paper story. noted that as of April 11, 1879, “Greenwood county has a The other figure in that March 1878 article was Frank new post office named Ivanpoh sic[ ], which means in the Presbrey. Like any modern researcher, one of my first Indian dialect, clear water.” activities was to do an online search for Frank Presbrey. At In this regard Presbrey was a modest version of influential first the results seemed confusing. Most “hits” referenced a community newspaper editors, a tradition that included New York advertising executive from the early 20th century Marshall Murdock in Wichita, Rolla Clymer in El Dorado, who was perhaps best known as the author of History and Arthur Capper in Topeka, and William Allen White in Development of Advertising. Subsequent research that used Emporia. Figures like White and Murdock, who ran their digitized genealogical and family history records hinted at a respective newspapers for decades and intertwined with local
8 Kansas Preservation booster efforts of bustling cities, were the exceptional few. From its inception, Mr. Presbrey has been a member of the Many editors moved from town to town and served short executive Committee of the Boy Scouts of America. He is a lived careers in each location. That was certainly the case for member of the American Academy of Political and Social Presbrey. Presbrey’s time with the Eureka Herald lasted less Sciences . . . . He has participated in many charitable than a year. The Emporia News noted in November 21, 1879, movements. Mr. Presbrey is the author of many illustrated that Presbrey and his colleague, S. G. Mead, went to McPher- pamphlets, setting forth the advantages of different sections son to purchase and run the Independent. That venture lasted of the country, and books: "Memories of Vacation Days", an even shorter time. "Motoring Abroad", and "A Guide for Trans-Atlantic Then, we get this retrospective from Santa Fe Magazine: Travellers'', Ninth Edition, 1914. Mr. Presbrey has had a After leaving college Presbrey went west and spent two very successful business career, and continues doing large years on a cattle ranch, during which time he contributed business, and is respected and honored by all with whom articles on western life to one of the Chicago dailies. he has to do. Subsequently he bought a country weekly in Kansas, where In the early 20th century Presbrey became one of the he set type, worked the hand press, did the janitor work, leading figures in the new field of advertising, especially and wrote and solicited all the advertisements. Then he advertising for tourism. From his experience in publicity came to the conclusion that he was in a rut and there was with the railroads, he switched to focus on promoting no future for him in the country newspaper field. steamship travel, becoming an early advocate of what would Presbrey went to Topeka and asked for a job at the become the cruise industry. Presbrey continued to write, Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe (ATSF) railroad office; when producing travel narratives, guide books, and his best known told “no,” he apparently sat in the waiting room for three work, History and Development of Advertising. weeks until someone from the company gave him one. He also became a major figure with the Boy Scouts. He This change coincided with a personal tragedy. Presbrey’s was one of the pioneers behind the Boy Scouts’ journal, first wife, Emma, died in 1880. In 1881 he married Stella Boys’ Life. At Presbrey’s death in 1936, Boys’ Life ran an Spaulding of Bloomington. It was the death and remarriage obituary that acknowledged “not only have Boys’ Life and that was mentioned in the digitized Presbrey genealogical all its readers lost a great and good friend in the death of materials and confirmed that the Ivanpah Presbrey later Mr. Frank Presbrey, Chairman of the Boys’ Life Committee, became the New York City Presbrey. but boyhood everywhere, and particularly the Scouts and In the 1880s Presbrey shifted from being a newspaper Scouters who compose the Boy Scouts of America, have deep editor to a publicist for the railroads, first for the ATSF and reason to mourn his passing….” later, the Denver and Rio Grande Western. By late 1880s he Thompson and Presbrey went on to national prominence, was back east, first the manager of thePublic Opinion and so much so that their short time in Greenwood County was then in 1894, the Forum, published in Washington. In 1896 quickly forgotten. By contrast, historians such as Carol he went to New York City to found an advertising firm. Kammen have noted how local history tends to favor the The digitized family history book William Presbrey, of “stickers” vs. the “kickers” and so individuals who move London, England, and Taunton, Mass., by Joseph Waite on aren’t remembered while families that stay are the ones Presbrey, makes this note about Frank: mentioned in local histories, whether in hard copy or In 1896 he became the founder of the well-known digitized. The stories of Presbrey, Thompson, and Ivanpah advertising company in New York City, which bears his are case studies in this. The connection between this small name and of which he is the head. Mr. Presbrey is a schoolhouse in South Salem Township of Greenwood director of the Citizens Central National Bank, the Union County, the National Geographic Society, and the founding Exchange National Bank, a trustee of the North River of modern advertising might have never been known had it Savings Bank, director of the National Surety Co. and of not been for digital databases that made connections the New York Life Insurance Co. The two last named being reappear that had been lost for more than a century. the largest institutions of their kind in the United States.
