4 A new parking
lot, perhaps for used car sales, at the corner of First and Hillside.
12 History: A look
back at the original Broadview address— the I.N. Hockaday house.
15 Up, Up and
Away: College Hill gallery owner gets window seat on zeppelin.
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER Vol. 2 No. 3
COLLEGE HILL
• CROWN HEIGHTS • UPTOWN • SLEEPY HOLLOW
FEBRUARY 2009
THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Old house to find new home in College Hill, but first a parking space.
The backside of a house, stripped off its siding, and mounted on a trailer on the Parkstone development site on Douglas near Rutan. The house was moved last month from nearby Victor Place to make way for a parking lot. The house will find a new home in Clifton Square, perhaps as early as this month. In the meantime, it will sit in the shadow of the Hillcrest. SEE PAGE 5. BARRY OWENS
LETTERS
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ FEBRUARY 2009
WE JUST LIVE HERE A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
ny day now I suspect to feel the rumble, to be pitched from my chair, and to be cast to one side of the house when the foundation finally gives way. That’s no knock on the landlord. It’s an old house, and this is College Hill, where basements maybe the only thing that were not built to last. When it happens, I suspect we’ll just crawl out the windows and move in next door or some other place in the neighborhood. That is the joy of home renter-ship, you can simply pass back the key and walk away when the water heater explodes. Eventually, I suppose we’ll buy, settle somewhere in the neighborhood semi-permanently, and pay something called property taxes [spelling?]. Until that day, we can only nod and grimace and pretend to feel the pain when the conversation turns to the cost of replacing a roof, or trimming a tree or remodeling the master bath. The work sounds exciting, actually, empowering. But expensive. Around here, it’s all we can do to afford to keep every room in light bulbs. Anyway, this month we salute you Mr. and Mrs. property owner. This issue features stories about your efforts to restore and preserve old houses, move them, or knock down the menacing ones when need be, all in the hopes of doing what is best for the old neighborhood. Because if you left it to us renters to keep up the place, well, you can guess how that would turn out.
A DAVID DINELL
THANKS FOR LIGHTS, SAYS TROLLEY TEAM TO THE EDITOR:
River City Trolley and Charter would like to thank the citizens of College Hill Neighborhood for lighting up their neighborhood for the spirit of Christmas. We bring approximately 2500 people a year through your neighborhood to look at Christmas lights. The people on our tours are very happy and enjoy your light displays every year. We would like to thank the neighborhood for the effort and hard work that you do every season. HOMER PRICE River City Trolley and Charter
ARTIST RESPONDS TO WORKS ABOUT HOME TO THE EDITOR:
I just saw the January edition, and it is wonderful. Having grown up on College Hill park in the Aviary (my father having grown up on Clifton right across from the swimming pool) I am a third generation C.H. person. My room in the Aviary was in the attic for years, where the skylight is and was put in by a former artist of years past. That light - from sun and moon and stars - is probably what cemented my destiny on the road chosen. Much of what I do, and the philosophy behind it is based on those formative experiences. I firmly believe it is never too late to have a happy childhood. Now, winter has brought memories of sledding in the park, playing mammoth hunter (inscribing mammoth outlines in the snow and then spearing them), and the long cold winters huddled in the castle keep of the Flaming Swords - the knights of College Hill.
BARRY OWENS EDITOR
C. MATT FOLEY
WRITE THE EDITOR: We welcome your letters. No subject is out of bounds, so long as it is local. Letters should be limited to 300 words, or fewer, and may be edited for clarity and length.
HELP MAKE
HISTORY Neighborhood historian Jeff Roth is always in search of the facts. Many of his articles featured in The College Hill Commoner rely on records of early land transactions. If you have old real estate abstracts for properties located in the College Hill area, Roth wants to hear from you.
E-MAIL US: editor@collegehillcommoner.com WRITE US: 337 N. Holyoke, Wichita, KS, 67208 CALL US: 689-8474 ADVERTISE: jessica@collegehillcommoner.com, or 689-8474
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER
VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 FEBRUARY 2009
PUBLISHER
J ESSICA F REY O WENS
EDITOR
B ARRY
OWENS
CONTRIBUTORS JEFF ROTH
tel: 684-1919 email: jeff.roth@rides.com
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR J ESSICA F REY O WENS
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER
Published monthly by The College Hill Commoner 337 N. Holyoke Wichita, K.S. 67208 316-689-8474 editor@collegehillcommoner.com www.collegehillcommoner.com
3
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER â?š FEBRUARY 2009
SPREAD THE NEWS Yearly subscriptions are available to The College Hill Commoner. Share news of the old neighborhood with a friend or family member no longer lucky enough to live here. Call 689-8474 for details.
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ FEBRUARY 2009
Change at Corner Welcome, But Car Lot a Concern Garage owner’s expansion plans met with some resistance from neighborhood. BY BARRY OWENS The west side of Hillside, near the corner of First Street, has seen several changes over the past decade. There was the old flower shop, bought up by the city and demolished to make way for the widening of the road. There was the tall, but down-market-looking Food 4 Less sign that was finally felled by Dillons. There was the huge old house wedged between the service station and the hardware store. No one lived in the place, but it occasionally housed a palm reader and “physic gallery.” Mostly, neighbors say, it was an eyesore. It’s gone now, and the lot where it stood has been paved over with black asphalt and picketed off with a low, iron fence. Howard Hancock, a College Hill resident and owner of Hancock Automotive on the corner, has photographs of the home being raised (he purchased the property expressly for that purpose). Others in his collection show the condition of the service garage (it was originally a Skelly gas station in the 1950s) that Hancock bought in 1998. The look of that too has changed with exterior improvements Hancock has made to the building over the years. And then there is the lot just across the street on the northwest corner. Hancock has pictures of that, too. One shows a muddy plain that was often littered with beer bottles, hard against the backside of a graffiti-tagged liquor store (now closed). Another shows the sad condition of the house just behind the lot. Just as he had done with the palmreading place, purchasing and improving the property around him, Hancock expanded to the west. He bought the house and the lot across the street from his shop, and both have received a
A house is raised along Hillside near First Street. It had been home to a palm-reading business, as shown above right.
Howard Hancock A parking lot on the northwest corner of First and Hillside, which may house a used car lot if the permit is approved.
makeover. The home is a tidy little rental today, and the lot is a smooth expanse of asphalt. Drive by, and all seems in order on the corner. “I like fixing things up,” Hancock says of the improvements. “That’s probably why I like fixing cars.” But some in the neighborhood say they are worried that Hancock’s latest expansion could be a step too far. He has applied for a conditional use permit from the city that would allow him to sell used cars on the lot on the northwest corner of First Street, at Hillside. Early last month, the District 1 Advisory Board (DAB1) voted against the application. But the application later won unanimous approval from the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission and is set to go the city council for a vote on March 3.
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Few have been more vocal in their opposition to the application than Lori Lawrence, who is a DAB1 member, and lives a block and a half away in Uptown. She sent out several emails last month to neighborhood homeowners and businesses, asking them to sign an online protest petition. The Douglas Design District took notice, forwarding the emails on to its members. “Please read below and help keep out an additional used car lot!,” one message read. While the petition cannot block the application, it could force the city council to muster a three-quarter majority vote to approve the permit. Lawrence says she opposes the used car lot on the corner because the business would not serve the immedi-
ate neighborhood and because rezoning the lot could pave the way for more rezoning and more car lots. “These sort of zones expand so we need to put a stop to it now,” Lawrence said. “It could spread all the way to the fire station and then we would have a huge car lot on the west side of Hillside. And car lots are never good for a neighborhood.” For his part, Hancock says he has no intention of expanding further to the north on Hillside than the boundaries of the lot for which his permit application is submitted. Hancock already has cars for sale on the lot that houses his automotive shop. He said a permit for the second lot would simply allow him to move his inventory (Range Rovers, Volkswagens and Audis) across the street He can currently park cars there, but can not display them for sale. Should the permit be approved, Hancock would be restricted from hanging banners, elevating cars, mounting speaker systems, or installing other typical car lot props. Not that he would do that anyway, he said. “I think people hear car lot and they think ‘Oh my God, it’s going to be Rusty Eck Ford, with billboards and bullhorns and the whole deal.’ That’s not what I’m about,” Hancock said. “We’re not even going to be open on weekends.”