Volume 37 | 3 | 2015 9 people and environment Along Big Creek Kansas archeology training program
Harold and Virginia Kraus join Bob Hoard to inspect the high exposed streambank where the Kraus site was originally noticed.
Charlie Kraus was out checking his pasture. A little more rain would have helped, but things looked good overall. Coming up from a spring-fed branch of Big Creek, Charlie noticed something in the high vertical streambank—a chipped stone arrow point. He knew that the waste product of prehistoric chipped stone toolmaking was common along Big Creek, but finding an arrow point was just more exciting. As if that were not enough, he found a tiny piece of fired clay—part of a prehistoric clay pot.
By Robert J. Hoard, State Archeologist, Kansas Historical Society
rcheologists were working in the area, excavating a Adugout farther south in Ellis County (see Kansas Preservation 35 [Number 3 2013]: 12-15) and were having an artifact identification night at the armory in Hays. Charlie brought the artifacts to the event to see if they meant anything to anyone. As it turned out, they did. Off and on, over the last decade, I have looked for a site like the one Charlie discovered. Both the potsherd and the point that he found are typical of the technology that existed 1,500 to 900 years ago in western Kansas and southwest Nebraska. Archeologists refer to this technology and time period as the Charlie Kraus at the 2013 Kansas Archeology Training Program Keith phase. It represents an array of firsts for the people in artifact identification night, shows Bob Hoard the pottery and arrow this region: the first pottery, the first evidence of the bow point that led to the 2015 excavation.
10 Kansas Preservation Above, excavation underway at the Kraus Site; right, landowner Kenneth Kraus visiting the excavation. He and his wife Dorothy gave permission for the field school to take place on their property. and arrow (instead of hand-thrown spears and darts), and the first evidence of houses, although people surely lived in houses before this time. Along with all of these technological changes, it seems that significantly more people are present. Archeologists and amateurs have located numerous sites from this time period, many more sites than from the previous 12,000 years. Clearly this period is a dynamic time—but why? What and aunt, Kenneth and Dorothy Kraus, who own the land, caused these changes? we launched the 2015 Kansas Archeology Training Program While there are many Keith phase sites, they almost field school or KATP (which recently won a major award—see always are located on terraces just above streams—prime the article on page 14). One-hundred and twenty volunteers agricultural land. Almost all the sites have been plowed, took classes, worked in the laboratory, and excavated the site. compromising the archeological data they contain. The I had some key questions to try to answer. Why do we see a undisturbed ones, typically in pastures and buried by a population increase with the Keith phase? Is it simply millennium or so of floods, are hard to find. Charlie’s site because we can find these sites in plowed fields, or were there was eroding from a cut bank, so it was a good candidate for really more people? If so, where did they come from—a local excavation—it was shallowly buried, and it was not plowed. population expansion or migrants from elsewhere? Why are After making arrangements with schools for lab space and there so many technological changes, and did these have classes and getting written permission from Charlie’s uncle anything to do with the larger population? Why are the Volume 37 | 3 | 2015 11 Field school volunteers Sharon Sage, Beth Good, and Beth Olson wash soil samples through fine screen to catch small artifacts and animal bones. people bothering with pottery? It is hard to make, fragile, and important. The snails, smaller than a 10th of an inch, tell us heavy to carry. about rainfall and temperature. Snails are very picky about To winnow these issues, I came up with possible where they live and very sensitive to moisture, temperature, explanations for some of the hallmarks of the Keith phase. and vegetation. The types and numbers of these snails The regional climate shifted to a cooler and wetter state, provide clues about climate during the Keith phase. enough so that people could grow plants for food. Their Freshwater mussel shells, abundant at the site, reveal neighbors to the west, south, and east were doing this. All of whether nearby Big Creek was deep or shallow, fast or slow, these groups had pottery, very useful for the long slow and muddy or clear, which also informs us about the cooking that seed crops need to be edible. People who grow surrounding land and climate. Land animals chosen for crops—who farm—tend to be more settled than foraging food enlighten us about the general environment. Grain hunters, which might explain the houses. Finally, having size analysis from sections of a soil core, taken by more control over at least some of their food source may have allowed a larger population. Once a story like this is constructed, the natural impulse is to look for evidence to prove it, but this encourages the dismissal of evidence that does not fit and emphasis on the information that does. Instead, archeologists must focus on collecting the evidence to see what does or does not fit the scenario. We used standard archeological methods to excavate the site—digging in squares of known location and depth, peeling off thin layers to expose artifacts in place, and screening the dirt to find small artifacts. This helps us determine where activities took place on the site and how often the site was occupied and abandoned over the years. The site produced large amounts of bison bone, debris from We also collected samples from which we can recover tiny manufacting stone tools, and arrow points. objects, like seeds and snails and fish scales. These can be
12 Kansas Preservation Left, a small arrow point, the size and shape indicate it is 900 to 1,500 years old. Right, a 20-foot-deep soil core taken from the Kraus site by Dr. Rolfe Mandel.