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ FEBRUARY 2009
5
There goes the neighborhood—on wheels BY BARRY OWENS It was startling last month to see how quickly the townhouse frames were going up at the Parkstone development site. After months of delays, one grew used to seeing the empty space. So when the houses began to rise—even on cold days workers could be seen scaling the structures— it was hard not to notice how quickly the skyline had changed. Certainly more jarring, though, was the fully formed house that seemed to materialize overnight. There it sat, complete with doors and windows, looking ready for occupancy along Douglas near Rutan. “It was like the Wizard of Oz the way it just plopped down,” said Cheryl Smith, owner of Creative Catering and Cafe next door. The house actually only traveled a few hundred yards. It was trucked over from nearby Victor Place, where
Square owner Joe Zakas. “As soon as we do, we’ll move it up the street.” Last month, workers began making room for the foundation and structure by moving a gazebo that had been nestled between two buildings on the Square’s east side, along Front view of the house, as seen from Douglas. Roosevelt Street. While certainly it was the last house on the southwest corner of the block. It was moved to smaller and lighter than the house make way for a parking lot for the that will replace it, it was complicated work accomplished a few feet at a development. Perhaps as early as this month, the time—lift, move log, heave away, house will be moved again—to near- lift, move log, heave away. “It was nerve wracking to see how by Clifton Square. “We’re still working to get the they were just crawling under that foundation in place,” said Clifton thing to move the railroad ties, I had
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to make myself stop watching,” said George Bair, owner of Springpark Gallery in Clifton Square. It was not unlike the way Miss Pearlie's boarding house, built in 1886 and later hauled by mule team to the site of what would become Clifton Square, was moved—slowly. Things are bound to move more quickly this time around. The house is already mounted on a tractor trailer bed. Power lines may need to be moved, and there is a good deal of permits required from the city before such a move can be undertaken, but once the go ahead is giving, the house appears ready to roll. Late last month, a road crew shoveled in an asphalt ramp against the curb, presumably to ease the drop off from the curb. Like seemingly everything else going up at the site these days, they made quick work of it.
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ FEBRUARY 2009
Going for the Gold, but First Raising the Cash Caroline Kastor has the sort of natural skill on the soccer field that cannot be taught, such as speed and agility, but can be nurtured. And coaches and scouts have taken notice. Next month, Kastor will go to Brazil to train and compete in front of scouts that could lead to a spot on the U.S. Women's National Team. But first, she’ll need to find a few sponsors to help her get there. Kastor, 17, who lives with her family in College Hill, is the only Kansan selected by the United States Youth Soccer Association for the Olympic Development Program. The selection puts her on the roster with the top 72 players in all of the United States in her age group. She is currently a starter on the Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School team. “We will play some of the Brazilian club teams. But most of it will be training with Brazilian coaches,” Kastor said of the training camp. “Soccer is so huge down there, it is a really good opportunity.” The U.S. Youth Soccer Association will pay about half the cost for Kastor’s training, boarding and travel. Most players make up the difference through sponsorship, and Kastor is hopeful that she can find enough spon-
Caroline Kastor dribbles past defenders.
LIZ HARP
sors to ease the burden on her parents. “I’ve been playing since I was three and a half,” she said. “They’ve paid for enough soccer.” You can help Caroline Kastor get to training camp. Donations are tax deductible (a receipt will be provided). Make checks payable to US Youth Soccer Region II Girls ODP, write Caroline Kastor in the remark portion and mail to: Ellie Singer, USYSA Midwest Region II Office, 10201 West Lincoln Avenue, Suite 205, West Allis, WI 53227
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER â?š FEBRUARY 2009
Photos and text by BARRY OWENS
ABOVE: “No way would I normally wear my hair like this,� says Mike Callahan. “But I had the room and thought ‘What the hell?’� TOP RIGHT: “Clowney-cop,� is how Nick Hess describes the hat he’s wearing, which was handed down from an uncle. “It’s an heirloom,� he says. RIGHT: Guests count ballots to determine the winner of the silliest hats worn at the party. “I wore this hat for a sorority party,� says Kay Rothfelder, at left. “Finally, after 30 years, I had chance to wear it again.