Dr. Rolfe Mandel of the University of Kansas, tell us about east. This indicates that local people adopted the technology the nature and speed of sediment deposition or erosion on of pottery making, rather than an influx of people from the the site landscape, which is a function of climate and east who brought their pottery with them. vegetation. Analysis of the stable isotope levels from the The Kraus site excavation has raised a host of questions. core, another indication of temperature and rainfall, are We expected to find at least one hearth and hoped to find underway. Finally, remains of seeds, teased out of soil a house floor but unearthed neither of these. We may, samples by submerging them in water and allowing the however, have indirect evidence of a house. We recognized lighter seeds to float and be collected, can reveal what mud dauber wasp nests and silica slag. Mud daubers build plants were growing in the area and possibly if people were their nests on the undersides of things—like the insides of gathering or even growing certain species. structures. Silica slag can result from burning large amounts The analysis of artifacts—stone and bone tools and clay of grass, which contains silica. Does the silica slag represent a pots—will help us understand how far people at the Kraus grass-thatch roof on a structure that eventually burned? site travelled or traded. We know the locations of stone used Ongoing analysis of the relative position of these materials for tools in Kansas. Finding all local material at a site implies will help to resolve this issue. We also expected to recover a that people did not travel far but instead made a living close lot of pottery but in fact found very little. A large amount of to home, whereas a lot of material from far away suggests bone was recovered. Unlike most Keith phase sites, most of either trade with neighbors or possibly constant travel or the bone is from large mammals, like deer and bison, smaller long-distance hunting trips, as is well documented from animals are not well represented, despite the fine-screening more recent American Indian societies. Preliminary analysis methods we employed to recover these species. Also, much shows that chipped stone tools are overwhelmingly local of the large mammal bone was broken and burned. That is material, but there is one arrow point made of volcanic not unusual; large bones can be cracked and heated to glass—obsidian (see Kansas Preservation 28 [March/April acquire nutritious marrow. But we also identified numerous 2006]: 11-13)—that does not occur naturally in Kansas. We chipped stone tools and debris that are blackened and will use chemical analysis—X-ray fluorescence—to learn if it spalled by heat, a finding that is difficult to explain. comes from New Mexico, the Yellowstone area, or another There is still much work to do to understand the Keith distant source. phase, but the contribution by the 2015 KATP volunteers is a Initial work on pottery from the site suggests that it was significant step toward that end. Odds are good that the made locally, based on the crushed limestone added to ongoing analysis by Historical Society staff members and strengthen the clay. The construction and finish of the specialists from a number of institutions will answer a few ceramic sherds shows that it is most similar to other High questions—and present several more. Plains pottery and not pottery that was brought in from the Volume 37 | 3 | 2015 13 Kansas Archeology Training Program Receives National Recognition
By Chris Hord, Second Vice President, Kansas Anthropological Association
The Kansas Archeology Training Program (KATP), sponsored by the Kansas Historical Society and the Kansas Anthropological Association, has received the 2015 Award for Excellence in Public Education from the Society for American Archaeology (SAA). The SAA is the largest and most prestigious archeological organization in the Western Hemisphere, dedicated to the research, interpretation, and protection of the archeological heritage of the Americas. With more than 7,000 members, the society represents professional, student, and avocational archeologists working in a variety of settings, including government agencies, colleges and universities, museums, and the private sector. The award for Excellence in Public Education: Community and Public Programming is considered only every three years, and it demonstrates that the KATP is among the best archeology public education programs in the United States.