Come On In: You Can Leave Your Hat On If it’s Groundhog Day, it’s silly hat night at Lanny Butner’s place in College Hill “Wait,� someone told Lanny Butner shortly after arriving fashionably late to a party at his house on South Dellrose one night month. “You’re hat is not ugly at all.� It was true. Butner, the host, was sporting a crisp, white Panama Jack. Out of place on a winter night in Wichita, sure. But ugly, no. The woman who was scolding him, on the other hand, was wearing a wide-brimmed thing too garish for the racetrack and too flimsy for safari. It was, in other words, fabulous. It was silly hat night at Butner’s place, a tradition of sorts in College Hill. Butner, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1983, has for years hosted
big deal,� he said, “a huge holiday.� It remains a big deal at the Butner residence, where every year there is a party, though the theme differs. Last year, it was crazy shirt night. “Lanny’s parties always involve something silly,� said guest Bob Nelson. “That’s the common Lanny Butner awaits voters to cast their ballots for the silli- denominator.� est hats. Categories included ugliest and most outrageous. Sombreros were popular at the party, as were hats with Groundhog Day parties. Butner is an oilman, a career that led the former Texan to long feathers, animal print bands, and live in Alaska where the winters are bru- colors not found in nature. College Hill tal, long and “Groundhog Day is a very resident Barbara Parsons managed the
perfect storm of a hat—neon green, fur print, fuzzy brim, feather long as a tail— to take the prize for ugliest woman’s hat. “I borrowed it,� Parsons said, adding that it would be swiftly returned. It was Jan. 31, hours before Punxsutawney Phil would emerge at dawn, see his shadow, and disappoint the nation with the promise of at least six more weeks of winter. But on this night, Butner was having none of that. Noticing a fast emptying cooler, the man in the Panama hat and the Hawaiian print shirt (“I’m bringing the springtime, baby�) stood to make an announcement. “Who wants to make a beer run?� he said.
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ FEBRUARY 2009
Pink Frosting, by Kerri Wood Thomson
Automatic 81 (donut), by Lee Shiney
Pink Frosting, by Kerri Wood Thomson
Untitled. Rebecca Calhoun
Nuggets of sweet brown dough... by Curt Clonts
Homemade donut with whisk...by Patrick Duegaw
Still Life With Donut At The Donut Whole, the works of art are behind the counter and on the walls. BY BARRY OWENS They’re not as appealing as the real thing—freshly fried, frosted or glazed and displayed behind the counter just a few yards down the hall—but there is something about those donut paintings on the wall at The Donut Whole that will keep you coming back for more. “This one really punches,” said Angie Walker, a graphic designer, who was taking in the show last month during Final Friday. It was an attractive donut, presented on a sunburst platter, made all the more tantalizing perhaps because it was the last one on the plate. A few spots down the wall, it was a different story. Here again was a single donut. Good use of color and shape, there was even a little texture to the piece, but this last donut looked deliberately passed over. The work was untitled. The mood was different.
to hang on the walls for the grand opening. He supplied the 16-inch squares of plywood, and slowly but surely donuts of all dimensions came back painted on them. “They kind of trickled out, and they kind of trickled back in,” Carmody BARRY OWENS said. “Most of them, I had Donut Whole patrons view donut-themed works of art on the no idea who the artist was. shop’s walls last month during Final Friday. I’d never met them “I would call this one ‘Sad before.” Donut,’” Walker said. Several artists submitted works — The Donut Whole, a coffee and Nick Bananto, Patrick Duegaw, Lee donut shop at 1720 E. Douglas, opened Shiney, Curt Clonts, Rebecca Calhoun, last month. But months prior, Michael among them— and a good deal of the Carmody, who opened the store along fun in the show is seeing how each with business partner Angela Etter, put treated a singular, narrow subject. out word through a local art list that he There are donuts with and without was looking for donut-themed works frosting, some accompanied by steam-
ing cups of coffee, one is handcuffed to a cup of coffee that is wearing a police officer’s cap, another donut was built piece by piece and affixed to the wood with screws, which double as sprinkles. “A donut, is a donut, is a donut, is a donut,” said graphic artist Jonathan Clark. “It’s all about the presentation.” Clark, who viewed the show during Final Friday, said he thought about contributing a piece himself, but never got passed the research stage. “I downloaded a few donuts,” he said. Most, but not all, of the donut pieces on the wall are for sale. Asking price is $100. The donuts behind the counter—flavors include maple bacon, cookies and cream, root beer float and other eclectic choices— go for about a buck apiece. The line for those works, on this night, was out the door.
9
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ FEBRUARY 2009
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ FEBRUARY 2009
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ FEBRUARY 2009
COMMUNITY NEWS New Programs at C.H.U.M. College Hill United Methodist Church, 2930 E. First St., is offering a number of new community programs, including recycling, 3rd Thursday jazz, and open gym nights. “One of the things we want to do is be more involved in the community and the neighborhood. These things are not just for the congregation, but for the community,” said Kent Kellams, a church volunteer. The church now offers recycling on the second Sunday of the month. Bins will be located in the church parking lot from 8 a.m. to noon on those Sundays. If it can be recycled, the church will take it. “We take everything,” Kellams said. “The only thing we asked is that ev erything is clean, rinsed out.” The church will also be offering an open mic and jazz concerts as part of the monthly 3rd Thursday nights in
the neighborhood. The jazz players will be brought in from Wichita State University. “If people like jazz, they will love this. They’re not playing background music,” said Kellams. And the church will be offering open gym nights beginning Feb. 5. The church’s gym will be open from 6-8 p.m. on each Thursday for middle school and high school youth to come in and play basketball. For more information on the programs, call the church 683-4643, or visit www.collegehillumc.org.