“The KATP allows the public to participate in science. Instead of listening to experts describing and interpreting evidence that they have recovered, non-professionals are given training and guidance that allow them to work alongside professionals to uncover the evidence for themselves, to understand the process of getting that evidence, and to learn about what has been done in the past,” said Robert Hoard, state archeologist, Kansas Historical Society. “The program is designed to be as affordable as possible and allows people as young as 10 years of age to participate under the supervision of a responsible adult. People also learn about the state of Kansas during the field school, spending time in small communities and learning The Kansas Archeology Training Program began 40 years ago about the local history and environment.” at the ancient site of El Cuartelejo in Scott County. Ninety While the annual field school in June is an important volunteers began that annual tradition that continues today. component of the KATP, the program also offers opportunities throughout the year, including seminars on specific archeological topics and an optional certification program that compels participants to reach levels of competence that they may not have attempted otherwise. Possibly more important is that the program has volunteers who return year after year. These people choose to spend part or all of their summer vacations learning about the past in Kansas and contributing to that body of knowledge. The national award justifies the commitment of these volunteers.
14 Kansas Preservation Diverse Group of Educators Benefit from Project Archaeology Instruction
by Virginia A. Wulfkuhle Public Archeologist, Kansas Historical Society
he Kansas Historical Society partnered with national Project Archaeology and the Museum at TPrairiefire in Overland Park to offer a workshop “Project Archaeology and the Classroom,” July 29-31, 2015. Enrolled in the class was a very diverse group of 23 educators, representing grade levels second through high school; the subjects of social studies, science, math, library, and gifted; and school districts from Nickerson to La Cygne. Twenty took the class for two hours of college credit through Baker University. The education staff of the Museum at Prairiefire treated the teachers to a tour of the cutting-edge natural history museum (museumatpf.org).
The three-day class was taught by Kansas Historical • Evaluate how ideas of the past can inform decisions Society Public Archeologist Virginia Wulfkuhle and Gail of today; Lundeen, Project Archaeology coordinator from Missouri. • Comprehend that evidence of the past is worth They modeled the national Investigating Shelter curriculum protecting; (projectarchaeology.org/teachers), as well as the Kansas- • Apply Native American and other cultural perspectives specific units (kshs.org/18959) for shelter, early agriculture, to archeological preservation; and migration. All of these materials are multidisciplinary, • Synthesize numerous disciplines through archeological inquiry-based, and designed for, but not limited to, grades practices. These include language arts, social studies, three through eight. The course was designed to accom- history, geography, science, mathematics, life skills of plish a number of objectives, so that at the conclusion of thinking and reasoning. the workshop, participants would be able to: • Analyze and present ideas to students to encourage new • Understand that archaeology is a valuable way to learn ways of thinking about the past and promoting a sense about past cultures; of responsibility for the stewardship of Kansas’ cultural heritage;
Volume 37 | 3 | 2015 15 • Guide students through the fundamentals of scientific “ ... this curriculum goes along nicely with school inquiry to conduct their own investigation of an and state standards. Project Archaeology creates an archeological site, using a toolkit of archeological and environment in which students can build strong content scientific concepts; knowledge, demonstrate independence, value historical • Create curriculum using innovative ways to capture evidence, and also differentiate between different types students’ attention while addressing many educational of evidence.” concerns in the classroom—scientific inquiry, problem —sixth grade, science, Lee’s Summit, Missouri solving, cooperative learning, and citizenship skills. “One can easily make a case of using Project Archaeology At the conclusion of the workshop 23 classroom sets of materials in an integrated study. The lines between reading, Kansas magazines and journals, which will be used by 830 writing, history, science, and math are so blurred as to students, were furnished at no charge. This was made be almost indistinguishable! Students read to gather possible by federal funds administered by the Kansas information. Students write to communicate their findings Historic Preservation Office. and conclusions. Students consider history in order to make A few of the participant comments are reproduced reasonable inferences and in order to learn from the past. below. Students ask questions based on scientific inquiry because “I am so happy to have new materials and new ideas to those questions are the most effective for gaining supplement my classroom. The more you taught us, the understanding. Students use math when they measure, graph, more and more enthusiastic and passionate I become with and consider economic impact. It is, therefore, no surprise the subject matter, the more my brain came alive with that students truly gain essential understandings and are able ideas, and the more excited I became with thoughts on to answer essential questions. They have not memorized how I could blend Project Archaeology into the other information; they have applied it to real-life inquires.” subjects I teach . . . .The great thing is an archaeology unit —fourth grade, general, Louisburg can encompass so many attributes at one time that the learning becomes endless. This unit . . . will make “The creative and multifaceted lessons of the Project never-ending memories for the students, using all the fixed Archaeology workshop empower teachers to help students subjects, the book presents interesting means to teach achieve a deeper understanding of past and present cultures everything, including the arts and life skills.” by providing many resources and materials for teachers to —fourth grade, general, Paola integrate not only into social studies but also into other academic disciplines, including reading, writing, mathematics, and science.” —seventh grade, social studies, Olathe
16 Kansas Preservation Historic Sites Board of Review
The Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review is a group of 11 Jennie Chinn, State Historic Preservation Officer professionals from various fields that meets quarterly to J. Eric Engstrom, Wichita, governor’s designee review and recommend nominations to the National Toni Stewart, Topeka Register of Historic Places and the Register of Historic Sharron Hamilton, Salina Kansas Places, and award preservation planning and Kathy Herzog, Lawrence rehabilitation grants. As prescribed by the Kansas Historic John W. Hoopes, Lawrence Preservation Act of 1977 (K.S.A. 75-2719), the board is Joseph Johnson, Wichita comprised of the following members: the governor or the Samuel Passer, Wichita governor’s designee, the state historic preservation officer or David H. Sachs, Manhattan such officer’s designee, and nine members appointed by the Gregory Schneider, Topeka governor for three-year terms. At least one member must be Margaret Wood, Topeka professionally qualified in each of the following disciplines: architecture, history, prehistoric archeology, historical archeology, and architectural history.
Cultural Resources Division State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), Archeology, and Historic Sites Staff
Jennie Chinn Chris Garst Amanda Loughlin Tricia Waggoner Preservation Officer (SHPO) Laboratory Archeologist National Register and Highway Archeologist 785-272-8681, ext. 205 785-272-8681, ext. 151 Survey Coordinator 785-272-8681, ext. 267 [email protected] [email protected] 785-272-8681, ext. 216 [email protected] [email protected] Rick Anderson Bob Hoard Tim Weston National Register Historian State Archeologist Ken Price SHPO Archeologist 785-272-8681, ext. 228 785-272-8681, ext. 269 Architect 785-272-8681, ext. 214 [email protected] [email protected] 785-272-8681, ext. 212 [email protected] [email protected] Lisa Berg Sarah B. Hunter Virginia Wulfkuhle Historic Sites Supervisor Review and Compliance Katrina Ringler Public Archeologist 785-272-8681, ext. 211 Coordinator Grants Manager/CLG Coordinator 785-272-8681, ext. 266 [email protected] 785-272-8681, ext. 225 785-272-8681, ext. 215 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Dorothy Booher Patrick Zollner Office Assistant Kristen Johnston Gina S. Powell Division Director and 785-272-8681, ext. 230 Tax Credit Coordinator Archeologist Deputy SHPO [email protected] 785-272-8681, ext. 213 785-272-8681, ext. 258 785-272-8681, ext. 217 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Marsha Longofono Senior Administrative Assistant 785-272-8681, ext. 240 [email protected] CONTACT US
Volume 37 | 3 | 2015 17 Pre-sorted standard U.S. Postage Paid Topeka KS Historical Society Permit No 157 6425 SW 6th Avenue Topeka KS 66615-1099
Happenings in Kansas Online at kshs.org/events
Through April 2016 December 12, 2015 Rock Art from Our Prehistoric and Historic Past • Pawnee Indian Holiday Open House, Pawnee Indian Museum, Republic Museum, Republic December 24-25, 2015 Through January 3, 2016 All locations closed in observance of Christmas The Great Soldier State: Kansas and the Civil War, Kansas Museum January 1, 2016 of History, Topeka All locations closed in observance of New Year’s Day January 29, 2016 January 28, 2016 Kansas Day • programs at the Kansas State Capitol and Kansas What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam • exhibit opens, Kansas Museum of Museum of History, Topeka, and various State Historic Sites History, Topeka December 4-5, 2015 January 31, February 7, 14, 21, 28, and March 6, 2016 Christmas Past, Fort Hays, Hays Bleeding Kansas Program Series, Constitution Hall, Lecompton December 6, 2015 White Christmas, Red Rocks, Emporia
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