The Oysters are Served St. James Episcopal Church, 3750 E. Douglas, will host its annual oyster dinner on February 24. The church will offer two serving times, 5:30 pm and 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $40 in advance, $45 at the door. Call the church office at 683-5686 for tickets or more information.
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HISTORY
12
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ FEBRUARY 2009
The I.N. Hockaday house, at the corner of Broadview and Douglas, was among the neighborhood’s first. It was considered a country estate at the time (see ad listing at right) and College Hill was a suburb. JEFF ROTH
WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY ABLAH LIBRARY MICROFILM
The Original Broadview Address When Hockaday’s ‘Broadview’ was a country home and College Hill a suburb. BY JEFF A. ROTH
L
ong before the growth of Derby, Andover and Maize there was a time when College Hill was considered a suburb, dotted with only a handful of homes. In October of 1886, when the mule drawn trolley line was being laid out to reach Wichita’s eastern slope, it was considered newsworthy to boom with pride, as the Wichita Eagle did Oct. 19, 1886: “Many of our oldest citizens are looking to these heights for building grounds, on which they will erect a class of suburban villas that will add to the glory of Wichita as a city of beautiful homes.” A handful of country homes were indeed built, such as A.A. Hyde’s 1887 Queen Anne style residence at Second and Roosevelt (razed in 1937), or today’s surviving 1890 Colonial Revival home at 401 N. Roosevelt, at that time the S.W. Cooper country estate. However, the late 19th century crash of the local real estate boom and the broader national recession put plans on hold for further development of the envisioned suburban villas. The nation began to recover from its recession after the turn of the century. One local entrepreneur who capitalized on the improving economy was I. N. Hockaday, Wichita’s first hardware wholesaler, Hockaday’s Wholesale Hardware, Co., established in 1898. By 1906 his financial success caught the attention of the nationally recognized Morton-Simmons Hardware Company. Their trade name was “Keen Kutter” which logo still graces their former building now known as The Hotel at Old Town, located at First and Mosley.
‘Broadview’ was built on lot 5 on the northeast corner of Douglas and Broadview, as shown in this Sedgwick County plat map.
After the Keen Kutter folks bought Hockaday out he was freed up for other ventures. One such venture was the building of a new country estate on one of the highest points on College Hill. In 1906 he purchased a three acre tract of bare ground on the north side of what would soon become Douglas Avenue. Due south of him ran Merriman Park’s dirt
street evocatively named “Highland” later to be renamed Belmont (belle mont). In Southern plantation style, Hockaday positioned his home directly facing Highland. In this manner he was provided with a comfortable front porch view down the lane. From his home’s vantage point he enjoyed such a magnificent view that he aptly named his residence “Broadview.”
As the first modern house to be built in the northeast quadrant of College Hill, “Broadview” had an unobstructed view of town and country. This same view was captured earlier by a visiting newspaper reporter: “On a clear day one can see the timber line along the Ninnescah near Clearwater, twenty four miles away, and west to the valley of the Cowskin. Here is a grand and inspiring prospect. Beneath your feet is the busy city hidden in its vast forest of trees, save the towering domes of her fine school buildings, the court house, Memorial Hall, her churches and commanding brick blocks…” “At your back is the broad open prairie from which the dwellers of this spot will always get a health giving breeze. This indeed was intended by nature for fine homes…” Wichita Eagle, April 29, 1886. By 1907 more of the roads of College Hill were being established. Hockaday deeded a 40-foot strip of his land to the county for the north half of Douglas. Teems of draft horses opened the road eastward past his house. He deeded 30 feet of land on his western edge for his half of the street that was to adopt the Broadview name. Hockaday was part of a national movement of urban escape. In Wichita there was also the motivation of escaping its recurrent valley floods, one as recent as 1904. Those with means were seeking fresh air and country living on spacious acres. Other College Hill homes that date back to this period of suburban movement include 104 N. Crestway and 155 N. Roosevelt, their CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
HISTORY
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ FEBRUARY 2009
13
THE ORIGINAL BROADVIEW ADDRESS CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
former open settings now somewhat masked by homes that were added later. In 1910 Hockaday offered his suburban estate for sale, emphasizing its orchard, horse barn, chicken house and cistern (although city water had been supplied to the home the year before). Pictured in his real estate ad are children riding tricycles, possibly including I. N.’s son, Woody Hockaday. Woody was later to run a business selling bicycles and motorcycles, and eventually automobile tires, Hockaday’s Auto Supply; but he gained greater fame for leading the effort to mark our nation’s highways with a unified system of road signs to make travel safer and easier. In 1910 the home’s new owner was Dwight C. Rounds, patriarch of the Rounds family and co-founder of the Rounds and Porter Wholesale Lumber Company. The Rounds family was drawn to College Hill suburban living on more than one occasion. Dwight’s son Ralph M. Rounds purchased the country home at 401 N. Roosevelt (mentioned above) having married S.W. Cooper’s daughter, Rebecca Cooper. Another prominent family to live at “Broadview” was the Frank D. and Rosa (Ratner) Stevens family. Frank Stevens was associated with the Larabee Flour Mills in 1919 when he purchased the home. His family was soon to be connected to the pioneer
An ad for Hockaday Motorcycle Co.
merchant family, the Wallensteins (founders of the 1886 Boston Store, later known as Hinkels Department Store up to 1979). The connection was through daughter Dana’s 1922 marriage to Henry Wallenstein, Jr. Frank Stevens built a home for the newlyweds on a northern slice of his three acre tract, today’s 129 N. Broadview. This was the first subdividing of the estate’s original
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acres. Other homes were later added to its eastern side on Belmont Street. The grand clapboard home hosted a few more families over the years but the decades began to take their toll. By the 1970s her windows were boarded up, the utilities disconnected. She was slated to be demolished to make room for an apartment house. The residents of College Hill opposed the plan, zoning was held at single family, and in the summer of 1973 the developers put the house back on the market. Just as the realtor was staking a “for sale” sign in the yard an historic preservation minded fellow was driving down Douglas and pulled in. Known for his love of the original streets of downtown Wichita, and for his creativity in bringing to life decades of popular Wichita restaurants—Dr. Redbirds, The Looking Glass and Larkspur—Rich Vliet arrived just in time for “Broadview.” He and his wife Marni could see the home’s potential despite all the wear and tear it had endured. After a few rounds of negotia-
tions they became the proud new owners of 4200 E. Douglas. Hockaday’s “Broadview” was historically and architecturally preserved, with a little less yard but no less charm (and no chicken coop). Now after 35 years of renovation, upkeep, and care the home looks as good today as it did over 100 years ago. In an interview for this article Rich and Marni Vliet shared a passage, framed on their wall, which is relevant to anyone who lives in a cherished old College Hill home: “To us our house was not unsentient matter - it had a heart and a soul, and eyes to see with: and approvals and solicitudes and deep sympathies: it was of us and we were in its confidence and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benedictions. We never came home from an absence that its face did not light up and speak out in eloquent welcome - and we could not enter it unmoved.” — Mark Twain Every home in College Hill has a story, some have many. Some tales date back to the earliest days of the suburb on the hill. But every home, given the chance, will evoke the “eloquent welcome” described by author Samuel Clemens and shared by the Vliets. Take a trip or just a long walk; come back home, you will feel it.
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ FEBRUARY 2009
Thank you, Wichita, for voting The Bay Leaf Café the best new restaurant in the city! * * Wichita Magazine
Make your reservations now for Valentine’s dinner. Live music Fri-Sat. nights.
IN CLIFTON SQUARE 3700 E. DOUGLAS
684-3800
Tue-Sat 11-3, Fri-Sat 7-12
• HUGE WINE SELECTION • PARTY PLANNING & GIFT IDEAS • ASK ABOUT OUR GIFT CARDS
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER â?&#x161; FEBRUARY 2009
DISPATCHES
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Up, Up & Away Photos by George Bair
Artist George Bair, owner of Springpark Gallery in Clifton Square, recently returned from a trip with his wife, Linda, to San Francisco. There, he took a zeppelin tour of the bay and city. He was able to elbow a Discovery Channel photographer away from the window long enough to make these photographs.
SPREAD THE NEWS
Yearly subscriptions are available to The College Hill Commoner. Share news of the old neighborhood with a friend or family member no longer lucky enough to live here. Call 689-8474 for details.